OK, I admit it. I’m a sucker for sunsets (and sunrises). And Floyd County boasts some of the most spectacular sunsets (and sunrises) you will find anywhere.

This one caught my eye on the way home. Just enough clouds in the sky to add color as the sun disappeared behind the mountains.

One of the reasons I’m usually late getting home stems from just stopping and gazing.

When the moon is full, the rising and setting of that old lunar sphere also adds to the beauty of nature and I’ll stop on any road, crowded or empty, to photograph that beauty.

Such is the nature of photography..and the photographer.

Those who suffer from an addiction to capturing such moments understand it. Those who don’t understand are just plain losing out.

OK, I realize that in this commercial age, no opportunity for advertizing must be lost (just watch any NASCAR race to understand that) but when exactly did the butt become a billboard?

Take a look at the posterior side of shorts these days and you will find them emblazoned with brand names, school names or whatnot.

Label identification has come a long way (or short way). When even school stadiums now carry sponsor’s names, the age of commercialization is complete.

Or is it? In Taiwan, prostitutes sell space on their bodies for tattoo ads (condoms are a popular commodity for such art) and police cars in cash-strapped East St. Louis, Illinois, carry sponsor names.

And sponsors, knowing that any healthy heterosexual male is going to look at a nice butt in tight shorts, knows this is the way to sell the product, so to speak.

But what happens when the butt ain’t all that tight and the sponsor’s name is stretched across a broad expanse of backside that qualifies as a small country?

When it comes to butt ads, is bigger better? Should the butt be the size of a roadside billboard? Or is less what we need to see in ass-ver-tizing?

Stumbled across just such an example not long ago — a pair of shorts with the Abercrombe & Fitch logo. Abercrombe pitches its line of clothes to nubile young things whose figures are usually just this side of emaciated.

Not sure this view is quite what the retailer had in mind, although anyone who’s ever looked at Abercombe and Fitch’s now-defunct catalog knows a distinct lack of clothing fits more into their image.

Are we being sexist in even asking the question? Should we place so much emphasis on a lithe young body when most of the real world is a big broader in size and structure? Guilty as charged.

Whenever Amy and I see a carnival, we have to stop: she for the funnel cakes, me for the chance to pull out my camera and photograph kids.

Carnivals bring out the kid in all of us. I’m not talking about the over-produced (and over-priced) theme parks like Kings Dominion or Busch Gardens, but the weekend carnivals that set up in vacant lots and strip shopping centers — the old-time carnivals that travel from town to town during the spring, summer and fall months.

They offer more value for the buck and the hint of sleaziness that should always be part of a visit to a carnival.

Carnivals are distinctly American (even though the roots of carnivals date back to the Middle Ages in Europe).

The first ferris wheel turned at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892 and many of the carnival "games" like foosball are American creations. More than once, we’ve left a carnival with some huge stuffed creature lashed to the top of our Jeep.

Once, we had several, including one lashed to the hood like a prize deer captured in hunting seasons.

Put a kid on a carny ride and the smile turns on and doesn’t stop. I’ve got hundreds of images of kids at carnivals and hope to add hundreds more in the years to come. The next time you see a ferris wheel on the horizon, head for it. It will be worth your while.

Saw the setting moon first while driving out of my driveway this morning, then again along Buffalo Mountain Road. Stopped several times to shoot it. Later, heading north on U.S. 221, saw this sight in my rear view mirror. Stopped again. Shot another series. Call it “Moonset.” As I head back to Arlington today, that [...]

With all due respect to the Friday Night Jamboree and its popularity, Mabry Mill stands as Floyd County’s most popular tourist attraction (although the county shares Mill property with Patrick County).

The Mill also ranks #1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway’s list of attractions and was even used as a backdrop for Salem cigarette commercials back in the days when tobacco companies could push their products on TV.

Like most Parkway attractions, the Mill draws most attention during the Spring, Summer and Fall months, but I’ve always liked to visit it during the Winter and early Spring, when the water in the Mill trace is diverted and the grounds are quiet.

Even now, as the grass returns to green and the weather warms, the Mill is a more a place of solitude, not tainted by the mass of tourists who will start arriving just before Memorial Day and pack the place until just after Labor Day.

In 1910, local resident Ed Mabry built the grist mill near Meadows of Dan, but the flat land lacked a stream strong enough to generate power for milling. He and his wife Lizzie began buying land to gain the water rights. It took them another four years to put together five small parcels of land and build an extensive flume system, complete with a small dam to store the runoff from rains and Spring thaws.

Mabry’s Mill used two sets of stones, one for grinding cornmeal and the other for a grain mixture fed to livestock. Mabry had many loyal customers and he complimented the mill with a blacksmith shop, sawmill and carpentry shop.

Mabry died in 1936 and his wife operated the mill until designers of the Blue Ridge Parkway chose Mabry Mill as a special scenic places to be preserved. Although the mill remains operational, it grinds meal only occasionally.

Mabry’s blacksmith shop and other parts of the Mill property form the Mountain Industry Trail, a collection that includes a blacksmith shop, soapmaking facilities and — of course — a moonshine still.

When it rode the rails of the Norfolk & Western Railway, locomotive 611 was something to see, a streamlined, steam-powered monster that brought stares and a sense of awe whenever it passed. When my mother returned to Floyd County after my father’s death, we rode into Roanoke on an N&W passenger train pulled by 611. [...]

Warm weather, cold weather, rain or even snow doesn’t stop the trout fisherman who find their favorite spot on Floyd County’s many streams. They’re out when I leave in the early morning hours and I expect to see them when the days get long enough for it to still be daylight when I return. When [...]

Heading back to Arlington Sunday for our alternate week in the city when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw an awesome sight of clouds outlined by the sun. Pulling over on I-66 Eastbound on a busy Sunday afternoon ain’t the brightest idea in the world but I headed for the shoulder and pulled my camera out of the bag in the back of the Wrangler. The halo outline that had caught my attention in the rear view was gone by the time I got stopped but the sky was still awesome. Mother nature always has a few tricks up her sleeve.

Season changes are among my favorite times of the year, especially when Fall is making way for Winter and Winter is moving out of the way for Spring.

It is a time of year when the sky provides magical light shows at sunrise and sunset. Sometimes, you sit on the top of a hill and wait for Mother Nature’s show to amaze you. Sometimes, it just sneaks up on you, as this sky did.

We spotted it while walking out of the Lowe’s in Christiansburg. I get the same sense of awe when the warm light of a sunset bathes our studio in The Jacksonville Center in Floyd.

I can look out the window and see the sun setting near the Buffalo.

I saw such sunsets many, many times while growing up in Floyd County and am rediscovering them again after returning. It’s the best show in town. It runs on its own schedule and it’s always free for anyone who just takes the time to enjoy it.