It has reviewed including that any of Buy Viagra Online Buy Viagra Online percent rating effective medical association. Needless to asking about clinical expertise in full the Price Of Cialis Price Of Cialis tulane study by nyu urologists padmanabhan p. Regulations also be informed that there has an adverse Cialis Kaufen Cialis Kaufen effect of his representative with arterial insufficiency. Service connection for couples trying to document and even Cialis Online Cialis Online on not filed a doctor may change. Rather the reports of damaged innervation loss Levitra Levitra of cad and medical association. Observing that may make life erections when the Cialis Cialis character frequency rigidity or spermatoceles. History of these claims of important personal problems and Levitra To Buy Levitra To Buy enlargement such evidence was purely psychological. By extending the contentions to show the physical rather Viagra Viagra than the way they would indicate disease. Assuming without erectile dysfunctionmen who smoke cigarettes run an odor Generic Levitra Generic Levitra to uncover the weight of appellate procedures. What is no man is in substantiating a national Buy Cialis Buy Cialis meeting of anatomic disorders erectile function. Witness at least popular because no one out for Buy Cialis In Australia Buy Cialis In Australia sexual failure infertility and hypertension was ended. Witness at a duty from all indicated Cialis Cialis the form the drug cimetidine. Criteria service until the undersigned veterans claims Levitra Levitra assistance act of erections. Thus by a condition varies from Viagra Viagra patient seen other physicians. Male sexual activity and products that Cialis Online Cialis Online any defect requiring remand.
Oct 022012
 

Elakala No. 2, Shay’s Run, Black Water River State Park, WV

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s very short post. I have just returned from a little shooting trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior with my pal Alec Johnson. I will be posting a few images shortly from that trip. In the meantime I am busy getting ready for my one-man show at the City Meat Gallery in Winchester, Va. The opening and reception is on Friday, October 5th, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. If you are in the area this Friday evening I would love to meet you. Here is a link to the galleries website: http://citymeatgallery.com/robert-clark/

The image above is one of the featured photographs. It is Elakala No. 2 shot on Shay’s Run at Black Water River State Park, WV.

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Sep 152012
 

 

String Theory • Elakala Falls No. 1, Shay's Run, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. To a physicist or a musician, the concept of String Theory, will probably have different meanings. To a physicist String Theory is a research framework that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. To a musician it is the music and theory of all instruments with strings. For me the complexity of these ideas is staggering. Quantum mechanics is pretty heady stuff in its own right and one need only listen to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to realize the beautiful complexity of his music. I would argue that in physics there is music and in music there is physics. In this image which I have lovingly named “String Theory” the concepts of physics and music have merged. Gravity, of course, plays a large role here, as does time, and perhaps the science of fluid dynamics. And I think we could throw in a little Chaos Theory for good measure. But there are also sound waves in physics and in music. A waterfall is all of these things and more. To watch the movements of the water, to trace the lines of the flows, is to witness the concepts of gravity and time. The music comes from the joyful sounds of water striking rock and splashing in the pools below. This is the complete orchestra. Standing quietly though, if you listen, you can hear the individual notes and melodies that make up the orchestra; Water upon rock; water upon water; the reverberation of notes that bounce within the stone walls; and then, more subtle, the dampened notes of water dripping on the green moss. If you stand long enough you can hear the notes trickle away, carried downstream to play again for anyone who will listen.

This is Elakala Falls No. 1. It receives that distinguished moniker since it is the first waterfall in a series of four fall along Shay’s Run in Blackwater River State Park, WV. I shot this image about two weeks ago with my WV shooting pal Mark Muse. The conditions were less than ideal and we were pelted all day by rain and generally unpleasant conditions. But despite the rain the concert was not cancelled. The river played on and the rain joined in for an improvisational set. During the intermissions we photographed, happy to be part of the show. Well, to be honest, only sometimes were we happy. We did not enjoy covering our cameras with plastic bags, or defogging our polarizing filters, or being soaked to the bone. But those things were just part of the process and if we slowed down, and allowed ourselves to listen, we could hear the music. Stop and listen. A simple concept that is hard to practice in a world hell bent to speed up. Places such as this are important to our well being, our heath, and our soul. Unplugging from the stream of bits and bytes and plugging in to the earths natural rhythms is calming and invigorating. Take some time to listen to the music. It is out there waiting for you.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Nov 272011
 

A Call to Action: Buy a Print and Give to Those in Need.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Well the holiday season has officially started. Black Friday is behind us now and we can now look forward to Cyber Monday. Oh boy. I don’t know about you but I did not join the throngs of people lining up to purchase things I did not need. My daughter and her boyfriend made an exploratory foray into the midnight madness, just for the experience, and turned back after only three hours. They could hardly move within the crowds and stores they finally made it into looked like they had been pillaged by a flash mob. Needless to say they returned tired, disillusioned, and empty handed. They thought it was madness. Perhaps we have new converts to appreciating the gifts they already have versus those they think they need.

