West Virginia a Wider View

This book represents a body of work I started in 2002 focused on producing images with a wider than normal aspect ratio from some of my favorite places around West Virginia. These panoramic images provide a unique perspective to the landscape of my home state.

Whether the shot was taken after multiple trips in the middle of the night to the same location, or a single moment in time captured quickly before it passed, each capture tells its own story. One of my goals in photography is to produce a final product that invites the viewer to step into the scene. These wider format images provide a vehicle for doing just that. I hope that as you view the pages of this book you feel yourself transported to these wonderful places our state has to offer.

WEST VIRGINIA A

W I D E R

Frank Ceravalo

V I EW

West Virginia a Wider View

by Frank Ceravalo copyright ©2014 Frank Ceravalo All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books, Inc. To order additional copies of this book or for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P.O. Box 52 Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.HeadlineBooks.com 800-570-5951

ISBN 13: 9781882658091 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014942909

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S T AT E S O F A M E R I C A

This book is dedicated to my wife Michelle. Since I became interested in photography more than 30 years ago, she constantly encouraged my habit, even as I made the transition from the corporate world to full-time photographer.

—FC

This book contains a collection of my panoramic West Virginia images.

These photographs are produced in two main methods. The first and easiest is that I take a single image shot and then crop from the top and/or bottom to create a pleasing composition. The second, which represents the majority of the work, is called a stitched panorama. With this method you take several overlapped images of a scene and then, with the aid of software, “stitch” them together.

View From Long Point New River Gorge Fayetteville, WV 4

Around 2000 I started to read about stitched panoramic images. At the rise far enough north to allow me to get both the New River Gorge Bridge time I was still shooting 35mm film, but thought I would give it a try. This and sunrise in the same image. I took the slides, digitized them, and put photo of the New River Gorge was my first attempt at using the technique. I them together. From that point I was hooked. knew from other trips here that around WV Day (June 20th) the sun would 5

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Blackwater Falls Winter B&W Panorama Blackwater Falls Sate Park Davis, WV The falls are always a great place to shoot and go for a panoramic shot. Here I caught the falls before they were completely frozen over so that you can see the water flowing over them. Winter is such a monochromatic time of year, so I decided to render this image as a Black and White to accentuate the feel of the day.

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High Bridge on the Cheat Randolph County, WV The New Tygart Flyer excursion train is crossing Shavers Fork of the Cheat River on the way back to Elkins, WV. I love being in the mountains in the spring when the trees display a full range of different shades of green.

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Lindy AM Blackwater Falls State Park Davis, WV 10

thought of as a nice sunset location. The sun sets Lindy Point is an overlook in Blackwater Falls behind the mountains across the canyon in the State Park. It is a short, flat hike (less than a mile) summer and directly in the mouth of the canyon from the parking lot to the overlook and normally in the fall. This is one of those images I had in

my head and wanted to get for some time. My vision was an early morning shot, with fog in the canyon and some color in the clouds from the sunrise behind me. This particular morning I was camping, and we had a really hard thunderstorm

that night. I thought my poor little tent was going to blow away, but it stayed put. Around 3 a.m.

I had gotten up and looked at the sky to see no clouds, but great stars, cooler temperatures, and very light to no wind. This was perfect for fog,

and I was excited to try my Lindy Point hike again. When I got there, the fog and clouds were great. I waited for the sun to just peek over the hill behind me to light up the clouds and the top of the fog below.

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Summers County Sunrise Pipestem, WV I love shooting just prior to the actual sunrise time.

These thirty minutes, as the world wakes up, are a wonderful time, and the colors can be incredible.

You get to your spot about 45 minutes to an hour before the sun cracks the horizon. It is dark, and the sound of crickets fills the air. Slowly, this is replaced with bird songs as the scene lights up.

Sites Homestead under Seneca Seneca Rocks, WV Many times when I show this or other images of Sites Homestead with Seneca Rocks, I get questions from people asking when it was put there. They did not remember the house being there when they went to Seneca Rocks. I say that it has been there since 1839. But it was not framed out to this size until the 1870s.

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There is Always One Highland Scenic Highway Marlinton, WV 16

This is why I don’t do human group photos. If I can’t get this family of otters to all look at the camera at the same time, what chance do I have with three-year-olds?

