Mark VanDyke Photography's photostream  

The United States Air Force Memorial
Arlington County, Northern Virginia
Accessed via Columbia Pike

Sometimes I get carried away with trying to line up landscape photographs that showcase my imagined skill. It's often, however, the cleanest, clearest, and simplist photos that give me the most satisfaction. Much like writing, if you hide behind lots of technical terms, jargon and concepts, the message is lost in translation. The best writers and speakers in my personal opinion are always those that can take complicated ideas and translate them into conversational and well flowing verse that is both relatable and easy to understand. In photography, I think many of my favorite photographers have similar abilities--to generate the feeling of a landscape or moment without over-the-top gimics; to capture and/or enhance natural colors and patterns in ways that translate powerfully; to create photographs with depth that appear as if you could get lost in the scene itself. I think sometimes instead of going out at the exact right time of day and/or ensuring that my composition has strong, contrasting elements in all the right areas and/or worrying about if others have taken the same photograph--sometimes these things just need to be tucked into a nice tidy box and filed away for another day. Sometimes I think that I just need to detach the camera from the tripod and remote and all the other goodies I've accumulated over time and just walk around. I'm not saying that planning is not absolutely critical in landscape photography--knowing the weather conditions, scouting out locations, having the appropriate gear, understanding compositional logic and so forth is critical and will remain so. But, when it comes time to capture the picture, be it during golden light with bags of gear for a shot that you've planned for three years or in the middle of the afternoon at an impromtu location that caught your eye, the photograph is still about the simple (yet so difficult!) art of translating the emotion of the place--using compositional elements, light, gear, etc.--to capture a feeling that is translated, maybe easily, maybe more subtly, but translated nonetheless, through the elements of your photograph and to your viewer. Sometimes with so much technical jargon to remember, it is easy for me to lose the bottom-line goal of photography, which in my mind, has little to do with mega-pixels, thirds, and clean frames. Just some rambling thoughts for Flickr Friday...

North Carolina Beach Hardening Structure
Buxton, Coastal North Carolina
Accessed via Beach Highway NC-12

In 1985, North Carolina banned permanent erosion control structures. The sentiment went, as Stanley R. Riggs writes in his book, "The Battle for North Carolina's Coast," that "trading concrete, steel, rock, and debris for the natural beach is not an acceptable erosion control measure" (p.80). There are currently nine sets of hardened structures along the North Carolina shoreline, including the lighthouse jetties shown above which were installed in 1969. Apparently, the jetties were subjected to such high energy at this location that they began to fail even before their construction was completed! Eventually, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved completely.

Another hardened structure that visitors to the Outer Banks routinely encounter is the rock revetment and jetty at Oregon Inlet and the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge. The only connection between Hatteras and the mainland, Herbert C. Bonner Bridge and NC Highway Twelve connect the eight isolated villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, Hatteras, and Ocracoke--what Stanley R. Riggs refers to as a "String of Pearls." The bridge elevates drivers high above the Oregon Inlet (over the deep-water navigational channel) and provides a great aerial vantage on the constant dredging activities meant to maintain the navigational channel underneath this fixed-span bridge. Riggs goes on to recommend an alternative vision to rebuilding Oregon Inlet Bridge and installing more hardening structures: instead do away with the bridge completely, as well as NC Highway 12 (gasp!). Connect the "string of pearls" with a ferry system similar to that already in place for Ocracoke; let each town become a destination village (similar to Ocracoke) and let Cape Hatteras develop a "world-class ecotourism economy built around the natural and human history of this unique coastal system." As development pressures and human-use issues are reaching a boiling point in the Banks--most recently the decision to require a beach driving permit and restrict access to only so many vehicles at once--Riggs' thoughts are definitely inline with creating more sustainable natural and built environments and are worth more than a little thought in my humble opinion.

The Potomac River at Great Falls Park
Fairfax County, Northern Virginia
Accessed via Georgetown Pike
Date Taken: February 17, 2012

Perform a Google search on "America's Wildest Urban River" and you'll likely find a string of articles on the Potomac River--specifically the fifteen mile stretch of river known as the Potomac Gorge that roars and bounces from Great Falls, its steepest point at one-hundred and forty feet above sea level, to its termination and lowest point in Georgetown at a mere ten feet above sea level. This area along the three-hundred and eighty three mile Potomac River is the result of one of the steepest fall zones in the East--a transitional area where the rocky bedrock of the piedmont region gives way to the sandy deposits of the coastal plain. Only fifteen miles or so downstream, the Potomac River passes through our Nation's Capital providing the backdrop and reflective areas around many of the monuments on the National Mall.

