52 Photos Project: At the End of the Day

http://www.52photosproject.com/2013/09/gallery-20-at-end-of-day.html

IMG_1156, originally uploaded by Scarlett Design.

  My day often ends in the same place it begins, on my back porch, reading my email, pausing to admire the changing light and these beautiful towering pines.

Cape Lookout National Seashore

This last weekend, Jon, the dogs, and I took the ferry out to the Cape Lookout National Seashore. It was beautiful. We had planned on going to the beach, but instead spent most of the day exploring and driving the mostly deserted beach.

  Unlike Ocracoke Island, the South Core Banks has no permanent residents, although there are several cabins located near the vehicle ferry landing. There is also a Lighthouse, and a small, uninhibited fishing village. But mostly it is just a 20 mile long stretch of sand and dunes.

Due to high winds, the ocean side of the island was cooler than we had expected, but the sky was a beautiful, bright blue.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

An abandoned home in the old fishing village.

If you go, seriously consider brining a 4WD vehicle. The vehicle ferry costs more than the passenger ferry, but the island is too big to explore on foot in just one day.

52 Photos Project: Light and Dark

IMG_1189, originally uploaded by Scarlett Design.

A hawk, gliding on air currents against a cloudy, white sky.

I took this last week, while walking in the Croatan National Forest, and I think it works perfectly for this weeks 52 Photos Project Gallery, Light and Dark.

Flanners Beach

  For a few months now I've been curious to check out this beach on the Nuese River, part of the Croatan National Forest. I finally got a chance thanks to a week of rainy, cooler weather. It was really pretty, and quite deserted, probably due to the rain, and the dogs and I had the area mostly to ourselves for 45 minutes.  There are two beach areas, one is a little wilder, with a sloping wooded trail down to the water, and a small stretch of sand, with fallen trees. Once the weather cools off enough for us to start taking out Sunday walks as a family again I think we'll come back to this area frequently.

Weeping Cherry Blossoms

Pink Cherry Blossoms

White Cherry Blossoms

  Last month I was able to take a day trip up to Washington DC for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Although I was too early to see the cherry trees in peak bloom, I was able to find many beautiful trees around East Potomac Park, behind the Jefferson Memorial. This area is not as well maintained as the Tidal Basin, but I prefer it for the variety of different trees and the lack of crowds.

Here are some shots of the white cherry trees.

First Camping Trip of 2013, Ocracoke Island

  Easter weekend was our first camping trip of the 2013, to Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks. We were here for Easter weekend last year too, but this year was definitely colder, still comfortable for sleeping outside though, and the sun was warm, so great for sitting out on the beach, just not for swimming.

Flip flops! And now that it is started to warm up, finally, I've worn them several times since. I made the skirt myself, using a pattern from the Alabama Studio Style Book. I'll hopefully get around to posting full length photos of it sometime soon, because I love how it came out.

Alone on the beach. We got the off road driving pass so we were able to drive out to a nice secluded spot on the beach. We saw maybe 3 other trucks all day. Even last year on July 4 weekend, other vehicles were at least 50 feet away even during the most crowded part of the day.

I love collecting shells, and I found a bunch of little pink ones to bring home with me this time.

This is the third time we've been to Ocracoke, and every time I wish I had a few more days. I haven't even gotten around to exploring much of the little village yet. Hopefully, I'll be back soon.

Valley of Fire

  Last week I got to do something really exciting, I went hiking in the Mojave Desert. I happened to be in Las Vegas for a long weekend, and having been there several times in the past, I was determined off the Strip and out of the city this time.
  Valley of Fire State Park is about an hour north of Las Vegas, and definitely worth the trip, especially since I've never really been to the southwest (Planet Las Vegas doesn't count). It really was so beautiful. The desert is a very interesting environment, and the red sandstone rocks look so dramatic against the blue sky.

  Atlatl Rock, There are petroglyphs everywhere in this park. My favorites are the bighorn sheep. This is the my fifth and best trip to Las Vegas.
  To be honest, I don't like this city very much, but my boyfriend was traveling for all of January and it was easier for me to visit him than for him to come home for a weekend. This time, we avoided the Strip as much as possible, only venturing out briefly so I could buy a bathing suit, and then hurrying back to our hotel to enjoy the hot tub on a beautiful afternoon. We had some very good meals, one at StripSteak, the best steak I've ever had and duck fat french fries. Valley of Fire was definitely the highlight of my weekend though. Now that I've seen the desert, I won't mind if I have to go back again next year.

