Trip Planning and the Seasons
Edition VIII
Only a couple of weeks have past since my last backpacking trip. Its summertime in the South and I sit in a folding chair on my back porch as the storm fades into the evening. The smell of wet is pervasive. Tapping of water drops from the gutter describe the cyclical eternal truths of life in Morse Code. Thunder still rolls in the distance, but now the birds sing again and the world is verdant.
Mountains still occupy my mind and I’m planning routes for my next trip into the Green World. And so, this is a good time to describe how my planning process and destination choices have come to evolve around the seasons and what Nature has to offer during the different phases of the year.
Early on the goal was just to get outside more. I was fascinated by what the camera could do and I photographed in simple appreciation of the landscape that was before me at the time of year I happened to witness it. This has developed into a conscious choice of subject and destination to photograph based on the season.
This focus began at probably the most obvious starting point, fall leaf season. The Appalachian Mountains in Autumn ignite in yellows and reds that warm the soul against the dropping temperatures. Peak colors can be brief and the timing varies depending on location, elevation, and the year’s weather. Very quickly, this became the most precious time of year for me and I prioritized finding free time for backpacking in the mountains. The balance was to find time that coincided with leaf color, yet somehow avoided the crowds of day trippers on the weekends.
Last year I discovered another Autumn pinnacle when I was able to book a last minute vacancy at a campsite in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to watch the elk herd that lives there. I have seen elk before, but never quite this close and never before in the fall. Hearing the bull elk as he tilted his colossal antlers back to project his clarion call to the hills was like listening to an ancestral language that I intuitively understood. It was a primal call to awakening like none other. I now hope to make these elk an annual subject of my fall photography.
Fall colors faded into Brown Season and the onset of winter felt forlorn. However, this time of year seems inclined to particularly vivid sunsets. Temperatures began to challenge the limits of my cold weather gear, so overnight backpacking trips in the mountains became difficult. I tested myself in the early onset of darkness and focused on apps to help predict the quality of the coming sunsets. Perhaps in the future this will be a good time for a trip south to the coast for camping by the ocean without the heat or insects.
Winter has also become Waterfall Season. A benefit to bare, leafless trees is a less obstructed view of the falls. Often times they are much better photographed on overcast or even rainy days, avoiding harsh shadows across the water. These types of days seem plentiful this time of year.
This spring I was intent on photographing Catawba Rhododendrons. These blooms occur for a brief time at elevation in the Appalachians. I became aware of them by seeing other photographers’ striking pictures focusing on the vivid blooms with receding mountains in the background. For two years I wanted to backpack in the mountains to see these blooms, but was unable to work it into my schedule. This year I made the flowers a priority. Not knowing specifics of when or where to go, I did my best to research but still fell back to trial and error. My first attempt in May was much too early. With a later second attempt I was able to witness them in the Shining Rock Wilderness of North Carolina.
It is now the summer and I am thinking of the next adventure, a visit to the Cohutta Wilderness of North Georgia. Either the Conasauga River Trail or the Jacks River Trail would be my top choices for the hike. I deliberately chose this trip as a summer experience because each of these trails includes multiple river crossings and is a guarantee to get wet. I look forward to lush forests and pristine waters with moss covered boulders amidst the challenges of slipping hazards and relentless insects!
Hopefully something in this edition has been helpful in planning your own adventures. Despite thinking of specific subjects of photography during the different seasons, I continue to take my camera with me as I go along in the world. There is great value in learning to focus on specific familiar places and watching them change throughout the year. The world is fascinating, when you pay attention!
Thanks for taking time to discuss your photographic focus as you go through the seasons. Fascinating!
Thank you for sharing your experiences, I love your field notes, like sharing part of your life. It is so rich, full of color and detail and joy! Inspiring!!!!