Ran and snow runoff makes a big difference on the river. The photo above was today at flood stage and the photo below is how it normally looks.
Cooleemee River Park Dam - Normal
Taking a short break from my family room series of photos:
With the recent heavy rains, melting snow and flood warnings I had to make a short visit to Cooleemee River Park (Bull Hole) this morning to check on the status of the river and dam. The water level was the highest I’ve seen it since I’ve been photographing this site.
Flooded Sandy River Beach
Looking down across the dam
The river sand beach is mostly beneath water and walls I often walk and photograph are now barely seen beneath raging waters. You can see photos of these walls that were today under water here and here.
I also shot the short 1 minute video segment below using a Flip Video giving a sense of the massive energy of the pounding water. Double-click on the image below to watch.
Let me know if you have any problems with the above Apple Quicktime Player Video.
I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a visit to Bull Hole this weekend, be sure and read Paul’s impressions.
Our family room has a family wall — a wall dedicated to family photographs.
In the photos, the happy young in-love couple on the right happens to be my parents. This was their wedding photograph taken in July 1943. You can see my father’s in uniform. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 and served with General George Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe during World War II. They married before he shipped overseas. My mother made the wedding dress she’s wearing and my sister still has that very dress.
Both my parents have since passed away — my father in 1989 and my mother in 2008. Still, every time I walk past this wall I think of them and all the other family members I catch a glimpse of in the numerous family photos.
Keep the 'Pilot' Light Burning - Family Room Series
There’s a brick fireplace in our family room with a set of ventless gas logs. During the winter months the pilot light is always lit and on particularly cold nights we’ll have the gas logs burning.
Often when I walk by the fireplace I’ll see the small blue flame of the pilot light in the darkness of the fireplace. I was intrigued enough I decided it would be one of my photos for this family room series.
This photo is a 6 second exposure at f/6.3 and ISO400. The edges of the flame looks soft because of the flames flicker over the long exposure. Post-processing was the normal Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS4.
A little visual trick here. This photo includes two mirrors. The first is a full height coat/hat rack mirror with wooden frame and hat hooks that the lamp and the other wall mirror are reflected in. The second is of course the wall mirror behind the lamp.
These mirrors are in the front entry hall but [...]
Morning sunshine filters in through windows and doors of the back wall of our family room and strikes the golden wood of our coffee table illuminating it so brightly at times it looks like the wood has an internal glow.
This second series photo tries to capture that moment of illumination.
Where yesterday I was looking to [...]
As with many new projects/themes the beginning or first shot is always the hardest to come by. As I stated in a previous post I’ve been playing about with self imposed limits, projects or themes this year. So thus begins my next series of photos.
This series of photos are all from or in the confines [...]
The red tile roofline belongs to the Salisbury, NC, Train Station and this is the final photo of this current urban theme — although with the tree I guess it could be considered a nature photo as well.
What appeals to me in this image is the contrast of the natural curved and random lines of [...]
After a weekend of winter scene photos we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming.
There’s a couple more of these urban scenes and then I’ll be switching to another photographic subject for a short period. I’m experimenting with shooting different themes under self-set restraints. A couple of weeks ago I was shooting nature-scapes along [...]
Instead of staying in yesterday during the final stages of our recent winter event, the wife and I decided we were going to explore and enjoy the beauty of this new snow before it began to melt or became dirty.
This wasn’t all that big of an adventure, our small SUV has 4WD.
We did a loop [...]
Winter has made another appearance in a big way. It began as snow yesterday evening before sundown and is supposed to continue in some form most of today. Currently I can hear frozen rain/ice hitting the windows.
There’s perhaps 5-6 inches accumulation so far and more in the forecast. The temperature will drop to 13F tonight [...]
This photo is a local building in Salisbury, NC. The story behind the signs on the side of the building is that in 1917 the soft drink Cheerwine was first produced in Salisbury by the Carolina Beverage Corp. Cheerwine later became a registered trademark in 1926.
You may never have heard of Cheerwine. It is a [...]
