Return to Lake Wheeler Park

I wanted to visit one of the nearby lakes on Sunday, both to photograph and squeeze in a trail walk if I could. I was torn between going to Lake Benson in Garner or Lake Wheeler south of Raleigh. I chose Lake Wheeler, and afterward, I wish I had gone to Benson. 

Being a weekend day, it was crowded in the park, plus the trail I was hoping to use for my dead-ended at a point well before where I remember it stopping the last time I was there, which was September 2023. I remembered that in 2023, the lake water level was extremely low, which enabled me to walk along a nice chunk of shoreland on which I hopped onto from the trail. But the water level was normal or higher on Sunday, and that whole shoreline I was able to walk previously was under water.  

So the walk was a brief one, and the variety of shots was among my most disappointing in my scores of photo shoots over the years. Nevertheless, given that this blog IS supposed to be -- for the most part, anyway -- a chronicle of my shoots, I feel obligated to present something from the effort. 

 I liked the photo leading off the post, even though it's not in the realm of being anything close to stunning. It just helps introduce a calming effect. 

For the non-wooded portion of the shoot, which I handled first, I used a circular polarizing filter on my lens hoping to get better transparency and less glare on the water as well a slightly richer blue color in the water and sky. I switched to a UV filter (which I otherwise always use to protect the real lens glass behind it) for the shots along the wooded trail.

In addition to the filters, I returned to using spot metering for my shots and set my aperture priority to f/11.3 instead of the f/8 I had been using. f/11.3 gives me a longer range of field that is in sharp focus in landscape shots. 

To view a full gallery of images from this shoot (although there aren't many more beyond what I included here), follow the link in this sentence. 

For the shots above and first four below, I was at the far end of one of the piers looking back to shore. 

The overlook above, positioned right on the shoreline, is a popular spot for fishermen and women to do their thing. There are two people on the overlook; one just right of center and another partially obscured sitting on the wooden frame on the far left. Because he was partially obscured, I moved to the right and went to full zoon (300mm) on the lens to grab the photo below.  

Above and below:  When the sun hits the water with a sooty bottom, as in the shots above and below, you can get rewarded with this striking color variance. I actually had to tone down the saturation on the above photo, it was so strong on the original unedited version. 

Above: I wished I'd had more color in this shot of what appears to be a pool of pine cones, but ... I boosted the orange just a very tiny bit. Conversely, I again had to lower saturation on the shot below of a water vessel of some kind. 

Above: You have to look real hard at the center of this photo, which I wouldn't even bother posting if I were intent on presenting only good things or my best. I didn't see this goose until the last moment, and it was headed into some brush that would have put it out of camera range, so I turned, auto-focused and tripped the shutter. It lacks the sharpness I strive for, but I present it as a reminder that every shooter has misses along the hits.

Above and below: One of the interesting encounters on the trail walk were these new homes built in the woods. There's enough forest that I can't believe the residents of these swellings have much of a view of the lake. But on the other hand, it would be a very short jaunt for them to hop on the trail I was on and head to the water beyond the trailhead. The two kayaks (I think) afixed to a tree in the second photo below was on the property of the home below.   

Return to Lake Wheeler finds several rowing teams practicing their sport

I’d been told that Saturday mornings are busy for rowing team practices at Lake Wheeler here in Raleigh, and after an impromptu stop there today, I’m inclined to believe it.

Teams were arriving, rowing and departing from the moment I arrived until an hour or so later when I left after walking about a mile along a wooded trail — with a brief side trip to open space along the shore line. In some spots of the latter, those open spaces were huge, the result of what signs near the entrance indicated was a low lake water level.

Saturday was the third consecutive day here of bearable, normal summer weather after a couple weeks of brutally hot and humid conditions. The reprieve started when remnants of Hurricane Idalia moved through North Carolina on Wednesday evening.

I'd been to Lake Wheeler Park once previously, in fall 2018. I explored other areas of the park on that first visit, so I concentrated on other areas on this visit. I shot today's images with the iPhone 13 Pro, testing its zoom capacity to the hilt (and not with complete satisfaction).   

Photos in this post will show bits of all that I mentioned above, starting with the rowing team shells. The last two photos are a shot of a man and two children fishing and a nicely landscaped rapids near the parking lot and community center.

