2009 In Review

Furman University Clock Tower

It is the end of another year. 2009 has come and gone faster than I thought it would. Seems that the years speed up as we get older. Looking back through my photographs of past year, I can remember all of the good times I had behind the camera. That hunk of plastic, metal, glass and electronics has been a welcome friend, tool, and therapist these past twelve months and longer. Honestly, I don't know how I would have made it through the year as sane as I am without it. It says something though. We all need to have some way to express ourselves that can both keep the world at bay and put it into perspective for us.

Here is a link to my Favorite Photographs of 2009. Click through the break for a Flash slideshow of the 2009 Favorites gallery.





I hope that next year is even better than this year for you.

Keep shooting.
Read more!

The Night Before Christmas

Here are some photographs of the holiday lights in my neighborhood this year.

Zenfolio now lets it's users create embeddable, Flash slideshows. I hope this works.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Read more!

Some Links

There hasn't been much going on around here because of the upcoming holidays. My son has had a couple of things, but I don't think anyone really wants to see pictures of those. Well, to be honest I'm not really happy with the pictures that I took and assume that people won't want to just see some snapshots.

One thing that I haven't done in a long time is post links to some of the other blogs that I read. I've found a few that I enjoy since the last time I posted the links. These are all sites that I visit and read.

First up is Scott Diussa's blog. Scott works for Nikon, but he doesn't talk much shop on his blog. Instead he posts some wonderful photography from some of the interesting places that he gets to travel to with his job. Places like the recent launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from closer than most people ever get to see them. My favorites are from his recent visit to Walhalla, South Carolina. He was visiting family, and it is kind of local to where I live. Actually I went to college not far from there and was thrilled to see his photographs which capture some of the beauty of the area. He is also a musician and concert photographer. On top of all of that, he also posts good photography tips and guides.

Next is a commercial photographer Ian Curcio. Great images on his site from someone that really seems to enjoy what he does.

Scott Hargis is a San Francisco area photographer whom I discovered through the Photography for Real Estate website and Flickr discussion group.

That was two links in one and what's up with all of the Scotts? Scott Disussa, Scott Kelby, Scott Hargis. There are a couple of other photographers named Scott who's blogs I read. Hmmmm.

Finally is Jim Richardson. He shoots assignments for National Geographic and other such publications. He has recently redesigned and reemphasized his site. Needless to say another awesome photographer ... guess I said it anyway but he is.

And as an extra link I am throwing in What the Duck. This is photography related comic strip where all of the photographers are ducks and you never see the humans' faces. It is a fun take on the trials and tribulations of professional and amateur photographers.

That is it for today.

Keep shooting.
Read more!

Maple Leaf

Maple Leaf

Where does the time go? I just realized that I hadn't posted today's image. This is my favorite shot from our walk on the Cottonwood Trail. I saw this maple leaf as we got close to the parking area at the end of our walk. The backlighting by the sun kind of caught my attention and I took a few photographs of it. There is still a little bit of the season's colors around if you look for them.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Lawson's Fork Creek

Lawson's Fork Creek

Another image from our outing on the Cottonwood Trail. This is Lawson's Fork Creek which runs along and through the nature preserve. The particular area is surrounded by residential neighborhoods. There is also a Duke Power right-of-way on the property.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Seeds

Eldar Seeds on the Cottonwood Trail

It is late Autumn and most of the colors have faded and the leaves have fallen. This is also the time that plants drop their seeds. I noticed these Eldar seeds in a tree on the Cottonwood Trail. These are the kind of seeds that spin like little helicopters as they fall to the ground. This particular tree was full of them just waiting to let go of their branches. I'm sure the local birds and squirrels will have quite a nice little feast before Winter comes.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

A new find

Marsh

I recently learned about the Spartanburg Area Concervancy (SPACE) organization. It is a local organization that promotes natural conservation in the Spartanburg area. They have several properties which are open to the public with nature/hiking trails. The largest of them is the Edwin M. Griffin Nature Preserve which the home of the Cottonwood Trail.

