First Colors of Fall

Well it's here. October is here and at this point, almost past. This is probobly my favorite time of year. I am originally from Asheville, NC and this is the time of year where you wake up in the morning and see a touch of frost on the ground and your breath in the air. This is also when the leaves change their colors and depart for the season.

WNC is famous for it's Fall colors. The roads get crowded with tourists and sometimes getting around is a hassle, especially when when you are trying to get to some of the same places that they are headed. This is why you have to get up early and hope the weather cooperates with your agenda.

This little trip I was lucky to enlist the company of my sister, Kelly. She actually got up a little before me and got me out of bed. We were out of my Dad's place by 4:45 in the morning which is well before those Florida plates start becoming a fixture on mountain roads.

I really enjoy hanging out with my sister. She makes the time go by a little faster and we always have a few good laughs. She was a trooper this day. At our first stop it was brisk to say the least and the wind moving in a hasty fashion. We were able to squeeze a few star shots in as we looked over Asheville on our way West into Haywood County.

These were taken on Sunday, October 17th. By my gross estimation the peak of the season will be this following week and the week after. We will see.

On to some pics!

Looking East over Asheville from the Blue Ridge Parkway:

Starfields:

Looking back over Asheville:

More Starfields:

Morning Light into Waynesville, NC:

Waynesville from The BRP:

Haywood County:

Morning Fog:

The colors start to show:

It's sad that this happens to trees, but it does make for interesting pictures:

Another dead tree:

On the way back to the house we also ran it to some vertically challenged horses:

This horse happened to be of normal stature:

Well, I think that is about it for right now. I'll continue to try to keep this updated as much as I can stand. :)

I hope everyone enjoys the season. Get out and enjoy it!

(Thanks for coming along Kelly!)

-a.hoglen



Introspective?

I guess this may come off as something resembling a rant, but it is not. This is simply a statement about me and what I do with my time vs what I see a lot of other people around me doing.

As most of you know it is Fall. I get excited about things like cool mornings and evenings, frost on the ground and the colors of the season. Maybe I'm weird because most of the people I'm around on a day to day basis complain about those same things. They get excited about one singular thing... Football. The complete spectrum from kids leagues to the pros is covered in 80% of their conversations. Even when they are not talking about real football games the subject matter is about the new wave of "Fantasy Football" leagues (which equates to Dungeons and Dragons with football stats sans the 10 sided die).

Anyways, I'm not really knocking these guys but I continually ask myself "What do they do that is productive outside of their normal jobs?" It seems that every waking minute outside of work is spent watching games, 12+ hours a day on weekends, and a few hours of Sports Center on regular days. That's a lot of time spent living vicariously through the TV set.

I guess I'm an elitist. I guess I don't quite fit the mold. All my time away from my normal job is spent trying to be with my family and enjoying what little time I have with them right now. When I can't do that I spend time at my hobby which is Photography. Sometimes on a good day I get to combine the two subjects into a single event which really makes me happy.

There is a lot that goes into the current age of photography. A lot of time is spent getting to locations, setting up and looking through the glass. That is the physical part of the craft. A lot more time is spent behind a computer screen not only editing, but uploading and posting to forums so that you can get feedback from your peers. Then another part is doing your research. You have to look at what other people are doing, how they are doing it and then adding your own flair so that you, yourself can progress. There is a lot of work that goes into it.

At the end of the day.. I don't have a fresh twenty dollar bill in my pocket for picking the spread on the local team and I don't have conversation content about how I'm benching Favre for someone who will actually add to my manta pool (I think I'm mixing games... same concept, whatever). What I do have is a product.. Something I'm proud of. Something I'll put out there to get torn to shreds just so I can go back and recompose and make it more perfect. I'll have something that I can say is mine but I'd love to share it with everyone else. 

This is what I do. I hope that you can understand.

-a.hoglen