Bill Fultz (slakejustice)'s photostream  

Elakala #1
Shay’s Run
Blackwater Falls State Park
Davis, West Virginia

6 Image HDR

Shot almost a year ago with my good friend Randy Sanger, this is a rarely seen perspective of the iconic West Virginia falls. Thanks to a snow melt the falls had a strong flow, which made photos from in front of the falls quite difficult and with limited perspectives due to spray. After getting some great shots from below, we headed above the falls to shoot the creek, and after a little while I decided to check out some perspectives of the falls from above. I rarely, shoot falls from above, but we weren’t in a hurry and I thought I would give it a go.

This unattempted HDR has sat on the shelves for some time and I believe that this trip is quite possibly the best waterfall photography tour I’ve had, giving me the opportunity, every so often, to go back and dig something up that I think is worth posting. I’m especially excited to be returning to this area in April, shooting some old falls with some old friends, and meeting some new friends and shooting some new falls.

1973 Volkswagen Squareback
Ky 90 and US 27
Parkers Lake, Kentucky

I’m not sure what it is about Southeastern Kentucky but there are so many abandoned/derelict classic automobiles it’s simply mind blowing. After leaving Cumberland Falls, we decided to head to Big South Fork and stop by Barthell Mining Camp, and along the way we came across this classic beauty. Unfortunately it was raining, so I didn’t get out of the car very long, and this wasn’t the only old car here, but the rest were in some mud and I wasn’t willing to muddy up the car. The others were much older and in non restorable shape. After we left here, the snow started, huge flakes too. Barthell was closed so we headed back and just as we left the Daniel Boone National Forest, the snow started sticking to the road a little. We had decided we were going to check out the first Kentucky Fried Chicken in Corbin, but because folks were driving 20 in a 55, with very little snow on the road I told Lisa I’d had enough and let’s go home.

Epilogue: Interestingly, we decided to drive around the Ft. Boonesborough area near Richmond on the way home and I came across a 100 ft. roadside cascading wet weather waterfall that flowed into the Kentucky River. It didn’t have much flow, so I’m sure I’m going to stop by after a good rain and take some shots of it in the future. I couldn’t find any info on it, but it had an overgrown viewing platform with some old steps, so I’m sure it’s got a name. Guess I’m just going to have to ask around next time I’m there.

Cumberland River
Cumberland Falls State Park
Kentucky

5 Image HDR

As I was leaving from where I had scrambled up the rocks in the Cumberland Gorge for some new perspectives of Cumberland Falls I began to take a notice of how different the landscape was here. The river had created a beach of sorts, depositing worn sandstone around the trees on the shore. When I was here a few weeks ago the river was over this area. It took a bit of self coaxing to decide to frame up a shot, my worthless cell phone didn’t have the time because it couldn’t find a signal, and I had only an hour for shooting so I was going on internal time. Lisa would be ready soon and we were both hungry, so I found a foreground I liked and shot off a couple of quick HDR compositions and back to the car I went. Good thing I did too, because when I got back she had just finished getting ready and it was an easy 100 ft. walk through the lodge for breffus.

Cumberland Falls
Cumberland River
Cumberland Falls State Park
Kentucky

5 Image HDR

Since Lisa got to sleep at a much later time than I, I decided to let her rest longer and run down to the falls since it’s only 5 minutes away from the lodge. I went to the normal overlooks but didn’t pull the camera out, same ole’, same ole’. At the last overlook I looked into the gorge at the collection of boulders below looking for a possible new perspective of the falls, which looked promising, and decided I’d go have a look. I’d been meaning to poke around the boulders in the gorge for some time now. When I got down there I went to the rivers edge as saw I had about a 10 inch wide area I could walk between the boulder and the river and then it was a very easy scramble to this view.

This is only one of a handful of shots I got on my weekend trip with my other half Lisa. Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time, but from a photography standpoint things just didn’t work out. We got started later than planned but we still stayed on the plan to follow US 421 35 miles, starting from outside Berea, Ky to Ky 30 then follow 30 to London. The goal was to hit a falls I had recently found out about called Flat Lick Falls. US 421 is really incredible, the amount of abandonment and interesting things along the roadside was just overwhelming, but I wanted to get to the falls, so we plan on hitting that road again later this year and knock on some doors. I had several directions to Flat Lick Falls, all had only one thing in common, turn on the road next to Grey Hawk Landing, so I did. Sure enough, I couldn’t find it. Since it was getting dark I thought I would just stop at the Landing (a corner market/restaurant) and ask some questions for my next attempt. Would you believe I got several offerings of where it was, but not one person told me the same thing? When Lisa and I walked back to the car I asked her, “Do you realize I know as much as I did when I walked in?” She said, “Yeah. Did you notice the two people making out as soon as we walked in?” I laughed. I had, but it didn’t register at the time I saw them as I was searching for someone to ask about the falls. Looking back, it was a bit odd, right there in front of the candy isle.

Brandon Phillips
2nd Baseman
Cincinnati Reds
Great American Ballpark
Cincinnati, Ohio

I’ve wanted to post this photo for some time of the Reds star, so I finally found an excuse as the Reds spring training begins this weekend in Goodyear, Arizona, making me and I’m sure Brandon smile. Although my favorite time of the year is fall, winter and early spring, I love baseball and listen to about 80% of the games on the radio. If I’m not in St. Louis the first weekend in March I’ll have out the old portable stereo and listening to Marty and The Cowboy giving the 1st play by plays of the year. At least there’s one thing I like when it gets warm outside.

So, Lisa and I are off into the maw of mother nature as when I made reservations for a weekend stay at Cumberland Falls Lodge Tuesday the forecast was upper 50’s and sunny. Now they’re calling for a possibility of 8 + inches of snow, but they’re not sure where it’s going to hit, where we’re staying or about 60 miles south of home on I-75. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting Sunday.