(bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Viewfinders" is provided by Troncalli Subaru, located on highway 9 in Cumming.

Visit Troncalli Subaru or find out more online at troncallisubaru.com.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Here, at United Community Bank, we are committed to doing the little things to earn customer trust, one customer at a time.

United Community Bank is a proud sponsor of "Viewfinders."

- [Announcer] Take your career to the next level with online courses and flexible class schedules.

The graduate school at Georgia College and State University is an affordable way to earn the degree that will accelerate your career.

Learn more at gcsu.edu/graduate.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Chris] The Blue Ridge Parkway is a very special place for anyone who enjoys the unspoiled beauty of the Appalachian Mountains.

Stretching almost 470 miles from North Carolina to Virginia, it offers 200 scenic overlooks that allow visitors to stop and soak in seemingly unending views of distant mountains.

No matter if you like to hike, explore waterfalls, or just roll down your windows to breathe in the fresh, cool air, the Parkway offers so much to the 15 million people who visit it annually.

This is the first of two episodes that examine just a hint of the beauty that can be found along this very special road.

Welcome to The Blue Ridge Parkway.

- Stretching 469 miles through two states.

- Home to more plant species than any other park in the US.

- Home to the highest peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

- This is The Blue Ridge Parkway.

I'm Chris.

- I'm Paul.

- [Chris And Paul] And we are the "Viewfinders."

(upbeat folk music) (upbeat folk music continues) (upbeat bluegrass music) (upbeat bluegrass music continues) ♪ It was in the spring, one sunny day ♪ ♪ My good gal left me, thus went away ♪ ♪ And now she's gone, and I don't worry ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm sitting up on top of the world ♪ (upbeat bluegrass music) - [Chris] Here we are, Paul.

- [Paul] Blue Ridge.

- Blue Ridge Parkway, we have it to ourselves right now, which is incredible.

- (laughs) Insane.

I mean, it's one of the most popular destinations in the entire US.

I think I read that it is the most popular and visited park unit in the National Park system, and it's all ours right now, I mean, that's not gonna last.

(Chris laughing) - Someone made a mistake.

- Maybe has something occurred in society we don't know about?

I don't know, but it is beautiful.

- Yeah, I'm impressed, I'm really impressed.

- I mean, what were your thoughts, knowing we were gonna do this?

You hadn't been here before.

- [Paul] Well, I didn't know it was gonna be as cold.

I don't know why I didn't think of that, but.

(laughs) - What, middle of summer, and it's cold up here?

- 5,000 feet in the air, you should've known better.

But I like what I saw with the ridges.

I like the different layers I saw in the mountains.

I mean, I've seen it before.

I've never seen it on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

But, and I've never shot here before, so this was amazing, amazing to say the least.

- It's a gorgeous location.

- Really impressed, really impressed.

- It's like a photographer's playground.

There's so many overlooks.

- [Paul] It's hard choosing which one to shoot from.

- [Chris] Yes.

- [Paul] I mean, yeah.

- We've picked a lot of brains, talked to a lot of people, done a lot of research, there's so many to choose from.

But I think our focus during a lot of our time here is the ones that face east and west because of the sunrise and the sunset.

And so, I'm hoping something happens for us.

We're here long enough, I think there'll be enough sunrises, enough sunsets that we'll get something good.

I'm crossing my fingers on it at least.

- Yeah, me too, and toes, we'll see what happens.

- And toes, yeah, exactly.

But let's start exploring, see what we can find, learn about it, and I think we're gonna walk away with something good.

- Let's go man.

- Yeah.

(upbeat bluegrass music) ♪ She called me up from El Paso ♪ ♪ Said come back Danny, Lord, I need you so ♪ ♪ Now she's gone and I don't worry ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm settin' up on top of the world ♪ (upbeat bluegrass music continues) ♪ If you don't like the peaches, don't shake the trees ♪ ♪ Stay outta my orchard, let my peaches be ♪ ♪ And now she's gone and I don't worry ♪ ♪ Lord, I'm settin' up on top of the world ♪ (upbeat bluegrass music continues) (water splashing) - The hiking, it was a task.