To view a full gallery of all my shots from today's shoot, follow the link in this sentence.

A lake, a pond and other things at Wake County's Lake Wheeler Park

In southern Wake County, N.C., there are two lakes, Wheeler and Benson, that are about 6 miles apart as the crow flies. Three major north-south thoroughfares are between them -- Lake Wheeler Road on the far west (which goes right by the lake of the same name), Fayetteville Road in the middle, and Old Stage Road on the east (although technically Old Stage runs along Lake Benson's western border).

On maps, they look to be almost the same size -- big enough to support recreational boating, fishing, and parks that allow for trails and hiking, playgrounds, and picnicking -- but not anywhere close to the size of, say, Lake Winnebago (which I include for my Wisconsin friends and readers!).

Both lakes happen to be within reasonable traveling distance to where I live, so I decided to visit each recently to indulge some photography -- finally -- after months of putting it off. Ideally, I should have waited until the autumn colors changed, but there's nothing that would prevent me from going back at some point.

I use today's post for the first of the lake parks that I visited recently, Lake Wheeler, the one after which a major road has been named. It has 800 total acres, of which 650 are water.

On the day I was there, Sept. 25, it was overcast the whole time, so I did not use my polarizing filter for any of the shots. I like using the polarizing filter when I do any shooting involving bodies of water because it helps cut through glare and does a beautiful job bringing detail to water reflection and enriching the blue in skies. The reverse would be true when I made it to Lake Benson six days later; it was sunny the whole time, so the polarizing filter came out for that shoot.

I came upon a surprise when I started strolling through Lake Wheeler Park; there is a picturesque 8-acre pond, surrounded by forest, within the grounds. Yes, this is in addition to the lake. The smaller body of water is called Simpkins Pond, which flipped on a light bulb to explain the origin of nearby Simpkins Road that I'd traveled on quite a bit in my 18 months living in North Carolina.

One of my favorite shots of the day came from an opportunity I had to photograph the lake's spillway, a slice of which can be seen in the photo leading off the post. Motorists on Lake Wheeler Road catch a glimpse of the spillway, but a glimpse has never been long enough for me. There isn't really a place to pull off the road there to take it in the way I'd wanted to until the day of this shoot, when I got to this point by foot after parking inside the park.

While I was there, I enjoyed a serendipitous moment when a man navigating a bright red canoe paddled by. A gaggle of geese positioned along the spillway's uppermost crease served as spectators.

A portion of the lake's size is illustrated in the first two photos below. It also underscores the overcast skies I mentioned previously.

As always, click on any photo to pull up a larger, sharper version, which is particularly helpful when accessing the blog from a mobile device. To view a full gallery of images from my shoot at Lake Wheeler, follow the link in this sentence.

The late summer foliage is beginning to make its color transition as evidence by these photos of the lake. The shot below was taken from the end point of a very lengthy pier near the boat launch ramps. So I'm "on" the water, looking back toward the shore.  

I liked the tree's role in framing this couple sitting on a bench along the shore (above). The only motored boat I saw on the water when I was there was this one (below). 

Above is a pedestrian walk leading to a modest overlook along the shore. Below is the paved trail back to the park that one sees while leaving the above overlook.

Above: About 60 yards down the same shore from the couple pictured above were these two geese. The one on the left is keeping an eye on the couple.  

 Above: Another natural framing composition. 

Above: If you've been following Photo Potpourri for a while or checking out full galleries of my shoots via links I drop into my posts, you've noticed how much lately I've been exploring the composition concept of shooting through meshed foregrounds like this for artistic effect. I don't contend that it's a great idea or even suggest that it ought to be done more often or on a regular basis. I just like exploring it ... and seeing what I get from it. 

If there was a real "find" at Lake Wheeler Park, it was Simpkins Pond, the wooded area surrounding it and the creeks intersecting the woods near the eastern portion of the park. Two views of a creek are shown above and below. 

An a smaller, interior body of water, I saw Simpkins Pond in "still waters" mode, as exhibited by the views shown above and below. 

The park has playground (above) and picnic facilities and a sand volleyball court (below) in an open meadow along the access drive (second below). 

Next up: Lake Benson Park