View allAll Photos Tagged TableRock
The mountain laurel was blooming cotton candy pink at Caesars Head, SC last week. It almost felt like we were above the clouds on this wonderful sunny day. You can see Table Rock in the distance from this viewpoint.
Happy Monday!
© 2006 Jeff Zimmerman. All rights reserved.
Table Rock in South Carolina taken from Caesar's Head State Park
Sunburst clouds reflecting in Pinnacle Lake with view of Pinnacle Mountain in the Upstate of South Carolina.
Located in Table Rock State Park and contained within the Blue Ridge Mountains, Pinnacle Mountain is the tallest mountain in the state of South Carolina at 3,415ft.
This was an especially beautiful evening as we had just had our first snowfall of the year, giving the distant mountain peaks a brush of white.
Moments before I came upon this scene while walking along the lake bed, I Blue Heron zoomed across the water.
There really isn't much that can compare to the feeling of being immersed within the raw beauty of nature. Just total tranquility of the soul.
© 2019 Johan Hakansson Photography, All Rights Reserved.
*Images May Not Be Used For Any Purpose Without Prior Consent*
Often, when I'm in the region of Grandfather Mountain for photography, I stay at the Parkview Lodge in the little community of Linville Falls, North Carolina, owned by friends David and Cindy Peters. Last Sunday night, Cindy invited me along with some investigators, a parapsychologist, and others to Wiseman's View at Linville Gorge to observe the Brown Mountain Lights... I couldn't pass on that opportunity. The Brown Mountain Lights are a phenomenon that has been observed in this area for centuries... just not by me.
To be honest, I didn't expect to see anything other than what I knew was already there... silhouettes of the surrounding mountains, bright stars in a dark sky, the Moon, planes and a flyover by the ISS. Those who were not investigators became evident as the night wore on... for many of them, everything became "Brown Mountain Lights", including high-flying airplanes, stars that they thought were moving as clouds passed nearby, and perhaps moonlight dancing across the fog in the gorge. As is the case of many "mysterious" encounters, well-meaning folks are merely fighting their fears, but fear often doesn't fight fair. Then there was a person or two present who seemed to enjoy stoking the fires of those fears... over the years, I've found that anyone that prefaces their next statement with "This is the God's-honest truth" invariably means the next words out of their mouths are just so much guano... makes you wonder at what point they were not telling the truth.
Truth is defined as whatever conforms to reality... the truth for me is that I did see and photograph those lights that night and also the next night when I ventured out there by myself. They occur in places where you wouldn't expect to see light, such as on cliff sides and above trees. I carry a small, yet extremely brilliant Fenix PD32 UE tactical flashlight rated at 740 lumens for walking these trails at night... for as bright as it is, it doesn't approach anything close to the brightness I observed from the lights from over a mile away. Despite the advancement of science, the lights remain a mystery and their source unidentified... but there is an answer to everything in nature. "Unidentified" merely means that it hasn't been identified... yet. A geologist pointed out that there is much quartz in the exposed rock of these mountains, capable of piezoelectric effect... but in my own experience, there is a problem with that association with the Brown Mountain Lights.
Nearly everything in nature is capable of taking on an electromagnetic charge, even you... just drag your feet across a carpet and touch somebody else when the humidity is low, and they will let you know of their displeasure at your ability to take on a charge. There's a lot of voltage to that little spark, but not very much amperage... otherwise you may have electrocuted your friend. Quartz has a stable crystalline structure, so stable, in fact, that it is capable of given invariable clock frequencies when specific voltage is applied (that's why quartz watches are so accurate). When that voltage stops, the resonant energy goes with it, and the quartz becomes inert. The piezoelectric effect of quartz requires a mechanical process to discharge a spark, and only a spark, as the crystalline structure is displaced. Expansion and contraction of the solid material around the quartz in these mountains may give off enough mechanical displacement to cause a spark, but that same quartz would seem quite incapable of producing the kind of energy that would generate the lights.
I experienced them as blinking into existence, becoming increasingly brighter. They were obviously as bright behind them from my perspective as they were from the front, as they lit up an area around them. They changed colors and had an ionizing effect around them, much like videos of ball lightning I'd seen before... and they moved. Back in the days of early electronics, capacitors (devices made to charge and then discharge voltage at specific rates) were made by stacking mica dielectric and metal plates. Both of these materials exist in these mountains in great quantities. There likely may be big naturally occurring "capacitors" in these mountains capable of extremely high discharge... enough to cause the strange ball lightning-like qualities that seem prevalent with the lights. The mystery remains a mystery (what's observed is not duplicatable in a lab), but I'm throwing my theory out there, having seen them for myself.
