SWINGING ON BY…MY FAVORITE PHOTOS IN SWING STATES
November 5th is the day a lot of you are ready for and for some, a lot of you are fearing. As many watch what is going on in the swing states of North Carolina, Michigan, and Nevada, here is some of my favorite photos over the years I have taken in swing states from this current election cycle.
NEVADA - VALLEY OF FIRE
Shot - January 2022 - Sitting an hour north of Las Vegas is the Valley of Fire State Park, probably one of my favorite state parks in the United States. This was taken at sunset, the car taillight streaks came to me by accident as originally I was going to try to edit them out and make the photo just the road, however cars kept coming by and stopping in my shot. Then it occurred to me to shoot it then layer it when I got to processing the photos. The end result is what you see here as it took me 7 tries for a car to keep going without stopping. This still remains one of my all time favorite photos.
MICHIGAN - ISLE ROYALE
Shot - August 2024 - This was the last park of the Lower 48 National Parks I had yet to visit, I have explained this photo before (Go on either the Summertime in Michigan - 2024 or the Isle Royale pages to see more) but this still remains one of my favorite photos I took that entire trip to Isle Royale as I had wanted a fog shot on Isle Royale since I did not have many at that time in the northern climates but I got one on the dock getting ready to leave the island.
PENNSYLVANIA - RICKETTS GLEN
Shot - October 2021 - Another one of my all time favorites and the fact I did this with low quality equipment, this is the photo that really made me feel like my years of learning and practicing were starting to pay off. A four hour drive from me down to central Pennsylvania, this was actually a hot day for us when I went and I was sweating like crazy when I saw all these waterfalls, however with the way the lighting hit deep in the trees, the way the leaves looked, this made it feel like this was the best fall photo I have taken and it still is one of my favorites to this day.
GEORGIA - TYBEE ISLAND
Shot - May 2021 - At the waters edge on the Atlantic near Savannah is Tybee Island, a costal barrier island where many in Georgia and beyond vacation. This muggy morning brought me there to see the sunrise in the Peach state and I saw some peachy looking skies. As you see the sun was already up but the haze made the sun blocked behind the wall of clouds in the distance. Well worth the wake up for this sunrise.
NORTH CAROLINA - CLINGMANS DOME…OR KUWAHI
Shot - July 2023 - The highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies on the North Carolina and Tennessee border. Since the photo was shot just east of the border, looking southeast, this is a North Carolina photo by my definition. Kuwahi, or at the time, Clingmans Dome has an observatory deck where you can see the Smokies at the top of the mountain as I was going to shoot the last rays of light up there, problem was the fog rolled in and I couldn’t see so I went back to the car. That is when along the way near the parking lot on the trail, I caught this photo with the clouds rolling by with the blue mountains. Not exactly the most stunning photo but I would say but I am in love with this blue lighting.
ARIZONA - GRAND CANYON THUNDER
Shot - September 2023 - Shot on the last day of the month with uncertainty at the time with a looming government shutdown, I managed to get this photo of what was a bright and sunny day at the Grand Canyon, quickly turning windy and stormy. As lightning was coming in the distance, I shot this photo at a ledge with a lone shrub growing off the side of the canyon. It took a while to get this photo the way I wanted it to look like but I finally got it the way I wanted it to. As it turned out, it hailed later that night and the government passed a funding bill to keep the government parks open including the NPS.
WISCONSIN - INTERSTATE FALLS
Shot - June 2021 - On the border with Michigan and Wisconsin lies the beautiful waterfall that brings the Montreal River to Lake Superior. With the sun shining on the Michigan side and the darkness on the Wisconsin side, I like the contrasting of light between the two sides that make this photo, like a Ying and Yang photo that is needed to contrast itself. So far this is the last time I had visited Wisconsin, I would love to go back and spend a few days in the Dairyland State to see some more waterfalls.
