One early morning the year before the pandemic I visited Great Smokey National Park. It’s about an 8-hour drive from my home and I like to explore the Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounding areas. This morning I enter the park way before sunrise stopped at a spot I was familiar with and waited. I knew that every morning around sunrise the horses that have been out in pasture are called back to the barn for breakfast. This particular morning it was foggy with a deep yellow sky as sunrose started. Sure enough, like clockwork, the horses showed up. I took my photos and moved on to the next location. Shot on a Sony a7r iii with a 100-400mm lens.
Something Small From Something Big
This is an image at the bottom of one of Iceland’s largest waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss. I have been to this location dozens of times. I have photographed from every angle. Because it is so big as a photographer, I usually try to get the whole waterfall in. I do my blurry time exposures. I get it with morning and sunset light. I go behind the waterfall and get low and sometimes climb the hill to get a high short. But, am I seeing it all.
In the last few years I have been putting on my 100-400mm Sony lens and now looking for the picture in the picture. In this case, there was something beautiful going on, as the waterfall would turn into a mist and gently land on the tricks at the bottom of the fall. There was a whole other landscape taking place here. The delicate moss, the miniature waterfalls flowing through this moss, and amazing detail you could never see unless you looked at it through a long lens.
So, next time you are out, look at the big landscape and then start looking for the smaller landscape inside the shot. Picture in a picture. I have a 24×24 inch print of this hanging in my hallway. It always stops people as they explore all the detail. Print it out.
The Nap
Seems that all animals like to take naps. They might have something going in that department. Who doesn’t like a nap? My cats and dog as nap specialists. Seems that Polar Bears are pretty good at napping, too. This napping Polar Bear was found in Svalbard on one of my many trips there. I was in a zodiac (rubber boat) and was safe. These guys are big though and as always when tracking any kind of wildlife, being quiet is so very important. Shot with a 400mm lens with a Nikon D810. I have a ton of Polar Bear images from numerous trips there. I have a sold out trip in September to do this trip again.
Revisiting Iceland
Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I shut myself in my office, asked Siri to play some classic rock and I started to explore my old files and refine them using the new tools in Capture One 22. I started with Iceland in 2010. I did two trips to Iceland in 2010 and, as always came back with way too many keepers. Iceland is magic and a photographer’s paradise. It serves as therapy for many of us as in surrounds us with its ever-changing beauty.
These two images are a good example of the specialness that this land gives us. The one image was taken at sunset – dawn. I was there at a time where it never gets dark. The sun goes down and in 15 minutes it’s coming back up. As it dips below the horizon, the warm and sometimes odd light reflects onto the clouds and, in this case, the water of the Iceberg Lagoon. (please don’t ask me to spell the name. ). The second shot was made in the Highlands and once again nature and light played a big part in obtaining an incredible image of this canyon with waterfalls and a river that flows out to the horizon.
You can join me next year to explore Iceland again. Visit rockhopperworkshops.com for information.
Please Visit . . .
If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com
Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops
Kevin also has. a major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community, and more at photoPXL.com
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Kevin Raber
December 23, 2021
A Day In Mayesville South Carolina
Prior to the pandemic, I was doing a lot of travel. There is so much to see and photograph in this world. My friend Miles from the UK had called and asked if I’d like to meet up with him in Charleston, SC, and do some photography. I was already going to do a trip to the Smokies, and Black Rock, NC, so I added a new destination as well as continued on and make a trip to Naples, FL.
Miles and I had a fun time exploring many areas in and around Charleston. We got some good images. We heard there was an interesting town called Mayesville that might be worth visiting. Mayesville, it turns out, is a town that time forgot. Pretty much abandoned and falling down except for a cotton mill that is chugging along and probably the only business still there.
This image is just one of the hundreds I took in Mayesville and I intend to do a story on PhotoPXL about this trip soon. I’ll post something here when I have it posted.
Fall Colors
Wow, it’s been a while since I last put a post up on this site. My apologies. Life seems to have gotten the better of me. We needed to move our studio, which we did, and to a new space in the same building. We have changed the direction of the business to more of teaching than gallery sales. In short, we are adapting to the new times we seem to be in and continue to evolve with the changing and somewhat challenging times.
You can view our new studio and the direction we are heading HERE.
This image was made a few weeks ago while I was walking my dog. I was looking for color and patterns. It’s amazing what you can find if you just look down at the ground. I shot it with the iPhone 13 MAX Pro and find the camera in this camera to be a big step up from the iPhone 12.
I hope you enjoy this image.
Rusty Junk
On every trip I make to Svalbard, I make a point to visit a place called Pyramiden. It’s an abandoned Russian Coal Mine City. The place is fascinating as it looks like one day they just closed the place and everyone left. I am working on a book and portfolio of this place. This image was one of those compositions that caught my eye. As you may know if you follow my posts I am very big into rust and abandoned things. The Russians are trying to clean up this place and they are tearing out pipes, wires, and such and all of this has just been left to rust in giant piles. Look for more from this place in the future.
Black Church
The Black Church in Iceland is famous. It’s a small church sitting on a peninsula and unlike so many other churches, it is painted black. There is a cemetery and the church and cemetery are surrounded by a stone wall. It’s very picturesque and as a result, is also very cliched. Every tourist has a photo of this church as well as a ton of photographers. I have always endeavored to make locations like this look new and original.
I did this image with my Sony a7r iii and then took the image into my iPad and worked on it in a few apps to give it a different look. I like the way it turned out and I made a nice small print of it too.
Truck and Farm In The Palouse
The Palouse is filled with surprises. This was one of those surprises. Along one of the main drags a farmer set up a great shot. An old symbolic truck set against his barn. I shot this with a Sony a7riii and then imported it into iPhoto where I then applied a couple of effects using the Snapseed app. The sad thing is because of all the traffic-stopping and some abusive people the farmer has since removed this setup.
Please if you are driving along and find a shot remember that you are not entitled to trespass on someone’s property. Because this is becoming such an issue many of the good places to photograph in the Palouse are being blocked to photographers.
New Zealand
This image was made on one of my trips to New Zealand a number of years ago. We had just visited the set of the Hobbit and we drove down the road a ways and came across this beautiful brook. The falls and water seemed to be coming right out of the woods. I spent. a bit of time getting this shot right. It now hangs in my living room as a metal print.