My birthday always falls around the Labor Day holiday weekend. Always has and always will. It's a time when people are going back to school. A time when summer begins to turn to autumn. A time of change. Some people welcome change and some people loathe change. Either way change happens. It's unavoidable.
Over the past few days, as I usually do around my birthday, I have been contemplating, analyzing, reflecting and pretty much any other word that ends with ING on my life. This morning (September 2, 2016) marks the eve of my 44th birthday, and this particular year has been a time of great change in my life.
I am not sure if one would call it a successful venture yet, but I have done my best to kickstart a full time photography and yoga teaching career over the course of 2016. The joy that I feel in using my camera and helping people grow their yoga practice is immeasurable.
I have felt my body and spirit change tremendously for the better. Simply put, for the first time in my life I am meeting my life's purpose on a spiritual level. Now I just have to figure out how to make it work financially. I am not sure if that can or will happen but at the very least one day I will look back at this particular point in my life and remind myself that I tried. I took the leap to see if I could meet my life's purpose and make that my career.
My early morning adventures on the Blue Ridge Parkway have been limited this year. However, on August 12th I made a special point to hit the parkway with my camera and head south to see what I could see. The weather forecast called for partly cloudy skies which is exactly what you want for optimal sunrise colors. Once I got on the parkway partly cloudy quickly changed to mostly cloudy. Soon after the weather changed to mostly raining. The fog was thick and I considered turning around but I pressed on to one of my favorite overlooks, Pounding Mill, which is located at mile marker 413, south of Asheville. Pounding Mill has gorgeous 270 degree views with a tremendous view of Looking Glass Rock. These two images below were my first two shots of the day and are of Looking Glass Rock. The fog thickened about a minute later and visibility went to zero in a hurry. I felt these were going to be quality images and would have been perfectly happy heading back into Asheville through what I thought would be more rain. I was wrong. The weather had changed.
I exited the north end of the Buck Spring Tunnel which has beautiful easterly views and saw this scene pictured below. There is no overlook here and the closest and safest place to park is about 1/8 of a mile further up the road. I grabbed my camera and tripod and began sprinting back toward the tunnel because I knew this light would not last long. I was able to capture one image that I was very happy with. The mountains seem as though they are a dam holding back the clouds and this stunning golden light lasted for only a few minutes.
From there I could not resist stopping at another one of my favorite spots to capture a few more shots of the incredible and quickly changing clouds, fog and light.
This was my last shot of the morning. I was happy that I did not ditch my plan and let the rain keep me away that morning and was treated to this incredible scene of nature's beauty.
Lot's of change happened that morning on the Parkway. Similar to how much change has happened to my life in 2016. I feel fortunate to have been a part of it and to have had the opportunity to capture the change with my camera. Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed these pictures.