Last post of 2010, first Christmas Snow EVER

South Carolina Christmas Snow, 2010

Well, it is almost 2011. Time seems to go by faster as I get older.

Last weekend we had snow on Christmas Day! In South Carolina! That is the first time I've seen snow on Christmas. There had been a couple of snow storms within a few days of Christmas, but none that i remember actually being on Christmas Day.

The snow started late in the afternoon, so it wasn't really a "White Christmas". We seemed to have gotten about two inches total which really is not much as we do get the occasional six+ inches. However, the weather stayed cold for a few days afterwards letting the snow linger longer than normal.

Anyway, I hope everyone's holidays have been joyful.

Happy New Year.


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Merry Christmas

Neighborhood Lights

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.



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Prestwood Sunrise

Prestwood Sunset

Here is a photograph of a sunset over Lake Prestwood during my visit to Hartsville. I wish there had been some nice clouds in the sky. The next evening had a beautiful sky, but I was driving back home by that time.

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Still around

World War I Memorial Panel

There hasn't been very much of interest happening recently. I did visit my folks over the the Thanksgiving weekend. Hartsville had dedicated a new veterans' memorial in the town. There is a bronze panel sculpture for four of the major wars the US fought in during the 20th century (WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf). This photograph is part of the World War I panel. We were there late in the afternoon and the sun was coming in from a low angle giving nice definition to this particular panel.

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Blue Ridge Parkway Sunset, Day 2

Sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains

Sunset on the second day up on the Blue Ridge was nice. Not spectacular, but nice. There were no clouds on the horizon to add texture and drama. There was a haze that ... well, hazed over the distance. I was having a hard time during this sunset getting a good exposure for the sky and the foreground. As you can see in this shot, the foreground went dark very quickly. The one little bit of light kissing the nearest ridge does add a hint of the ridge's texture. Again, this was an HDR blend with a little additional post-processing in Lightroom 3 for color and contrast.

All in all it was a good workshop, and I did come away with a few images that I liked.

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Sunbeams

Three Trees

After the close-up session, we waited for sunset at a particular overlook that Richard had decided to use. We were hoping for some clouds to form as the sky was very bare and uninteresting. Some clouds did form over us, but none of them made it to the western horizon for the sunset.

This image is an HDR blend I took as the sun was getting lower in the sky. The "sunbeams" are actually formed by using a very small aperture with the sun in the field of view, in this case f/22. It is also cropped just a little for compositional purposes in order to get the sunbeams coming in from the very top of the frame.

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Time for a close-up

Seed Blooms

During our workshop with Richard Bernabe, he took us a short distance into a wooded area. The point of the exercise was that during the mid-day, when the light is really harsh, is a good time to go into shaded areas to find other subjects. The area he took us too was a small area covered in ferns. While I tried to photograph the ferns, I just wasn't "feeling" it as they say. I couldn't really find a composition I liked, there was enough of a breeze through the trees to make every thing blurry. In other words, I was getting stumped. Heck, I even got stumped trying to photograph a stump.

However, I did find this one plant with these seed blooms that caught my attention. I still had a problem with the wind moving them and causing blurry shots. Then I remembered that I had my flash with me. I set my camera up in Commander mode to control the flash, and held the flash off to one side. The camera was on a tripod, there was an extension tube on the lens for macro-work, and I was using a cable release as well. Thankfully, the flash was able to freeze the seeds enough to get a nice, sharp image.

Lesson learned: A flash is a good thing to have even when photographing stuff out in the woods.


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Colorful Slope

Autumn Mountainside

As the Sun got higher in the sky, it became more difficult to get the "good light". While it was harder to get good, wide-angle landscapes, using a telephoto to zoom in on to isolate small sections seemed to work.

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Veteran's Day

Old Glory at Patriot's Point

It is Veteran's Day. Thank you to the veteran's who have served our country.


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Just After Sunrise

Blue Ridge Backlight After Sunrise

A second image taken during the Richard Bernabe workshop on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He pointed out that there might be some interesting back lighting effects, such as with the Autumn leaves in this photograph, when the sun has risen past the horizon. This helps to bring some detail into the foreground while still keeping the distant ridges in silhouette.

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Blue Ridge Sunrise, 2010

Blue Ridge Sunrise, 2010

Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010, me and a few other club members attended a photography workshop on the Blue Ridge Parkway given by Richard Bernabe. Richard is a local, professional landscape photographer who was gracious enough to give us a club discount for the session.