We spent a couple of hours walking the trail this past Saturday afternoon. The trail is not very far from downtown Spartanburg. One of it's access area is at Spartanburg High School. It is about 115 acres of natural land on the banks of Lawson's Fork Creek. A surprising feature on the nature preserve is a marsh. There are also beaver dams that visitors can see along the trails in the wetland area of the preserve.

It is a nice area to walk and seems to be fairly popular as there were a couple dozen people on the trails at the same time we were there. These photographs are really just snapshots as I went just to get an idea of what the trail was like. We definitely plan on going back. I can't believe that I didn't know about this trail before now.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Happy St. Patri .... er, Thanksgiving

Clovers and Dew

I hope everyone here in the US has had a good Thanksgiving holiday. This photograph was taken while we were at my wife's family reunion yesterday. I liked the dew drops on the one clover. Have a good weekend.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Wofford Fun Run

Wofford Fun Run

Yesterday I mentioned that my son had another Fun Run event this week. Here is one of my favorite shots of some of the kids participating in the run. The run was held at Wofford University's soccer stadium. The kids had to run one or two laps around the track depending on their age group. Quite a few kids were there this year and the weather was much more pleasant than last year. It was just cool enough to be comfortable, and cloudy enough to keep the sun from glaring into the kids' eyes. Plus, the clouds helped to soften the light on the kids too which was good for photography.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Red Glow

Red Glow

My son had another fun run event yesterday. This time it was held at Wofford College's soccer stadium here in town. I liked the light on this one tree as we walked past it. There are still some Autumn colors hanging on to the branches.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Reedy River Falls at Night

Reedy River Falls at Night

This was one of the last photographs I took while at Falls Park. There is a spot light that illuminates the falls at night and I liked out it backlit the water going over the falls. This is not an HDR image, it is a simple long exposure of 30 seconds. Long exposures turns water rapids into silky white blurs.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

HDR Gone Wrong

Reedy River Falls at Night

I tried to capture quite a few different angles of the Reedy River Falls and the Liberty Bridge. After the sun had set and the light was turning that beautiful blue, I thought that I would try to get a set of images of the view you see above. Unfortunately, I made several mistakes taking the images to merge into the HDR software. This left me with an HDR image that I didn't really like at all. However, as I was playing around with the various settings I got the image you see above. Everything about it from capture to processing was "wrong", but there is something about this result that I find intriguing.

"Correct" doesn't always give the best results. "Wrong" can sometimes be more interesting. Something to think about I suppose.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Falls Park in HDR

Falls Park and the West End

Here is another HDR image taken this past weekend. I posted a similar view earlier this year which was taken on the other side of the river. I like this one because of the reflection in the water and the people enjoying the park.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Reedy River Falls in HDR

Liberty Bridge and Reedy River Falls

This past weekend I went back to Falls Park in Greenville, South Carolina to try to photograph the Liberty Bridge and the waterfalls again. It is one of my favorite places to photograph although I have not yet gotten "the" photograph of the bridge that I want. The bridge's unique lateral, suspension arc and position make it a difficult subject for a photograph to do justice.

This time I went to the park during the late afternoon and stayed into the early night. That was really only about an hour and a half to two hours considering how quickly the sun sets this time of year. I was hoping that would allow me to get good exposures on the sky and the surrounds. However, in actuality, the sun was close to and even sometime even in the frame due to needing a wide angle of view to encompass the entire bridge. I also had some ideas on how to get some better angles of the bridge.

Considering the bright sky and shaded areas of the park, I thought that maybe some HDR (high dynamic range) techniques might work in this situation. I took quite a few sets of bracketed exposures and later merged them using Photomatix Pro software. In the end, I still think I can get a better image. There were several problems with this set of images. I made some mistakes while shooting the brackets. I didn't pay as good attention to the compositions as I should have while shooting them. I also think I need to more practice on the HDR processing.

Still, I did get a few images that I liked even if they are not quite what I ultimately wanted. Practice, practice, practice. It is what makes hobbies fun and it gives me a reason to go back to the park again.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Autumn Red

Autumn Red

Here is a small bush that was in it's Autumn colors. I thought it was quite a striking red at the time.