I was told by the others who had seen them before, that on a scale of 1-10, that I probably experienced a 4, which was deemed remarkable for a first time observation. While that's quite nice, I'm opting for a 10 sometime in the future... and when I do, I'll have this under my belt as practice for that shot. This image was taken at an ISO of 3200, which can be a bit noisy, but it allowed for exposures of around 5-seconds or better on this moonlit night. It was shot 1.25 miles from the monolith of Table Rock across from Wiseman's View. While the lights aren't huge from this perspective (I've marked them with a note on the image... just scroll over it), they are well defined, quite brilliant, and in different colors. I also took other images from 100 ISO with 3-minute shutter durations... they make the mountain appear as more in daylight, but they also give evidence of lights all over the mountain. Watch the video here that gives a good presentation of what you could see, some of the science considered in the investigation, as well as a nice shot of David and Cindy's place: www.brownmountainlights.com/ Micah Hanks (in the video) was present with us that Sunday.
Over the years, I've come to detest the Christmas song "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer"... that one line, though, "as for me and Grandpa, we believe!"... I can relate.
May, 2011
1 sec
f/18.0
13 mm
ISO 100
Circular polarizer
Graduated ND filter
Single exposure
This photograph and the accompanying horizontal composition were taken on Hawksbill Mountain, a distinctive peak overlooking Linville Gorge in Pisgah National Forest. It's a truly remarkable place, and I was fortunate to get there before the last of the Carolina rhododendron bloom (an early blooming variety distinct from those famously on Roan Mountain). It's a fantastic location, with all kinds of possibilities for landscape photography.
I was inspired to check out Hawksbill after seeing some wonderful sunset images from Dale King, R. Keith Clontz, and Daniel Burleson. The three of them were also nice enough to help me with some logistical issues prior to my departure, and I am certainly grateful for their generous advice. If you follow the links above to their photostreams, you'll be treated to a number of lovely images from western North Carolina.
Thank you for visiting. Please no glitzy invites or awards. I would prefer your thoughtful comments and criticisms.
---
Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2011. Please do not reproduce any of my photographs without my permission.
A late day view of Tablerock Mountain from Wiseman's View after several inches of snow fell in the Linville Gorge area. (The drive to this location in snow requires 4 wheel drive. )
Wiseman's View, Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. This is probably the easiest accessed spot in the Linville Gorge, and actually has some really great views of the gorge. After getting off from working the night shift I could see that the sky was probably going to light up nice at sunrise so I decided to head somewhere. There aren't too many spots that I can make it to for sunrise after working but this happens to be one of them.
Due to the extreme dynamic range in this image I used 5 bracketed exposures, blended manually using luminosity masks in Photoshop CS6.
Over the next few months, I'll be testing some images for a project about the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) and surrounding areas. Each image is to present the iconic mountain landscape realistically, in such a way that any visitor to the BRP would recognize it. The idea behind these photos is to depict the depth and mood of each place as though you're actually there. Most of the images will be from the perspective of the easily accessed views that visitors can experience on and around the BRP. While I cannot let much out of the bag yet concerning the overall project, there is method to my madness here... and I would appreciate your honest opinion of each image, good, bad, or indifferent.
About this image
This image was taken from Wiseman's View of Linville Gorge in North Carolina. Across from here is Jonas Ridge, with two very recognizable prominences that can be seen for miles along the Blue Ridge Parkway skyline: Hawksbill and Table Rock. Hawksbill is obscured from this side a little, though you can still make out the shape. The vantage point for this shot is an excellent one, though somewhat precarious... a sidestep here could send you bounding some 1400 feet below to the Linville River. That could hurt. A lot.
The Linville River was named in honor of two explorers who were scalped by the Cherokee here in 1766. The gorge takes its name from the river that runs through it. If those explorers had seen the gorge from this point, they may have left well enough alone. This gorge is so rugged and steep that any chance for ongoing human habitation is quite impractical... it is not for no reason that this place has been designated a wilderness area.
The forests throughout the mountains of North Carolina are a combination of both northern and southern forests... there are more different kinds of flora in this region than just about anywhere in the world. That's the reason for the wide palette of autumn colors in this image.
There are relatively moderate hikes to both Hawksbill and Table Rock... I plan to be there in May to take advantage of the rare Carolina rhododendron that will be in bloom then... see you there!
This is a multi-shot panorama stitched in CS6 (which is being offered as beta software at the moment... you may want to give it a try). I had to wait the wind out for this one to get my red oak canopy to settle down... I think it was worth the wait.
central point / jackson county / oregon
I can't determine if that is Upper Table Rock or Lower Table Rock in the background.
It's easy to get big landscape vistas out west... here in North Carolina you have to work for it. I've wanted to get a sweeping panorama of Linville Gorge for some time... this one fits the bill for "sweeping" while keeping the perspective in check through the use of a 24mm tilt/shift lens. The image is an amalgam of 7 vertical images seamlessly stitched in Photoshop ACW... yet, it's still difficult to convey the immensity and wilderness that is Linville.