We met Richard before sunrise, and headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to meet the sun. This is one of my favorite shots from the sunrise location. I used my 70-300mm lens for the photograph rather than a wide angle as I wanted to make the sun larger in the frame and isolate some of the distant ridges.

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Blue Ridge Parkway Sunset, Day 1

Parkway Sunset

The first day of our trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway ended with a sunset session. This image is an HDR in order to get some detail in the ridges while maintaining the colors and textures in the sky.

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More Fall Colors

Waterfall and Colors

A waterfall near the Blue Ridge Parkway surrounded by seasonal Autumn colors. These falls are along a popular trail and this is one of the few frames that I got of them without people climbing over the rocks.

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Fall Colors 2010

Colors on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 2010

The weekend after I got back from the North Dakota trip, I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway with some other members of the Spartanburg Photography Guild. We were attending a photography workshop on that Sunday, but went up the day before for some sightseeing of our own.

To be honest, there was not a lot of color in the mountains at that time. The seasonal colors were limited to particular areas. The photograph above is from one of the better areas of color we found that weekend.

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The one that started it all

Badlands Angles and Strata

This is the image that got me thinking about using black & white processing for some of the Badlands photographs. I liked the original color version, but not because of the colors. I liked the shadows going off on those angles and the contrast between the tones of the sedimentary strata. The colors seemed to distract from those elements more than helping them, thus I tried it as a black & white and really liked it.

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The Badlands in Color and B&W -- part 2

Badlands Triangles (Color)

Here is another set of color vs. black & white versions of the same image. There was much less color in this particular area of the Badlands. The shapes were wonderfully fascinating though. I was particularly drawn the the two triangular, almost pyramid, shapes.

Black & White version after the jump.


Badlands Triangles (Black & White)

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The Badlands in Color and B&W - part 1

South Dakota Badlands (Color)

I thought it would be good to show color and black & white versions of the same image of the South Dakota Badlands. As you can see above, there are colors in the Badlands. Those colors are close to each other in overall feel and can distract the viewer from other elements of the scenery.

Follow the jump for the black & white version.


South Dakota Badlands (Black & White)

In the black & white version, you can see the textures and shapes much better. It is those textures and shapes which makes the Badlands feel so different from the surrounding prairie not to mention the Eastern US where I live.

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Drive-by shooting ...

Female Antelope, South Dakota Badlands

When we were driving through the Badlands, a couple of female antelope were grazing by the side of the road. I was able to get a series of images thanks to my camera's continuous, high speed mode. To be honest the camera does sound a bit like a machine gun when I'm ripping frames off like this. The antelope were within 20 feet of the road, sometimes closer, but didn't seem to really notice the noise. However, forget about being able to stop or even get out of the car. A ranger was close by making sure that people kept moving and stayed in their vehicles. Which was probably just as well, someone could have gotten hurt if they had spooked one of the animals.

This particular image was what I think was one of the better ones from the drive-by shooting ... er, photographing. The fact that it is back lit is something that I find interesting about it as you can see the sun filtering through it's horns.

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South Dakota Bandlands

Shadowline

While the South Dakota Badlands are impressive there is not a lot of color in them. They are mostly tans and browns with some yellows and reds in the same tone. This made me think that there might be some good black & white possibilities in my photographs. This is one of the photographs that I think works best as a black & white. It is more about the play of the shadows and shapes than it is about the the impressiveness of the landscape itself.

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Scale (Part 2)

South Dakota Badlands National Park

Back to the subject of showing scale. The two people at the overlook illustrate the scale of the distant landscape of the South Dakota Badlands. I took a similar photograph without any people at the overlook and it doesn't give the same sense of vastness that having the two people in it does. At least the way that I look at the images.

Follow the jump for the other photograph.


Badlands Scenic Overlook

What do you think about it?

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Framing

Rushmore Through the Trees

I'll get to the "Scale (Part 2)" entry with the Badlands photographs. Today finishes out the Mount Rushmore set.

More after the jump.

This photograph was taken from one of the last scenic overlooks that we visited in the Black Hills. It was actually taken on the path rather than the overlook itself. I just happened to catch a glimpse of Mount Rushmore through a "tunnel" of trees and thought it would make a good interior frame for the monument. I don't recall what the actual overlook was overlooking as I don't recall actually getting to that particular viewing area.

My mother said it was very convenient for one particular tree to have died. If it had been alive, it would have been standing in the very center of this "tunnel". Without it though we had a clear view of Mount Rushmore, and an image of the monument that you don't typically see. You might notice the dead tree leaning to the left near the center of the frame.

