Mike Walker Photography

Spring is one of the best times to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The new green leaves on the trees, the flowers blooming everywhere and the full streams from the winter snow and spring rains make for some wonderful photography. I probably spent the majority of my recent visit photographing the streams and waterfalls (a personal favorite of mine). The image above was taken at an often photographed location in the Tremont area of the park.

Of course, when you are in the Smokies, you will have plenty of opportunity to capture the “smoke” this park is famous for.

What I enjoy most about the spring is the the fantastic green color that appears everywhere. It is a welcome sight that follows the grays of winter! More photos from GSMNP are here and for information on other Smoky mountains photography workshops, click here.

I recently returned from a great workshop in and around Charleston, SC, visiting locations like Folly Beach, Botany Bay, Middleton Plantation and the historic streets of old town Charleston. It is a fantastic area to photograph. The image above was taken in the morning before sunrise at Botany Bay where several trees stand offshore and many photographers stand onshore!

The image below is from Middleton Plantation, a large estate of beautiful gardens, ponds, farm animals and 18th century buildings. The azaleas had just started blooming the weekend I was there.

This next image is of Folly Beach with the rocks and the seawall framing the Atlantic Ocean and rising sun. To see more images from this visit to Charleston, click here.

My very first visit to Death Valley National Park was a total surprise. Whatever my preconceived ideas of this park were, they were totally wrong. I was shocked by the variety of color in this place. This was not the drab, vast wasteland I thought it was. It is a beautiful and exotic world where even the color of the sand is breathtaking and the salt formations of the Badwater Basin area appear other-worldly.

The nearby Alabama Hills also hold fascinating rock formations and colorful evenings.

This is definitely an area that should be on every photographer’s must see locations list. I will certainly be returning (but not in the heat of summer since temps can top 120 degrees!!) To see more images from this spectacular area, click here.

Just returned from a great workshop last weekend in St. Augustine, Florida. Three days of wonderful sunrises and sunsets, plus it wasn’t too bad being in 70 degree weather! The shot above was taken in early morning, pre-sunrise light. The area was located just south of Marineland outside of St. Augustine. The shoreline along this part of Florida features coquina rock which has fantastic shapes and patterns.

As for sunset, you can’t get a much more spectacular sky then we had in the shot below. Taken from the shoreline under the Francis and Mary Usina bridge which carries State Road 1A over the North River from St. Augustine to the Vilano Beach area.

Well after sunset, this view of the pier at St Augustine Marina had a surreal feel with the green cast from the fluorescent lighting of the pier and the purplish color of the sky. More images from the workshop are at this link.

The last day of my trip to Oregon and California started off at sunrise on the beach at MacKerricher State Park near Ft. Bragg, CA. It was overcast and gloomy at the hotel but by the time we arrived at the park, the skies looked promising but the light show that followed was totally unexpected. There is a great line of posts planted along the beach that provide a wonderful graphic element and when you are lucky to have an incredible sky….

Along this same stretch of beach is the remnant of a large tree stump. I had to work between incoming waves that surrounded the stump but it was worth photographing this beautiful piece of wood. If you would like to see more, my gallery of images from this trip can be found at this link.

A walk through a redwood forest is a unique experience. The coastal redwoods that range from southern Oregon to central California are the world’s tallest trees, standing up to 320 feet in height. These images are from the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park outside of Crescent City, CA. This park contains some of the most often photographed redwoods along the Stout Grove Trail.

The beauty of the moss covered tree below was highlighted by the early morning light and fog.