From the Archives of 2009—North Carolina
December 3, 2023
When I used to drive back to Ohio from Florida, I would often stay a night or two with my old college roommate Erika in North Carolina. Since graduation, we had each become interested in photography, so she was keen to show me some of her favorite places to take photographs. If you have followed this blog for very long, you know that I seldom take big-picture landscapes. But the wide and deep vistas of the North Carolina mountains were irresistible.
1 The first stop on our May 15 outing was to a park whose name I no longer remember. I was taken by the various colors of the rocks in this mountain stream.
2 The park was probably not very far from Hendersonville, which is where Erika lived.
3 The next stop was to take in a view of Looking Glass Rock.
4 We stopped again later for another look.
5
6 I don’t know if there was a name for where we went next. I just remember that the road kept climbing and climbing. And that storm clouds were gathering.
7 We could see them heading our way.
8 This is one of the last photographs I took before the deluge.
Romancing Reality 
I think the scenery is spactacular, Linda. Excellent work of landscape photography. You have the eye and the heart for this.
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December 3, 2023 at 9:40 PM
I’ll take your compliment about my eye (thank you), Ken, and I believe I have the heart for landscape photography, but where are the landscapes in northeast Ohio? Must be here someplace; I’ll keep looking. Lightroom has gotten so much better since 2009; it was really fun to reprocess these. Watching Robert Rodriguez do demos helps a lot in showing me what can be done (https://creativepathworkshops.com/webinar-archive?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feedback-survey-improving-your-leaning-13).
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December 3, 2023 at 10:14 PM
The first two photos are “intimate” landscapes that share your usual emphasis on details and patterns. It’s easy to see why the broader landscapes of the mountains in western North Carolina, and especially a place like Looking Glass Rock, attracted you for a change. If you can arrange a trip back there in 2024, it would be interesting to see how your vision has changed over 15 years.
Thanks for your introduction to the word pluton, which I confirmed traces back to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.
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December 4, 2023 at 7:51 AM
Thanks for writing, Steve. I’m afraid it’s unlikely that I’ll go back to North Carolina in 2024. I won’t be going to Florida this winter, and my friends no longer live in North Carolina. Now that I’ve spent some time with these landscape photos of mine, I imagine that I would want to stick with that perspective were I to return. They’ve even inspired me to look for the longer view closer to home—even without mountains. Pluton was a new word to me, too. Thanks for the lexicology.
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December 5, 2023 at 8:48 PM
Beautiful set! You managed to keep your focus on the wide views… 🙂
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December 5, 2023 at 1:51 AM
Thank you, Harrie. Yes, I did. 🙂
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December 5, 2023 at 8:37 PM
A pluton in North Carolina!? I don’t think I knew about those in the eastern US. Of course, why wouldn’t they be here! Thank you, Linda…I learn the most interesting things here through your photography.
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December 6, 2023 at 4:16 PM
Thank you, Mic.
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December 11, 2023 at 8:07 PM
I realize that I was so focussed on that pluton I forgot to say that I really like the landscapes, esp. …well all of them 😊 and the colors in the second picture of the stream. Beautiful.
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December 12, 2023 at 11:01 AM
Well, thank you again, Mic.!
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December 12, 2023 at 1:10 PM
Wow, this is fun. I used to live in this area. Where did your friend live? I was on Hart Road in Little River. It was very rural there at the time (early 1990s). My mother lived in Brevard, where I worked for the Transylvania County Department of Social Services. 😉
I didn’t last long in western NC – just 2 years. Beautiful country, fascinating old-time culture but too stubbornly unaware of the larger world for my taste.
The native rhododendrons are stunning but it looks like that might be an azalea – equally beautiful. My favs here are #1, 3, 7 & 8. Lovely rocks in #1, a little reminiscent of your Vermillion River. I didn’t know looking Glass Rock is a pluton – sorry to say I don’t remember hearing that word. Thanks again for the scenery!
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December 12, 2023 at 8:54 PM
Erika lived on Bluebird Drive in Hendersonville. Zip 28792. She took me to many beautiful spots. But she moved fast, saying there was so much to see. I kept thinking, “There’s so much to see; we need to move slowly.” I thought that was an azalea, too. David isn’t here to ask. “Pluton” is new to me, as well. Sounds like some part of an atom. I think my favorite of this bunch is #3, but I really like looking at #8, too. I can remember taking that one. Thanks for telling me your favorites.
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December 12, 2023 at 9:57 PM
We were halfway between Brevard & Hendersonville. Colby was 4, I was working FT, Colby’s dad couldn’t find work, the marriage was in trouble. Hard times. So I didn’t experience the beauty the way I could have – slowly, as you wanted to. My parents hiked in the forests all the time. It was a good place for them to retire. #3 ticks the boxes for a satisfying landscape and being a detail-lover like you, I get why it feels especially good to find you’ve made a successful classic landscape photo. It’s good when you remember the feeling you had, too. Yea, archives! 🙂
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December 13, 2023 at 11:01 AM