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The Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park is one of the most photographed sights in West Virginia drawing more than 200,000 people every year. You�ll find pictures of the mill at Babcock on calendars, postcards, magazines, and travel brochures. Most of the visitors to Babcock have a camera in their hands wanting to take home their own photos of this West Virginia icon. In photographing the Babcock Mill and the Glade Creek Falls for the last 15 years, I�ve learned that many points of view (pov) can be found to capture the falls and the mill, but generally most people settle for two traditional views. View from the Rocks at the End of Stairs For their first shot of the falls and the mill, most people traditionally take the stairs behind the lodge down to the pond and shoot from the rocks at the end of the stairs. From this pov both the falls and mill are close and produce good composition. View from Sewell Road Opposite the Dam Another traditional point of view is to walk down Sew...

The Lake View Trail makes a mile long circuit around Boley Lake in Babcock State Park. I hiked this trail last week in search of autumn colors. Fall foliage color was limited on the south side of the lake because the trail wound and tunneled through a lot of rhododendron. But the north side was pretty. Below are a few examples of color I found along the trail. Hope you enjoy the hike! Boley Lake, Oct. 2012 I might add that the lake is often ignored by photographers who come to Babcock seeking autumn colors. On any given day, the grist mill is cramped with photographers and visitors. It�s very difficult to get off a shot without someone in the frame. On the day I visited the park, this was true. But when I drove up to Boley Lake, the parking lot was empty! As I mentioned in a prior post, there is so much more to Babcock than the mill. Post of October 11, 2016 .  Boathouse Lake View Trail Lake View Trail Lake View Trail Lake View Trail

How do you get good autumn photographs even if the fall foliage lacks brilliance? I was asking this question all day at one of my (and everyone else�s) favorite places to shoot fall photographs�Babcock State Park, Fayette County, WV. Due to an extremely hot and dry summer, the leaf color change has been muted somewhat and delayed by about a week. Even so, here are seven ways to photograph fall scenes to bring out the very best in autumn color.  Bright Foreground Bright Foreground  One way to spruce up the color is to include bright foreground foliage. An overhanging branch or a small shrub work well in this instance. As a bonus, these foreground elements add depth to the work and can act as natural frames.  Back-lighting Use Back Light Nothing lights up leaves like back-lighting, which is simply having the prime light source behind or in back of the subject. In outdoor photography, the sun is the primary light source, so to get autumn leaves to shine for you simply align ...

In chasing fall colors in West Virginia, you generally move from high elevation to low elevation and from north to south. By mid-October the leaves are beginning to change in southern West Virginia. Here are some suggested locales to catch the fall colors. Babcock State Park  Babcock State Park in Fayette County is well known for gorgeous autumn displays, but timing is crucial. Usually I find mid-October, around the 15th to the 18th, the most resplendent time. But this year the color change has been delayed a week to 10 days. I�m guessing that peak at Babcock might be this coming weekend Oct 21-23rd.  Babcock State Park Since photographers flock to the Glade Creek Grist Mill, finding a view unobstructed by other photographers is a challenge. Not seeing many photographers on the shoulder of the dam across Glade Creek, I have found that spot a good place to take advantage of reflections off the pond below the lodge.  Babcock State Park For ideas on other places at Babcock t...

Although the grist mill at Babcock is a photo favorite, there are plenty of places beyond the mill that look great in autumn colors. Swinging Bridge at Babcock The Swinging Bridge The swinging bridge over Glade Creek is a great place to capture fall colors at Babcock. While other photographers are vying for position at the mill, walk down the road by the mill to Cabin #7. Then take the stairs down to the cabin and walk around to the back of the cabin. You�ll find a path leading down to the swinging bridge. Glade Creek really shows off at this point with plenty of cascades and color. With the bridge as a backdrop, you�ll find plenty of compelling compositions. Isolations and reflections off the creek will keep you busy, too.  Swinging Bridge at Babcock Glade Creek Reflections Mann�s Creek Glade isn�t the only creek at Babcock. Mann�s Creek flows through the park, too, and is photogenic as well. I�ve found some good color and compositions at the bridge crossing the creek near the Nar...

Why do autumn leaves change color? What controls the change, and why are the colors so different from year to year? Though I am far from an expert, the following is what I have been able to learn about the subject.  Highland Scenic Highway Three Prime Factors The reason autumn leaves change color is far from simple. Some factors are well known, but scientists admittedly do not have all the details. The three prime factors controlling the color change are: 1) Leaf pigments, 2) Amount of light, and 3) Weather conditions. The color palette of leaves consists of three main pigments: chlorophyll, carotenoids, and anthocyanin.  Babcock State Park Chlorophyll is the green pigment, so to speak, and is essential for plant growth. Chlorophyll is an exceptional substance that converts sunlight into food for plants in a process called photosynthesis. Using energy from sunlight, chlorophyll combines water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and sugars. The oxygen mingles with the air we b...

You can also polish the look of your outdoor photographs with a simple composition technique called �framing.� Just as paintings and photographs are typically surrounded by wood or metal frames, a photographic image can be taken with natural borders or frames. For example, the image of an inlet at Summit Lake (a great fishing and hiking spot about 10 miles east of Richwood, WV) is encircled on the top and left side by an arch of autumn leaves that form a natural frame. Likewise shoots of green plants border the bottom of the image. These two borders envelope much of the image forming a natural frame.  Babcock Grist Mill I don�t know exactly why the eye is pleased by framing, but it generally is. I do know that natural frames seem to complete the image. Framing also draws attention to the subject of your image. The framing in the example photograph gently steers the eye across the image. Moving from left to right, the eye naturally drifts within the borders of the frames following t...

1)    The Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park is one of the most photographed sights in West Virginia. You�ll find pictures of the mill on calendars and postcards, in magazines and travel brochures. The grist mill is a great ambassador of travel and tourism for southern West Virginia. Indeed more than 200,000 people visit Babcock every year. Babcock State Park 2)    The grist mill at Babcock is really three mills in one , which were salvaged from around the State. The Stoney Creek Grist Mill, dating back to the 1890s, near Campbelltown in Pocahontas County and the Onego Grist Mill near Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County supplied the main building and stone floor. The giant overshot water wheel was salvaged from the Spring Run Grist Mill near Petersburg in Grant County after the remainder of the mill was destroyed by fire. Portions of each mill were disassembled piece-by-piece and reassembled on Glade Creek in Babcock. The reconstruction was completed in 1976....

Mention Babcock State Park and most people immediately think of the Glade Creek Grist Mill. Visited by more than 200,000 people every year, the mill is one of the most photographed sights in West Virginia. But there�s more to Babcock than the mill. Waiting to be explored is a Babcock that most visitors never see--it�s behind the scenes so to speak. As it turns out, Babcock has some of the most interesting and diverse hiking trails in southern West Virginia. Moreover, it is home to some amazing flowering shrubs such as Catawba Rhododendron and Flame Azalea as well as wildflowers such as orchids and trillium. You just need to know when and where to look for them. Today I want to talk about orchids at Babcock. Yes, wild orchids! In the spring, a popular wild orchid called Pink Lady�s Slipper is sprinkled throughout Babcock. But yesterday (August 2, 2016), Phyllis and I went looking for and found a rarer sight�yellow fringed orchids. Besides Babcock, I know of only two other locations in t...