Beauty Run - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

Between the green and the rain, it seems that Summer is upon us here in the Mountain State. I sure am glad of that too. It’s going to be one heck of a summer - family stuff, travel, work on the farm, work at work ;), and then culminates with my daughter starting high school.

All of that put together has meant that my “going out to shoot” time has been a bit curtailed, and that I have to make the most of that time when I get it. That’s actually been kind of a nice thing for me, in that it means I have to work harder to find beauty in unexpected places, or to try and find new perspectives on old things.

Today’s image is a bit of all of those - a chance to re-visit an old place, and find something unexpected when I do.

To my knowledge, this little ephemeral stream doesn’t have a name. I call it Beauty Run.

Beauty Run - West Virginia

It's Been Quiet the Last Few Sundays - West Virginia

Good Tuesday Morning -

Traveling the backroads as much as we do, we have seen so many scenic, beautiful, and old churches around West Virginia. In many places, I think the church was built on land that might not be good for pasture or farming, or was donated by someone - long, long ago - and that is what leads to their position on the top of hills or at the corner of a field.

Many of these churches are far out in the country - not many houses around - and look like they haven’t seen a congregation in a long time. Many don’t have power run to them, and often - like this one - there isn’t even the “two tracks through the grass” for where to park a car. The paint may be faded.

But normally, the grass is cut, and looks like it gets cut all season. I always wonder about that. Who is out there, mowing this lot, trimming the grass, tending to flowers? Because all the other signs say it’s been quiet there for a while, a least the last few Sundays.

It does make me happy that there are “someones” out there, still tending to these places, keeping them ready for the next meeting or revival or wedding.  There are few things easier and more expensive to lose than your history and your sense of community.

Hope folks have a good week.

It’s Been Quiet the Last Few Sundays - West Virginia

Travel is Fatal to Prejudice (and that's why it shouldn't be easy) - Arizona

Good Friday Morning!

Whenever we go on travel, such as our recent trip to Arizona, we joke that we come home more tired than when we left, but also rejuvenated in mind and spirit by meeting new people, seeing new places, and coming to understand those people and places a little better - which often helps us better understand our home a little better. I think that is what Mark Twain was getting at with his famous “Travel Is Fatal To Prejudice” quote (full quote here, just for reference).

The thing is, by definition, that means travel shouldn’t be “Easy”. Travel is NOT a vacation. Travel is not driving a long way away and then going to restaurants that you have at home. If you are going to the same resort, eating at the same chain restaurant that’s in your town, and only talking to the people you brought with you, you are on a vacation. You aren’t traveling.

It’s a joke, almost, in West Virginia - we mention that we are travel writers, travel photographers, and someone will say “I love traveling! We go to Myrtle Beach (or the Outer Banks, or Virginia Beach, or Topsail Island) every year!”

And I bet they talk to the same 10 people every time. What do you learn from that? What new insight about that place or this place did you come home with?

So, to my dear reader, I ask that you think about this the next time you are on the road (or maybe even on vacation). Take a chance on the mom-and-pop restaurant, and talk to the folks there. Jump off on the slow road, and if someone is out in their yard, talk to them about what it’s like to live there. Find out what the “big deals” are where they live, and think about how that might be different - and for different reasons - than where you are from.

Today will be the last image (at least for a while) from the Arizona run. Hope y’all enjoyed it.

Travel Is Fatal To Prejudice - Arizona

Good Spot To Rest - Arizona

Good Tuesday Morning -

I think the “commodification” of some of our public lands and great American landscapes has taken some of the true nature away from these places. You can go to Arches, or Zion, see incredible things, get a few likes on your social media, and the biggest risk you might face is a sunburn or twisted ankle.

But that isn’t the true nature of these places. Just outside the sections bounded by trails, out of view of the visitor centers, these places are hard, unforgiving - and beautiful. This spot was far enough out into the scrub that I was glad it was still in the cool of the spring, and it was the only real shade of note for a very, very, long way. As we got closer, we realized we weren’t the only ones to see this - this is open range country, and cowboys are still a real thing here - and under the tree was a small fire ring, perched where the tree would provide both shade and windbreak.

Good Spot To Rest - Arizona

What Comes After - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

Had a wonderful weekend “down on the farm” this last weekend. After the spring.I’ve had, the time to hang out and talk and visit and unwind was NEEDED.

