(Please view large on black by hitting the "L" key if you have a moment. :) )

On my recent trip to visit our good friends in Loudoun County Virginia, I knew I wanted to do quite a bit more photography compared to my last trip, so I spent some time online bugging folks like Mike Besant in order to find out where the good spots were within driving distance of Loudoun County. Mike suggested Black Water Falls, West Virginia, so on my second day of our trip, off I went in search of the Falls, After a couple of missed turns, I found a beautiful state park FULL of gorgeous waterfalls after a 2 hour drive. I found this particular waterfall right before I left and had to race a family with four small kids to this location in order to get my shots finished before they arrived. While I was rushing to get to the falls, I jumped on to a loose rock and fell. The good news was that I didn't break any bones. But I landed with my full weight on the Sigma 10-20, which was attached to my Nikon.

Who knew that the Sigma was built to withstand that kind of punishment? I banged up the housing a little, but after limping over to get this shot, the Sigma seemed as good as new! I fired off a few brackets and then escaped before the four kids defended en masse.

The Sigma 10-20: Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Tags:   Elakala Falls Blackwater Falls West Virginia Sigma 10-20 HDR Nikon D7000

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(Please View Larger On Black for full effect. Thanks. :) )

I decided to go mono in this shot as the water, at least when I was there, was quite muddy making this particular fall more reminiscent of something you would find in a Wonka Factory than in a pristine state park. Not quite as full as when Mike Besant took THIS shot , but still very stunning and worth the 2 hour or so drive from Loudoun County. The thing that immediately struck me about this gorgeous area was.....NO ONE was there! Here it was, the very end of June and Anaheim was CRAWLING with visitors when I left. I think I must have passed about a dozen people during the two hours I spent shooting. Not sure if people don't know where this incredible spot is, or if it is just too far off the beaten path for folks to make the trip over, but either way, I can't wait to make another trip over as soon as I get the chance.

This was cropped in from a larger shot using the Sigma 10-20 and the B & W 10 stop ND filter.

Tags:   Blackwater Falls West Virginia long exposure ND Filter Monochrome Nikon D7000 Sigma 10-20

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Almost exactly a year ago today, I saw my first photo of the Grist Mill at Babcock State Park in West Virginia, and immediately I began to search for a way to make a quick trip out during the month of October at some point in the future. I can't remember if it was here on flickr or on 500PX, but as soon as I saw it, I was hooked. For someone who has been starving for autumn scenes and foliage having grown up here in Southern California literally surrounded by palm trees, this scene just jumped out at me.

So I dug around and found that I had some free airline miles, and then contacted the Appletons who are good friends of mine who live in Loudoun County Virginia and they offered to let me crash at their place for five days. I was also able to get away with only missing one class at the college during what is typically one of the busiest times of the year. As soon as I had it all sorted out, I contacted Mike Besant, who is one of my good friends on flickr, and asked him if he knew of this park and how to get there. He said he was definitely aware of not only this park, but of several spots in West Virginia that would be gorgeous during the month of October.

So I waited....and waited....and finally I set off on October 9th on my quick jaunt through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Virginia and Maryland were pretty much rained out for all five days, but Mike and I were able to shoot quite a bit of West Virginia on Oct 11-12. I kept shooting for the next two days, mostly in West Virginia and then came home pretty much exhausted but smiling with roughly 3000 frames on my cards. We shot some gorgeous waterfalls, lakes, farms, and long stretches of road, but Babcock was my favorite spot of the trip. There was just something so quintessentially Autumn about this little corner of West Virginia which was well off the beaten path and nearly forgotten by time.


William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter

Tags:   Grist Mill Babcock State Park West Virginia Autumn

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When I woke up last Sunday and it was STILL raining in Round Hill, Virginia, I knew I would have to drive for a while again before I would see the sun. I set off for Deep Creek Lake again up in Northwest Maryland, but after striking out, I turned around and headed back down South to West Virginia. The good news was that a cold front was now moving through and the sky was breaking up due to the wind. The bad news was that as I was shooting an old cemetery in Oakland, MD, the TORNADO SIREN went off. At least that's what I assume it was as we don't really get too many of those out here in Anaheim, CA. After about 20 minutes, the all clear went off and I set off again on my way South.

