Winter Morning in Pisgah National Forest, Along Appalachian Trail, North of Carvers Gap - View SW

Hi Kevin, this is a very nice shot. I like the "smokey feel" to the scene. Greetings from California, David

Thank you, David. In my heart it is scenes like this that gives an accurate depiction of my beloved "blue ridge" mountains.

Best regards,

Kevin

Excellent composition and atmosphere. Reading your profile and views about the technical side of photography (which is also where I am) it is clear that you have a feel and an eye for a good image and don't need much of the post processing gimmicks. Cheers from Pretoria.

Daan, Thank you for the comments and the vote of confidence! I just reviewed your photo gallery and you have a very interesting collection of birds, and nicely done! I'll be watching for more of these from you.

Best regards,

Kevin

Thanks Kevin. I'm still practising in our garden, trying to come to grips with aperture size, shutter speed and iso, DOF, etc. We have put up different feeders to try to get them to sit still, but the bees are sipping the nectar at 200ml per day! No space for hummingbirds. Cheers.

Daan, I certainly wish you the best of luck. I continue to be vexed by DOF in particular. More specifically, DOF is the one outcome that I understand the least, therefore is difficult for me to understand how to control in the first place. Let's keep working on it!

Also, sounds like you have some very thirsty bees!

You probably know this better than I do, but here is how I summarised and simplified DOF for myself. It is about the area in the image that is in clear focus. An extensive DOF results from using a small lens aperture (eg f22), a normal or wide-angle lens and distant focusing. Often used for landscapes. A shallow DOF results from a wide/large aperture (eg f2.8), a long focal length lens and a close focus on a subject. For bird or portrait. I have stopped using auto and am trying everything manually. But I am still struggling. Cheers

BEAUTIFUL !!!

Happy Hiking! Well done, Kevin. Thanks for sharing this gorgeous view.

Jean

Hi Kevin I just stumbled on the forum and saw the problem you have with noise in the darker area of this photo. See my answer HERE I hope this will help.

Greetings..............Ghislain.☻

Joe, Thank you for saying so! It really is a nice place!

Kevin

Kevin Childress, you're like a bad penny; you keep turning up.

I found this while using Google to find great Panoramio photos from National Forests. Any interest in joining Public Access Land and Water? (Not promoting my own group here).

hehehe, Austin! Mmmmm, lemme give it a look. I could prolly use a couple tips for participating in the Pano groups. I gave it a go at the very beginning but honestly didn't get the 'community' vibe I was hoping for.

Kevin, I'm afraid Panoramio groups are a long ways from anything I would call "community." The vast majority are places people shove some photos and then ignore. Of the 200+ where I am a member, there are maybe 5-6 I enjoy being a part of (and half of those are mine). The Public Access Land and Water group seems to actually have a purpose, though it is starting to look like it might have an absentee owner.

Hands down, my favorite is POTD Photo of the Day. But then, I put a good deal of time and effort into inviting the right people and making sure they know and follow the rules.

Well, Austin, I must say POTD looks interesting. And that's your baby? Looks like quite a bit of maintenance in keeping up with the avatar tally alone ... is that what's keeping you away from the forums? :)

Kevin, I largely quit the forums in protest to the move to the Google Groups format, but there were other reasons - online forums were already taking way too much of my time (example - I quit Facebook about the same time and saved up to 2 hours a day). I may stick my nose in when I'm looking for something or want to know the reaction to a Panoramio blog post, but generally stay away just out of habit at this point.