I had been following this group of otters on the Williams River for about an they just swam by and paid little attention to me. But at this point, they all hour. Knowing that they were just in cruise mode, I would drive up river hauled up on this dead branch before heading on. about ¼ mile or so, and then sit and wait until they came along. Usually 17

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Kimsey Reflections Kimsey Run Lake Lost City, WV This is a place I take some of my workshop classes to practice the techniques they’ve learned. It offers a variety of water scenes, and the field next to it has wildflowers, birds, etc. Sometimes you get to see eagles flying.

While we were there I saw these wonderful reflections.

Not wanting to be distracted by the trees and plants on the far shore, I focused on the reflections only, using the panoramic layout to show as much as possible.

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Sleepy Creek WMA Berkeley County, WV Located just west of Martinsburg, the Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area offers me a quick photographic getaway from my home in the Eastern Panhandle.

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Glade Creek Winter Babcock State Park Clifftop, WV 22

The Glade Creek Mill is one of the most photographed sites in West Completed in 1976, the current, fully operational mill is comprised of three Virginia. During the autumn color season it is almost impossible to get a separate mills from different parts of the state. clear spot. But in the winter you can have it all to yourself.

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Hawks Nest State Park Ansted, WV This is a shot from the main overlook in Hawks Nest State Park. From here you can see the Hawks Next Dam on the right, and the CSX Railroad bridge on the left. It is not unusual to see miles-long coal trains snake their way through the gorge.

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Hawks Nest Dam Ansted, WV For years I looked down on this dam from the main overlook in Hawks Nest State Park. I finally decided to take the walk upstream from the Chimney Corner side to see the dam. When I got there I saw that it was a great fit for this panoramic method.

This dam is part of a dam/tunnel project that diverts water from the New River under Gauley Mountain to a power generation station near Gauley Bridge.

Started in 1927, this undertaking is part of a sad chapter in West Virginia history. While digging the tunnel workers encountered silica. With no breathing protection provided, many of the workers exposed to the dust developed silicosis, from which hundreds died.

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Camp 70 Beaver Pond Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge Davis, WV Having spent a month at the refuge as the “photographer in residence” I had found this spot and wanted to get a nice sunrise. After having made several treks out in the dark to arrive here pre-dawn, I finally got there on a morning that had a nice mix of fog and colors.

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Lost World Caverns Lewisburg, WV Shooting panoramas in caverns can be a bit of a challenge. First you need to find a room that is large enough and has enough features to make the image interesting. Then you need to make sure that you can get light to all of the main features.

Lost World Caverns is one of four commercial caves in West Virginia and has one of the largest rooms. In this image I am doing about a 180º view of the main area. The feature in front of me is called the bridal veil.

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Smoke Hole Caverns Cabins, WV This images shows a flowstone formation along the back wall. Flowstones form as water gently runs over the formation depositing minerals. This process can take up to 125 years to produce one cubic inch of stone.

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High Falls of the Cheat Randolph County These falls, on Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, are about 12 feet high. The easiest way to get here is to ride either the New Tygart Flyer or Cheat Mountain Salamander. Both are trains out of Elkins operated by the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad. The biggest problem for me is that the trains stop for only a few minutes and when they are here, there are people EVERYWHERE! So in order to spend some quality time with nature, I make arrangements to ride one of the trains to the falls. Once it leaves, I take my images and wait for the next one for the ride back to Elkins.

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Dame’s Rocket This image was taken in my backyard near Martinsburg, WV. In the spring of the year this wildflower, sometimes referred to as phlox, covers the woods, but this year it was particularly thick.

My goal in using this format was to isolate them with the sun streaming in to backlight the blooms on the hillside below my home.

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Barbour County Courthouse Philippi, WV Panoramas are not just for grand landscape shots. They also work for getting a great perspective on interiors. This is taken in the courtroom of the Barbour County courthouse that had been renovated back in 1995.

Rainbow over the Express Elkins Depot Elkins, WV I was in Elkins to get some shots of the Polar Express before it left on one of its last runs of the season. As I was heading toward the depot I saw it, one of the brightest rainbows I had ever seen. It was actually a double rainbow.

I raced to the location, parked, and ran with my camera to where I got the composition I wanted.

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Bluestone Bluestone Lake Hinton, WV 42

This spot on the Bluestone Lake lends itself very well to a panoramic shot. boats feathered out from behind the trees to start a fishing tournament, The lake was flat, and I was looking forward to some nice color for the really messing up my reflections. No problem, it was a great morning sunrise to reflect on it. Just as the sun was ready to rise, a large group of anyway.