As I drove through West Virginia with the sun now shining through the broken clouds, I could not stop smiling. The drive down highway 219 was easily one of the most beautiful I have ever taken. Several of the trees were now hitting peak color as I drove through miles of rolling green hills, red barns, and tree covered mountains. When I arrived at Blackwater Falls State Park again, it was already after 4 PM, so I knew my time would be limited. I quickly shot the Falls and Pendleton Point, and then set off for the Lodge. I was just getting ready to shoot the sunset from the Lodge when Mike Besant called and told me I really should get my butt over to Lindy Point if I wanted to shoot a decent sunset in that park. He gave me directions and I set off as quickly as I could as it was now almost 5:30 PM. I glanced up at the sky and knew that the light must be incredible over the gorge, so I half ran for about 15 minutes up the trail with my two cameras and tripod and emerged to find that I certainly was not alone. There had to be 10-15 tripods already set up, and I scrounged around looking for a spot to shoot from.

Now....I like to think that I'm a fairly safe individual, but every once in a while, when I'm looking at something that is truly stunning, most of my good sense disappears and I find myself doing things like hopping over rails and jumping over crevices and standing out on ledges with steep drop offs without really thinking about things like consequences. It was only after one of my fellow photographers suggested that I might want to move back that I realized I was not very far from a 500-1000 foot fall. We all shot for about 15 minutes when suddenly the sun dropped from behind the clouds and completely lit up the autumn colors in the gorge with warm golden hour light and all you could hear were 20 shutters clicking non stop for the next 10 minutes.

After shooting until the sun dropped behind the mountains, most of the crowd took off and left only the hard core crazy people waiting for the sky to light up. And light up it did. :) Before it lit up, I was looking around for another place to shoot from further South, and I found a giant boulder which would work perfectly except for the fact that I would need jump across a deep crevasse with all of my gear. I balked at this point, but another kind photographer offered to hold my D4 and D800 while I jumped across. And I said....yes.

Am I STUPID or what? Fortunately, I didn't die when I jumped across and he didn't run off with my two cameras. I'll post some of my shots hopefully within the next couple of weeks, but when I was walking back to the car later that night, I felt that it had been worth the risk.

But I think I'll try to keep the crevasse jumping to a minimum in the future. And handing over my gear to complete strangers probably isn't such a great idea either. Especially when he's on the other side of that 25 foot deep crevasse.


William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter

Tags:   Lindy Point Black Water State Park West Virginia Autumn Sunset October Leaves Nikkor 28-300 VR

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This shot was taken near the end of our day shooting along the New River Gorge area in West Virginia. After our morning shoot at Babcock, Mike Besant and I followed Fred Wolfe who was our trusty guide through all of the roads and goat paths that wound around the hills surrounding the gorge. I quickly lost all sense of direction, but I do recall that right after we shot this particular set of falls we drove about another 5 minutes and came to a town called Thurmond, which was an old mining town that looked as if no one had disturbed it for the past 80 years or so.

Mike and I both were amazed at the way Fred scampered easily down steep hillsides covered in wet leaves while we picked out way down holding on to branches and roots even though Fred had a good 20 years on either of us. We both had the distinct impression that we were slowing him down quite a bit. But thanks to Fred, we had a GREAT day of shooting some amazing scenes that we would never have found on our own. SO glad that I left Round Hill Virginia to shoot in this area as it was POURING back there while the three of us were shooting in one of the most gorgeous areas East of the Mississippi. If you've never been to the New River Gorge in West Virginia in Autumn, you definitely might to consider adding it to your list.


William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter

Tags:   Lower Dunloup Creek Falls Autumn October New River Gorge West Virginia Waterfall Nikon D800 Nikkor 28-300 VR

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