mountains

An Early Spring Drive Through Fort Valley, Virginia by Todd Henson

Dogwoods along Fort Valley Road

Fort Valley is a fascinating place. It is a valley formed when a continental plate crumpled, pushing mountain ranges upward and this valley downward. The eastern side is Massanutten Mountain, which runs the entire length of the valley. The western side is composed of three mountains almost forming a solid wall but with a couple gaps. To the north is a small gap where Passage Creek leaves the valley somewhere between Strasburg and Front Royal, and where Fort Valley Road enters the valley. From the south requires driving up and down a windy mountain road to get over the mountain. On the western front the two gaps between the mountains have roads heading over to Woodstock and Edinburg. It appears at least one of these roads may also travel up and down over a mountain before completely leaving the valley, though we’ve yet to drive them. For this trip we entered from the north and existed over the mountain to the south.

A first spring view of Passage Creek in Fort Valley

Redbud, dogwood and Fort Valley Road

The valley is almost a sealed system and because of that and how difficult it was to access at the time, George Washington had reportedly thought to use the valley as a natural fort to retreat to had the Continental Army been defeated by the British during the Revolutionary War. Seeing as that didn’t happen the valley was never used in that way, though it did become home to a couple blast furnaces used to create pig iron which were shipped to foundries and forged into other products. During the Civil War the Confederacy made use of the furnaces until Union troops destroyed them. One of the furnaces was rebuilt after the war but it closed shortly after as it was no longer competitive enough to stay in business.

Rustic views along Fort Valley Road

Redbud and the road

These days the valley is lightly populated with private homes and farms and is home to several recreational areas. We saw a number of folks fishing along the length of Passage Creek, and saw a number of areas for camping. And it’s also great for an early spring drive.

Bends in Fort Valley Road

Rolling valley hills


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Autumn Blue by Todd Henson

Autumn Blue: An early October view from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park

Standing atop the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in autumn, facing west, I look out over the Shenandoah Valley and the long Massanutten Mountain which stretches down its center. Even further out are the Appalachian Mountains.

I breath in. The air is crisp this time of year, and has that fresh smell you’ll find atop forested mountains.

It’s a quiet moment on a calm, cloudy morning.

Life is good.



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Driving Through the Rocky Mountains by Todd Henson

A view from the road while driving through Rocky Mountain National Park

A number of years ago I had the opportunity to spend a day in Rocky Mountain National Park.This particular photograph was created from one of the many scenic pull offs on the road that weaves its way through the park.

The sky was full of clouds and the light was always changing. At times you could see a storm in the distance dropping rain or snow. The view isn’t one of the iconic views from the area, but I still like it. It’s a very beautiful location.

These scenes seem to work well in black in white, so that’s how I chose to process this image. The photo then becomes about tones, textures, and patterns. It simplifies the image. I most often photograph for color, but lately I’ve been exploring black and white.

Give it a try with your own photographs. First try picking photos from your back catalogue that might work as black and white and experiment with different conversions. Then start looking for scenes that might look great in black and white and create images in camera with the specific purpose of later converting them.

If you photograph in RAW (which I recommend) it might be helpful initially to set your camera to its black and white or monochrome setting. This should only affect the JPEG that gets embedded in the RAW file. Your camera will still capture and store all the color information. Doing this will let you view the photo in black and white on the back of the camera and help you see how the scene might look in black and white. Later, when you import the photo into your computer you can work on it in black and white, or process it in full color. That’s one benefit of RAW: it records all the information. It’s up to you how you choose to process it.


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