I love the unexpected find … I went out to shoot something else, but this simple porch decoration, bright in the late afternoon sun, caught my eye instead.
It’s All About the Light
This was my view while sitting at a stop light on a beautiful but chilly 32 degree January morning. A quick U turn and I was out of the truck and snapping away. The chill led to a bit of a shaky hand, but I still loved the light on the bell tower of Radford University’s new College of Business and Education building.
Southwest Virginia!!
If you’ve read even a couple of my posts, you know that I frequently tout SWVA as a beautiful and fun place to live. Now, it’s not just me who is spreading the word! Thanks to my friend Brandon for sharing this article from Mens Health Magazine entitled 13 Places to Visit in 2013.
The world’s an endlessly vast place for exploration. And the more you travel, the more ground you realize you have yet to cover. With that in mind, here are a baker’s dozen of places—close, far, known, and relatively obscure—that you should visit in the coming year.
Guess what #12 is?
12. Southwest Virginia (woo hoo!)
It’s hard to beat the Blue Ridge mountains for watching the leaves change in the fall. The 12,000 acre Primland resort offers postcard views along with a wide range of activities, like tree climbing, geocaching, clay shooting hunting, and mountain biking. Drive south along to the crooked road music trail (stops include the Carter Family Fold, the home of Johnny Cash’s in-laws) to Abingdon, a scenic town with vineyards, breweries, theaters, and the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail. Also of note, the Star Museum, which showcases an extensive rotating collection of movie memorabilia including a smoking jacket worn by Clark Gable.
When to go: October, to watch the leaves change.
http://news.menshealth.com/13-places-to-visit-in-2013/2012/12/27/
As you can see by the pictures, you don’t have to wait until October! It’s beautiful all year long.
Be sure to let me know when you’ll be visiting!!
Waning Moon / New Year!!
The moon, like 2012, is waning (okay, okay … as I post this, 2012 is already in the books).
Here’s to a 2013 filled with happiness, health, peace, and kindness to others (and lots of fun with motorcycles, photography, music, sports, friends and family)!
Happy New Year!!
Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures
For those who don’t blog with WordPress and may not know, the Daily Post offers a Weekly Photo Challenge. Each week, the Daily Post provides a theme for creative inspiration and the blogger is supposed to take photographs based on the interpretation of the theme.
The theme for this week?
Pick the best pictures from your 2012 and have those pictures tell everyone about your year.
I wonder if this Challenge was as hard for other bloggers as it was for me. At first I was intrigued, then overwhelmed and finally resigned … resigned to the fact that I would never be able to narrow a year’s worth of pictures down to a few.
This exercise helped me to remember what a great year it has been and just how fortunate I am. Fortunate to have amazing friends and family, and to live surrounded by beauty! No doubt there have been challenges and some heartache, but the positives won the day (er … year).
I decided to share my year in two ways … life and beauty through photography and then life and beauty through family and friends. A few of the pictures were taken with my Blackberry (yes, I still use a Blackberry). You’ll be able to tell the difference.
Life and Beauty – Photography
Claytor Lake, Pulaski County, Virginia
The Booker T Washington National Monument, Franklin County, Virginia
The Ride of Silence, Radford, Virginia http://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php
The New River, Radford, Virginia
The New River Valley Fair, Pulaski County, Virginia
Fall and The Virginia Tech Hokies
Labor Day and rain in Floyd County, Virginia
The Scarritt Bennett Center, Nashville, Tennessee (from the 2012 Solo Bike Ride)
Shooting Creek Road, Franklin County, Virginia
Somewhere in North Carolina
Along the New River in Pulaski County, Virginia
Foggy Morning, Radford, Virginia
The Home of John and Mabel Ringling, Sarasota, Florida
Just another lovely field in Montgomery County, Virginia
A train trestle over The New River, Pulaski County, Virginia
Life and Beauty – Family and Friends
Andrew’s Farewell Party before his move to Charleston, SC (in Blacksburg, Virginia)
Mothers Day / Fathers Day with the best parents EVER (Williamsburg, Virginia)
Sisters Celebrating 50 (Roanoke, Virginia)
The Annual GOA Gathering (Bath, North Carolina)
Hanging with the SoHos! (Dublin, Virginia)
Gathering with the BGs in Grayson County, Virginia
The annual Road Trip with Ruth to see the Hokies (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
Mumford and Sons Concert (Bristol, Tennessee)
Some of my favorite Biker Chicks (Elkin, North Carolina)
Bikers riding for a good cause (Draper, Virginia)
“Divas” raising money for another good cause (Radford, Virginia)
Time on the farm with Bill
And time on the bike with some of my favorite guys (Philpott Dam, Bassett, Virginia)
I’m always ready with the camera while riding,
whether at the beginning of a trip with my good friend, Tim,
Or during the pouring rain on my annual solo bike ride (somewhere between Nashville and Knoxville)
And best yet, reconnecting with lifelong friends (not a quality picture but a quality friendship) Richmond, Virginia
So there you have it … how lucky am I?
Onward to 2013
What Others See When I’m Shooting
By now you know that I pull over to the side of the ride all the time on the way to work. This morning, I was attracted by the sun barely peeking through the clouds and just had to stop. As I was walking back to the truck, I saw what others see as I am pulled over.
Yeah … I’m silly today!
Have a good one and GO HOKIES!!!
A Perspective on Weather
After spending an absolutely wonderful Christmas holiday with my parents and son, it was time to head on back to Radford.
While it was pouring the rain in Williamsburg, the weather along the route home was much worse. The normally busy post Christmas travel day was made worse because of freezing rain, sleet and snow and a mess was created on the highway. Multiple accidents (thankfully none that looked serious), 20 to 40 mph average speeds and poor visibility turned the typically 4 hour trip into a 6 hour challenge.
I’d made up my mind before I started the drive to take my time (very hard for this lead foot driver) and keep a positive attitude. While the weather caused difficult travel conditions, I found that it also provided opportunity for fun and challenging photography. Well … maybe standing outside in the freezing temps wasn’t exactly FUN but it was definitely challenging!
I’m sure that the folks at the rest areas (I stopped at every one) wondered who the crazy woman with the camera was. My feet got wet as I tromped around in the slushy snow and it was nice to get back into the heated truck.
The wind, snow and clouds made the mountains disappear and reappear, and I was glad that for once I was rolling along at 5 mph. How often are we able to really look at the scenes along the road as we fly by at 70 mph?
Shooting macro was difficult as the wind kept blowing me and the branches, too.
So while the weather caused an unexpected adventure, I was fortunate enough to avoid problems along the way, and because of that, truly was able to see the beauty.
Evening Light on Christmas Eve
Shadows on a Barn
It would be so easy to look at these pictures and think “sure, that’s a nice barn” and then move on to the next blog post. I get it! We’re all looking for interesting content and wonderful pictures and this post doesn’t necessarily fill the bill. Then I realized that while I had stopped to photograph the barn, the interest was in the shadows.
When you look at these pictures, is your eye drawn to the red barn?
Or is it the shadows that you find interesting?
Go back and look again … let me know!
Rain Drop
I loved seeing the sun reflected on the branch and that the tree limbs were visible within the rain drop
Life on the Bike and other Fab Things 