During the weekend ten club
members, plus a number of guests, enjoyed a 3 day field trip to the mountains
of North Carolina.
Friday afternoon we photographed the opening event of the Folkmoot
International Dance Festival, the Parade of Nations held in downtown Waynesville, NC.
Dancers and musicians from Canada,
Slovakia, Martinique,
Japan, Poland, France,
Mexico, Thailand and the US participated in this year's
festival, which has included groups from over 100 countries since the event
began, thirty years ago. According to long-time APS member Roy Gordon, "It
was a great weekend. The dance performances on the Main Street were amazing, many colorful
costumes and enthusiastic performers from several countries. Also, I really
enjoyed the dinners and breakfasts with fellow club members." The get-together’s in the evening with discussions about
the happenings of the day included the images of the day showing up on
computers and camera viewers, some with pride and others with sorrow when the
right moment was missed.
On Friday, after the parade,
we carpooled up Highway 215 along the West Fork of the Pigeon River,
shooting the river, waterfalls and scenics along the way. We were rained on at Arch Falls
and continuing up Hwy. 215 to the gap at the mountain crest, we took the Blue Ridge Parkway West,
toward Richland Balsam and Balsam Gap. The constantly changing weather blessed
us with wonderful scenes from several parkway overlooks. It will be interesting
to see the variety of photographic interpretations from those stopping points.
Saturday morning we photographed
the Folkmoot Street Festival, in downtown Waynesville. This featured
alternating performances by all the dance groups, and a plethora of arts and crafts
vendors and food booths. The dancers, musicians, purveyors and spectators
provided a continuously swirling array people and situations to shoot.
That same afternoon we
carpooled to Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, a secluded and beautiful valley vacated
when the Park was designated. Driving in, it rained very, very, very,... hard (the
bottom fell out of the bucket as the mountaineers say), but this cooled things
off, encouraging the elk, a native species reintroduced to the park during the
early 2000's, to come out into the meadows early to feed. Driving into the
valley we saw and photograph many females, and a number of their young hiding
in the tall grass.
A big part of the charm of
Cataloochee are the many restored structures abandoned when the Park was
formed. These include the Palmer House, Chapel, school and barn. All these are
close to Cataloochee Creek and its tributaries, and to many large grassy fields
throughout the valley's floodplain. Our late afternoon shooting concentrated on
the house, barn and creek. One can only get a small flavor of Cataloochee
during a short afternoon, so its' good to know that a number of Park trails can
be easily accessed from the valley bottom, and that a Park Service campground nestles
next to Cataloochee Creek if one decides to stay for a while.
Finally, nature definitely
saved the best for last. On the drive out of the Park, we were treated to
sighting two large, healthy male elk; one a "ten-point" buck feeding near
a tree line, and another, literally huge buck with “15 points” along the road back
to the top of the mountain. He was rightfully dubbed, "The Monster Elk” by
our group. He must have enjoyed himself because he gave us plenty of time to
take photographs and modeled for us in several poses. Al had the hardest time
separating himself from his camera and the Elk, the constant clicks of his
camera are still ringing in my ears.
I feel sorry for the judge
that must select the best shots of the Elk in the upcoming competitions.
Now comes the hard part,
selecting the best shots of the festival for competition and presentations in
the photo club. Some of us took over 600 images within the 3 days and I expect
to see many of them entered in competitions, the Salon and the special
“Assignment Zone” competition.
Jim Harrison,
APS President
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