shenandoah day trip

my husband and i have taken several day/weekend trips to shenandoah national park in virginia ever since we got married five years ago; last weekend we decided to take our son and our niece to the park, to enjoy the views and weather before it gets too cold for kids. we had a wonderful time - gorgeous weather and sunlight, not too many people, touches of color here and there, and of course, caterpillars, leaves and imaginary dog-monsters in the sundappled woods... here are a few of my favorites from the day! starting with - a B&W version of the drive itself. i have a thing for the near-infrared look...

my husband, doing what he does best driving... just kidding honey... :)

a couple of captures while looking up:

a standard land-and-sky-scape under a glaring, hazing sun:

a couple enjoying the weather in their pickup:

my son, in the few shots i could get him to actually look at the camera instead of pick up rocks:

we had to pull off the side of the road to capture these gorgeous, ghostly, fading ferns with the afternoon light glowing through them; i attempted a sort of orton effect to enhance that impact:

at the same time, our niece stepped out to look for colorful leaves to take back and show her class:

and finally, a couple of different trees-shots...

i'm working like crazy (when my son allows it, or when i ought to be sleeping, like now) on the web site, so i will definitely try to catch up on the wedding posts as soon as i can, but for now i just wanted to at least get some pictures up there so you know i'm still photographing! more from this weekend, my dad's 75th birthday, soon...