(for a weekend)
Exploring Kentucky's Red River Gorge
For those who don't know, I've recently moved down to the Louisville, Kentucky area (I'm on the Indiana side of the river) for the purpose of real estate photography (more on that another day). This last weekend I finally took a couple of days off to go explore, camp and refresh my memory on how landscape photography works. I haven't been on a photo-trip in a long time, not since the end of Capturing Canada, which, considering all of the things that have happened this year, was a lifetime ago, and it was refreshing to spend some time reminding myself why I love what I do.
No adventure, even a mini-adventure, can begin without "the road goes ever on and on" running through my head. I try to take a photo of the road whenever possible. Roads to me are like opportunities, leading infinitely on into the distance. We can never see where the good roads end, but it's enough to know that they continue. Here's the looping road that follows the gorge. It was pretty and fun to drive, though full of blind hills and at times so narrow that two cars could barely pass. Drive attentively!
Musical interlude: some of my favourite daytime driving music is by E.S. Posthumus. Perfect mood for this road.
Arches
The Red River Gorge, or "RRG" (as they call it on the souvenir t-shirts), near Slade, Kentucky, a couple of hours west of Louisville, is a canyon system with geological features unique to this part of the country, including, apparently, more than a hundred natural arches. Most of the arches aren't as spectacular, or (more to the point) as visible as those in Utah, and I'm definitely spoiled by my travels to the Moab desert playground, but a few of these eastern counterparts are still impressive, like the ever-so-creatively named "Natural Bridge," (not to be confused with any of the other Natural Bridges in the U.S.)
It was tough to fit it in the frame, even with a 14mm lens, because of how the trees close in to both sides and prevent long distance viewing; instead of fighting against them I incorporated the trees into the composition:
The fun thing about this arch is that the trail goes not just under and around it, but over top of it as well! The Natural Bridge trails were busy on this hot, sunny Sunday afternoon (tourists are not pictured because it's a natural bridge and people just spoil the natural vibe).
When nature becomes art
Driving over the man-made bridge into the Natural Bridge resort area, a view looking down the river struck me as being particularly pretty (this phenomenon occurs frequently on photo trips...I'll be driving along, looking around and be taken aback suddenly by the view outside the car window - often for a split second as it zips by - and I'll have to backtrack to see if it was good as it first appeared). This scene may not be special by any conventional standards - it's just a shallow stream overhung with trees - but often something about the light and the angle (the natural composition) is just right when it catches your eye. The special vibe didn't translate so well on the camera this time (that happens a lot too), but these little "coincidences" of alignment that make themselves noticed now and then lead me to wonder about the infinite possibilities for beauty that exist, given the infinite variability of light, subject and perspective at play in a 4-D world. We may stumble across these scenes randomly, by chance as it were, when we explore the world with eyes open, but as a landscape photographer it's my job to identify these coincidences and ask myself why a scene is so particularly striking. If I can begin to unlock the "secrets" to finding the optimal angles and the best light, I can actively seek them out and anticipate those moments instead of just letting them hit me randomly. In other words, sculpting my own order and beauty from the chaos of nature.
I suppose the principle is the same with other art forms and with life itself: to reliably create beautiful and meaningful things we need to first recognize and identify, as well as we can, the beauty and meaning that we find in areas like music and writing, occupations and relationships. We spend our whole lives trying to sort these things out on one or more levels of consciousness, so it's a nice break when you happen to look out the car window and see a scene already composed for you:
Snakebitten Sunset
I'm usually better prepared than this. Maybe hiking through the grizzly-infested trails of the Canadian Rockies made me complacent about walking through the woods of central Kentucky. What's the worst I could expect to find? Black bears are always a concern, but I was ready for them and was making noise. Panthers? Scary, but rare to encounter one.