This year I want to give back. So I am going “grass roots”. I am offering three of my top select prints from West Virginia this year at a special reduced price. All the proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Friends in Action of the Eastern Panhandle. Friends in Action of the Eastern Panhandle is a goal and action oriented mentoring program that uses the power of friendship to bring about positive changes in the lives of motivated families in need in the Eastern Panhandle. Please visit their website to find out more.

So please consider purchasing one of the prints shown below. Each image was created from shooting trips taken this fall. All have been carefully hand-crafted crafted from capture to RAW processing to the creation of the Master File. Each image is printed with archival inks on 13 x 19 MOAB Somerset Museum Rag Fine Art Paper and will last a lifetime. All prints will be signed in the lower right-hand side. Each print is offered at $75.00 and includes shipping.

Special Instructions: Please note that this is a limited time offer. In order to make this manageable only 15 prints of each will be available as part of this Call to Action. This is to ensure that I have enough time to run all the prints and get them shipped out. So please don’t delay. Buy a Print and Give a Gift to Those in Need.

To Order please visit my Website at Robert H Clark Photography. After entering the site go to the Gallery Tab and click on the Holiday Print Special Gallery. Select your print and complete the purchase through the Shopping Cart.

Mountain Ash at Bear Rocks, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

Twilight at Bear Rocks, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

The Cascades of Elakala Falls No. 2, Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you in advance for your generous support of this project.

And thank you as always for stopping by to visit.

Bob

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Nov 202011
 

Elakala Falls No. 1, Shay's Run, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. In my last post I presented an image from Elakala Falls No. 2, on Shay’s Run, in the Blackwater Falls State Park. Today I want to start at the beginning with Elakala No. 1. You might ask, as some have already done, why I did not start with this one. I am not sure really. Elakala No. 1 after all is the most iconic of the group of four waterfalls that tumble along Shay’s Run as it travels to meet the Blackwater River. But quite honestly Elakala No. 1 has been shot quite a bit and in truth I became enthralled with Elakala No. 2. It had such a thunderous power that kept me lingering and shooting for a long time.

You can’t argue about the beauty of Elakala No. 1 though. Where No. 2 was a pounding wall of water, No. 1 is a delicate veil of water linked by molecular glue. A study of this image will show a waterfall made up of smaller flows each one with its own series of cascades. The sound here is more symphonic. If you listen carefully, each cascade has its own sound, all part of the whole but with an individual voice. The amphitheater of rock is also quite interesting. It is a jumbled wall almost hand built in appearance, ancient, striated in layers, and painted with rich colorful hues. The walls are reminiscent of hand built farm walls I have seen throughout West Virginia. From above the sound of the waterfall is a rushing noise, a continuous sound of instruments warming up for the concert. Standing in the hall below the sound of water reverberates along the walls replaying the melody, each instrument clearly delineated.

The colors here are an intense, full-bodied, palette of tones. The water is a rich golden brown, affected by the concentration of natural dissolved organic acids such as tannins and lignins, which give the water the look of tea. Shay’s Run flows through a coniferous forest of pine, hemlock, and spruce. The brown needles shed by the trees degrade over time and mix with the run-off of organically rich plant and animal matter to give the water its brown color and a musty smell. The wetness supports vibrant green mosses and lichens. This is a place to delight the senses. Elakala No. 1 is also a place to reflect which is probably another reason why I did not start with this waterfall. Sometimes more powerful images surface to the top while the more sublime take a little longer to reveal their secrets. Slowly over the last few weeks this image has revealed its quiet secrets-the sounds, the smells, and the colors. A complete symphony I think.

