Careful Photography

Driving along the road in the Shenandoah National Park this autumn there were many opportunities for photographic moments.  I eventually filled my memory card with an abundance of mountainsides and landscapes with distant vistas and I had to look elsewhere for creative vision.  I saw this lovely bed of dying ferns and stopped to take a photo.

Since this was a small hill at the side of the highway, I did not have to get too low to get the angle I wanted.  I hate giving others a good laugh as I try to pull myself up from the ground.  Many times photographers have to get down and dirty to create new angles in their photography. This time I only had to look up the hill at the side of the road to get the low angle that I wanted.

Later in the day I had to squat a little lower to get these sumac flower heads which are always reliable in fall when looking for red colors. Next I got down on my knees in the wet woods at Gettysburg battlefield to get the photo below.

But be careful...in spite of its dramatic beauty it is dangerous...this is poison ivy. I have to be even more careful and be sure to look up now and again because there are other dangers along the roadside.

Yes, it is blurry because I was having trouble concentrating.