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Charleston, WV

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This is a very iconic location to shoot the skyline of Charleston, allowing the interstate to be a nice leading line into the image. Adding the

panorama let me show more of the river as well as the length of the city along the Kanawha River.

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Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine Beckley, WV No book on West Virginia can be complete without some insight into coal. This image is from inside the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. This was an actual coal mine that was started in 1889 as a drift mine. Commercial mining operations ended in 1953, and it was then sold to the city of Beckley. Today you can tour it, guided by former miners, to get a feel for the life of a miner in the early 1900s.

Nuttallburg Tipple Now a part of the New River Gorge National River, the remains of the coal mining town are being preserved by the Park Service. The drive here gives you a glimpse of life in these small coal towns.

The remains here include this tipple, coke ovens, and many stone foundations. This mine was once owned by Henry Ford, who purchased it from the original owners, the Nuttalls in 1920. They had started the mine around 1880. The mine eventually closed in 1950 and the town was abandoned by the mid ‘60s.

I used the panoramic method here because I could not get far enough back to see the tipple and a fair amount of the long conveyor that would bring the coal down from the mine.

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Marsh Fork Falls This is the first falls one comes to when hiking the falls trail in Twin Falls State Park.

Swiss Winter Helvetia, WV After the Civil War a group of German- and Swissspeaking immigrants from New York purchased a tract of land to settle. They brought with them their language and customs, and due to the remote area of the land remained isolated until well into the 20th Century.

When approaching potential snow-covered shots you have to literally watch your step. It is very important to plan each image and move toward the center so that your big boot prints don’t show up in the picture. It is very inviting to just rush to what you think is the best shot. As soon as you do, you find another shot that is now ruined. In this case I wanted to get some closer images of the gazebo and library in the center, but stopped and planned out my approach, which included this panorama of the stream and bridge on my way.

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Douglas Falls Douglas, WV These are the other falls in Tucker County. The 35foot falls are easily accessible and provide a variety of photographic opportunities.

New River Gorge Fayette Station, WV Some 876 feet below the New River Gorge Bridge runs the New River. Below the bridge you can see the Fayette Station Bridge, which used to be the way to cross the gorge until 1977, when the larger bridge opened, drastically reducing the travel time. Now the road down is mainly used by rafting companies to pick up excursions on the river and gorge visitors like me.

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Elakala Panorama Blackwater Falls State Park Davis, WV 58

Many people take the short trail leading to Elakala Falls near the Blackwater Canyon. This composition is a combination of stitched panorama and Falls Lodge. But if you are adventurous and follow the stream down the HDR processes that took 59 images to complete. The range of exposure was mountain it takes a series of turns and drops. I found this set that allowed almost 8 stops between the brightest and the darkest areas of the image. me to get the stream at a bend and also see the far side of the Blackwater 59

Spruce Knob Lake Sunrise Randolph County, WV

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My plan was a sunrise image on the lake. As I drove up the mountain from Elkins that morning, after a storm, I came upon several downed trees. Luckily none of them were too big for me to move out of the way by myself. I arrived at the lake about 45 minutes before sunrise and set up at a location that I thought would be good. About 20 minutes before

sunrise I was treated to one of the most intense sunrises I had ever seen.

The combination of color and calm, reflective water made this a wonderful experience. As the color started to fade, about 15 minutes before sunrise, another photographer arrived. He had seen what I had seen, but was not there yet. He moaned that he had missed it. I just smiled.

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Jackson’s Mill, WV I had been asked to come and shoot during a Civil War artillery certification/training weekend. You can see their encampment to the right of this image.

When people were just starting to stir, I went down to the historical section of Jackson’s Mill to find the mill pond perfectly still. As I was lining up this panorama I was also spying two geese that were sitting on the opposite bank of the pond. The whole time I was watching and wanting them to stay put so they would not to mess up this perfect reflection.

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St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church Harpers Ferry, WV The church that sits above the main streets of Harpers Ferry was originally built in 1833 and renovated to the current neo-Gothic style structure in 1896.

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Blackwater Falls Canyon View Blackwater Falls State Park Davis WV The hike down to the canyon is strenuous, but the result is worth the effort. Watching the water plunge the 62 feet before you and quickly run by is exhilarating. Sitting here after making the hike down and over the boulders, and experiencing this makes it very hard to get up and climb back out.

At the Tower Cass, WV This image of Shay #4 and #6 is not a stitched panorama but a normal single exposure cropped to a panoramic aspect ratio. I do this on occasion when part of the image contains “dead space”. In this case the foreground was just a plain stone road area. Removing this uninteresting area reveals an image that is full of interest.