Hope that everyone has a good weekend.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Autumn Warning

Autumn Warning

Maples. Oaks. These are two of the trees we usually look to giving us the brilliant colors of Autumn. However, other plants are hibernating as well. Ground cover. Herbs. Bushes. Autumn colors can be found in more than just the boughs of stately trees. Take the plant in today's image. Pretty isn't it? It is poison oak ... or poison ivy. I can never remember which is which, just the old saying, "Leaves of three, let it be." While it does have nice Autumn colors, I wouldn't want to pick it for a dinner table's center piece.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Contrasts

Contrasts

During the Cub Scout Camporee, I was able to take some photographs of the Autumn colors that I liked. This image was captured when all of us parents were relaxing outside of our tents. I happened to look up and noticed the moon clearly visible between two trees. The tree on the right is an evergreen. The tree on the left had turned yellow for the season. I didn't even have to leave my camp chair to get it. I just had to look around to notice something that I had not expected to see.

I call the image contrasts for a couple of reasons. First, it shows the contrasts between evergreen and deciduous trees in Autumn. Second, it shows the Moon out during the middle of the day which contrasts against when we would expect to observed it this clearly. Together the trees and the moon illustrate the contrasts that we do not notice most of the time that are around us throughout the year.

I suppose that might sound a bit artsy, but I actually was thinking along those lines while photographing this scene. There were nearly a dozen frames taken of it with different compositions. This is the one that best captured what I was thinking at the time.

Moral of this story is look around and you could find something unexpected that makes a good image. Try not to look around with blinders. There might be a great image just above you, at your feet, or right behind you.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Light Circle

Light Circle

My son's Cub Scout group participated in the district's annual Camporee last weekend. Camping out one night is a requirement for one of the achievements that he needs for his WEBLOS badge. During the day there were various activities for the boys the most popular being BB-Guns and archery ... naturally. His group also organized and cooked their lunch to complete another requirement for the badge.

The boys had a lot of fun. The weather was quite nice throughout the day. There was none of the rain that had been predicted for the day earlier in the week. It did get cool during the night, but we had cold weather sleeping bags that were more than enough.

In this photograph, Connor is spinning around a flashlight while we were waiting for the evening's events to start. Long exposure times let you blur movement. Many time you don't want to use longer exposure times as it causes your pictures to be blurry. However, if you do it on purpose, it can make for some fun and different images.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Running Behind

Connor's 400m

I'm running behind on things. We had an event this past weekend, but it is taking me longer to go through the photographs, organize them, pare them down, and do final edits than it normally does. Part of this is because it was an event with my son's Cub Scout group where I took a lot of personal photographs as well as scout related photographs.

So today I picked this shot of my son from last week's Red Ribbon fun run as it started this 400m lap. He finished last, but had a good time doing it. I feel kind of like that at the moment ... running behind, but having fun too.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Long Jump

Connor's Long Jump

He is a photograph of my son Connor at the Red Ribbon Fun Run last week. He is making is long jump attempted. It was a good day and he had fun. You can't really ask for more than that.

Thank you for your support

Last weekend I mentioned the Sparkle City Blogger Awards. This blog was nominated in the Media and Photography category. When the votes were tallied we ended as the runner up to Slobot About Town. Congratulations to Slobot and thank you readers for supporting this blog.

Keep shooting

Read more!

Red Ribbon Fun Run

Fun Run

My son is in an after school Fitness Club program. The club participates in periodic local events with other schools. The first one of the year was the Red Ribbon Fun Run held at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind. The SCSDB has a nice track facility.

The kids were split into their grade levels and then rotated through three events: 400 meter lap, 100 yard dash, and a long jump. Each child received a Red Ribbon for participating and small snack and drink for a refreshment after finishing all three events.