It was a little brutal.

But I kept telling Chris, "I think it's worth it."

He didn't think it was gonna be worth it, just kidding.

- [Chris] Well, Paul, I showed up here, I was thinking it wasn't gonna work and I'll gladly admit I was slightly wrong.

- You weren't the only one.

(Chris laughing) You were not the only one.

But we had two things that concerned us coming in here, the amount of people we saw coming in and the sun.

But luckily, we got around both of those things.

- Let me add a third thing.

I thought this was a super short hike.

This is not, and we brought no water.

We're surrounded by water, and I want to drink it, but I have a feeling I'd pay the price if I did, so I'm not gonna do that.

But yeah, it was pretty, the clouds cooperated and gave us some flat light.

There weren't a lot of people around, and so I got a few compositions that I think look pretty good.

- Yeah, I think I got more than I thought I was gonna get, so I'm happy with it.

- [Chris] Yeah, totally.

- [Paul] Yep, good stuff.

- And now I'm hearing thunder- - It's time to pack up and get outta here.

- And we're a couple miles from the car, so we're gonna cross our fingers we make it back dry.

- [Paul] Yes sir.

- [Chris] But I tell you what, I'm gonna open my mouth if it rains, because that's how thirsty I am right now.

(laughs) (bright music) (camera shooting) (bright music continues) - The Parkway's 469 miles long, the speed limit's 45.

It's a nice leisurely ride through the mountains and it's all on the peaks of the mountains, so it's just beautiful views north and south of the Parkway.

It's just gorgeous.

- The origin of the Blue Ridge Parkway really goes back to the 1930s.

It was a product of many of the make-work projects of that era.

And construction actually started on the Blue Ridge Parkway September 11th, 1935.

So in 2022, we had over 16 million visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and that really is a testament, I think, to the vision of the designed landscape and that it offers so much to do for so many different kinds of people.

There are cultural sites to visit.

There's lots of hiking and outdoor recreation.

If you're a lover of beautiful scenery and natural settings, you've really got so many choices, and I think that that drives lots of different people to experience lots of different things on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

(phone alarm sounds) (gentle music) ♪ The moon bends ♪ ♪ The sun rises to greet me ♪ ♪ Another morning without you ♪ ♪ Though the physical is fading ♪ ♪ I will never let you go ♪ ♪ Never let you go ♪ ♪ Earth and time, they move forward ♪ ♪ But I don't, don't have to ♪ ♪ Every moment and memory ♪ ♪ I will never let you go ♪ ♪ Never let you go ♪ ♪ Don't leave me ♪ ♪ I didn't want this ♪ ♪ It's not fair ♪ - So the light's kinda starting to hit, and we're getting color popping clouds all around us.

There's some mist down at the bottom.

So I'm just kind of moving around.

I'm shooting in lots of different directions.

But Looking Glass Rock is back that way.

It's totally away from the sunrise.

But I think when the sun comes up enough, it's gonna light that rock.

There's some flowers along the edge of the parking area here.

I'm hopeful that that's gonna be one of my favorite shots from this morning.

But this is a really great location, 'cause there's a lot of different compositions available to us.

I can see Paul in a completely different area doing something totally different than myself, and that's what's really cool about photography.

We can be literally in the same physical location within 100 feet of each other and come away with very different images.

So I'm hopeful that that's gonna happen this morning, and we're gonna come away with some really good keepers.

But we got it all to ourselves, not a single car has come by in the past 30, 45 minutes.

It's just totally fantastic up here.

(gentle music continues) ♪ Don't leave me ♪ ♪ I didn't want this ♪ ♪ It's not fair ♪ ♪ Oh, don't leave me ♪ ♪ I didn't want this ♪ ♪ It's not fair ♪ (camera shoots) ♪ I walk onward ♪ ♪ To the end ♪ ♪ When I will see you, I'll se you again ♪ ♪ I will hold you in my arms ♪ ♪ And time is no longer parting us ♪ - So Paul, when my alarm went off at 4:50 this morning, I wasn't sure if it was gonna be worth it, but it was.

