I can still remember the feeling, driving down the “beaten path” on I24 through Kentucky on that cool, breezy afternoon. We were headed to Texas for the total solar eclipse and I was enjoying the scenery as we spun along in our Subaru. Julianna needed a place to stop and feed the baby, and we were hungry too. I started looking for a good place to pull off and noticed a patch of green on Google Maps close to the Interstate. The name sounded even more promising: Vista Ridge Park.

I slowly pulled into a spacious parking lot, surrounded by tall elegant trees. Spread out in front of us lay a beautiful lake. The water lapped against the shore and eastern bluebirds flitted among the trees. There were little paths running here and there, beckoning to be explored. Julianna’s eyes sparkled. “What a lovely spot!” I grabbed a bunwich and my camera and set off down the nearest path while Julianna took care of Mordecai. I decided, just for fun, that I would take up the Creative Challenge suggested by Logan on the forums so brought along my 24-70mm instead of my usual go-to 16-35mm.

I followed the trail along the edge of the water. Not too much caught my eye. There was the typical brushy shore. Lots of rocks. The sky drooped with thick gray clouds. No direct sunlight here.

But I did noticed three, small trees along the shore that could look evenly spaced from each other if I stood in the right place. I took the time to compose my photo, perfecting the angle and placing myself intentionally.

Then I framed up the center tree by itself, my eye being caught by the way the tree seemed to grow up right between two rocks.

Which do you like better, the B&W or color? Personally, the color photo is my favorite. I like that the green leaves bring to mind more “springy” thoughts.

I was enjoying seeing things differently, walking around with a mid-range lens! Then came the surprise I mentioned in this previous post! Something I totally did not expect to see in Kentucky. First I heard it. A voluminous splashing noise. A steady, low, droning sound. Through the trees, I caught a glimpse of it. A giant object making its way across the water. Up ahead I saw a break in the trees with a vista overlook opening up above the lake. I ran up to it just as a giant barge came into view! It was so long I couldn’t even fit the whole things into my frame! However, as it passed by and moved slowly off into the distance, it fit nicely into a more telephoto framing.

As the barge splashed its way out of sight, I turned my attention to the overlook. Julianna and Mordecai had joined me by now, and we both agreed that this place wasn’t anything we would have expected to find in Kentucky either! I almost wished for my wide angle lens. But true to Logan’s challenge, I framed up a shot as best as I could to capture what was there. I loved the texture in the clouds and the cracks in the cement! They provided a bit of depth, inviting the eye to travel deeper into the frame. Here is the raw photo, straight out of the camera, intentionally underexposed to not wash out the detail in the sky.

Here’s an edited version, more like what it looked like in real life.

To make it look more like a “vista” landscape photo, I cropped it at a wider ratio (below).

And then, for my final version, I took the artistic license to add just a hint of “sunlight” there on the horizon to help make the photo more interesting since there isn’t really a clear subject.

I liked it! But evidently Mordecai wasn’t as thrilled with the little overlook as I was.

We needed to get back on the road, so we headed back to the parking lot. With my creative juices flowing now, I snapped photos on the way back to the car.

What a fun little place that spot had turned out to be! I was pleasantly surprised at what we had found close to the beaten path.

Also close to the beaten path was the enchanting place we camped that night. So close, in fact, that you could hear the cars on the interstate off in the distance. But you would never guess by looking at the striking photos I got the next morning that we were even close to civilization! Stay tuned as I plan to share those in a future blog post!