"Blessed Land"

It was a beautiful day for hiking in Shenandoah National Park - last day

of September, 2008. Fall colors were not at its peak - in fact, very few

trees were beginning to show colors. After a long hike, I decided to

mount my tripod in "The Points" - near Big Meadows and wait patiently

for sunset. It was so serene and quiet.

The repeating contours of mountain ranges in Shenandoah is a familiar

& beautiful scene - but close to sunset, they get incredibly beautiful with

smooth blue hues. I was lucky to get a nice cloud pattern to funnel light

through and throw beams on the land - blessings from heaven before

nightfall!

I used 3-stop G-ND filter and a very steady tripod. Often we fail to credit

the value of tripod and good ball head - I would like to mention my

extreme satisfaction with Gitzo and Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head -

particularly for the flexibility it offers to compose shots like this.