It was a nice, sunny, warm day. The kids seemed to have a good time and they learned about staying fit and healthy.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Leaf

Autumn Leaf

This is my favorite photograph from the trip up to the mountains. The reason is that I have been trying out a new focusing method. Basically what I have done is reprogrammed the shutter release button to only lock in the exposure when I press it halfway down. By default, the shutter release takes the exposure reading and focuses when you press it halfway down. Then I programed the AF-On button on the back of the camera to preform the focusing function. This lets me focus with the AF-On button and "lock" it simply by releasing the button for static subjects. If the subject is moving, then it continually tracks the subject and tries to keep it in focus.

This particular image was obviously a static subject. However, it is the sharpest image that I've gotten since reprogramming the camera buttons. It is sharp enough that you can see the very tiny veins that run throughout the leaf's membrane. Thus, it proves to me that I'm on the right track with this new focusing method.

Keep shooting.


Read more!

Fall Flowers

Fall Flowers

We usually think of Autumn as the time of year when leaves are falling off the trees as the trees begin to hibernate for the winter. However, there are some plants that flower during this time of year as well. They can make surprising contrasts of color to the typical seasonal palette. I don't know what this purple flowering plant is, but it's light purple hue was a surprise to me. I tried to accent them against the blurred Autumn colors in the background. Kind of a different take on the season, I suppose.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Colors

Autumn Afternoon

Here is another image from our brief weekend foray up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I wanted to catch the colors at their "peak", however we seemed to be there a week or two early. That doesn't mean there were no colors. Far from it. There were patches of colors everywhere. The trees just had not gotten to the point where you see an ocean of color stretching across the mountain vistas. This image was one of my attempts to isolate some of the color that was present and place it against the blue sky for some contrast.

Getting out the Vote!

This blog has been nominated in the Best Visual or Photography Blog on the Spartanburg Spark's annual Sparkle City Blogger Awards. I would appreciate it if any of you visitors could spend a moment to vote for this blog. Here is a link to the Spartanburg Spark page. The ballot is on the left margin and the Visual/Photography category is down near the bottom. While you are there I recommend that you visit some of the other blogs as well. There are quite a few local bloggers worthy of RSS feeds. Thanks for the support!

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Brief Trip

Blue Ridge Valley

We went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway this weekend. It was a brief trip for a couple of reasons. First, it was a last minute idea and we got a late start. Second, portions of the parkway were closed south and north of Asheville where we got on the parkway. I had heard there had been an accident south of Asheville where a car had slide off the edge of the road and fell 80 feet down the mountain. We knew about that closure which is why we decided to go north instead. However, that route was closed as well after only two scenic overlooks. The area had gotten some snow the day before and there were patches of ice on the road. It was still a nice afternoon excursion. The colors had not hit their peak yet, maybe in a couple of weeks they will be better.


Read more!

Goose

Happy Goose

There are several Canadian Geese at each of the parks I visited earlier in the week. I think they have permanently settled in area and don't migrate any more. They are always around the ponds and looking for kids with bread to feed them. This particular goose seemed to be wistfully happy or daydreaming or such. Probably just wanted a handout. All of the fowl that came up to me left at about the same time when they realized I was just pointing something at them and wasn't going to give them something to eat.

Keep shooting.


Read more!

Hint of Autumn

Leaves

We had a nice, cool sunny day earlier this week. I took the opportunity to spend some time at a couple of local parks in the late morning / early afternoon. Certainly not the best time, light-wise, to go out with a camera, but it was good to get outside for awhile. I found this fallen branch with leaves on it and thought it was a hint of the forthcoming season. We are pretty busy on the weekends this month. I hope I can get out with the camera when the autumn colors are at their best. Autumn has given me some of my best photographs to date.

Keep shooting.


Read more!

Went on a Hike

At Rest

My son and I went on a hike with his cub scout group this past weekend. We hiked about five miles through Camp Croft State Park. The weather was overcast with light rain/drizzle in the early morning. The rain ended by the time that we got started on the trail though. It was pleasantly cool for the trip with the sun staying behind the clouds.

I'm surprised that all of us made it through the hike. I had a couple of cramps that evening, but I was no where near as stiff as I usually am after that much hiking.

