Reflection in a Pool

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Reflection in a Pool Huntington by way of Point Pleasant, featuring the West Virginian landscape. Art + workshops.

The Devils Backbone - Huntersville, WVRandall Sanger Photography and I just completed another photography workshop in th...
10/19/2026

The Devils Backbone - Huntersville, WV

Randall Sanger Photography and I just completed another photography workshop in the Greenbrier River Valley of West Virginia and the foliage was absolutely peak at nearly all elevations, which is unusual. Some of the best color we had seen this year was in Watoga State Park. We were able to take our group to several spots that are usually past their prime by the time the workshop takes place, including this location right off the side of the road near Huntersville, West Virginia.

The day after the workshop, I headed up to Tucker County to work the WV Highlands Artisans gallery for a couple days where people from all over were coming in droves to visit for Fall color, which was well past peak at this point. In Pocahontas County, we encountered very few tourists where some of the best color was, and most of them appeared to be bikers off the Greenbrier River Trail.

At Bear Rocks, you can stake out any spot along the ridge and find great photos in all directions on the wide open plains. You have to look a little harder in Pocahontas County for compositions. I've resisted the last 6 years doing a Fall photo workshop in Canaan Valley/Dolly Sods because everyone is there and there are already choices of several workshops. I like that I can offer something unique that nobody else appears to be doing and it's rewarding that I can show people a part of the state that tends to get neglected by outside folks.

TLDR: Don't sleep on Pocahontas County!

I'm back off the road from Virginia, to Pocahontas County where Fall foliage was absolutely peak to Tucker County, WV. ...
10/18/2026

I'm back off the road from Virginia, to Pocahontas County where Fall foliage was absolutely peak to Tucker County, WV. Anxious to go through my photos. Here's a sunrise from near Valley Head, WV on 219 South of Elkins. I had to pull over and capture this with my drone as it was happening.

I'm at the WVHighlands Artisans Gallery today and tomorrow in Davis, WV. Come check us out!
10/16/2026

I'm at the WVHighlands Artisans Gallery today and tomorrow in Davis, WV. Come check us out!

Sunday capped off another great Oglebayfest in Wheeling, WV. It was good seeing new and familiar faces. Now I'm in the...
10/06/2026

Sunday capped off another great Oglebayfest in Wheeling, WV. It was good seeing new and familiar faces. Now I'm in the process of restocking inventory before the Fall Foliage Festival in Waynesboro, VA this weekend!

I'm set up at Oglebayfest in Wheeling, WV this weekend! Today until 7pm, tomorrow 10-7, and Sunday 10-5. Lots happening ...
10/02/2026

I'm set up at Oglebayfest in Wheeling, WV this weekend! Today until 7pm, tomorrow 10-7, and Sunday 10-5. Lots happening in Oglebay Park this weekend!

We still have a couple spots left for this workshop taking place in a few weeks. Send me your email if you would like m...
09/29/2026

We still have a couple spots left for this workshop taking place in a few weeks. Send me your email if you would like more info!

Douglas Falls - Thomas, WVI had intended to do a Waterfall Wednesday post and then Wednesday was gone. I have not been ...
09/24/2026

Douglas Falls - Thomas, WV

I had intended to do a Waterfall Wednesday post and then Wednesday was gone. I have not been good at keeping up with posting on social media as it turns out wanting to avoid these platforms and promoting your work runs counter to each other. But here we are on Waterfall Thursday and here's a shot from Douglas taken during a fun workshop in Canaan Valley a couple weekends ago.

The Seneca Moonwalk workshop later in October is filling up fast but we have a couple spots left. Autumn foliage will be upon us soon and there are still a couple spaces if you would like to join Randall Sanger and I in the Greenbrier River Valley for a fall color workshop!

Did the colors really look like that? Is it real? Did you use Photoshop?Piggy backing on a previous post, this is the ...
09/24/2026

Did the colors really look like that? Is it real? Did you use Photoshop?

Piggy backing on a previous post, this is the most common line of questions I get asked at shows. Below is a comparison of the same scene taken with my cell phone, the unedited raw file straight out of my Canon R5 camera and the same file after editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. The RAW file is a digital negative that contains all the light data that was gathered by the camera sensor. Like a film negative, the tones are mostly muted. The file needs to be "developed" in order to bring out everything that was in a scene like this, especially where this is such a big difference between the lights and darks.

The cellphone does this for you. You can see details in the vegetation, the darker parts of the image but very little color. The sky has a lot of color but the details of the clouds kinda run together, like a smear of paint. When you press the shutter button on your cellphone, a RAW file is being taken and developed by the camera in a way that tries to show detail in both the lights and darks, while rendering color in a certain way based on back-end presets. The result that you see is an edited JPEG file.

The camera photo after editing the RAW file shows all the vegetation in the darks recovered with full color and distinguishable details in the sky. Compared to the cellphone image, there is more gradations in color and different levels of brightness. I can make out more layers in the fog where there is only subtle differences in color and light. I can actually see where the sun is about to come up above the bare tree in the far mid-ground because that area is brighter.

The camera sensor's ability to gather light and resolution is what you're gaining from a stand-alone digital camera over the cellphone.

Which one is real? If you were standing there, your eyes would see the colors in the grass and the gradations in the sky. Neither the cellphone or RAW image show these details. Of course, I am exaggerating the colors in my edited photo. I'm playing with the contrast, dodging and burning areas to highlight or de-emphasize certain elements of the photo... so it's not going to look like that either...

The real answer is that everyone's perception is different and your tools are going to render reality in different ways as well. This is an art and a science. As a photographer and artist, I want control over the whole process to make you look at the scene in a certain way and these are the tools that allow me to do that.

Blackwater River Reflections 2 - Canaan Valley State Park, WVAs a workshop instructor often things don't pan out as inte...
09/21/2026

Blackwater River Reflections 2 - Canaan Valley State Park, WV

As a workshop instructor often things don't pan out as intended and you end up with sunrises and sunsets that are lackluster. Other times you come across these explosions of color that leave people asking, "did it really look like that or is it enhanced?" This was the latter and the answer is always 'yes' to both questions. If you're shooting in RAW format with your digital camera and not editing your photos, it will simply not look like how you saw it, in the same way that a film negative will look nothing like how you saw it.

I still have a few open spots for my Fall workshop in the Greenbrier River Valley Oct 13-15th and the Seneca Rocks Moonwalk a week later!

Day 2 of Art in the Park with Tri-State Arts Association !Here until 5
09/20/2026

Day 2 of Art in the Park with Tri-State Arts Association !

Here until 5

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