Spring is Coming: The Extraordinary Biltmore Estate

As the cold, snow and ice fill the air in the North East, we are again planning our spring travel itinerary and number one on our list every year is the amazing Biltmore Estate and Gardens. This historical place is a photographer’s dream from the beautiful architecture to the landscapes with the Blue Ridge mountains as a backdrop to the Conservatory, winery, equestrian center and more. Christmas at Biltmore offers even more and our favorite, the Festival of Flowers is a must-do for floral and landscape photographers. The Biltmore is very hospitable to photographers.

These images were photographed  in HDR in daylight between rain and storms which enhanced the colors for daytime images.  They are in storyboard form and compressed here for purposes of smaller files for viewing.

To visit Biltmore Estate

Videos

Festival of Flowers in Timelapse
Biltmore Estate Videos

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Photography: Art on Canvas, Copyright, JayJacy Photography ©2015 All Rights Reserved No Reblogs Please. Thank you

Old Barns & Historic Places

 

Old Barns & Historic Places

Okay my HDR Friends, you’ve got me…yes, I love old barns, historic buildings and places (and why you see them so often on the blog) and very much like street photography, they are just excellent candidates for HDR applications whether from a single raw shot or multiple raw images.  Depending upon your own preference of application tools, you can really create a super-cool HDR photograph for digital or print and they are popular for folks looking for art to display. 

Historic buildings, barns and ruins are all over the world and for us who want to capture them, it is only a walk or short drive away and we do not have to travel far to find a plethora of various ones to photograph.  If you love old farms and barns, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, along the Blue Ridge, Ketoctin, Shenandoah and Allegheny Mountains there are many wonderful old farms and barns, ruins and historic places to photograph for years.  Additionally, the landscapes at sunrise and sunset are beautiful to behold giving you even more for your collection. 

If you are in the Northeast of the US, Pennsylvania [especially Dutch Country], Connecticut, New Hampshire [Mt. Washington] and Maine [especially in Autumn], offer some of the most beautiful farm country of every kind and description of old buildings and scenic places. The South, Central, Mid-West and West are filled with history, amazing structures and old historic places for photography but I am sure most of you know where they are.  We have traveled across the US many times and each time we are amazed at the beauty and places available to us to photograph and each time there is something new and wonderful for us to stop and shoot.   So then friends, grab your camera and take a walk and capture something wonderful and share it!

“Soft As A Cloud Is Yon Blue Ridge”

A View, A Place of Rest and Solitude

Oh the mountains and beauty of our mountain ranges…it beacons us to come and sit for a while and enjoy the beauty of creation and bask in its glory.   The colors of earth and sky, forests and sunrise-sunsets bring us to a place of rest and solitude in our hustle-bustle world.  Find a place of solitude and then “sit for a spell” and take in its beauty.

“SOFT AS A CLOUD IS YON BLUE RIDGE”
          SOFT as a cloud is yon blue Ridge–the Mere
          Seems firm as solid crystal, breathless, clear,
          And motionless; and, to the gazer’s eye,
          Deeper than ocean, in the immensity
          Of its vague mountains and unreal sky!
          But, from the process in that still retreat,
          Turn to minuter changes at our feet;
          Observe how dewy Twilight has withdrawn
          The crowd of daisies from the shaven lawn,
          And has restored to view its tender green,
          That, while the sun rode high, was lost beneath their
              dazzling sheen.
          –An emblem this of what the sober Hour
          Can do for minds disposed to feel its power!
          Thus oft, when we in vain have wished away
          The petty pleasures of the garish day,
          Meek eve shuts up the whole usurping host
          (Unbashful dwarfs each glittering at his post)
          And leaves the disencumbered spirit free
          To reassume a staid simplicity.
            ‘Tis well–but what are helps of time and place,
          When wisdom stands in need of nature’s grace;
          Why do good thoughts, invoked or not, descend,
          Like Angels from their bowers, our virtues to befriend;
          If yet To-morrow, unbelied, may say,
          “I come to open out, for fresh display,
          The elastic vanities of yesterday”?
__William Wordsworth

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North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains are a beautiful place filled with small mountain towns, national forests, raging rivers and the world’s most creative artists and crafters. Winding through these mountains is “America’s Favorite Drive”, the Blue Ridge Parkway. Celebrating its 75th birthday in 2009-10, the Blue Ridge Parkway has become the National Park Service’s biggest attraction. Around 20 million people visit each year to drive, ride, hike, picnic and camp – or just sit and enjoy the views.

HDR Notes:  A single digital image shot from my very relaxing seated position on the hillside taking in the beauty before me; processed in Photomatix, PS-CS4 and texture overlay.