At this particular scenic stop there was a forestry crew clearing out dead or dying trees. Most of the people at the overlook were actually watching the workers. I recall hearing their chainsaws from the "Washington's Profile Overlook" which was quite a distance away and on the other side of Mount Rushmore.

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Scale (Part 1)

George and the Car

Sometimes I find it difficult to convey a sense of scale in landscape photographs. The most common method of doing so is to place something familiar in the frame as a reference. Since, I'm still hesitant to take photographs of strangers, providing that sense of scale by including people in the photograph generally doesn't happen. However, while photographing George Washington's profile at a scenic stop, I realized that I could include a car as a reference scale.

It is not what I would consider the best image that I have from this particular location. On the other hand, it is the one that conveys the scale of the Mount Rushmore monument the best of all of the images that I took that day.

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Mount Rushmore and the Errant Polarizing Filter

Moon and Mount Rushmore

After visiting the relatives in North Dakota, we headed out to return home. Our plan was to go down to South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore and the South Dakota Badlands. The problem with that plan was that there is not a direct route from northeastern North Dakota to southwestern South Dakota. All of the roads in the Dakotas generally run North-South or East-West. There are precious few diagonal NE-SW / NW-SE trending roads, let alone interstate highways.

The trip took a full day, but we did get to see quite a bit of both Dakotas' various landscapes. They are not as completely flat as you might think. There are distinct regions with their own character that I wish I could have spent more time exploring.

More after the jump.

We spent a couple of nights in Rapid City, South Dakota. Our one full day there was spent visiting Mount Rushmore and some of the Black Hills region. The Mount Rushmore monument has changed since I last visited as a teenager. I remember parking, going up to a single viewing overlook, and then leaving. Since that time the National Park Service has greatly improved the visitors' area with museums, a cafeteria, gift shops (of course), a large amphitheater, and a boardwalk trail that takes you closer to the monument. The trail affords different views and angles then you see in the typical postcard stereotype image. While the trail is not really strenuous, there are stairs on it which make you realize how out of shape you are ... i.e. I need to walk up more stairs. Visitors can also rent a self-guided, recorded tour device near the park's entrance. However, ee didn't rent one as we just wanted to experience the park for ourselves.

This photograph was taken near the "Sculptor's Studio" museum which is along the tour trail. I am always a sucker for daylight moon images as it speaks to my sense of irony having the moon visible during the day. I used a polarizing filter to darken the sky enough to accent the moon above the Presidents' sculptures. Further on down the trail I heard my polarizing filter fall off the lens and clatter down the rocks beneath the boardwalk trail. It didn't break, but it was well beyond my reach. Lesson learned: Don't turn the polarizing filter in the direction which loosens it.

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Rising Water

Isolation

The area of North Dakota where my mother grew up used to be fields as far as you could see. However, that has been changing the past several years. Water has been rising throughout the region. Roads have been cut off. Farms flooded out. Devil's Lake, Stump Lake, and Lake Lorretta have all overflowed their banks and inundated hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. In many places instead of wheat fields, there are now plains of cattails stretching as far as the eye can see.

We saw this old, abandoned farm house on a small hill. It's fields taken over by Lake Lorretta. The county road we were on had obviously been elevated to stay above the lake water. Even then, it was only a couple of feet above the water.

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In North Dakota

Rolling Field, Big Sky

Everything up in North Dakota is so very different than here in South Carolina. The fields, prairie, and sky seem to go on forever.

The lines in the field make me think that the closest hay bail was trying to roll toward the ones in the distance. The nice clouds also added a great texture to the sky.

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Back in town

Riverboat

I've been out of town the past couple of weeks to celebrate my grandmother's 95th birthday. She lives in North Dakota, and we made some sightseeing side trips on the drive up and back.

The photograph above is a riverboat on the Mississippi River near the town of Bellevue, Iowa. I thought the split-toned treatment looked best for this shot compared to the straight color image.

More stuff from the trip to come.

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And here is the rest of it.

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No Parking, Any Time

No Parking, Anytime

Another shot I took during our club meeting. This one I processed with Topaz Adjust 4 to get the general look, but tweaked it a bit in Photoshop so that the Topaz Adjust filter wasn't quite so strong.

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Light & Curves

Light & Curves

We had the monthly meeting of the Spartanburg Photography Guild earlier this week. One of the members discussed elements of a good picture and we all then went outside to try to practice with some of those tips. This image is an abstract that I made from the sign for a new building near Spartan Photo Center in downtown Spartanburg. I took some "normal" shots of the same detail face-on, but thought they looked kind of ordinary. Then I stepped up to it and looked down on the sign and saw the shapes blending together nicely. This is basically a close-up taken and an unusual angle. I am always reading that we need to change our viewpoint to make our images better. That certainly seems true with this one. Of course, it helped that I am tall enough to look down on the sign from this angle.