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Coopers Rock State Forest Overlook Bruceton Mills, WV Because of its location near Morgantown and the ease of access to this wonderful overlook, Coopers Rock is probably the most visited of the state forests. I enjoy the mornings here with the fog lying over the Cheat River. In the summer the sun rises over your shoulder to the left, but in the winter, when the sun is at its southernmost travels, the sunrise is in the valley to the left of the image.

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Rock Cliff Lake George Washington National Forest Lost City, WV

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Located in the Trout Pond Recreation Area, this is the larger of the two lakes here. The other body of water, Trout Pond, is actually the only natural lake in West Virginia. All other lakes are man-made mostly for flood control.

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Thurmond, WV Thurmond, once a prosperous coal town in the New River Gorge, is now a part of the New River Gorge National River. I wanted to get a straight-on image of this abandoned part of town, but you cannot get far enough back to capture it in its entirety. So instead of the standard stitched panorama, 74

where you set the camera in one location and just rotate it on the tripod, I did something a little different. I set up the camera at the left edge of the buildings and took a shot. Then I moved to my right a few steps and took another and another until I finished the entire length.

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Early Winter at Spruce Spruce Knob, WV Early in October I was planning to shoot some fall color in the Monongahela National Forest after catching a sunrise. As I climbed higher on this

drizzly day, the rain started to change to snow. When I got to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia at 4,863 feet, snow covered the grassy areas. The fog was lying in the lower valley, but you can see the color of the leaves in the areas near the top. The overcast did not allow me to get a brightly colored sunrise, but the high clouds did pick up a muted color as the sun rose over this landscape.

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General Store Harpers Ferry, WV I’ve described this shop in Harpers Ferry to younger students as going to the mall in the 1800s.

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This shows a really neat effect of the panoramic method I use. The sections of the store shown on the left and right look like the store widens near where I am standing. In fact it does not, the store is the same width throughout. By spinning the camera on the tripod 180º while taking shots, this illusion is created.

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North Bend Reflection Cairo, WV

This is my first successful digital panorama. I had just purchased a small Canon point-and-shoot digital to see what all the talk was about. I set up to shoot with my little camera on my big tripod and captured this nearly perfect reflection just prior to the sunrise on a very overcast day.

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Wheeling Skyline Wheeling, WV Looking back at the city from along the banks of the Ohio River while on Wheeling Island, I caught the last light of the day for this shot.

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Valley Falls State Park I arrived at the park on this gloomy, overcast day with a little drizzle to shoot the falls. When I processed this image, I remembered the monochromatic feel of the day and decided to give it the same appearance as what I had experienced in the morning.

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Bear Rocks Morning Dolly Sods, WV The weather on top of the mountain is always unpredictable. This was the second day I had been shooting with a friend. On the first day we left Moorefield, WV, before 5 a.m. on our way to this spot with fog and drizzle. I said, “you never know what you will find at the top; it could be great.” It rained all day, but we got some great moody shots and returned soaked.

We left the next day with the same conditions in Moorefield, and this time we were greeted with wonderful fog in the valley and great clouds and color just before the sunrise.

View from Maryland Heights Harpers Ferry, WV This vantage point on Maryland Heights, across the Potomac River from Harpers Ferry, is another favorite spot for me. Being right over the railroad tunnel, the tracks create a leading line to the town. On the Maryland side of the river (the right side of the image) you can see the C&O Canal towpath running along the river.

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Canaan Loop Bogs Canaan Heights, WV

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Bog areas, like this one in Tucker County, provide great fall color and texture with the reds and browns of the blueberries, moss, and the cotton grass. Throw in a little fog and morning light, and you have a great morning for photography.

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Rumsey Monument Shepherdstown, WV This monument is located along the Potomac River near the spot where This image represents my first attempt at producing a stitched panorama James Rumsey first publicly demonstrated his steam powered boat in 1787. using a low-level aerial device.

This was a full 20 years before Robert Fulton demonstrated his steamboat.

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Blackwater Panorama Blackwater Falls State Park

cross the river by moving from rock to rock and set myself in the center of the river to get this look. Because the sun was just starting to burn through This panorama was shot in the Blackwater Canyon about 1/2 mile down- the fog layer that had formed above me, there is a slight magenta tint to the stream from the falls. Because the water level was low, I was actually able to clouds.

