Skyline Drive

A Rainy Spring Drive Over the Blue Ridge Mountains /  by Todd Henson

The glare of headlights

After a dry spell we suddenly received a large amount of rain in a short time, and sitting at home listening to that rain patter on the roof inspired me to sort through and process a number of photographs from April of 2023 when my father and I drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains on Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park in the rain.

Springtime rains on the road

Photographing From the Car

The day hadn’t begun raining (in fact, I’d just photographed my first white trillium flowers about an hour before creating these photos), and it didn’t end that way, either. But for parts of the day we had the pleasure of winding down the Blue Ridge Mountains through anything from a light and misty rain to a heavy downpour with gusty winds. Being the passenger that day enabled me to create these photographs.

Lichen, branches, road and rain

I would often watch the windshield wipers and time my exposures for just after they wiped the water off the windshield. This gave me the clearest view. But in some of the photos you can see droplets of water on the windshield. They create a slight blur that, when there are enough droplets, almost gives the photo a slightly more painterly look that I enjoy.

A wet and winding road

Camera Settings

From a technical perspective, it was a bit dark because of the rain and we were in a moving car so I wanted a high enough shutter speed to avoid too much motion blur (except in those instances when I played around with purposefully slowing down the shutter speed). This meant I used a fairly high ISO, between 1250 and 2000. I also used a reasonably wide aperture of f/5.0, which did limit the depth of field but helped give me a shutter speed of anywhere from 1/125th to 1/400th of a second. I was using a 16-80 mm lens (thanks, Alex) in the 44-56 mm range, chosen based on the view from inside the car.

Fleeing the rain towards a hole through the mountain

Post-Processing

I did process these photos a fair bit in Adobe Lightroom, largely dodging and burning (old darkroom terms for brightening and darkening) to highlight some areas and lessen the impact of others. For example, I liked the light greens and browns of spring so I brightened those up enough that they stood out, and I darkened wet branches to help them stand out more. I added a little contrast in some areas that had been reduced by the rain.

Follow the leader through the rain

What do you think of the results? Did I go too far? Would you have gone a little further? Let me know in the comments below.

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Beginning of Spring in Shenandoah National Park /  by Todd Henson

Mountains as seen from Skyline Drive

I realized this year how great a location the mountains can be for observing the signs of seasonal transitions. My folks and I were on a day trip and decided to drive over part of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. This is the north-south road through the park and provides lots of views of the mountains and down into the valleys. We picked a fortunate time to visit in early spring when most of the trees at higher elevations were bare but at lower elevations you could see lines of color of new leaf growth. I would love to see a time lapse movie of this process as the new green growth moves its way up the sides of the mountains.

New leaf growth moving up the mountains

An alternate, vertical, view of the first image showing the new green growth moving up the slopes

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief observation of the transition from winter to spring.

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Waiting for Spring /  by Todd Henson

Waiting for Spring, April 2018

I write these words in December. It’s winter, there’s a cold breeze blowing outside. We’ve seen the first snowfall of the season, with who knows how many more to come. I do enjoy this time of year. The fresh feeling of the cold air. The pure, glistening white of snow and ice. The interesting sensation of feeling warm and relaxed under the layers of clothing, while the cold wind leaves a tingling sensation on the cheeks.

But I also look forward (or back) to spring, when the air begins to warm, the sun stays up longer, and plant life prepares to spring back to life. I look to mid-April, along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. The trees atop the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia are still devoid of leaves, though that will change before long. The sun backlights a couple of trees in a field, lights up a few clouds in the sky, and creates a soft glow with the haze around the mountains in the distance. I imagine warmth, but that is just my imagination; it’s still fairly cool outside, especially atop the mountains.

I do enjoy the winter. But I’m also waiting for spring.

Waiting for Spring is available for purchase as wall art or on a variety of products in my Pixels online store.

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