- There are not many things that are worth it, waking up that hour of the day, but that was.

It was one of those things where, I know sometimes when I'm out on a shoot, you have to search for a composition.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- That was one of those days or one of those sunrises where there was nothing you can do that would go wrong.

Every composition was fine.

- It was all good.

- Oh beautiful.

- What were you shooting?

Did you have your long lens on, medium lens, what were you doing?

- I had two cameras, two lenses.

I did have the long lens on for a couple of shots before the sun came up, but then I went to the mid lens but when the sun did come up and I did capture, I was able to get foreground, background, mid-ground.

And then actually, on the other camera, believe it or not, I did some macro work because of the glow that was coming up from the sun and the way it was hitting the flowers and the bees that were flying around there.

- [Chris] Yeah, there was a lot of 'em.

- [Paul] So hopefully, I got some of them in focus, but yeah.

- What a wonderful sunrise, our first sunrise in the Parkway, and it was one for the record books.

- Yeah, and I think, going off of what you said about the long lens, I do think, like you said, when you use that wide lens, sometimes you can lose the composition, you can lose the shot, because it's just a big, where do I look?

- There's just so much.

- Where's my attention supposed to go?

But I think with that long lens this morning, going way out there, putting some mountains in size order almost- - [Chris] Picking 'em apart.

- Yeah, yeah, I think that did the trick for me this morning, so.

- Yeah, and so what better way to just let that soak in and really have a great memory from the sunrise than to be sitting here, Pisgah Inn, wonderful view.

I mean, we're right at the window, and I'm ready for this meal.

(laughs) - [Paul] Yeah, me too.

- Because dinner last night was underwhelming.

It was like 10:30 at night, a frozen pizza, not so great.

So I think this- - I think we earned this.

- nice warm breakfast is gonna taste good.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Blue Ridge Parkway is a gem.

When I was little, up around Boone, when they were putting that section in, my father would take us up there, a lot of times on Sunday afternoon just to see, and you know, the bulldozers back then were little, almost like toys in comparison to what you see today out on the roadways, making roadways.

So, I remember those trips out there and just seeing the dirt and everything.

And then, when it opened, we got to go on it, and I'm always, love it.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - It is just a place where you can just stop anywhere along the way and have a picnic and enjoy the view, and it's peaceful.

And just anybody who enjoys looking at beauty, that is the one road I think in America that says it.

- I was born in the Appalachian Mountains, so I call 'em my mountains, even when I've not lived in the area, I've traveled.

To me, they're just the most special mountains.

There's so much variety on them, so many beautiful, beautiful wild flowers.

Many times, we'll walk into the deep woods and just seeing the floor of the woods, just looking in there and the magic.

And sometimes we're in the spruce forest, and it's totally different than the hardwood forests.

But every time, like Sharon said, even if it's the same trail, there's something different about it.

(gentle music continues) (birds chirping) (breeze blowing) - That light blue layer across the mountains, then the orange coming in there, the yellow on top of that, the blue on top of that.

Yeah, this is nice.

- It's looking good.

I hope it keeps popping.

I hope we get rewarded.

- Oh, I think we will.

(Chris chuckles) - I mean it's the Blue Ridge Parkway, right?

It's the iconic spot.

You want to get a great image.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) So this is a gorgeous overlook.

It's iconic in a lot of ways.

It's talked about in a lot of ways, and we're excited to be up here.

We're hoping we get some really good light.

We're hoping that the colors pop.

There's some clouds drifting in.

There's a lot of ways to shoot a scene like this.

It's very wide open.

There's a whole lot of mountain ranges and layers to look at.

If you go too wide though with your lens, they kind of disappear, and so what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to crop in tight with a telephoto and pick apart little intimate details of the landscape, little trees, ridge lines, and compress all of those layers to create a sense of depth to the scene.