A topic that’s on my mind today - the tensions, and maybe even disconnects, between the things that “locals” think they want and need for this region, and what “visitors” think. I spend a lot of time at that “pinch point”, between folks from outside, that have their own agendas - but also some good ideas and resources, and locals that need resources, but may not agree with the agenda.

Example - in southern WV, a great deal of focus is on generation of “adventure” tourism, including motorized recreation - Hatfields ATV trail, bike trail development, all of the activity around the New River Gorge. On the other end of the state, the conversation in the Potomac Highlands (Blackwater, Dolly Sods, etc) is very much hiking/preservation oriented - a funny thing, considering that the crowds coming over from the east have made it tough to go to the Sods on the weekend.

The locals like ATVs. The visitors want peace and quiet. The locals need jobs and resources. The visitors have them.

Who wins?

Hope folks have a great weekend - with a little luck, I have a “long format” piece coming from some adventures outwest. VERY excited to share those.

What Comes After - West Virginia

Falls of Pendleton - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

Sorry I was away for a bit there - I promise I’ve got a good excuse. I managed to get some time away, some time with Carmen, before the big end of the school year. This year so far has been a beast - a real monster - but I’m here, and if you are reading this, it is done for me - time to start the summer. I have quite a few images I’m looking forward to sharing with you lovely people, and some fun stories to tell.

It’s been a few years, but the Pendleton Run “hike” is an old favorite of mine, going back to days when I decided that “rim to rim” was the way to explore Blackwater - going in on Shay Run, and out up Pendleton. (That story is only good for bragging rights, it was definitely not worth it to do it that way)

Most folks only ever see this cascade from an overlook on the other side of the canyon, but after Carmen told me that there was, somehow, a hike she hadn’t done in Blackwater, it was ON. (as an aside - one of the first ever “real” dates that Carmen and I went on was a hike from the lodge to the river in the Shay Run drainage, some 5-plus-years ago - so it was pure symmetry to me that we do this one)

According the USGS, this may actually be the tallest “waterfall” in West Virginia - the difference being it’s a cascade, versus a single drop (like Hills Creek, or the namesake Blackwater Falls) - 150’ is what they say she goes at.

Excited to be back, and excited to be telling stories again. Hope y’all have a good weekend.

Falls of Pendleton - West Virginia

When the Wind Cuts Cold - west Virginia

Good Friday Morning, everyone!

The spring-is-springing, and none to soon for this guy. It has been a long, dark, dreary winter for me - much more “indoor” activity than I tend to like, and less “outdoor” activity than I would have hoped, even with the workload. It seemed like we had a winter of cold and rain here, even more than usual.

That said, this will mark the tailing off - for the season at least - of the industrial-grit series that I have been working on this winter, with a pivot to the beauty of spring and the excitement of several things that we have in the works this year.

This winter project has been good for me, as an artist, but has also left me a bit disillusioned with the state of visual art and how it is received and distributed these days. I start to find that the “popular” work all looks the same, and the “interesting” work gets buried. All the same, I feel more inspired to work than I have in a long time, and I’m excited about that.

I captured this image a few months back, and remember it because the sunset (as was the day preceding it) was gorgeous, and I saw many other instagrammed images of this sunset from around the region, and decided not to share mine at the time because I knew it would get lost - we were all looking at the same sunset, but mine wasn’t the same.

I hope folks have a great weekend, and I’m ready for the semester end. One more week.

When The Wind Cuts Cold - West Virginia

The Only Place That's Ever Felt Like Home - Arizona

Its starting to eat at me, like not seeing a friend or a family member for too long. I miss the beauty. I miss the stark. I miss the open. I miss the details.

There is only one place that has ever come close to speaking to me the way West Virginia does - the desert of the American southwest. It reminds me of here, strangely enough - everything is centered around the water. The mountains and the valleys both provide shelter and get in the way.

Someday, maybe, I’ll end up there for long enough to really feel like I’m getting to know it, but for now it’s the only place that’s ever felt like home outside of home.

The Only Place That's Ever Felt Like Home - Arizona

On The Battlement - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning -

The history of this place. So much history in this place. We’ve had a winter trying to highlight some of those things, and the interactions of people with the land of West Virginia. I make the joke that she guards her history well. Things that are abandoned here tend to disappear quickly. Over the last few years, we’ve “found” (new to us) towns and industrial centers that were abandoned less than 100 years ago - Nuttallburg, Kaymoor, Hammond. We’ve “found” amusement parks - totally gone now - that were hosting thousands of visitors a little over 100 years ago.