Kids being kids, they immediately wanted to go to the playground after the hike. During the hike there were complaints about sour feet and such. After the hike? "Can we play on the jungle gym?" Kids. They get their energy by sucking it out of the adults.

This shot is of my son resting briefly on the playground.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Playing Around

West End Moon

The weather cleared up and gave me a chance to get back to Falls Park in Greenville. I'm trying to figure out how to get a really good shot of the Liberty Bridge at the park. I tried to get up early enough to get the good morning light. However, I mis-judged the sunrise and travel timing and thus missed the good light. It was still a successful trip though as it gave me a better idea of how the light hits the bridge. I am thinking that it might be best to photograph it in late afternoon for the particular angles I want. The light angle in the morning had the sun in the worst place for the bridge for me.

The shot above is my favorite from the day. It is looking back up to one of the old buildings in the historic West End section of Greenville. I was in Falls Park just below the Falls Cottage for those of you familiar with the area. All processing was done in Lightroom 2 including the black and white conversion. I darkened the sky to bring out the Moon. I also tweaked some of the other color channels to give a faux-IR look to some of the vegetation. Otherwise all of the vegetation looked the same with very little contrast between them.

Keep shooting

Read more!

Party

Party Table

Here's a photograph of the tables we prepared for my father-in-law's birthday. My sister-in-law brought some Autumn decorations for a seasonal accent.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Happy Birthday

Erskine's Birthday Cake

This past weekend was my father-in-law's 78th birthday. We had a small party for him at his nursing home. I took my camera and used the opportunity to practice "event" photography. The pictures came out alright I suppose, but I still need to work on it before I feel comfortable doing it for clients.

My grandmother also had a birthday this past weekend. She is 94 now. I don't have any photographs as she lives in North Dakota. Happy Birthday, Grandma.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

More Smoke

Portal

I've been occupied this week with researching starting up a business. Lot's of stuff to think about. I don't know if I'm up for the leap yet, but I've got to do something.

Anyway, here are are a couple more smoke images from last weekend. Hope you enjoy them a much as I did making them.

More after the jump.

Rising



Nymphs

Keep shooting.
Read more!

Dig that Groovy Flow

Flow

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. Know what I mean?

Today's image is one of the images from my session of smoke photography this past weekend. The smoke was photographed the same as I mentioned in yesterday's post. The processing was just a tad different. First I obviously didn't mirror it in this one. I liked the smooth texture and thought that it was strong enough on it's own. Second, I inverted the colors after adding the gradient. This caused the black background to turn white as well as inverting the color gradient. I think it makes for a nice, abstract presentation for this image.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Success!

Valentine Dancers

It did rain all weekend like the forecasts said it would. However, I did set up the tabletop "studio" for some smoke photography like I mentioned on Friday. For the smoke source I used a Patchouli incense stick. Those give a nice, thin stream of smoke that you can then deform into shapes and swirls with a light puff of air or snapping your finger close to it. The base images were taken with the camera on a tripod and focused onto the tip of the incense stick. It can be difficult to focus on the smoke as you have to do this sort of photography in a fairly dark room. One of my flashes was off to the left of the camera with a snoot to restrict the light to just the area of the smoke and to keep it from causing lens flare. The flash was also flagged to prevent light from spilling on to the background; although I did still have some problems with that from time to time. I used a black, three fold "project" board for my background. This gave me the contrast needed to see the smoke in the image.

More after the jump.

The final images were processed initially in Lightroom 2 for basic tone, white balance, and camera calibration. Generally this amounted to setting the camera calibration to "Camera Standard", setting a custom white balance, and increasing the black point to make sure the background was actually black. Next I took the images into Photoshop CS4. I applied a colored gradient to the smoke. Then I just played around with mirroring the smoke so that it formed various patterns until I got something I liked.

I'm pretty happy with my results. The exercise did what I wanted it to do. It got the camera back in my hands and spurred some creative thinking. The Photoshop work was particularly good for me as I haven't used it enough yet to be comfortable with it's features. I will admit I had to have a couple of my Photoshop books on the desk to help me with some of the initial layering and mirroring. Once I figured it out though, it really wasn't too difficult. Which made the subsequent images really fun to do.