Well, how about rattlesnakes? I've spend many hours in the Southwest walking around in places where I'd expect to see rattlesnakes, and never did, but the first time I venture up a trail in Kentucky, there's a rattlesnake right smack in the middle of the path, guarding the road to Double Arch as effectively as Gandalf from the Balrog. It rattled at me. I didn't have the Sword of Gryffindor handy so I decided not to attack or circumvent the slitherer, but turned back rather than carrying on to Double Arch. It was an overgrown area and even if I got safely past that snake, I didn't want to have to meet it or any of its friends on the way back when it was really dark. No sunset is worth that risk, and that sunset was particularly not worth it.
Okay, I wasn't completely naive - I knew there were venomous snakes in the area, and I was even thinking of it as I walked - but after years of seeing pictures of dangerous animals and insects posted on trailheads around the world it's always a shock to actually encounter one. And even if I'd mistaken the snake for a root and stepped on it in the dark, I would have been statistically unlikely to die from a bite if I were able to get myself to a hospital in a reasonable time. It would have made for a lame night though, spoiling the fun of making a campfire later that evening.
Since the light was too dim to take a good photo of the rattlesnake and I didn't want to approach it with a flashlight and prime lens to take a proper portrait, here's a graphic representation, not to scale or to color or to anything, really:
And here's the Plan B view I settled on after I was turned back on the road to Double Arch:
All good adventures end with a waterfall
Another day, a more successful hike, this time to a place called Creation Falls, where I attempted the creation of a unique composition starring an overhanging rock as a framing element. I love that green reflection!
More adventures to come
I don't know when or where, but I do know if I will do more exploring of this area of the country in the months to come. My time will be limited, but I'll make the best of days off here and there and maybe a long weekend or two. I've never driven around this part of the world with a camera, and I know little about it. Kentucky and the surrounding states don't have the grand, expressive landscapes that popularized the western states, but there's beauty of a subtler kind to be found, and I'm looking forward to seeking and sharing it all with you.
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The snake is the best ha ha ha ha
Yes, I know it was a masterpiece, hahaha. ;)
Beautiful photos! Really like the road shot at the beginning of the post.
Thanks, Justin! :)
All the photos are very gorgeous with very interesting story! You are so lucky to be able to do things most people just dream about!!
Well, thank you! I have been lucky to be able to travel so much, even short trips like this. The truth is that I need to appreciate it more, because it's so, so easy to take things for granted.
I don't believe a person like you would take all these beautiful surroundings for granted! Each time the experience is new, the seeing is new so they are all new to your senses for appreciation!
So, one can never get bored with the repeating waves from the sea.
That's a great way to look at it. :)
Omg, these shots are so great! The long exposure of the waterfall I like most. The atmosphere transported is so calm. I was wondering, it is a HDR, @derekkind?
Thank you! As it happens, it's not HDR, @bibirider, though I did take a couple of exposures just in case. :)
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
That's awesome, @c-squared, thank you so much for what you guys are doing! :D
Beautiful pictures and you most certainly have your way with words :)
And sometimes the words have a way with me... but thank you so much, @fotostef! :D
a nice trip in the wild nature :)
Congratulations to your always successful landscape photographs. I see that it is also very good at editing.
cheers, Derek!
See you again
Thanks @artizm, always appreciate your comments. :)
Classic Derek ... long post with crazy good pictures!! Glad you're finally comfortable enough to get out there and taking pictures not for work!
Thanks, Jarvie! Just needed to string a couple of workless days together. :)
Hi derekkind,
LEARN MORE: Join Curie on Discord chat and check the pinned notes (pushpin icon, upper right) for Curie Whitepaper, FAQ and most recent guidelines.
That is so awesome, @curie!!!!! Yaaaay! Made my day, thank you!!! Keep up the great work! :D
Hiking is awesome ; ) Thanks for sharing
Yes, it is. :)
Amazing posty this is exactly what I am looking for. I had no idea how beautiful Kentucky is. On our last roadtrip, we just drove through Kentucky, because we never heard about this arch. What a shame. Please share your other secrets and hidden gems of the States with us ;)
Awesome, thanks! I'm too new to Kentucky to say much more about it, but I do love those rolling hills in the countryside, and Red River Gorge was a nice surprise! :)
It sure looks like an amazing place :)
You always have such amazing road shots. It's not something that I have tried to capture a lot but it's inspiring me to try and get a few more road shots. Enjoy the new surroundings. There is beauty to be found everywhere.