Today’s post about a battlefield that we “found” - far off the beaten path and hard to find any details on in the history books. This photo is of fortifications - gun emplacements, best we can tell, from the Battle of Allegheny Mountain, December 1861. On a cold winter day nearly 160 years ago roughly 3,000 men fought, fired, and died all around this place. Today, you would be hard pressed to know - unlike many of the battlefields over in Maryland or Pennsylvania, there was one sign for this place. In the end, it wasn’t only war that led this place to be abandoned, it was the rough winter and cold conditions - high in the Appalachian mountains.

Conditions this day were ghostly - hard wind, thick fog, swirling around the place and through these hawthorn trees. We had no idea what this place was at the time - but it felt old and hard -made by man, long ago, and left to the elements.

Hope folks have a great weekend. The warming weather is making us antsy to get back out there.

On The Battlement - West Virginia

Abandoned Treasure? - Pennsylvania

Good Friday Morning -

The winter is the time to try and find the abandoned and industrial things that I’ve been highlighting lately. The foliage of this place - the jungle that it becomes in the summer - can hide things that are right in front of you, which is what happened with today’s subject. Carmen and I had been by here multiple times on our way to the river, and never seen them, even though they are literally right beside the road.

While we were walking around and exploring these, a strange thought came to my mind - how long does it take for something to transition from “abandoned, blighted, eyesore” to “relic, historical, character”? I’ll admit excitement in finding these old coke ovens, and in their fantastic state of repair - some of the best I’ve seen in a long time - a different feeling than driving by abandoned river loadouts and tipples. Why is that? Time? The fact that the woods have retaken these, and other places in WV like Nuttallburg or Kaymoor in WV, does that make them “old and beautiful”?

Something to think about - these types of places become features on rail trails and such around the region - the destination on the ride. Maybe we should slow down on tearing some of the newer stuff down…

Hope y’all have a good weekend!

Abandoned Treasure? - West Virginia

Simplicity - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

It has been a week - I’m burning the candle at both ends on several projects that are all coming due in the next month or so. That’s been tough on me - I get rejuvenated by being outside, by being in the woods. I need to smell the woods and feel the sun on my face, or I start to feel crazy.

Add in that it’s been a sort-of long winter. A lot of grey, full overcast, rainy days so far - and while that makes it easier to stay inside and grind on things, it also starts to wear me down.

That’s why moments like the image above are so important. It’s so simple, blue skies, snow-covered clean fields, and the wind in my face - it’s enough to get through.

With a little luck, I’ll get a quick recharge over the weekend, get some mud on the boots, and keep pushing. Simple.

Have a great weekend.

Simplicity - West Virginia

Trans. Former. - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

It’s a weird time to be working in and around West Virginia. Transformation is everywhere, some good, some not. There is a lot of money out there looking at how to best use, reuse, or reclaim abandoned mines and “brownfield” industrial sites, whether through the ARC Power Grants, or the “Abandoned Mine Land Fund”. A cottage industry in trying to make the best of a terrible environmental legacy.

Right on the heels of that, I’m hearing about the legislature working to reduce the coal severance tax in West Virginia. The reason we have a severance tax is to try and put some funds into the common good from the extraction of these resources. In classic thought, that severance tax should be set high enough to account for any “bads” that come from the extraction as well - that it should help to cover environmental repair, long term health coverage for people impacted by the industry, and put funds into investments for the future after the industry is gone. Funny to look around and see all the bads, few investments, and now we are cutting severance. Maybe we should think about setting it up like Alaska - those folks get $2,000 a year from the state out of their severance revenues. At least then some of those funds would end up back in our local economy.

One way or the other, these industries have, are, and will transform this place, for better and worse, and what we should be thinking about is what that transformation looks like in the long term, not the short term.

Today’s image from a former mine site, stuck in a long term state of almost transition. The seasons coming and going over these briery fields, waiting for the next thing.

Trans. Former. - West Virginia

p.s. Never let it be said that y’all don’t surprise me sometimes. Last weeks photo (Beautiful, In Its Way) went viral in a way that I never would have guessed. Sometimes, I get a solid reminder that other folks are reading and watching - thank you for that.

