Grab your calendar now: circle the weekend of April 23rd. Got it?
Now, call or email Claiborne House Bed and Breakfast in Rocky Mount, Virginia. 540.483.4616Â Book yourself (and your Significant Other) a room (or come solo and enjoy even MORE P&Q.) AND very important: sign up for the nature/photography package.
This trip is primarily but not exclusively for photographers at all levels. I’ll share my personal “eye” on nature both through my photographic vision and technical and aesthetic approach to landscape and nature still-life photography. But I’ll be putting on my naturalist hat, too, and we’ll be keeping a list of wildflowers, edible plants, stream organisms and maybe even identify a few spring warblers along the way.
SATURDAY:
From the B&B, participants will travel Route 40 to Woolwine where we’ll meet at 10 am. From there, we’ll drive a mile to park near Rock Castle Creek and take a leisurely photo-shoot walk a level mile or two upstream, enjoying the peak bloom of Virginia Bluebells, several Trillium species and more than a dozen wildflowers backlit by the shining waters of the creek.
Around noon, we’ll head up into the sunshine of the Parkway and enjoy box lunches (provided by Edible Vibes in Rocky Mount) in the vicinity of Saddle Gap, looking out at the vista that carries the eye to the edge of The Commonwealth. We’ll take a wider view, talking about the geology and ecology of this part of the parkway and putting on the wide-angle lens to take in the early leaf-out of the high-elevation forest. We’ll hike into the forest along one of the marked trails, and end the planned program officially at 3 pm.
Thereafter, folks can stay where we find ourselves at 3, or venture into Floyd, or travel down the parkway a few miles to Mabry Mill (lots of photo-ops there!) or over to the crest of Buffalo Mountain (at almost 4000 ft) to catch the late afternoon sun and sunset. Ah, spring. Can you smell it?
SUNDAY:
After a scrumptious breakfast, we’ll gather in the parlor to view and discuss the photographs we shot on Saturday. I’ll have collected images from all the cameras (or folks can email them from their room later) and we’ll project them for all to see and learn from–both photographically and natural-historically. If folks are interested, I’ll work with some of their straight-from-the-camera images in Photoshop Saturday night so we can see before-and-after versions and different ways to “interpret” the light the camera gives us.
I’ll put all images (of nature, landscapes and of memorable moments of our weekend) up on an online gallery for everyone to view and share with their envious friends who didn’t make the right choice and come join us. There’s always next time–but there will only be ONE Spring, 2010!
Want to know more before you make up your mind? Event limited to first 10 who sign up. Field-trip only status: details pending. PLEASE spread the word!
Wow. I was on the road and not reading your blog last spring. This sounds so good. I hope it was a great success and that you will do it every spring.