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Cacapon River Meets the Potomac River Great Cacapon, WV

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Here the Cacapon River (on the left) flows into the Potomac River after the river with a view of three states (WV, MD, PA). Here was a spot where passing under the CSX Railroad bridge that was built in 1910. I spent a George Washington would come to dream of a westward passage beyond great morning here watching herons, eagles, and hawks flying up and down the mountains. the river. Just a few miles behind me is an iconic panoramic overlook of 97

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Diamond Point Sunrise New River Gorge National River Lansing, WV This location is one of my favorite places to get a sunrise during the fall. At this time of year the sun rises directly ahead so that the river can be used as a leading line to the morning light.

Van Metre Ford Bridge Martinsburg, WV Built in 1832 over the Opequon Creek, this stone bridge is the oldest active bridge in the state. Since it is a one-lane bridge, there is always a move to replace it, but thus far it remains. This is a favorite of mine because when I was growing up I trekked across the bridge between school and home almost daily.

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Sandstone Falls Hinton, WV Sandstone Falls on the New River is another of my favorite places to shoot. The falls has many different angles and with different flow levels, fog, or even ice in the winter, there are so many different compositions that you can find. This makes each trip a new and exciting experience.

Sandstone Falls is near the beginning of the 53 miles of the New River Gorge National River established in 1978.

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Blennerhassett Mansion Blennerhassett Island State Park Parkersburg, WV This mansion is a reconstruction of the original built here in 1800 by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. Their original home burned to the ground in 1811, five years after the Blennerhassetts were forced to leave their home having become involved in the conspiracy by former Vice President Aaron Burr to supposedly create an independent country in the southwest.

This island state park is a wonderful place to photograph both for the historical significance, and also for the natural habitat along the river.

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Blackwater Sunrise Canaan Valley, WV Before the Blackwater River makes its famous plunge over the falls, it is a meandering waterway in the bogs of Canaan Valley. Here it picks up the tannins that provide its distinctive color.

Dunlop Creek Falls Thurmond, WV The main falls on Dunlop Creek is a focal point on the drive into the New River Gorge to visit Thurmond.

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Plum Orchard Lake WMA Scarboro, WV Exploring the space above the lake during sunrise provides a unique look at the area.

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In February 1983 the Shenandoah Valley experienced a 30-inch snowfall. One of the things Frank Ceravalo and his new wife realized was that they did not have a camera to take pictures of the event. So as soon as the snow melted enough to move, they went to a local photo shop and purchased a used 35mm range finder camera. He was given a 12-exposure roll of film and told to go out, give it a try, and bring the camera back if he did not like the results. One of the images from that roll resulted in his first landscape. Since then he has improved his technique and equipment, but the main focus of his photography has remained the same: nature and landscape photography.

Frank’s formal photographic training consists of adult education classes and several seminars. The majority of his education has been from personal reading, analyzing the work and technique of the top nature and landscape photographers, and his own experimentation in the field. Ceravalo has a BS degree in chemical engineering and spent over 25 years in industry and feels that the training as an engineer has helped with the technical aspect of photography. More importantly the use of the engineering mindset of always looking for different ways of viewing a situation and adapting to it, assists in capturing the image. He particularly likes morning for the quality of light but also for the effects of fog that are more prominent in the morning.

A majority of Frank’s work is from West Virginia, Virginia, and Western Maryland, but also includes images from a variety of places like the Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone, Alaska, Maine, Bavaria, Japan, and Italy.

Frank started with 35mm film and now shoots totally in digital to produce his photographs, viewing the type of camera used as only the tool to achieve the desired image. With these “tools,” his goal is to create an image composed with both form and light in a visually pleasing balance that tells the story of the location. In the current digital darkroom he uses standard darkroom techniques as well as methods like high dynamic range processing and panoramic image splicing to create images that reflect his vision of the setting.

The following are acknowledged for granting photographic access: Lost World Caverns Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine Durbin & Greenbrier River Railroad Smoke Hole Caverns St. James Parish, Charles Town, WV 112

This book represents a body of work I started in 2002 focused on producing images with a wider than normal aspect ratio from some of my favorite places around West Virginia. These panoramic images provide a unique perspective to the landscape of my home state.

Whether the shot was taken after multiple trips in the middle of the night to the same location, or a single moment in time captured quickly before it passed, each capture tells its own story. One of my goals in photography is to produce a final product that invites the viewer to step into the scene. These wider format images provide a vehicle for doing just that. I hope that as you view the pages of this book you feel yourself transported to these wonderful places our state has to offer.