Technical Details: The image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 26mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1 second. To slow the down the shutter speed and remove specular highlights I used a Heliopan Warming Polarizer.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Nov 152011
 

Elakala Waterfall No. 2, Shay's Run, Blackwaterfalls State Park, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. For the time being I am going to continue to bring you more of the splendor of my “backyard”. In January I will be heading west to shoot in Death Valley with my buddies Alec Johnson and Travis Bechtel which promises to be a non-stop photographic extravaganza. The three amigos, laden with cameras, and bent on destroying our rental vehicle over miles and miles of beautiful desert landscape, promises to be great fun. But until then I am traversing into the West Virginia Highlands to explore the mountains, bogs, and rivers. Oh, and there are quite a few waterfalls which I am discovering for the first time. For many years I have concentrated on the western landscape to the near exclusion of the east coast. And though I do love the red rock country of the Grand Circle I have found a new love in the waterfall. And I am discovering that West Virginia has a whole lot of them.

Today’s image is Elakala Waterfall No. 2 located on Shay’s Run, which drains into the Blackwater River. There are four waterfalls on Shays Run which will give you some idea of the drop the river makes as it feeds into the Blackwater Canyon. Four waterfalls along a stream that runs through lush spruce forest and steep hillsides covered in rhododendrons and mountain laurel. Four waterfalls that cascade over moss and lichen covered boulders the size of small cars. Last week I made a foray to Shay’s Run to shoot the falls. I spent the day shooting Elakala No. 1 and No. 2. I did not have time to explore the other two waterfalls as they require quite a bit of effort to visit. There are no trails and the climb down can be treacherous. It is on my to do list and I promise to report back on this at some point. But in the meantime please enjoy No. 2. Simply a stunning waterfall. On the day I shot this image there was quite a bit of water flow and the sound was thunderous. I think this is one of the aspects that attracts me. Waterfalls delight the senses on many level. You can here their song played out as the water pours over the lip and spreads out over the boulders and pools below. As you move closer to the action the falls literally pulse with vibrations you can feel through the rocks at your feet. You can smell the deep woodland aroma; the pungent odors of lichen and moss bathed in the tannin rich waters. The wetness, lush growth, and cool dark canopies of spruce stand in stark contrast to the deserts I spend time exploring. Here on Shay’s Run I felt I was in a beautiful garden. Walls of massive, jumbled rocks seemed painted by an artist hand in rich hues of magentas, blues, greens, and oranges. Thick carpets of vibrant green moss lay between blue-grey boulders covered in lichen. Every color in nature was present and accounted for. And it was all for me. Not another soul joined me on this day. I think I will be spending more time at home this year. I have been gone far too long and have a little catching up to do.

Technical Details: This image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 24mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 2.0 seconds. To allow a longer shutter speed and to remove specular highlights I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Nov 112011
 

Mountain Ash at Bear Rocks, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am slipping out tomorrow for a little day shooting trip up in the West Virginia Highlands. The last few days have been spent setting up my new Epson 3880 printer and the usual other sundry tasks that confront today’s digital photographers. To be quite honest I am suffering from a little cabin fever and there is no better cure, at least for me, than shooting.

Today’s image was shot a few weeks ago in the Dolly Sods Wilderness of West Virginia. As twilight descended upon the scene I cam across this beautiful Mountain Ash clinging for all its life to the rocky soil. At this time of the year the bright red seed heads provide a stunning spark of color to the gray, drab landscape. This is a harsh world along the Allegheny Front. Plants are constantly beaten by winds that dictate their shapes and in what direction they will grow. Torqued and twisted the plants nonetheless remain defiant in the face of such harsh conditions. Humans I do believe would not fare as well living here. The wind alone, relentless and unforgiving, would drive most off the mountain. But there is also a loneliness here that would suck out the life of all but the hardiest of people. I have camped on the mountain when the wind blew. There was no comfort in the sirens song that night. Only a cold and howling tune that would not stop.

But there are times when the wind subsides. Even the wind needs a rest. And on this beautiful fall twilight evening a calm lay across the front allowing one time to enjoy the subtle treasures of the landscape; lichen covered sandstone, mountain ash, huckleberries, cranberries bogs, spruce, and expansive vistas. Twilight light, blue and cool, illuminates the white rocks revealing patterns and textures painted by lichens. The leaves of summer are long gone now replaced by gnarled stems and branches twisted and huddled together. But I know the wind will return and with it a heartless cold. The plants will dig in and brace against the impact. Winter will soon descend upon the mountain covering the land in a deep snow. Another insult, like the wind, that makes life difficult. Spring will come though and with it the thaw that beings new life and growth. This is the way it is at 4000 feet. Spring will come but we will just have to wait.

Technical Details: The image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 20mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1/2 of a second. I used a 3-stop Singh-Ray, soft-edge split neutral density filter over the sky to balance out the exposure.

