Laurel Hill — HDR From the Archives
Laurel Hill in 2009
Every now and then, while scouring my archives, I come across a project from long ago worth revisiting. These images were captured while riding the early mountain bike trails at Laurel Hill Park in Lorton, Virginia, shortly after they opened to the public in 2008.
Back then, many of the old penitentiary buildings were still standing—particularly those along what are now the Dairy Barn and Pasture loops. As I rode and wandered around them, it struck me that the weathered structures would make an interesting subject for some High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography.HDR was something a lot of photographers were experimenting with at the time. The technique combines multiple exposures of the same scene to capture a wider range of light and shadow than a single image can record. The results can be subtle or dramatic depending on how far you push the effect.
During that time I was also shooting a lot of soccer, and a couple of photographer friends (Sarah and Sean Baker) were experimenting with strobes and other techniques and getting some really cool results. I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon and try it myself, so I brought my DSLR along on a ride and captured a handful of images.
Most of the structures depicted here are long gone from the Laurel Hill grounds, and these images now serve as a small historical record of what once stood along the trails. Other than the silos, the rest have disappeared from view. The buildings may be gone, but the Laurel Hill trails remain. I recently rode them during an unusual Mid-Atlantic ice event, when a layer of frozen sleet turned the trails into something riders jokingly called “snowcrete.”