Beautiful, In Its Way - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

In the 5 years (whoa!) since I started this little operation, I’ve been able to watch some trends and tropes emerge in the work and storytelling I do, and I wanted to talk a little about that today.

Since I started this project, social media has really become the way “this type of work” gets exposed and known - we’ve come a long way from where I started to today’s “doing it for the ‘gram”.

Thinking a bit more locally, I was talking with Carmen the other day, and I made the statement that everything I see about photography in West Virginia seems to sort into two buckets:

1. Highly saturated, full color images of pristine wilderness in West Virginia.

2. Gritty black and whites of “working class” people and neighborhoods, or of industry (and industrial decline).

I’ve probably spent some time in these spaces as well, although I don’t do a lot of “people” shooting. Sometimes the subject matter motivates those choices for me - I always find textures and patterns more interesting in black and white - and man-made things tend to have textures and patterns. I’ve also worked to capture the “best thing” and present it as I “saw” it - which in West Virginia leads to a lot of greens and blues and colors.

All of that said, both of those approaches have started to leave me feeling flat. We see the two ends of the spectrum, but the much more common middle gets left out. The beauty that might exist in places that most folks don’t take photos of, or the damage in pristine places. The beauty in empty or beat down. The grit that often lives “just out of frame” in the postcard.

I hope folks come with me on this ride - but I felt I needed to challenge myself this year, and so far it’s energized me more than I’ve felt in my work in a long time.

Hope y’all have a good weekend.

Beautiful, In Its Way - West Virginia

Winter Time Reflections (Blackwater River) - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

So I’ll give you wonderful folks a bit of a break from my work, and from the hard winter images that have been dominating my feed lately. It’s funny, I can scroll through my catalog of images, and I can see the progression of the seasons as I do - whites and greys give way to greens, which give way to golds, which give back to whites and greys as the seasons come and go.

It has been a long winter - not super snowy, not super cold - but I promise, I’d take the snow and cold over the relentless rain that we’ve had in the last month or two. The upside for me, such as it is, is that I can really dive in to my work this time of year - the fact that it’s dark, cold, and wet makes it a lot easier to stay at the desk, stay at the computer, stay at the house, and get some things done than it will be in even a few short months - cause I know round about the first of April that I will have a hard time staying focused on my work. :)

I am excited - I’m working on a new photographic project that has driven most of my recent shooting - and I look forward to sharing some of those images with you over the next few weeks.

Hope folks have a great weekend,

Winter Time Reflections (Blackwater River) - West Virginia

Run. Off. (Hills Creek, Winter 2018) - West Virginia

Good Friday Afternoon!

Today’s post will be the last (for now) looking at some of my personal research. See my last two posts (Strong Under Currents and We Stand Together, Rooted To This Place) for more background. In summary, rural places, and Appalachia and West Virginia in particular have issues with losing “their best and brightest” to other places. Conversely, Appalachia and West Virginia also have some of the “stickiest” people, in that they want to live here and fight to stay. We’ve talked a bit about the broader trends and about some of the things we think are working for us here, so what is my research focused on, within that space?

What is it that finally “runs people off”. If they want to be here, have roots here, what is the “final straw” that pushes people out. I have three different concepts that I’m working on, but all of them aren’t looking at recruitment - but retention. What things have an impact on pushing people away from here, that finally make staying impossible.

From a rigorous “research” perspective, this is tougher than it sounds to quantify. Some people will tell you that it’s work, or “things have just gotten bad around here”, but being able to put numbers to that is tricky. My first topic is focused on the impact of drugs and crime, and whether higher overdose death rates and higher crime rates cause people to leave. My next topic is still in a bit of development, but looks at environmental impacts, and whether those impacts can be drawn out as a reason for people to leave. My final paper is looking at industry make up - and whether a certain type of industry either attracts or “un-attracts” folks to a place.

In theory, I’ll be working on these for the next ~year or so. Not an easy lift. But I think it may make sense to y’all why I care about these. If we can say something about “disincentives” to stay - it may be that directly addressing an issue, or simply “not doing something” negative may be what it takes to keep a certain set of people here, hopefully an easier thing to propose in a state with limited economic resources.

