Mostly Photos

Overcast Blues on Aquia Creek by Todd Henson

Overcast Blues on Aquia Creek

On New Year’s day my father and I went for our first hikes of the year. We visited a couple locations, one of which was Widewater State Park in Virginia. I’ve previously shown views of Aquia Creek as seen from the park, and today we return to this view with a couple new photographs from January 1st of 2024.

It was a very overcast day, and in fact it began raining lightly for part of the time we looked out at Aquia Creek. The overcast quality gave the scene a very blue look with interesting breaks in the clouds near the horizon, providing enough light for the scene and for some reflections in the creek. This scene is also interesting in how you can often see different channels where water flows in the creek by the different looks of the water’s surface. Sometimes it may be caused by a boat that’s moved through, but this morning I believe it was all due to water flow and perhaps to any breeze further out. We didn’t see or hear any boats while there, and there was little if any breeze where we were on shore.

And, as luck would have it, one of a pair of mating bald eagles happened to fly into the scene as I was photographing, creating a nice little bonus in the upper left of the image.

Below is a panoramic photo stitched together from 29 vertical views of the scene with a 105 mm lens. It gives a taste of this wide open part of the creek, and of the calm feel to the morning. Perhaps this is why they named the park Widewater.

A Wide View at Widewater


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Autumn in Prince William Forest Park by Todd Henson

Leaning Oak of South Valley Trail (I love the windy mountain laurel branches to the right of the oak tree)

During the last weekend of October I was fortunate to make a morning trip to Prince William Forest Park and hike along parts of the South Valley Trail that parallels South Fork Quantico Creek. There was still some autumn color left on the trees and I was so happy to photograph it.

When I returned home I did find a couple of these images weren’t quite as technically perfect as I’d have liked but overall I’m still pleased with them and feel they do a good job conveying what I was seeing and feeling that morning, and I hope they do the same for you.

South Valley Trail in Autumn (an alternate view of the scene above)

Treescape in Yellow and Red

Seeking Structure in the Chaos of Autumn

The Forest Through the Leaves

Falling for the Scenic Drive

Leaves on Liming Lane

Journey’s End (the parking lot is just off to the right)

Last year I had another walk through the autumnal woods of Prince William Forest Park and saw a very different set of sights.


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A Brief Stop at Seven Bends in Autumn by Todd Henson

A field at Seven Bends State Park

A few weeks back in mid-October my father and I went for a drive and made a short stop by Seven Bends State Park in Virginia. While there I created a few photos that showed some of the subtle color ranges foliage takes on during autumn in this region. It was a very nice day and a great one for a drive.

A little fall color at Seven Bends

If you notice any slight differences in color between images it may be due to my use of physical lens filters. I was swapping back and forth between no filter and either of two Singh-Ray filters, the LB Warming Polarizer, which is my regular everyday polarizer, and the Gold-n-Blue Polarizer that accentuates gold and blue tones in various ways. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of which photos used which, so I leave it to you to guess which used what. :-)

A walk at Seven Bends


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