I am a West Virginia native who has always loved photography. I have studied it for many years. I recently turned my hobby into a business. I do event photography, senior and family portraits. I also have several home décor prints and items available for purchase. Some of my photos have been used for book covers. I hope to soon have an on line store at this site.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Panning For Gold” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The leaves fall gently into Little Elk Creek and are carried down to the Gauley River. I can smell the moss growing on the edge of the water as I kneel down to get a better look at the tiny golden rafts as they pool beneath the towering giants on the line between my yard and the forest.
The little minnows that dart around my portion of the creek have already headed for the deeper waters if the Gauley. They’ll not be back until Spring and usually return with the frogs in May. There’s a few small white fall Asters that linger in sunny spots and I still see the odd bee here and there. As I watched the leaves floating in the eddies a blue jay suddenly becomes aware of my presence and cries out as he circles overhead. The crows also fly over one by calling out three times that man is in the area. This doesn’t really seem to bother the songbirds and they continue their chorus in the thinning canopy. The recent rain has softened the forest floor but I can still hear the squirrels moving through the fallen leaves. Occasionally I see a bushy tail pop out from behind a tree.
The breeze has changed from balmy to chill and damp and I know that more rain is on the way. The camera in my hands is weather resistant but not weatherproof and so I snapped a few shots and returned to the house.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “The Road Ahead Of Us” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Once the path I took was harsh and rocky. Dark clouds always seemed to loom over my head. My steps were slow and heavy. But then someone took my hand and the sky began to clear. There was still the occasional cloud but I don’t really mind walking in the rain when I’m not walking alone. The sky ahead of us is turning blue and the road seems straight, firm and smooth. Let’s walk together all the way until it ends and time no longer exists.
Happy Anniversary Angie. Thirty years is just the beginning.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “October Flame” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
As we approach the peak of Fall Colors in my little slice of Appalachia I am looking through my archive to get an Idea of the timing and places where I’ll find opportunity for a nice shot. I found a photo from last year that somehow escaped publication.
I remember the day I took the picture. The weather was warmer than usual and I was out enjoying the sunshine before the long dark nights of winter. The light filtered through the canopy just right to illuminate the leaves and make them look like living flames. The land drops off at the base of the tree and down in the ravine I can hear the squirrels scurrying around in the leaves. Occasionally I see the squirrels running through the canopy in an arboreal game of tag. They race along the amber hued branches and down the trunk of the adjoining tree. They plowed through piles of fallen leaves raising a clamor in the otherwise silent forest. I lost sight of them several times only to see them pop up in a distant clump of colorful leaves.
Sunny Fall days are meant to be enjoyed and there’s no better form of play than causing a rukus in the fallen leaves.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Transitioning Maple 101319” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
At the end of the workday I roll the big blue truck out to the edge of the parking lot. Nobody parks out this far and it’s like the city ends with the asphalt. This little pocket of wilderness has become my sanctuary for decompressing and leaving my “job self” at the office.
The leaves have begun to emulate the the sunsets that have trained them all Summer long. Beautiful hues of red, orange, yellow and even a few that are a dark purple. The light breeze gently shakes the maples causing the reds, yellows and oranges to flicker like a campfire.
Behind me a female Cardnial gives sharp chirps as she tracks her mate while he forages through the deep undergrowth for seeds and berries. I can also hear a woodpecker as it hammers an unseen snag in the distance.
The setting sun broadcasts golden light through the tree line that forms a border between the open field and the parking lot causing even more flickering on the little maple tree. As the light and shadows dance in the leaves my sense of peace is restored and it’s time to turn the big blue truck towards home.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is untitled and was taken specifically for this article. All of the photos are my original work and are available as prints by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
When I started doing the Forage Friday posts I was concerned about finding enough plants that qualified as something one might forage. What shouldn’t have been a surprise was just how bountiful the wilderness of Appalachia is. The mountains are absolutely loaded with the American Beech. And a mature beech tree is capable of producing a huge amount of beech nuts. A few years ago when bio- diesel was a hot topic there was a lot of concern about converting crops into fuel and what that might mean for the food supply. At the time, I remembered reading in a survival book about people in the past substituting beechnut oil for lamp oil and the idea hit me that with the vast amount of beech nuts in the forest that perhaps a program to convert it into a fuel crop would be beneficial. I never really perused the idea but I never forget it either. The amount of eeffort it would take to do this even if it were only supplying energy for one household would make it impractical. But still, a little bit of beechnut oil has some interesting potential. The nuts themselves are edible but it’s not really a good idea to eat them raw in larger quantities due to a mild toxin called fagin. Fagin is found in the skin of nut itself and it’s said that roasting them makes it easier to remove the skin. ( similar to the skin found on chestnuts. ) The nuts are also a little astringent. As a kid I remember hoping that they would be like eating a raw chestnut and bit into one. I was pretty disappointed. Enough so that I gave up on them and spit it out almost immediately. But the oil is said to be quite different. The fagin is not present in the oil and neither is the tannins that make the nut astringent and slightly bitter. ( Tannins are water soluble and are removed by leeching in water. )
Last Friday I talked to you about how there’s actually a commercial market for Tiger Nuts and after posting the article I saw that the top Google results for Tiger Nuts was around $13.00 Per pound and the average yield was about 300 pounds per acre. But beech nut oil’ s top Google results was only one supplier at a whopping $75.00 for an 8 ounce bottle of cold pressed beech nut oil. I didn’t find enough hits to give me an idea of market demand for it but I did find srveral websites proclaiming health benefits of beech nut oil which makes it worthy of more research.
The unripe bur waiting for just the right moment to drop from the tree.
The nuts are born in burs and each bur contains 3 triangle shaped nuts. The shape of nut reminds me a bodkin style arrowhead. The nuts are also tiny. About the size of a large sunflower seed. The ground beneath the tree in my parent’s yard was so full of beech nuts that it was like walking in the pebbles near the edge of river. That’s even with a horde of squirrles carrying the nuts away as fast as they can. Beech nut trees don’t really bear fruit until they are about 40 years old but by the time they’re 60 years old they really make up for lost time.
From a foraging point of view beech trees also offer a few other things. The buds are also edible in early Spring although the papery shealth makes them a little awkward to consume. I have also tried the new leaves which aren’t too bad. The guide books say that the inner bark is also edible but if it’s like some of the other inner barks it requires a lot of work to process.
The wood of beech is sold as Maple and often has a beautiful grain that shows a lot of ray fleck.
As you look out of windows and see the bright yellow yellow leaves this fall some of them are going to be beech. It just might be worth a trek out to mark the spot of this very useful tree.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC 