Within a few hours we have access to spectacular and scenic parks. The most popular is the Shenandoah Skyline drive. Last weekend was the start of the peak season.

Luckily I got to join one of my friends when she was showing some visitors our great National parks. One of those visitors came to visit from Vietnam so it was especially exciting for him as a photographer to experience the fall in America. As any photographer has experienced visiting a place like the Shenadoah you can easily spend 30 mins one spot and that's before you leave the rest stop!

Getting the backlighting on this one leaf alone would fascinate a photographer for endless minutes.

It was also to great to get pointers from a fashion photographer. Here my friend got to be the model for our amusement. The backdrop of the fall colors are irresistible. 

Although we had some ambitious plans to hike the Hawksbill Mountain trail, due to time left we opted for the Dark Hollows Falls trail. With the number of falls along the path it was a challenge to explore where the light would best illuminate the scene. For an image below, I was able to recover the shadows through post-processing. 

Even with the best technology and skill, nothing beats experiencing the outdoors for yourself. The blue skies, the rustle of the leaves in the breeze, and the smell of the fallen leaves. I wish I was like this woman in this photo who enjoy this beautiful waterfall.

The good and bad thing about landscape photography is that you have to bring a tripod to capture steady images. And the guys on this trip was kind enough to carry my tripod for me. This helped to allow me to experiment and take a few of these beautiful waterfall shots.

Dark Hollow FallsDark Hollow Falls

On our way home we were chasing the light hoping to catch the best view of the valleys lit by the sunset. These are some of the last few images from the day, and for some reason I love framing the image with these deadwood trees. 

After a good long sleep and taking a few Advil, I decided to join my friends to visit one of my favorite little towns - Harper's Ferry, WV. The last time I was there, I did not get to fully climb the Maryland Heights overlook trail with my small group. This time I was determined to make it up to the overlook. My favorite part of the trail was a grove of these tall trees which were in the midst of turning from green to yellow. 

With much anticipation, we finally arrived at the overlook along with a dozen of other hikers. And this was the gorgeous view that awarded us.