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
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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.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Between Two Worlds” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
A cool breeze drifts across the Kanawha River and brings with it the fresh scent of the rain. It’s odd how thst even though the crystal blue sky only shows a few scant clouds in the West that you can smell the rain before it moves in. The low angle of the sun was hitting the river just right to turn the water above the hydroelectric plant into a mirror. The cormorant was perched on his arched branch soaking in the morning sun.
Image Titled Cormorant In Morning 101119
Not really having a particular agenda for the day allowed me to take full advantage of the peace and quiet. I just sat there gazing onto the depths of the reflections that were only broken by the occasional fallen leaf flow down the river on its trek to the South. This is what it means to be human. To have been endowed by a creator with the ability to appreciate the wonder made by his hand. To be close enough to creation so as to see the beauty in every little grain of sand on the shore and that each one has a number but not so close that the wonderment is lost. It’s this state that gives us the drive to push deeper into the mystery. But at the same time we secretly hope that the mystery never ends. As I continue to be enthralled with colors and textures of the river and the reflections that were laid out before my eyes the movement of the bird’s wings drew my attention as he rper into the air and floated on the breeze. The one thing that we had in common at that moment was that we were both suspended between two worlds.
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 “Kanawha Falls 82219a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The late August sun pours down on the Kanawha River as my big blue truck comes to a rest under the arching trees. The roar of the falls drowns out the days noise and pushes away all of the pressures of civilization. I watched as the geese flew in and landed on the bare rocks that stand out from the falls. One by one they meander along until they find just the right spot to settle down for a break. It seems that they instinctively know that this place is a fortress to provide isolation from the modern world. I can feel the air flowing from the top of falls as it spills into valley. Occasionally the bird chatter is strong enough to breech the sound of the rushing water giving a contrast to the droning falls. Small flashes of sunlight dance among the ripples on the river’s surface as the minnows dart around in the shallows. A little farther down the banks a trail of smoke rises into the air and travels downstream as a fisherman prepares for an evening of trying to get the one that got away last time.
I wander around taking notice of the odd shapes of driftwood and color variations on the sandstone pebbles until my sense of peace is contented. Before making my way back to the big blue truck I raised my lens for a few shots of the falls so I can bring the peaceful feeling to you.
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 