A Blue Ridge mountain sunset, shot from the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Roanoke.

Fog greeted me early Sunday as I headed out on the Blue Ridge Parkway for an extended ride down into North Carolina for breakfast.  By lunch, I was off the Parkway and into West Virginia for an afrernoon meal at Pipestem State Park.

By day’s end, I was back on the Parkway and the sunset, again in North Carolina, provided another view.  Both photos were enhanced with Photoshop.

Often, someone will come up at a sporting event or other activity and say something along the lines of “I wish I had a camera like yours so I could take photos like you.”

I try to explain that the quality of photography is not determined by the equipment that a photographer uses but by the eye that looks through the viewfinder and composes the photograph.

Yes, I use professional-level digital single-lens-reflex Canon cameras and lenses for most of my photographic work but — when riding on my motorcycle or just tooling around for everyday life — I usually depend on an aging Canon G9 “point and shoot.”

But I left the G9 at home Saturday when I ventured out on the Harley and came across this vista as the clouds from a rainy and cloudy day finally broke.

So I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Droid X wireless “smartphone” and snapped away.

The results are so pleasing that I may leave the G9 home more often.

The Droid recently replaced the Blackberry that has been part of my life for more than a decade. Besides an 8 megapixel camera, it also offers 720p high definition video and I plan to try out that capability over the next few days.

Tuesday’s sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains near Meadows of Dan, Virginia (with a little help from Photoshop).

With everything that has happened lately, I took a pre-dawn ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway to think and reflect.

As daylight and dawn approached, the beauty of our area emerged.

This was a grab shot with the Canon G9 camera that I carry in my motorcycle saddlebags. It reminds me that — even in difficult times — nature’s beauty can remind us that we have a lot to live for.

It also reminds me that I have neglected my photography for far too long. It’s time to get back to what I enjoy doing most and finally start to enjoy some of that relaxing life of retirement that we came here nearly six years ago to embrace.