The working title of my research is “Running People Off” - today’s image is meant to be a bit of a play on words on that. Looking at Hills Creek - a type of “runoff” that I’m much more enthusiastic about. :)

Run. Off. (Hills Creek, Winter 2018) - West Virginia

We Stand Together, Rooted To This Place - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

Today’s note follows on to last week’s note (Strong Under Currents).  I noted last week that West Virginia has a talent retention problem, and I spoke a bit about what the broader national trends in that are – migration from rural to urban, the people that are mobile are younger and better educated, generally. 

Today I want to expand a bit on the things that are working in our favor – but may not solve the problem.

A notable thing that I’ve found in my research is evidence that folks from Appalachia in general, and West Virginia in particular are “sticky”.  What does that mean?  It means that people move less than you might expect, and move back when economic winds change.  People hang on here longer than “the data” would suggest, and many come back later in life.  Why?  Some of these things are measureable – cost of living is lower, for example.  Others are harder to quantify – maybe folks want to live closer to family and social support networks.  Maybe their overall “quality of life” is higher, in terms of not dealing with traffic or long commutes, or being able to have their preferred recreational opportunities (tough to hunt, fish, or hike in DC).  Sometimes, this “stickiness” isn’t a good thing – maybe property values in your town are so depressed, or the market so poor, that you can’t sell your house, even if you do want to move.  I’ve also seen evidence for this – that some of our retention is because we have high rates of property transfer from generation to generation.  If you own a house that has been in your family for generations, don’t owe a mortgage on it, and can’t sell it, your personal economics may not see a lot of upside in moving for a job, just to have to pay rent.

Taken as a whole, my theory is that we should focus on retention of people that are here, versus recruitment of people from outside.  My logic here is that we have a great deal of talent that we lose, and we are working against headwinds the whole time there – meanwhile, we know that a great many people will stay here “longer than it makes sense”.  For those people, what is the “last straw” that finally convinces them to move?  In many cases, once they move, they don’t come back until retirement age – when they are outside the most productive part of the workforce. 

This is the focus of my research – what are the things that are pushing people out?

I’ll dial into those ideas next time. 

We Stand Together, Rooted To This Place - West Virginia

Strong Under Currents - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

Today’s note is a bit of a departure - I’m going to talk a little bit about the research I’m working on, and what I think it means. By the time I’m done, I suspect folks will see how it might tie into my artistic work as well.

West Virginia has a talent retention problem - in our day-to-day lives, folks that grew up here or have lived here for a long time seem to know this even if they haven’t thought about it. We talk about needing jobs for our youth, there are “struggle to stay” series on the web (if you haven’t read those from WV Public Broadcasting, you should), we see the news about the state losing population.

From a researchers/scientists perspective, this is all part of a bigger set of trends in the US - trends of which I’m not sure regular folks are aware.

Across the country, migration is down - at its lowest levels in decades, and is becoming more resistant to the old drivers of jobs and income - in short, people aren’t moving, and the old things that would cause them to move aren’t working the way they used to.

The exceptions inside those trends? Young people and college educated people are the most mobile for work - and nationwide, the trend is for folks to move from rural places to urban places.

These represent strong under currents if you are trying to think about how to grow or help the folks in West Virginia. People don’t move generally, and the people that do move are 1. The people you want to keep, and 2. Moving to places that we generally don’t have in West Virginia. If you are a college grad, or someone with specialized skills, there are so many cities within 200 miles of here, it’s just that none of them are within the state. Baltimore, DC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Charlotte, Lexington, Cincinnatti, are all larger than the largest cities in WV and within 200 miles - and while bigger isn’t necessarily better, it does mean that there are going to be more opportunities, closer together, and still within a weekend drive “back home” in one of those towns.

So what to do? Well, I’ll try to get into some of my thinking there in upcoming posts.

Hope y’all have a great weekend,

Strong Under Currents - West Virginia

15,330 (A new personal best) - California

Good Friday Morning!

Today's note and image are a bit of reflection and thought - you see, my birthday is coming up, marking a new personal high score of 15,330 days on this lovely little planet.

Once upon a time, a little more than 10 years ago, I was lost.  I had been around the world, I had seen so many things, I generally liked my job, and I felt...  totally disconnected from the world, from my happiness, from my family, from my friends.  I was going through the motions, beating in time until "something else happened".  It felt like the stories I'd read - you start to work, you work that job for 30 years, you retire, you die.  I didn't feel like I was contributing.... anything.  That I had no direction.

