The Year that Was 2022 — Stories Behind My Favorite Images of 2022 (Part 4 — The Kentucky Derby)

Dec 24

Happy Holidays!

This is the fourth and last installment of stories behind my favorite images of 2022. The first three can be found here, here, and here.

In November I went to Kentucky for business. Although I missed the Fall colors there, I still had a few good sessions to produce several images, which ended up on my favorites list for 2022.

Click on the image to go to the product page. Without further ado…

At the end of my first day in Kentucky, I went to the waterfront in Louisville for sunset. I arrived in advance, walked around, crossed the Ohio river on the Big Four bridge to the Indiana site, and finally settled to watch the sun go down, with the beautiful sunset washing over the different bridges and Louisville skyline.

Sunset at George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge and Louisville Downtown Skyline

I was lucky to get a beautiful afterburner that day as well, and had fun to photograph the different bridges, including some night shots I haven’t finished editing yet.

Panorama of the Sunset at Abraham Lincoln Bridge and Louisville Downtown

Abraham Lincoln Bridge and Louisville Downtown Night Shot

After I was done with work on the next day, I drove to Cumberland Falls State Resort Park for the weekend. Although the forecast was for rain on Saturday and partially cloudy Sunday, I didn’t really get any sun. However, I did get some moody shots with brewing clouds and rain.

On the first morning, I went to photograph the beautiful Cumberland Falls. These magnificent falls are sometimes called the Little Niagara or the Niagara of the South. They are set in a beautiful wooded and mountain surrounding in the Daniel Boon National Forest. The falls are one of the few places where you can see a moonbow. Unfortunately, I was a few days too late to see this phenomenon, and I doubt I would have been able to with the heavy cloud cover. However, I had a chance to capture some beautiful moody shots of the waterfalls.

A beautiful black and white version of this shot can be found in the Monochrome gallery. At one point in the morning the light rain turned into a downpour, and I went to have breakfast at the lodge. The restaurant at the lodge has a beautiful view of the river and the mountains. I went to the balcony and took some amazing misty, rainy views, two of which make it to this list.

Panorama of the Stormy Morning at Cumberland Falls State Park

Stormy Morning at Cumberland Falls State Park

The next day I hiked to the Dog Slaughter Falls. The hike winds through a beautiful forest along the Dog Slaughter Creek. It has many opportunities for beautiful woodland scenes in the right light conditions and in Fall. I had the falls all to myself and spent a good amount of time photographing them. Two of the shots make it to the list of my favorites in 2022.