And I think once the sun gets low enough where it's right over that distant, distant set of mountains, it'll come together.

It'll add that color, it'll add that dynamic light and range to the scene that I'm hoping is gonna look really, really nice.

- This is really looking nice.

I like the way this is looking.

Yeah, you can make a very minimalist shot here with just a couple of colors, no extravagant setup, just a good couple of ridges in the mountains, some color in the sky, couple of clouds, very minimalist, that's it.

Now this is what I mean by minimalist, just a couple of colors in this whole frame here, white, orange, blue, dark blue, light blue, different shades of blue.

But look at this, couple of mountain ridges here, another couple of mountain ridges there, another couple of mountain ridges there, basically it's just a layer on top of a layer, on top of a layer, on top of a layer, then you finally got the sky in the back.

So I like this, I really like it, I like it a lot.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) And typically with this, what I do is I just expose for the sky.

I usually do that in all my shots, because these cameras are so good, they can pick up what's in the shadows.

You don't really, in my opinion, need to worry about the shadows.

So I don't really concentrate too much on shadows.

I worry more about that, the highlights.

Right now, the highlight is that sky.

(gentle music continues) (camera shoots) (gentle music continues) - Well Paul, I don't know about you but I've been really impressed with the Blue Ridge Parkway.

- Very, very.

- I mean, every place we go, there's a picture.

- Well, places we've seen on like postcards or calendars at gift shops around here, and there were places we wanted to explore, but they're just so far out from where we are, we just couldn't get out there.

But like you said, if we had the time or anyone would have the time, weeks maybe months to explore this place, hands down, probably one of the best overall experiences I think I would have.

- Yeah, 100%.

And what's also really cool is we're not done.

So we've knocked out some of the places that we really wanted to see, but there's still some more on our list.

So we're not gonna be able to do the whole Parkway, but we got a little more Parkway to do.

And so, I'm hoping we continue our streak.

Our streak's been good.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Every single time, I'm looking on my back of my camera, like, "That's good.

"Oh, that's gonna be good when I edit it."

And the Parkway has given us a lot.

I hope it gives us a little more.

I hope it gives us a little more, so I'm excited.

- Keep our fingers crossed, might be hard to hit the shutter, but let's just do it.

- I know, man, so anyway, this has been phenomenal so far.

There's more to come, and we will definitely cross our fingers and get some more great images.

- Please.

- All right, man, let's go.

- Let's go.

(bright music) ♪ Hollows in the woods call out ♪ ♪ Trails up mountains climb ♪ ♪ Waves and sand keep beat and time ♪ ♪ Mossy blankets, swirling streams ♪ ♪ Over rocks and dirt ♪ ♪ Run at pace with all the earth ♪ ♪ Could we capture nature's wonder ♪ ♪ Find our way to getting lost ♪ ♪ Freeze a frame to save forever ♪ ♪ Adventure worth the cost ♪ ♪ Bees and dandelion grain ♪ ♪ Dance in sun-soaked fields ♪ ♪ Wind and gleam together yield ♪ ♪ Pocket worries fade to dim ♪ ♪ Wait on focus new ♪ ♪ Wild is coming into view ♪ (bright music continues) (bright music continues) ♪ Hues on fire in the clouds ♪ ♪ Perfectly exposed ♪ ♪ A song first played, and then composed ♪ ♪ Day is dying, dark will come ♪ ♪ Still we look for sight ♪ ♪ So we wander, chasing light ♪ ♪ Could we capture nature's wonder ♪ (bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Viewfinders" is provided by Troncalli Subaru, located on Highway 9 in Cumming.

Visit Truncal Subaru or find out more online at truncalsubaru.com.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Here, at United Community Bank, we are committed to doing the little things to earn customer trust, one customer at a time.

United Community Bank is a proud sponsor of "Viewfinders."

- [Announcer] Take your career to the next level.

With online courses and flexible class schedules, the graduate school at Georgia College and State University is an affordable way to earn the degree that will accelerate your career.

Learn more at gcsu.edu/graduate.