UPDATE: I've added the rest of my Valley of Fire photos to this Flickr set, including some in black and White

52 Photos Project: Black and White

  This week 52 photos project was "Black and White," and was actually kind of difficult for me. I had the opportunity to go hiking in the Mojave Desert last week, and I was all excited about my colorful photos of brilliant orange sandstone against a blue sky. This was an interesting dilemma for me, since I had started shooting in B&W, way back in the days of film, and for years worried about not factoring color into my composition. But I tried to remember Ansel Adams and be inspired by all his beautiful black and white photos. So, I looked through my pictures and tried to find one that worked in B&W, and was surprised that several did, while others were definitely less dramatic.

Which do you like best, the black and white or the color version?

Jockey's Ridge State Park

  As I mentioned in my last post, a few weeks ago I went down to the Outer Banks for a day to do some easy hiking at Jockey Ridge State Park. I've wanted to visit this park for a few years and finally made time, its only about 2 hours south of Virginia Beach.

  Jockey Ridge is a very well maintained park. There are nice picnic areas near the parking lot, an observation deck to watch hang gliders, and a few hiking trails, both pretty easy. Still, I managed to get lost, its difficult to follow a trail in the sand, not like in the forest where trails are easily visible. Fortunately, there aren't many hang gliders in January, so getting off the trail didn't put me in the landing zone, and I pretty much had the park to myself, the only person I talked to was a park Ranger who wanted to meet Chewie and Panzer. The trail was nice and easy, less than 3 miles roundtrip, and not much elevation, the tallest sand dunes on the east coast are only 100 feet high.

  One thing I really enjoyed about this park was the many different environments in a small space. There are the barren dunes, a lowland coastal forest, and some beach and marshy areas.

Although leashed dogs are allowed, martinis, apparently, are not.

A word of caution about hiking in the Outer Banks, go in the winter, or wear a lot of bug spray! 

52 Photos Project: Wide Open Spaces

This weeks "52 Photos Project theme is "Wide Open Spaces."

Last week I took a "field trip" to Jockey Ridge State Park in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Its well known for having some large sand dunes, as well as being close to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers made their first flight.

Changing Seasons

Recently, the City of Virginia Beach acquired a new park, Pleasure House Point, with a nature trail through a tidal marsh and some low land pine forests. Here are several photos of taken in different seasons and weather. Its amazing how dramatically the view changes.

January 2013
Afternoon fog

December 2012
Just before sunset

October 2012
Midday sun

Winter Color

Last week I took a day to myself to walk around the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. It was a cool, clear, beautiful winter day, and I had the garden mostly to myself. I really like all these ornamental kale, and I'm definitely going to use more of them in my own garden next fall.

There weren't many flowers in bloom this time of year, except the camelias and a few azaleas, but many of the hollys had brightly colored berries on them. This yellow berried holly I've never seen before.

Purple Beautyberry. I want some of these for my own yard. Not only is the berry a nice bright color, but it is also a native plant great for attracting pollinators.

52 Photos Project: All is Calm

Mallow, originally uploaded by Scarlett Design.

To photograph this week's topic, "All is Calm," I went to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens with the intention of finding something "calm" to take a picture of. I figured it would be easy, but I found myself stuck, perhaps because my brain was getting in the way, unable to find exactly what I was looking for. All the while I was enjoying having the garden mostly to myself on a remarkably still, peaceful winter day. It wasn't until I got home and began editing my photos that I found this shot, of some dormant mallow along the edge of a pond, that seemed to epitomize the feeling of walking in the calm, empty winter woods.

I really am in love with this photo, even if it was more of a challenge than I expected. It is easy to take a pretty picture of flowers in the summer, but for some reason I am more drawn to the desolate beauty of winter.

52 Photos Project, week 33: Morning::Evening

IMG_0025, originally uploaded by Scarlett Design.

Trees silhouetted by a setting sun. Pleasure House Point Natural Area, Virginia Beach VA.

This weeks topic for 52 photos project is Morning::Evening. Since I'm not very good at getting up early, I obviously chose to photograph the end of the day. I spotted this beautiful scene of the sun setting over Lynnhaven Bay while walking the dogs at a nearby park this weekend.

Big Snowy Mountains

I promise this is my last post about Montana. But it is just so pretty! Usually I hate it when others do not properly edit their vacation photos, but I find myself guilty of just that now. Typically I keep less than a quarter of the photos I take, but I found it difficult to be that ruthless when it came to editing photos from this trip. Everywhere I looked was beautiful, and it really did seem difficult to take a bad photo.

View from the deck. Every morning we would wake up to this view, and have a few leisurely cups of coffee or hot chocolate. Our first day there we did very little except relax and look at the mountains. It was great, and especially relaxing because there was no cell phone reception.

The mountains really do seem to rise straight up from the plains. This is only about 5 miles from the mountains, and it is clearly incredibly flat.

A bluebird. I had never seen one before, and it really was the most amazingly bright shade of blue.