September

Upon returning from adventuring in Europe in the summer of 2018 I had 2 main thoughts when it came to photography. First, I began to question my abilities; Do I take beautiful photos or do I simply take photos of beautiful places? Or is that all good photography is, spending the time to capture beauty well, and the more experienced you get that more efficient you get at taking them. That thought threw me for a loop (still does). My second main thought was that I should get a neutral density filter.

A neutral density filter is a glass filter that screws onto to the end of a camera lens to evenly reduce the light that it captures, aka it makes the image uniformly darker. The filter is a valuable tool when trying to take a longer exposure during the daytime when there is a lot of light present, for instance when you want to blend flowing water. I ordered one as soon as I got back to the States and when it arrived I had to test it out. I was determined to capture photos of my local area that I felt were as beautiful as the ones I took in Europe to prove to myself that I could actually take good photographs. So I went to the closest hiking trail to where I live: Sugar Hollow.

I've been hiking in Sugar Hollow my entire life but only had a few random photos of the place and none of them were great. I felt it would be a great proving ground as there are no epic views or landscapes, just a simple Virginia trail following a river and a small river at that. I spent a couple days standing, squatting, and sitting in the river with a tripod testing out the filter and my ability to capture photographs. The September photo is one of the results of that shoot. The picture features the first river crossing once the trail enters Shenandoah National Park, crossing over the North Fork Moormans River. The rocks crossing the river were washed away a couple days later by Hurricane Florence so I am especially glad I captured these images when I did.