Sulphur Springs UMC Camp Meeting Grounds

Here's another building that I drive by several times a week and say to myself "you ought take some pictures of that church cause it's got some cool lines".

It's the Sulphur Springs United Methodist Church on the Camp Meeting grounds which have been here since 1820. The plaque out front reads: "The Methodist church has conducted meetings here since 1820. Camp meetings are religious festivals at which participants eat and sleep on site. The first shed at Sulphur springs Camp Meeting Grounds was erected in 1842. A new shed, 74 feet by 42 feet, was built in 1900, using hand-hewn logs from the original structure.

Here's a heavy-handed faux-HDR of a section of the interior of the shed next door to the church. The lighting was really bad when this was taken. It would be a great HDR subject for a late evening shot, with just the ceiling fan lights on.

Old Log-ish House Near Host

I drive by this old house near Host at least once a week and most every time I say to myself "self, you should walk out through the field and take some pictures of the house." So, at lunch today me and John walked out there with cameras in hand.

The owners were mending the fence along the road and were nice enough to let us walk around the house and shoot as many as we wanted.

Clear blue skies are typically bad days for shooting, so here's the best of the bunch. The blue sky, the green grass, the yellow of the new leaves, the grays and browns ... it was a lot of good color.

Kiner Creek Falls

It was an uber-bad day for waterfall picture taking but a really nice day to go walkabout. I went to Laurel Run Park in Church Hill, mostly looking for wildflowers in bloom, but I was probably about a week early for that too. Regardless it was a nice trek to a new place.

Once you cross the bridge the trail starts on an old logging road. The old road was pretty muddy in places as it followed the creek up the mountain. The creek must be crossed eventually without a bridge. In times of higher water like today you may need to wade across the creek, so I'd recommend wearing old shoes. I was able to rock hop across today .... barely. After crossing the creek it's just a little ways further to Laurel Run Falls. It was overrun with folks today, some wading just above the main falls, most sitting on the rocks in front of lower section, so there was zero opportunity to get a picture without folk in it, so I figured I'd go on to Kiner Creek falls and get pictures of Laurel Run on the way out.

I continued on the main trail a little further to a point where the creeks fork. Straight ahead (the smaller stream) is Kiner Creek. I took the trail to the left that climbed uphill or a short distance and then a switchback to the right, then continued on the trail another 1/4 mile. If you listen closely you can hear the falls on your right - it sounds different from the cascades in the creek to this point. There are two trail/slides down the hill, the first goes to the base of the falls - it's the steepest and hardest to navigate. The second comes out right at the top of the falls - be careful.

I did the second trail first but there were no picture taking vantage points, so, I climbed/slid/fell down the first trail to the base. It['s pretty neat down there, you can walk behind the falls - which I did - to get to a trail on the far side. The picture above is a three-exposure bracket. It was so bright and sunny I had to use an 3-stop ND filter plus a polarizer just to get a bit of blurry water.

Rumor has it you can take the trail on this side of the creek back out, which I tried. Either I lost the trail, or it's in such poor shape that it's not easily recognizable, regardless I went back the way came in. The same folk were still all over Laurel Run Falls so I just skipped the pics and hiked on out.

Directions from Jonesborough:
Take I-26 toward Kingsport TN to Exit 1 (Stone Drive - 11W)
Head west on 11W 8.5 miles until you reach Church Hill
Turn left on Goshen Valley Road and follow the signs to Laurel Run Park
Travel 0.8 miles and turn left on River Road
Travel 2 miles and turn left on Laurel Run Park Road
Travel 1.3 miles to the park.
Once at the park, bear right and park at the amphitheater.

Clouds at the Cabin

It's wildflower picture taking season, but it was too windy and cold to venture out ... so I spent the afternoon working through some old pictures from this past winter.

This picture is a faux-HDR from a trip to the cabin. It's fauxness comes from making copies of a single exposure then lowering the exposure of one and raising the exposure of the other. All three images are then processed like a traditional bracket. It came out okay.

Spring is trying hard to get here

It's been a while since I published any pictures, so, here's a couple I've taken this week.

The first is some cherry trees in full bloom just up the street from Mahoneys. What caught my eye was the green grass with the brown mulch against the pink and white of the cherry blossoms.

The other picture is an old house that sits in the field across from the soccer practice fields at Providence Academy. This old house has caught my eye several times over the winter. The tree behind the house is starting to leaf out, which makes a nice reddish-brown backdrop.

General Mills Bldg w/ new graffiti

The old General Mills building on West Walnut Street off State of Franklin Road recently became a canvas for an unknown graffiti artist or artists.

The old mill building and grain silos that dominate the West Walnut Street skyline are coming down to make way for a new Chamber headquarters and surrounding development.

The Chamber Foundation bought the property in June 2008, and its initial assessment suggested razing the century-old buildings there was the only realistic option.

Preliminary plans call for the Chamber’s new building to be about 15,000 square feet, with a likely cost in the $2.2 million range. It would take up about 1.5 to 2 acres of the 4.7 acre property. The plan is to lease or sell the remaining acres to a developer to help defray expenses for the new building and the property.

Lower Higgins Creek - part deux

I went back to Lower Higgins Creek south of Erwin this afternoon, hoping to hike to the upper falls ... but ... the creek was up so much I couldn't make it across anywhere without getting wet, not today.

So on the way back to the truck I was looking for something to shoot. this was all I got ... maybe next time.