Keep shooting.
Read more!

Dancer

Dancer

The shot above is a photograph of smoke rising from a stick of incense. I took it when I was first starting to experiment with my camera and flash. The colors were added via post processing in Adobe Photoshop Elements at the time.

Since it looks like the weather is going to keep us inside this weekend, I think I'll work on some more of these smoke images. They really are not very difficult to set-up and make. Plus, it is kind of fun as you can never predict what you will get. The best thing is that doing them has rekindled a spark again.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Slow Times

No photo today. There's not really been much happening this week. Certainly nothing to photograph and I haven't really had much to write about either. My son is getting in to the swing of school again. So, we haven't been going out much lately. I supposed that I should really do some photography around the house, but I'm a bit down about some things and can't motivate myself to do it. It looks like it is going to be raining through the weekend, which delays some ideas I had been considering. The weather will start to be more of an issue with Autumn coming around soon. I am looking forward to the colors though. Hope we get some good when the colors are at their peak.

Maybe I could do some smoke photography here at the house. Hmmm ... that seems like an idea ...

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Depth of Field

Brick Corner

One of the things that is fun to play with when taken photographs is Depth of Field, or DoF. DoF relates to the amount of the image that is in focus or appears to be in focus around the subject. The rest of the image may then fade to a blur depending on several factors or it may be "sharp" from front to back. Many landscapes will have large DoF so that the image is sharp all the way through. On the other hand, portraits and close-up photographs will have shallower DoF in order to draw the eye toward the subject and away from any distractions in the background; i.e, the subject will be sharp but the rest of the image will be blurred.

More after the jump.

To get a shallower DoF you can open up your aperture to as wide as it will go (small f/stop #). A smaller aperture (large f/stop #) will help get more of the image in focus. Zooming in to your subject can help narrow your DoF while using a shorter focal length will aid in getting more of the image sharp. The relative distance of your subject to the background is also important. If you are significantly closer to your subject relative to the background, then the subject will be in focus and the background will be more blurred. Conversely, if you stand farther away from your subject relative to the background, more of the image will be in focus. Of course you can use more than one of those techniques as well and it is a good idea to combine them for the best effect. Consumer zoom lenses, as an example, will usually not be able get an aperture wider than f/5.6 when zoomed all of the way out. This can give you more DoF than you might want and lead to background distractions. To combat that, set your aperture as wide as it will go (f/5.6 in this instance) and get as close as you can to your subject. Ideally you want to the background to be quite a bit further way from the subject than you will be to the subject. This will have your subject sharp, but the background fading off to a pleasing, non-distracting blurred field.

DoF is a property of photography that is used to help isolate the subject from the background as well as rendering a busy background less intrusive. Play around with DoF. It is can be a lot of fun.

Keep shooting
Read more!

From Creative Tastes

Chess Pieces

This year there was a large chess board set up for people to play with. The pieces were about three feet tall. The squares were about one foot on a side. I saw a couple of people actually playing it throughout the evening. One family was trying to teach their kids how to play. Kind of neat. I don't remember it being there last year.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Creative Tastes

Spartanburg Creative Tastes

This past Saturday, the City of Spartanburg held the Creative Tastes festival. Creative Tastes is an annual event which spotlights local restaurants and dining. There are a couple of stages for musicians, a wine tasting pavilion (which appears to be quite popular) as well as activities for children.

My wife and I tried fried lobster tails which were quite yummy. I also got a mini steak burger which was equally good. Our son had some pizza from a local pizza restaurant as well as some ice cream for dessert. We were there for about an hour to an hour and a half. I think there were not as many people there as last year, but it was a beautiful Labor Day weekend. I suspect a lot had left town for the long weekend.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

For the Kids

For the Kids

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. Friday was my birthday, but I was a bit down the whole day. After a point in your life, birthdays don't seem to be quite the joyous event they were when we were kids.

