Looking North by Northeast Up Foster Road (at Foster and Hobson Roads)

--Lannie

THIS was shot looking the opposite direction from the same spot.  Both shots were made in the shadow of a house at the very corner of Foster and Hobson Roads near Cleveland, North Carolina.  (Hobson and Foster roads run into Cool Spings Rd. between Woodleaf and U.S. 64 northwest of Mocksville.)

The flat expanse that attracted me to this area for the purpose of taking sky shots ends at this point as the road becomes more hilly.  The entire are is between the Third Creek and Fourth Creek watersheds.  Both creeks run together and (as Fourth Creek) run into the S. Yadkin River near U.S. 601.  The flat expanse between the two creeks, combined with the clearing for farmland, gives this general area a wide open appearance unusual in land this close to the mountains.  This particular shot, however, does not show the expanse but the starting again of the hills so common to the upper Carolina Piedmont.  The hilliness is exaggerated here in terms of vertical scale due to the extreme crop, as well as the moderate telephoto effect from shooting at 80mm on a full-frame DSLR.

--Lannie

The people in this area have been just wonderful to me as they realized that I saw the beauty of their corner of Rowan County, North Carolina.  They have stopped and talked to me on different days, and I have been invited by the gentleman who lives in the house on the left (the house casting the shadow) to come onto his property anytime to take pictures.  He is retired and is from Jersey and upstate New York.  Another man "up the road a piece" from here sat on his tractor and talked to me for the longest.  He has been farming this area all his life, and he had driven his tractor out of the field and up the hill to see what I was up to.  He then invited me to take pictures all over that area, part of which can be seen by clicking the right arrow.  (That shot was made directly in front of his house.)

They were two very different people, but they were both very kind and appreciative of what I was doing.  Others have stopped as well, sometimes to see if I was okay or needed help, others just to let me finish shooting.  It has been an incredible experience, and not at all what I expected.

--Lannie

Thank you, Timothy.

--Lannie

Yes, I agree with the above.  How about trying it at the sunrise or sunset when the light is more warm and less contract.  It is a good work.  Best Regards,

The small cloud at the top tells me that this may have been a blue sky, but possibly being in mid-afternoon with too much of an overexposed sky.  I agree, either morning or evening to balance the light and maybe even enhance the shadows.  Other options may be a graduated neutral density filter, or a multiple exposure HDR exposure fusion shot.  I do enjoy the composition very much, and the dark road in stark contrast to the road lines and the greenery makes for a lot of interest.  Nice!

Thanks, guys.  At least you have convinced me that there was something to the composition, which I thought was just interesting and unusual enough to merit a try.

--Lannie