Lost ...

Jungle

In the deep, southeastern jungle, we discovered a magnificent tree who's leaves glowed in an unusual manner. Could this be the source of the villager's mystic salves?

Well, at least that is what I thought when I first saw this image after I transferred it from my memory card. It was actually taken in a local park yesterday afternoon. The temperature was about 45 degrees F. Not exactly tropical jungle territory.

Sometimes an image can be faithful to what we saw, yet still invoke feelings of other environments. It is all in the presentation as they say.

Keep shooting.

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Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm

This shot was taken back in December, 2007 at Barnett Park in town. The statue is located in the main entrance to the park and is entitled Enthusiasm. I like shooting statues. The play of light and shadows on them is constantly changing, always giving different looks, evoking contrasting moods, revealing new details. The fact that they don't move makes it easy to photograph them in a way, but it also is not uncommon for them to be placed in places where you can't vary your perspective on them. There is one downtown on a ten foot tall pedestal that makes it difficult to get more classic compositions. However, that in itself cane be a good thing in so far as it challenges you to work the subject to find a unique way of presenting it.

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Graphic Design

Graphic Design

The colors, pattern, and play of light on the metal's curves caught me eye at the recent auto show. This is part of a custom detailing on a "monster" truck. There really was no way to get the entire detailing so I settled on isolating this one prominent portion of it.

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The Power of having a big, shiney camera

Ducati
I am discovering that having a DSLR camera can get you some opportunities that you might not have had before. The above shot of the Ducati motorcycle was one such opportunity. It was located near some Lotus' which were on display and was the only motorcycle that I saw at the auto show. Anyway, I was interested in the cycle's bright yellow color and was taking some close-ups of it while leaning over the rope that was up to keep people away from it. I had taken one or two shots when a gentleman with an auto-show ID badge came over and offered to un-rope the bike so I could get some unobstructed shots of it. Of course, I said yes. The above is the best that I got. Just wish that I hadn't cut off the front wheel. I think the gentleman thought that I was with the press or something because I didn't notice him offering the same to people with point and shoot cameras.

Also, I got asked questions about various cars by people that saw me photographing them. Again, they apparently assumed I was with the automotive press and knew what I was doing. Little do they know I can't tell the difference from a carbeurator to an injector. ;-) Other times, I have had people ask me about features on their new DSLR cameras when they spot me with my D80. Last year when we were at the SC State Museum a woman asked me about the thing that I had on the front of my lens, i.e. the lens hood. She had just gotten a Nikon D40 and didn't know why the hood was included. I explained what it was and why I was using even indoors. It was nice because I saw the lights turn on in her eyes when she realized that it would help to protect against the inevitable bumps the lens would get with her three or four children around. :-) There have been other times like that too. Rather than people having issues when I have my DSLR with me, I have found they assume I am more than I am and defer to me. People have actually gotten out of my way as I waited behind them to get my chance at a shot. Many times when I'm out with my camera I will get at least one person asking which newspaper I'm working for or I get into a conversation with another photographer or someone thinking about buying their first DSLR. Heck, I even had a security guard in a high-rise building that I was photographing offer to let me up on to the roof anytime I wanted to photograph the skyline. Certainly not the typical kinds of stories that you hear about paranoid parents and guards these days. Maybe it just has to do with the area that I live in though.

Keep shooting.

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Snow Day

Winter

We had a snow day yesterday meaning that schools were canceled. I don't get the chance to do much snow photography, so I took my camera outside to have a go at it. I must be really out of practice. I only got four shots I that I wanted to process out to a final image. The above is one of them. I thought it captured the idea of winter as well as we can get down in this part of the country.

Keep shooting.

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By the Dashboard Lights

By the Dashboard Lights
We went to the South Carolina Auto Show this weekend. It was in the same venue which is a huge, dark hall with the cars lit by harsh spot lights. There were even more people there than last year, probably because it wasn't snowing this year. It was kind of hard to get good shots of the cars so I settled with photographing interesting details. Still, there were some nice exotic cars (Lotuses, Mazaratis, Aston Martins, Ferraris, etc.), cool customized cars, and memorable classics as well as the new models that the manufacturers had on display.

The photograph above was taken as I sat in a really nice Lexus. I liked the graphic qualities of the dashboard. Very clean yet striking. I used my flash mounted to the camera but angled it away from the dash and used it's small integrated bounce card. I think it gives just enough highlights to give some nice definition to the curves in the instrumentation. I cropped it a tad and boosted the color just a smidge.

Keep shooting.

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Balanced in Light

Small Pink

A small pink flower I isolated against the sky and tried to balance with the back lighting and my flash. I kind of like how it stands out against the sky.


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Look Familiar?

In the Sky

Does this photo look familiar? It is the same flowers and nearly the same framing as the Daystars image I posted yesterday. Which do you like better?

Keep shooting.

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Daystars

Daystars

When I was out at Hatcher Gardens, I noticed some small flowers on some branch quite high overhead. I laid down on the ground and took several pictures of them. One picture in particular was an accidental press of the shutter. However, I kind of liked the effect when I saw it on the LCD. It looked a bit like stars in a daytime sky. So, I attempted to actually capture that effect by purposefully blurring the flowers. I'm not sure that I got the effect I was trying for though.

Keep shooting.

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First Photo Outing of '09

Character

Well, I finally took my camera out for the first time this year. I spent about an hour at Hatcher Gardens again while waiting for my son to get out of school for the day. Even though it is a small park, I usually find something to photograph. I noticed this one log that seemed to have a lot of character to it.

Keep Shooting.

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Gradient

Gradient

This photograph was taken a year ago at a local park. Some of the benches around the water fountains are situated in semi-enclosed wood structures. Looking up from the benches, this is what the "roof" of the enclosure looks like. I was drawn by the lines, shadows and contrasting colors. To me it looked like a couple of different line gradients suspended in the air.

Looking at the picture now, I can see some lens distortion that I didn't notice before. It goes to show how much our perceptions get refined when we continue to practice something.

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Berry in the Sky

Berry in the Sky

Another image I captured while visited my sister during the holidays. I found it interesting that this particular tree still had berries on it. I tried to isolate one or a group of the berries. This one was the best of the bunch. The twig in the background might be a bit too distracting, but it also gives a sense of place in that you can tell it isn't just a berry on a stick in front of a blue background. I zoomed the 70-300mm VR to isolate the berry. I also added some flash to balance it with the ambient, otherwise the berry would have been a silhouette.

Click the title for a large view. I will probably be posting all of my images here this way for now as the larger native images were causing some formatting issues for a blog that was linking to here.

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Shoot the Sky, Part 2

Clouds

Here is a recent shot of some clouds I found interesting. I think that they will make an interesting background or texture.

(Note: I fixed the width of the photograph. It was running off the side of the column. Sorry about that.)

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