Anyway, this photograph was taken just before the start of the kid's Fun Ride during the USA Procycling Championships in Greenville a couple weekends ago. It was held when pros started on their second long lap over Paris Mountain. What kind of tickled my sense of humor was that it wasn't a "race" and that each kid would end up getting a medal for participating. Hence, this photograph of one of the race volunteers running down the street with some of the medals that would be given to the kids in the Fun Ride. The large, floppy hat was a plus too.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Handcycles

Handcycles

A handcycle race was held when the pro bike riders started on the first of the long laps over Paris Mountain. Handcycles are special tricycles designed primarily for paraplegics. The pedals and handlebars are integrated together with the rider pedaling with their hands. The "pedals" also have the brake controls. I have to admit that I had not seen a handcycle race before. However, I was quite impressed with the riders. I don't think I could have made it through one lap, not to mention the ten or so laps that they raced. There are two kinds of handcycles which you can see in this photograph. Most of the riders use recumbent types where they were laying down. Some used a kneeling style bike where which allowed them to see over the pedals better. Still, some amazing athletes. My hat is off to them.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Through the Streets

Through the Streets

The USA Cycling Pro Championship Time Trial and Road races were held in Greenville again this past weekend. I had forgotten about them until the Friday before when they were on the local news again. Instead of going to Cleveland Park as we had for the past couple of years, I went by myself to downtown Greenville where the Start and Finish lines were set-up. I must have read the course map wrong because I was on the wrong side of the start line for the start. However, it did give me a nice view of the riders as they turned onto Main Street and came down the hill at the Peace Center.

I didn't stay all day for the entire race. It was starting to cloud up and I didn't want to get caught in a thunderstorm. Plus, I was beginning to overheat a bit from being in the open streets. Not having a place to sit and get a drink from a cooler like the past years at the park a problem. However, the downtown area was a very different environment to watch the race and to photograph the racers in making it worth it I suppose.

Overall I think I got few shots that I like, but I can see where I still need to work on my sports photography. There is always next year as they announced the race will be in Greenville again in 2010.

Keep shooting.


Read more!

Moon over Lights

Reflected Lights

Two sources of reflected light in this photograph. The sunlight reflecting off of the light pole, and the sunlight reflecting off of the Moon. Even from so far away, we can see the Moon's reflected light during the daytime. I guess the blue sky might count as one too. The blue color comes from sunlight bouncing around the atmosphere and being filtered to the blue end of the spectrum ... sort of anyway. It's more complex than I believe. This photograph was taken out at Wofford College when we went to watch the Carolina Panthers' training camp.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Fans

Fans

There hasn't been a lot happening around here. My son has started fourth grade now. Other than that, it has been rather quite. We did go out to Wofford College one morning a couple of weeks ago to watch the Carolina Panthers' training camp. We didn't stay very long though, and I didn't really think I got any good shots. The one above is from that day. It is showing some of the fans lining the fence watching the team and hoping to get some autographs.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Niagara Falls at Night

Niagara Lights

At night, Niagara Falls are lit up by a set of powerful spotlights. These lights are located on the Canadian side of the river and illuminate both the Canadian Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls. The lights cycle through various colors throughout the evening.

To capture the colors, you need to use a long shutter speed which will also blur the water into the soft, cotton candy that you see in the photograph. A tripod is essential and a cable release very useful as any camera vibration could impact the final image. Post processing involved slight boosts to contrast via Lightroom's Tone Curve (levels and curves in Photoshop) plus increases in Clarity and Vibrancy.

The evening at the falls was a nice end to the vacation.

Keep shooting

Read more!

Fireworks

Niagara Fireworks

Our last evening at Niagara Falls, we went back to the falls to watch the light show and the fireworks. The fireworks are launched from an old electrical power facility on the Canadian side that is built into the gorge. So, they are launched from below the area the spectators are gathered. The fireworks show wasn't very long, and there was no music piped in to accompany them, but they were still quite beautiful and fun to watch.