For those interested in environmental and natural history, the Potomac River at Great Falls has a rich history dating back to our first president, George Washington, and his desire to make this river a major navigational artery east to west from the newly formed Nation's Capital. This heritage is reflected in the inclusion of Great Falls Park as a disjointed feature of the nearby George Washington Memorial Parkway. Today, the Potomac River provides 76% percent of the drinking water for the bloated 4.3 million residents in the Washington D.C. metro area and acts as a natural oasis for over two-million estimated annual visitors (Nature Conservancy) who come to hike, climb, kayak, and otherwise enjoy the banks of this scenic, wild, urban river.

Boone Fork Creek Cascade
Watauga County, North Carolina
Accessed via the Blue Ridge Parkway (mp 300)
Date Taken: October 10, 2011

Sunk a line in the archives and pulled out this little nugget from last fall. No longer living in the area, I returned for a week to visit, photograph, and spend some time with friend and photographer, Dave Allen, and his wife, Jen. An early changing color season, this was taken the morning that I arrived in the mountains. I spent about two hours in a pair of sandals walking up and down Boone Fork Creek as it is one of my absolute favorite locations to spend an entire day during the fall color change. The creek itself, although low in water volume, is skirted by a layer of green Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron and accented above with touches of yellow and orange., making it quite a special area in my opinion. Boone Fork is approachable, small and intimate, loaded with small cascades and details, surrounded by beautiful trees and forests, and crossed by artfully built wooden bridges. Some folks ask where I'll be during the fall colors and I always respond that you're more likely to run into me at Boone Fork Creek than any other single location because I just enjoy it that much--it's my kind of adventure!

The Atlantic Ocean Delivers Driftwood to OBX Beach
Dare County, Coastal North Carolina
Accessed via Highway Twelve Near Rodanthe
Date Taken: October 29, 2011

On the final day of a family vacation this past October in the Outerbanks of North Carolina the barrier islands delivered some spectacular weather conditions. Following a week of gorgeous weather and great times we were all packed up and heading off the islands back to Northern Virginia--my folks were in one car and my dad's sister (my aunt) was in another with her friend; I was in a third, my pickup, which my father and I used for fishing during the week. Leaving before sunrise as we typically do to try and beat some of the traffic back, I decided to stick around for a few minutes by the Cape Hatteras Fishing Pier in Frisco to see if I could take advantage of one last opportunity to get some dynamic conditions in the camera. A bit more aggressive in terms of driving, I figured I could catch back up to my folks on the highway in my truck ;-) Anyhow, as is the case more often than not in the Outerbanks, the weather conditions began to change rapdily and what looked to be very promising closed up and became mostly overcast--storms seemed to be rolling in from both the west and the east. I got back in the truck and headed down beach highway twelve satisfied with the week and figuring I was done for the day with the camera.

Shortly thereafter, I received a call from my mother who was by this time just crossing the temporary bridge over the "New, New Inlet" near the s-curves in Rodanthe: "You've got to see this! It is the most incredible thing I've ever seen! There are big light rays dancing off the high surf and you've got to get up here to see this!" I buried the accelerator and got there as quickly as I could. While I largely missed the light show that the sun was producing as it peeked between clouds, I did find, after running frantly onto the beach and looking for some--any--foreground object, that the skies were extremely blue and dynamic. This particular wave was far larger than those preceding it, and actually climbed the leg of my tripod and got the lens and camera wet with salt water! My Nikon has been the toughest and most resilient camera I could ever ask for. Later this morning, I would find the Oregon Inlet bridge shrouded in thick fog and the Bodie Island Lighthouse with great dynamic blue skies. It was a world-class send-off and one that has me planning my next trip back with high hopes of more adventures!

As of February 2012 beach access with four-wheel drive vehicles is by permit only--classic case of a tragedy of the commons. I understand both sides; can't help but be sad about the whole deal though.