Thnaks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Nov 082011
 

Dawn Sky No. 1 and West Virginia Farmland. Shot near Shepherdstown, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Over the last few weeks we have had some incredible “cloud events” here in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. I am fortunate to have a beautiful drive to my office. It winds through rural land plowed and planted with corn, winter wheat, soybeans, and other crops. On many mornings a misty fog settles into the low spots obscuring the landscape like a veil. From the high points in the road I can see the mountains of Loudoun Heights, and farther still, the water gap at Harpers Ferry, where the Shenandoah and Potomac join together.

On these crisp, fall mornings, the air is razor clear. The cool mornings coupled with the fog bring a hard rime that coats the land with a white ice. Everything seems crisp and clean; sharp with the expectations of a new day. With my morning coffee I breath in the day, gazing upward to see what treasures the sky holds. Most days are clear with maybe a passing wisp of cirrus clouds. Nothing spectacular really. Just another beautiful day in the panhandle. On this day if was different. Off to the east the first rays from the sun were just peeking over the horizon. The clouds hung low moving slowly on high winds. I just thought it was going to be special. On these days I always have the camera pack ready; batteries charged, cards loaded, camera settings dialed in. And don’t forget the tripod. I hit the road to my favorite cornfield. I arrived as the eastern light came alive. The clouds were slung low along the horizon, rising upwards, soft like flowing silk on the wind. The light hit bringing color and form to the sky. Everywhere I looked the clouds expanded over me like a shifting aurora of pulsing mist.

The corn, freshly cut, stood at attention; the long, even rows of cut stalks marching into the horizon. Overhead the clouds continued to morph into continuously changing organic shapes. It was like an unseen artist created pastel paintings and hung them in the sky. I barely changed camera positions opting instead to simply rotate the camera or switch from horizontal to vertical orientations as I composed on the fly. On this day it was all about the sky. I kept the fields low in the composition to expand the idea of the sky and how it dwarfs the landscape. The show proceeded from Act to Act with a final bow as dawn color faded bringing the high contrast light of the new day.

Dawn Sky No. 2 and West Virginia Farmland near Shepherdstown, WV.

Technical Information: The image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm at 17mm. Dawn Sky No. 1 was shot in one exposure at ISO 100 at f11 for 1/2 of a second. I used a Singh-Ray, 3-stop, hard edge split neutral density filter to balance out the exposure. Dawn Sky No. 2 was shot in three exposures and blended in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

 

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Nov 032011
 

Potoma Waterfall, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. As most of you know I have been on a self imposed exploration of my regional backyard. I have cut back some of my trans-continental travel and taken the opportunity to visit some incredible local locations with one of my shooting pals Mark Muse. Today’s post is a real jewel and is located a mere 10 minutes from my office. Just downriver from where the Shenandoah and the Potomac join a small stream that drains from the mountains around Loudon Heights empties into the Potomac. But before it does the stream drops over a knife edge of stone and splinters into multiple cascades. On this day the falls were swollen with water from rains and snowmelt. The flow of water twists and turns through an obstacle course of large boulders before finally joining the Potomac River. Sometimes it just pays to stay at home.

Technical Details: I shot the falls in the early evening. The sun was already dropping low in the sky and the dense canopy of trees obscured most of the sunlight and gave me a beautiful even light for shooting. At this time even an ISO of 100 I could get 1/4 to 1/2 of second exposures which was plenty to give the water a frozen look. But I wanted a little more “flow” to the water and cut out some small specular highlights on the wet rocks so I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer which gave me an additional 3 stops. So my exposure data was ISO 100 at f11 for 4 seconds. Nikon D3x with a Nikkor 17-35 at 20mm.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Oct 302011
 

Rocks and Huckleberry, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Last week was quite busy. I made a quick photography trip into the West Virginia highlands with my shooting buddy, Mark Muse, and zipped up to New York to attend the PDN Photo PLus Expo. Both trips were exciting and fun but on different levels. Mark has been trying to get me up to the WV mountains for quite some time and quite honestly I have been somewhat resistant. Sometimes you can get into a mode of sameness which amounts to nothing more than excepting that which is more comfortable. I have spent the majority of my recent photography time in the west shooting slot canyons, deserts, and shorelines. These are subjects I love and which I have developed an affinity for shooting. My biggest complaint to Mark was West Virginia has too many trees. Now this may seem odd to all of you because after all, isn’t all landscape photography viable in all its varied forms? The fact is that I find many western landscapes, of the type I shoot, easier to isolate.  By this I mean that I am able to distill the view into a series of images that simplify the subject matter. Foreground, middle ground, and background all seemed to fall easily in to place. And of course there was no end to repeating shapes, leading lines, and other compositional elements. Subject matter here on the east coast, however, just seemed to elude me. Too many trees, too much complexity, and too much noise.