The photos were taken from a leveled tripod off the lower overlook at Wiseman's View, which is likely as good place as any for such a shot of the gorge. Another favorite destination, Hawksbill Mountain, is seen directly across from here. Imposing Table Rock, another well-known denizen of the gorge, is seen just to the right of Hawksbill... can you perhaps see how they got their names? Off in the distance between the two is the much lower stretch of Brown Mountain, famous for the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights, though the phenomenon is just as prevalent, if not more so, right here. Linville River divides the gorge some 1,400 feet (427 meters) below.
Night is drawing fast here, though the Sun seems to be getting in the last word. It bathes the rounded boundary of the approaching high storm in colorful light... and leaves enough light for some detail of the gorge. It's not quite peak of autumn where I'm standing here, though the scarlet of the black oaks and the brilliant red of the sumac would have you believe otherwise. Color is showing itself, though only on the high peaks, as is normal for the Blue Ridge... once it reaches peak color, it moves down at about 100 feet per day. Also as is normal for this region is that the wind is notorious for stripping the colorful leaves often before they reach peak season.
The gorge is a true wilderness... so few throughout history have bothered to homestead it, largely due to that fact. In some places, the only evidence that anyone ever lived here are daffodils that were first planted long ago. It is home, however, to squirrels, chipmunks, bats, fox, coyote, deer, bear, more than 250 species of native and migrating birds, lizards and snakes, including the most oft seen timber rattler… watch your step around here.
While this skyline is quite familiar to many who drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I find so few who know how to get to this particular place. To find it, make your way to the little community of Linville Falls between highways 221 and 181... Highway 183 connects the two. There's a big sign at the back entrance to Linville Falls (the actual waterfall)... that's Old NC Highway 105, also known as County Line Road. Follow that for four miles until you reach the spur for Wiseman's View, which is marked. Be aware it's a dirt road, and often it's passable by only AWD or 4x4 vehicles with high clearance.
Well, not really a castle, it's the newest iteration of the Table Rock Centre, which sits at the brink of the Falls, on the Canadian side. Over the years, this area has changed dramatically, even in my lifetime. The original 'Table Rock', where people used to stand, over hanging the gorge, right at the brink,fell away before my time. This building has undergone numerous rebirths, but the name stays the same. The blueish/white background is the mist from the Canadian Falls. And the building isn't really in the mist, it's in front of it. You'll also find the entrance to the 'Under the Falls Adventure" in this building. This shot was taken from our 20th floor hotel room window. (The window was the whole wall. )
Niagara Falls... The American Falls is one of three waterfalls that together are known as Niagara Falls on the Niagara River along the Canada–U.S. border.
Unlike the much larger Horseshoe Falls, of which two-thirds of the falls is located in Ontario,
Canada, and one-third in the US state of New York, the American Falls is entirely within the United States and New York.
This is an image taken after sunset of the Table Rock in Laguna Beach, CA with Catalina Island in the background.
Panorama of 4 exposures (RAW, 15s, F/8.0, ISO 100), Canon EF 35mm F/1.4L USM, RAW conversion with Lightroom 5, stitching and cropping with Photoshop CC, post processing with Lightroom 5.
Original size is 10,026 by 3992 pixels.
There are three distinct rhododendron species native to the mountains of North Carolina, rhododendron minus, which is divided by varieties minus and carolinium, though both are called Carolina rhododendron, Catawba rhododendron, and rosebay rhododendron, each blooming at different times of the year. Linville Gorge is one place in these mountains where the rare pink Carolina rhododendron doesn’t seem so rare. Spectacular views aren’t so rare either.
The view here is looking south through the gorge from near the tip end of the “bill” at the top of Hawksbill Mountain. Imposing Table Rock, another well-known denizen of the gorge, is seen just to the left here. Linville River divides the gorge some 1,400 feet (427 meters) below. The gorge is a true wilderness, and it is largely due to that fact that so few throughout history have bothered to homestead it. In some places, the only evidence that anyone ever lived here are daffodils that were first planted long ago. It is home, however, to squirrels, chipmunks, bats, fox, coyote, deer, bear, more than 250 species of native and migrating birds, lizards and snakes, including the most oft seen timber rattler… watch your step around here.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha
The Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, as most of it lies in Canada, is part of Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River.
Originally built in 1909, Campbell's is the last covered bridge in the state of South Carolina. It's just off Hwy 414 in eastern Greenville County.
Caesar's Head State Park in Cleveland, South Carolina offers an overlook with spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, including this view of Table Rock.
After a day to restore body and bike, 63-mile ride from Bandon to Gold Beach. A beautiful day along the coast. Caught up with fellow cyclists that I met in Pacific City.
Early morning autumn view of Table Rock Mountain from Hawksbill Mountain.
I replaced the original version posted after an adjustment to midtones and highlights.
Table Rock Mountain in Table Rock State Park in Pickens County, South Carolina - © 2018 David Oppenheimer - Performance Impressions aerial photography archives - www.performanceimpressions.com
Table Rock on fire. This was the morning after the fire started on Table Rock, located in Table Rock state park in Pickens, SC.