Paul Lester Photo

The highest peak east of the Mississippi River is Mount Mitchell, located on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 1 hour north of Asheville. The peak stands at about 6684 above sea level. Temperatures are normally between 10-30 degrees cooler than in Asheville. I’ve never been to the top of Mount Mitchell, but I plan to go this week. I understand that view is stunning and that you are actually above the clouds.

I was close, however, on Saturday. My wife and drove up the parkway to the Craggy Garden area, which sits at about 5,900 feet above sea level. In the picture, here, the cloudy top of the mountain is Mount Mitchell State Park, only a scant 700 more feet up from where I stood! As the crow flies.

Since I’m not a crow, I’ll have to drive and hike a bit. If you follow the parkway through the tunnel, make a right on the road that goes to the park, go about 4 miles, and then hike up a bit, you’ll make it to the top, as these brave souls did. I waited until the clouds had passed and then I saw them.

I wanted to make the trip up to the park, but alas, it closes at dark, which was in about 20 minutes. Also, it was cold enough were we were that my wife didn’t want to get any colder.

In Asheville the temperature was about 60 degrees. Where we stood, or should I say “I stood”, the temperature was 40 degrees and there was a constant 30 mph wind coming across the road, giving us a windchill of about 28. All I had was a windbreaker and some sweats. My wife, the smart one, was safely sequestered in the van with the heat going, listening to the radio, and reading a book.

I, on the other hand, didn’t have sense enough to come in from the cold, so I just walked around, shivered, took pictures, and enjoyed every single moment of it!

So, on Wednesday, I plan to make the nearly 4 hour journey again. I’m headed to the top and hopefully I will get some great pictures from above!

I just love to photograph these birds. To me, they are simply beautiful and graceful. Another reason that I like to “try” to photograph them is because they are quite skittish and will fly away if you get even remotely close!

On this particular morning I had just finished shooting some architecture, as a change of pace. I was walking back to my car, noticed some small birds flitting about in and out of the bushes along the path. I stopped and put down my tripod to get a couple of shots of the birds.

While waiting, I just happened to look down the path about 30 feet and there he was, just sunning himself! I could not believe that I was that close! I adjusted my camera ever so slowly, all the while holding my breath and hoping that no one would come tromping down the path, which has happened before!

Fortunately, this time, nothing like that happened. I was able to take quite a few pictures before this fellow decided that he’d had enough. I was even able to creep within about 20 feet of him before he took off!

“I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term — meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching — there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.” –Ansel Adams

Powerful words by, arguably, one of the most respected photographers in history. So, does blogging stifle creativity? I’m not sure. I’m of the mind that in order to be creative, you need to be productive. Being productive, from my point of view, means that you have to go out and take pictures. You have to “produce” something. For surely you cannot make a great photograph without taking a picture. This does not mean going out and taking random photographs, although that can be fun, it means going out with intent to express your creative vision, whatever that is. Most of my images are rough sketches on the way to the final picture.

Blogging, to be sure, can be a catalyst for productivity. If one is committed to producing 1 shot per day that he/she would like to post, then they will need to have at least 365 shots. If they care about quality and message, then the image count might need to be significantly higher. For myself, to get 365 shots that I really feel represent what I’m trying to say would require that I take about 4,000 shots, on average, as I tend to like about 10% or less of what I shoot. The rest are rough sketches on the way to the final drawing. These other 90% are extremely useful tools in deciding what works and what doesn’t work.

The ease with which we can make an image is unmatched anywhere else in the art world. I’m only speaking of the snapping of the shutter, not the whole creative process or travel time, etc. The final product of other art forms such as painting, drawing, carving, molding, etc. require more time to be invested in order to generate the final product. This speed can lead to carelessness and an overall lack of creativity or insight.

Besides having the upside of increased creativity, blogging has a potential downside as well. One potential downside is of getting in a rut. Another possible downside, from my point of view, is endless experimentation, or becoming a “Jack of all trades. Master of none.” I see this on a few blogs. There is no really sense of cohesiveness, just a lot of disjointed material; However, this is from my point of view and opinion. Lastly, there is the trap of shooting pictures just to post one on the blog.

I’ve fallen into this last trap a few times since I’ve been blogging. I know that it has manifested itself when I get the feeling that I need to go out and shoot something BECAUSE I need an image for tomorrow’s blog photo. This usually leaves me feeling unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and wanting. This can lead to burnout quickly.

When I go out because I feel that I have something to say or because I really feel like shooting, the results, 100% of the time, are always better.

In the end, it should be fun and nothing else. Blogging, for me, is a way to share my outlook on the world. Nothing more. Nothing less. If I don’t have a picture for today, it’s no big deal. I have a lot in the archives. I shouldn’t pressure myself to create. If I take a couple of weeks off from shooting, no big deal. I’ve taken years off just because life got busy. When I returned I was back in form in short order and enjoying it more than ever. Sometimes we just need a short respite to rejuvenate our creative energies.

I went out this morning because it was really foggy, took 51 pictures, deleted them all. I didn’t see anything that I liked when I came back. Some days are like that, but it was fun. This picture is one of those that I took today.

I’ve often extolled the advantages of digital, so I won’t go into that. Let us just say that there is a dark side as well. Shooting digital means no additional costs, so to speak. However, there is additional time spent in keeping the number of files down to a reasonable size, which I haven’t done!

Since I purchased my camera in April of this year, I have shot over 14,000 images and 85 GB of hard drive space! I’ve been trying to keep the count down to reasonable levels, but haven’t been diligent in that effort. Now, 14,000 images divided by 36 images/roll would be about 388 rolls of film over a 6 month period or about 64 rolls/month.

I like to build up to a picture. I shot lots and lots of experimental shots. Nothing at random, mind you, just a lot of shots working up to the final product. Also, if the exposure is difficult, I bracket. So some shots I may have 3, 4, or 5 of the same shot.

When I get home, sometimes I rank them by stars:

0,1,2 stars – > Straight to the bit bucket.
3 stars – maybe I’ll keep it. Visit later. (Maybe about 10%)
4 stars – keeper (maybe 5-8 %)
5 stars – Excellent (not many of these to be sure maybe < 1%)

All told, maybe I like 20% of what I shoot … tops. That would say that of the 14,000 that I’ve shot, I still need to delete about 80% of them, or about 11,200! That’s a lot of deleting!

Some are not so clear, as an example: The image of the leaf on the mat. Maybe a 3, it’s border line.
The footprints, and the squiggly lines – a zero! Straight to the bit bucket. Both were experiments that didn’t work.

The tree and the clouds … I’m not sure. Maybe a 2 or a 3. I would visit later.

To be fair, I used to shoot a lot of film as well. At least this way I don’t have to worry about where to store all of the negatives!

Oh well, back to the delete key. Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!

Man, my index finger is getting tired!