If they're awesome it's because I have tried a lot. ;) I love driving, and I'm always watching out for interesting angles and curves. I've also learned how to do u-turns really well.
Sounds like you would make a good getaway driver...
Hahaha. Getaway in the vacation travel sense, yeah.
Perhaps I have been watching too many episodes of Fargo .
I love road trips, it's my favourite way to travel! You live every single moment and you can discover hidden places.
Anyways, I love these shots, they are sooo great!
Yes, I love the freedom of exploring from my own vehicle! Thank you. :)
All gorgeous... except the snake!! You can always keep the snakes, especially a rattler! That Natural Bridge is stunning, I love both of those shots. And the waterfall, oh my goodness, it's so beautiful I'm speechless!! <3
Haha, the funny thing is that I don't mind snakes at all, except that I recognize that they could poison me. And thank you, yeah, I liked that waterfall too. :)
We get a few snakes around here... some are harmless and while I don't like them (at all) I can put up with those to a degree. I couple of years ago though we had a large Eastern Brown living under our back deck, it was an easy 2+ meters... they can be deadly so I wasn't playing with that one! I kept everyone inside for 3 months after we saw it. It would sometimes come up onto our patio near our back door... YUCK! We've not seen it since and I hope it stays that way! I never look forward to summer for the snakes but our winters are becoming so mild that we can see them anytime of the year now, just more often through the warmer months.
Oh, that's no fun! Can you get someone to remove a snake in a situation like that? Seems like you shouldn't have to put up with that. I didn't grow up with snakes. Two weeks ago I heard that there was a snake spotted in the yard back home - that was the first one ever seen there. And I've run across a few smaller harmless snakes hiking around (the cute kind), but never worried about poisonous ones until recently. :(
The cute kind... I don't think I've ever seen one of those and don't think I ever will! ; )
Yeah we have plenty of snake catchers around but the problem with our place is there are too many places for them to hide so if they can't get them you still pay for them coming out anyway. There's no way to get under our deck unless we rip it up and we have a fairly lush garden where it could easily hide too!
Snakes really scare me, good or bad. Even when trying to touch one that was at an event with a handler holding it I could bring myself to touch it. I tried... but I just couldn't.
We've had a couple come inside before, only our garage thankfully, my husband dealt with those!
You seem to feel exactly about snakes like I feel about spiders. I'm way more scared of spiders than snakes. It's not logical. It makes more sense to be scared of snakes, haha.
I'm not a huge fan of spiders, little ones don't bother me, I'll happily tackle those on my own now, the big jumping variety though... I'll pass on them!! I'd rather a spider any day, big jumpy ones even, they're better than a snake in my book! ; )
We did however unearth a funnelweb spider while on holidays, that one freaked us out, including my husband. We were backing away from that one mighty fast!
Great work ... as always! And congratiulations on your so well deserved curie vote! Too bad you couldn't take a good shot of the rattlesnake, although I think I wouldn't even think about it. I'd rather be in a pack of wolfs then just meet one rattlesnake I think ...
Oooh, not me... rattlesnakes may move fast at a short distance, but they aren't going to chase me doggedly like a wolf pack. I'd rather observe wolves in the wild than snakes, though. Thanks! :)
Stunning photos, beautiful writing, great adventures... is this short and general enough to be flagged?
Then I will add I feel exhilarated only seeing "On the Road Again"... and your snake reminds me of this coil we use for mosquitoes:
Now I'm safe I think ;)
Hahaha, thanks, Donica! You know, the funny thing is that I was expecting to be attacked by mosquitoes on this trip, but I never was, and I don't know why. Early in June, there should be mosquitoes all over the place...
Have you been flagged a lot lately?
Piękne miejsca, zdjęcia równie dobre.
Thanks! :D
This pictures could be wallpapers. What camera you have ?
These were taken with the Nikon D850. :-)