This was the first time that I had gotten the change to photograph fireworks. I had been setting up the camera to photograph the waterfalls when the fireworks started. So, I had to rush to turn the camera toward them, get them framed up and start capturing images. I set the camera into Bulb exposure mode and used my wired cable release to trigger the shutter. I would open the shutter with the cable release, count to about 10, and then close the shutter to end the exposure. I would then glance at the image on the LCD to see if I got the amount of light trails that I wanted and reduce or extended the shutter open time to compensate. Over all I'm quite happy with them for a first attempt. I just wish that the spotlight wasn't flaring around the left half of the frame. That just means I need to go back and try again ... right? ;-)

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Marineland Canada

Beluga Whale

Our last day in Niagara Falls we spent the afternoon at Marineland Canada. Our son really wanted to go after passing by it and seeing the amusement rides. We thought that he had been subjected to a lot of walking around just to look at stuff, so one day of a touristy amusement park would be fun for him.

More after the jump.

At Marineland we watched the Dolphin & Sea Lion show and the walrus feeding. We admired the beluga whales and avoided getting splashed by the orcas. We also rode a couple of the rides. Connor rode a "big" ride by himself for the first time. It was a good afternoon and he had fun and was excited by his first big ride. He is getting old enough to start doing some things like that on his own ... they grow up too fast don't they?

The photograph today was taken in one of the beluga whale viewing areas. This particular beluga swam past us and smiled. They seem like such happy animals. They really appear to enjoy getting their foreheads rubbed by their trainers too.

Keep shooting.
Read more!

Port Dalhousie

Port Dalhousie Lights

One day the friend we were visiting drove us around the area. She took us to the town of Port Dalhousie. The entrance to the town's marinas is marked by a small lighthouse and a beacon. You can see both of the lights in the photograph above.

The weather was threatening rain when we got started. You can see how cloudy it was from the sky in the photograph. It did clear out a little later on in the day though. The lighthouse had a great, "weathered" look to it with some of it's paint pealing off. All told, I counted seven lighthouses/beacons that we saw during the trip.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Butterfly

Butterfly

This is the sort of photograph that I had envisioned getting at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory. They can be hard to nail down though as they are quite fast. Even the really large butterflies flitted around faster than you can track them with a camera. Still it is fun to try.

This photograph was taken with my 70-300mm VR lens and a 20mm Kenko macro extension tube. The combination gave me a comfortable stand-off focus range so that I wouldn't scare the butterflies away while still getting good magnification on them. Focus was attained by using manual focus and leaning back & forth until the subject was sharp. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Niagara Botantical Gardens

Perched on Light

After the Niagara White Water Walk, we spent an hour or two at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory which is located at the Niagara Botanical Gardens. The conservatory is North America's largest indoor butterfly garden. Basically, it is tropical arboretum with a netting to keep the butterflies safe and inside.

More after the jump.

This is the reason why I was practicing with my macro extension tubes a few weeks ago. I wanted to have some idea of which one to use and how it would affect my camera/lens before I got there. I mounted the middle sized tube with my 70-300mm lens which allowed me to stand a fairly safe distance away from the butterflies. I think that I got a few nice shots but none that I had really hoped to capture.

The shot above is a butterfly perched on the netter that surrounds the conservatory. I overexposed it so that the netting would be hidden by the hightlights, thus making it look like the butterfly was standing on just the sunlight itself. Generally it worked, but the picture isn't as sharp as I would have hoped it would be. The butterfly's eyes are crisp really. Still, it was a beautiful place to visit and different from the roiling waters of the falls and the gorge.

Keep shooting.
Read more!

Girl and Niagara Rapids

Overlooking the Rapids

I am not much of a people photographer. Taking a stranger's photograph still feels to be a bit invasive to me. However, when I saw this little girl clinging to the fence looking out in to the churning Niagara River's Class 6 rapids, I knew it was a photograph I had to take. The contrast of her small size against the roiling waters was very compelling to me. It was taken at the last observation platform on the Niagara White Water Walk while we were sitting down for a brief rest.

Sometimes a photograph smacks you in the head until you realize that it is there.

Keep shooting.

Read more!