Follow the Path

I was at Little River Canyon to photograph the fall colors.

My plan was to work my way north through the canyon toward Little River Falls, stopping along the way whenever something caught my attention. One of those stops was Eberhart Point Overlook.

The overlook is tiered, so I made my way down to the lower section to look around and make some photographs.

When I finished, I turned around to head back up.

And there it was.

The path curved away from me beneath the trees, surrounded by fall color. The branches and leaves seemed to frame the trail naturally as it disappeared around the bend.

It looked almost pristine.

If it weren't for the edge of the concrete overlook visible beside the trail, it could have been a scene from the cover of a novel.

So I stopped and took the photograph.

That's really the entire story behind Follow the Path.

There wasn't a long hike involved. I wasn't exploring some hidden trail deep in the woods. I hadn't spent an hour waiting for the light to change.

I simply turned around and saw a photograph.

What's been interesting is what happened afterward.

People seem to find much more mystery in Follow the Path than I ever intended.

At art shows, someone will occasionally stop in front of it and ask where the trail leads. Sometimes they imagine it's the beginning of a path disappearing deep into the woods.

That's usually when I have to ruin the mystery.

It leads to the parking lot.

More specifically, it's the path from the lower tier of Eberhart Point Overlook back toward the parking area.

When I tell people that, they usually laugh.

But knowing where the path actually goes doesn't change what made me photograph it.

For that brief moment, I wasn't looking at a path to a parking lot. I was looking at the curve of the trail, the fall leaves surrounding it and the way the trees naturally framed the scene.

It looked right.

What surprises me even more is the life this simple photograph has taken on since then.

Follow the Path was selected for In The Practice of Seeing – National Juried Photography Exhibition at Jacksonville State University.

That still catches me a little off guard.

Of all the photographs I've made—the waterfalls, mountains, coastlines, sunrises and places I've traveled—this one started with something incredibly ordinary.

I turned around.

I noticed a path.

In a way, Follow the Path is a pretty good example of how many of my photographs happen.

I can have a destination in mind. I can know where I'm going and what I expect to photograph when I get there.

Then something catches my attention.

In this case, I simply turned around.

And there was the photograph.

I took the picture.

Available as Fine Art

Follow the Path is available as a fine art print from Bama Price Photography.