Hocking Hills redux

A set of hand-hewn rock steps exits a tunnel in the sandstone cliffs of the Hocking Hills at Old Man's Cave. This area is renowned for its beauty, in Ohio and far beyond.

I'm always in a game of catch-up when it comes to sorting and filing photos. I generally take more images than is easily dealt with in a timely manner. So, over the past few days I finally got around to archiving photographs from a wonderful photographic workshop that Debbie DiCarlo and I led last February. It was the better part of three days, in the Hocking Hills. We visited many of the iconic hotspots, ostensibly to photograph icy and snowy landscapes. Mother Nature had other plans, and the weather was unseasonably warm and rainy.

This unexpected meteorological twist worked to our advantage. The streams and waterfalls were perfectly filled, and the wetness created wonderful saturation of colors. We lucked out in that the rain usually fell at night or at other times when we weren't out in it.

Water gushes through a gap near the upper falls at Old Man's Cave. The old stone bridges in this area fit perfectly with the environment, and if they ever replace them I hope it is with similar structures.

A big sandstone cliff hems in a stream flowing through a picturesque hemlock gorge. The conditions and locales were perfect for learning about landscape photography.

Cedar Falls, rendered in black and white. One advantage - huge one, photographically - of visiting the Hocking Hills during midweek in winter is that the crowds of people are nearly absent. Thus, we were able to capture scenes of incredibly popular tourist destinations, like this one, with no people cluttering the shot.

Hidden Falls, just below Cedar Falls. This is about as wintry as things looked while our group was there. Not having to deal with freezing temperatures was nice, and the perfect water levels in the streams couldn't be beat. Lots of ice and snow is great too, it just creates a completely different ambience. Chances are, our next workshop here in January (16 thru 18) will feature snow and amazing ice formations.

The colorful stone walls of Rock House, one of the most spectacular sandstone formations in this region, as seen through a VERY long exposure (it's quite dark inside).

We of course tried our hand at sunsets, as we nearly always do when the skies and cloud cover cooperates. This is Lake Logan, just minutes from our hotel base camp.

If you are interested in next year's workshop to Hocking Hills - or any of the others - we'd love to have you. We will only take a maximum of ten people, and several have already signed on, so if you're thinking about it, might be good to pull the trigger fairly soon.

Details about all of our photographic workshops, and they're all going to be good, can be found RIGHT HERE.