Blue Jay in snow

Here’s one from this past winter. I was up in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, with my friend Greg Schneider. We came across an area with feeders that had over 100 blue jays, so we did what any bird photographers would do; we brought out the giant bag of peanuts and stayed for a few hours.

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Cathedral Falls, West Virginia

Chris Kayler and I explored the New River Gorge area of West Virginia a week ago. We found a lot; including but not limited to three wrong turns, very little sleep, a 4×4 track in the woods leading to the top of a runaway truck ramp on the highway, and some nice waterfalls. Cathedral Falls was by far the nicest.

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male Common Yellowthroat

Hey everybody,

I’ve been shooting a lot this spring, but it has been almost exclusively landscapes. I haven’t been giving bird and wildlife subjects too much time lately. So, I took a visit to Huntley Meadows in Alexandria, Virginia, where I photographed this striking male Common Yellowthroat. I have very little experience shooting songbirds and warblers, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can do over the next few weeks.

Thoroughfare Dawn

Here’s an old favorite from Shenandoah National Park last spring. I have yet to see any natural light show top this.

The Thoroughfare Gap overlook is a favorite spot of mine to photograph sunrise from in Shenandoah National Park. I had gone to the park that day to photograph White-tailed Deer fawns in Big Meadows, but when I saw this cloud formation with the clear patch of horizon on the east, I had to change my plan!

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(D/F)ogwood

Nothing too fancy. I was down on the good ‘ol Blue Ridge Parkway near Buena Vista, Virginia. Delighted with the foggy conditions, I set out to photograph dogwood trees and fresh green foliage! Here’s one I came up with.

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Clearing Piedmont

I took this photograph a few days ago, on the seventh. Chris Kayler and I took a morning trip to Shenandoah National Park hoping to photograph a waterfall or two. Much to our dismay, the clouds began to break up hours before they were forecasted to. We decided to roll with the punches, something every nature photographer knows all to0 well. Instead of hiking Overall Run, we drove Skyline Drive looking for interesting things to photograph along the way. We came across these foothills just as the clouds were clearing out of the Piedmont. Seeing gently lit foothills in contrast with fairly thick ground-level clouds, we had no choice but to stop for a while!

Here’s my best take from that morning.

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Whew!

It’s been a whole week since I last posted on here. Wow. I’ve been ridiculously busy photographing springtime scenes throughout Virginia over the past seven days. I photographed many different things in Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, some waterfalls down by Covington and Blacksburg, VA, and lots more. Over the next few days I’ll be sharing some recent shots from all over Virginia’s mountains.

I’ll start with yesterday morning. I photographed sunrise atop Shenandoah National Park’s Blackrock Summit. There were two main layers of clouds; very thick, puffy, rain clouds at approximately my elevation, and a lighter, thinner cloud base a few thousand feet above. I figured my odds were pretty slim on getting a good sunrise, but I stuck with it anyways. I hit the trail in the pouring rain, with the full expectation of returning to my car with nothing more than waterlogged shoes. Just as I had hoped, the lower level of rain clouds broke for about ten minutes right at sunrise! It’s hard to say this when you have 20 duds in a row, but sometimes it’s really worth it to brave harsh or uncomfortable conditions on the off chance of some amazing light!

Here are two images I made within a few minutes of each other. Not long after the second was taken the clouds came back and drenched me yet again, so as to say “you had your chance, now get the hell out of here!” I complied.

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Spring is here!

..and I’m loving it. We’re in the middle of an entire week of rainy days, and I’ve been shooting as much as possible! Shenandoah National Park is an excellent spot for me, since it’s filled with beautiful mountain streams and is under two hours away from home. I’ve made it out there twice this week with friends, hiking and photographing.

Here are two shots I took yesterday up in White Oak Canyon.

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To purchase a print or stock rights, please contact me. Feel free to view more of my work at my website.