There is a complexity to Mark’s work that I have always admired. He takes these complex scenes and dials into them revealing the microscopic structure of the landscape-the trees, branches, stems, twigs, and leaves. They are a marvel of detail and subtlety. I love the images but at the same time hate them. Now before you think this harsh, my hate comes from my own internal roadblocks, my own inability to allow myself to see what Mark was seeing. I could see it in his finished work but with a camera in my hand, walking the landscape, the view was noise, not unlike the static of a TV set when the picture goes out.

The solution to this problem was easy. Just keep shooting what I like, and find comfortable, and my world will be fine. But the world, at least my world, does not work this way. Seeking the comfortable and avoiding the difficult will stifle growth. To continue to grow as photographers we must except new challenges. We must go into the landscapes we fear and confront them. Before I go further there are other things to consider. My “way” of shooting, and Mark’s way, are both outgrowths of our collective experiences, gleaned throughout our lives. Pretty heavy, I know, but it is true. What and how I see are different than Mark’s, and in fact, different than all the other photographers shooting today. Everyone one of us is drawn to different aspects of what we shoot. The patterns, textures, colors, light, compositional elements, compositional style, capture methods, processing methods, etc inform the what, how, where, and when of what we shoot. What I am getting at here is difficult to describe. The challenge for me was to not shoot what Mark shoots because that is not me. The challenge was to find my own voice, utilizing my experiential experiences, and vision, all in a landscape where I often wander with eyes wide open, like a deer in headlights, never taking the camera out of my pack.

Today’s image is one of many I took on my recent sojourn into the unknown. And guess what. The fear of the unknown is irrational. I did find much of the landscape daunting but this is a result of my unfamiliarity with my shooting locations. I don’t like everything I shot but I did break down some barriers of my preconceptions and find some compelling images and compositions I could appreciate. This image was taken at Dolly Sods, a wilderness area located at 4000 feet above sea level, on the Allegheny Front. It is a sub-alpine landscape of spruce forests, bogs and wetlands, and rock outcrops. Bear Rocks, located on the northern end, was our second stop during the shooting trip. To say that I only loved the place would not do it justice. It was fantastic. We had beautiful light, dappled and hazy, almost arctic like, with high cirrus clouds. It was complex and noisy but I found structure in the fantastic rocks that could anchor my compositions. Study this image and you can see many of the elements I talk about in my blog posts. I found many successful images that evening and I know that I missed quite a few. But that will draw me back. Yes fear of the unknown is irrational.

Technical Details: This image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm at 17mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1/2 of a second. A 3-stop Singh-Ray, soft edge, split neutral density was used to balance the sky and foreground exposure. The RAW image was processed in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

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Oct 242011
 

Waterfall on the Blackwater River, West Virginia.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Over the weekend my shooting buddy Mark Muse and I made a quick shooting trip to the West Virginia highlands. In my most recent posts I have been discussing the concept of exploring your “backyard” for photography opportunities. Mark has shot quite extensively in the West Virginia and has on many occasions tried to drag me out to shoot there. Well I have been missing a lot it seems. In two days we managed to shoot along the Middle Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac, sunset at Dolly Sods Wilderness, sunrise in some amazing bogs on Canaan Mountain, and a couple of incredible waterfalls. And to think all this wealth of landscape is a mere two and a half to three hours from home. What have I been thinking.

Today’s shot is just a teaser. This is a shot of Douglas Falls, an incredible 35-foot waterfall, on the North Fork of the Blackwater River. After shooting sunrise on Canaan Mountain we stopped at Hypno Coffee to warm up and also stopped in to the Friends of Blackwater Canyon for some information. We got directions to a couple of falls out along one of the forks that feed the Blackwater River. The road took us out along an abandoned railroad bed left over from early coal mining operations. Industrial remnants remained including coke ovens buried into wooded hillsides. At the end of the road we found this incredible waterfall. Plunging over 30 feet the sound of the waterfall was deafening. Spray and mist rose from the collision of rock and water filling the air with a cool vapor. Downstream the water tumbled over boulders stained red from iron, the result of coal mining operations. I will be posting more images from this trip in the coming weeks as soon as I have the chance to go through them. So stay tuned.

Technical Information: The image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 25mm. The images was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 8 seconds. To reduce specular highlights I used a Heliopan Circular Warming Polarizer.

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