One day, I had a work project take me to Sacramento, California, and on a whim I called a friend that lived out there and asked if I could make a trip up and visit, and maybe go see the redwoods.  She and her boyfriend rolled out the red carpet for me, they opened their home, lent me some camping gear, and then she served as my tour guide for 3 days while we drove across the Trinity Alps, out to the Lost Coast, and eventually up to Redwoods National Park.  Somewhere in there, I realized that even though I was massively under prepared for this trip (borrowed sleeping bag, borrowed tent, borrowed coat, borrowed hat), I was having the best time I could remember.  I was the happiest I could remember being since I was a carefree teen in the woods down on the Gauley River.  We camped on the beach - a very cold night, for the California coast, and I drank a beer and watched the sun set into the Pacific.  I woke in the middle of the night and found myself surrounded by running elk.

And then I saw the redwoods.

As I was driving back to the airport to catch my flight home, I resolved that I wasn't going to let my life just stream past me anymore.  I was going to do things I loved.  I was going to do work that I thought mattered, I was going to do SOMETHING. 

I can still point to those days, to that trip, as when my life changed.  (how often do you get to do that?)

And everything I've done since then has been aimed at those goals. I've learned to do a great many things since then.  I've taken on more than I could chew (or so it felt).  I've jumped into the deep end - several times now.

And for the most part, I've never been happier.

Happy birthday to me, and here's hoping that I get to keep setting high scores, and living the best life I can find for myself.  Since I wasted a lot of time, I've got to work even harder to get caught back up. :)

Hope y'all have a great weekend.

15,330 (A new personal best) - California

Cold Clear Mountain Water - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

In the sciences, we often are trying to make intelligent decisions for the betterment of the world based on “what we know at the time” - which is often incomplete, at best. I love working in the sciences, and virtually everyone I’ve ever met who works in these areas has the best of intentions in the work they do. In short, they all are working for “the betterment of mankind” in their minds, and put in the effort that a calling such as that requires.

The catch to this is that it’s often hard to tell where the ripples of your work may lead.

I wonder if Alexander Fleming had any ideas about antibiotic resistance when he invented penicillin, or was only thinking about lives saved (estimated at 200 million lives saved).

Paul Muller invented something in 1939 that won him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1948, and is estimated to have saved even more lives - 500 million.

That invention was DDT, and was banned worldwide in 2004.

I read this week where a representative for a natural gas company was quoted as saying “we don’t wake up in the morning thinking about what stream we’re going to pollute”. I believe him, generally, but at the same time that’s the intersection of science and business - so while it might not be that malicious, I do wonder if he stays awake at night wondering what the long term outcomes of his work might be.

I don’t know exactly where my work is going, or who it might influence, but to assume it will only do what you intend it to do is naive at best. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop, but at least I am thinking about it.

Hope y’all have a great weekend. As I worried might be the case, I was a bit too busy to put a note together for you wonderful folks on Tuesday. Today’s image from a lovely wintery walk along Chestnut Ridge in West Virginia.

Cold Clear Mountain Water - West Virginia

Lovely Dark and Deep - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

I’ve done this type of work long enough to understand that the photos I like may not be the photos “the public” likes.

In general, the public likes familiar things - a place they’ve visited, a sunset over a pretty field, puppies. ; - )

While I sometimes like those things too, those things don’t motivate me as an artist - even if those may be the more “commercial” images. From the very beginning, I’ve had a hard time shooting things because “I know they’ll sell” - which is why it was 5 years between what I would consider “post card” shots of Blackwater Falls (see Tuesday’s post below).

A long running (and more personally satisfying) project of mine is trying to capture what the woods “look like” in West Virginia. I’ve taken more images than I can count of light through the forest, trying to capture that dappled sun and green glowing look of our woods. I’ve taken more images than I can count of fall foliage and stands of evergreens and sun through the leafless winter forest.

I’ve never taken one that I would say “yup, that’s it”.

But sometimes I come close.

Today’s image of a snow coated stand of evergreens, and as soon as I saw this, it reminded me of winters past, of watching weather roll in, of thinking to myself “I should get home before it gets dark”.

If art is supposed to make you feel something, today’s image made me feel something.

And to me, that is why I do this.

Hope folks have a wonderful weekend,

Lovely Dark and Deep - West Virgini