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In the dark

In the dark

We drove up to the mountains and visited Linville Caverns. During the tour, there is one area where the guide turns out the lights so you can experience "total darkness". The guide then turns on an old lantern so you can get an idea of the amount of light that the first explorers in the caves had with them.

There isn't much in this photograph, but I still like it for some reason. I suppose it gives a sense of the isolation of being in a cave with only a small light to guide you through it.

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Retirement Roses

Retirement Roses

My sister-in-law recently retired after 30 years with the Gaston County Library System. For most of that time she worked at one of their branch libraries. This is just a simple photograph of one of the flower arrangements at her retirement party.

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Sunrays, Blue Sky

Sunrays, Blue Sky

This is the same patch of sky as the photograph from a couple of days ago. However, the Sun was a bit deeper in the clouds where it wouldn't make the "sunburst" effect. I like the one better than the Sunburst because the exposure was better and things didn't get messed up as much in processing while trying to make everything brighter.

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Sunburst

Sunburst

Another slow spell on the blog. However, here is something for today. I was shooting some sky shots, and thought that I would try to get a sunburst. It's not bad, but I think that I underexposed it a tad too much. I had some noise issues when I tried to bring back some of the mid-tone details. It doesn't look too bad in a small size. Larger sizes I can tell that it needs some work.

Live and learn.

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Something Different

Old Warehouse

Earlier this week, we had our monthly for the Spartanburg Photography Guild. We met at the Spartan Photo Center store where Jonathan Stewart demonstrated HDR processing for us. I helped him out a bit by filling in with details when he had to concentrate on what was happening with his computer. We spent a bit of time around the shop photographing image sets to later process in to HDR images. This is one of the images that I liked although it was only a single image processed with Topaz Adjust 4's Dark-Ghostly filter. I thought it worked will for this old abandoned warehouse/building that was downtown.

We were just having some fun playing around.

Oh, and I'm also the webmaster for the club. Here is the link to the club's webpage. It isn't anything fancy, but it is a start at least.

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Waterfall Cove

Lake Jocassee Waterfall Cove"

This was the biggest waterfall that we saw on Lake Jocassee. It was nestled in this little cove behind a small cliff. There were also a lot of large, yellow winged butterflies fluttering around it the cove. However, I wasn't able to get any shots of the waterfall where you could actually recognize the butterflies in the them. The butterflies stayed close to the waterfall and didn't come close enough to us to be much more than a blurred, yellow speck. It was still quite pretty in there though.

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Haze ... all day!

Haze on Lake Jocassee

There was a haze/fog on Lake Jocassee nearly the entire day that I was visiting my sister's family. This photograph was one of the better ones I was able to get across the lake and even it took a bit of finessing in software to get it to this point. While this gunk obscured the mountains, it did even out the light for the waterfalls and family photographs that I took. Guess you could say there was a silver lining in the the haze.

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Jocassee Waterfall

A Jocassee Waterfall

Here is a photograph of one of the waterfall that we visited on Lake Jocassee last week. I believe this is the first one that we saw.

Photographing waterfalls from a boat is ... interesting. Normally, you want to be set up on a tripod to minimize movement so that you can use a longer shutter speed to capture that nice "cotton candy" water blur. Long shutter speeds and a boat don't go well together though. The boat keep moving which would make the entire picture blurry instead of just the water cascade. Both of the lenses I used that day were image stablized, and I used them in their "active" setting. The active setting attempts to compensate for all movement at once and specifically meant to be used while on moving platforms ... like a boat.

It worked well enough I suppose. I got some nice blurred cascades with some of the waterfalls that we saw later in the day.

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Lake Jocassee

Jocassee Reflections

My sister and her family went camping recently at Devil's Fork State Park on Lake Jocassee in the South Carolina Foothills / Blue Ridge Mountains. They invited my son to come and stay the week with them, and I ended up visiting them for one day as well. We went out in their boat and got to see several of the waterfalls that feed in to the lake.

More after the jump.

Lake Jocassee is an artificial lake which was constructed by Duke Power for hydroelectric generation in conjunction with their Keowee-Toxiway project and the Oconoee Nuclear Station. It is basically a set of mountain gorges that has been dammed and filled with water. The deepest portions of the lake are around 300 feet or more deep which makes it a popular spot for SCUBA divers. There is even a dive shop on the road close to the park's entrance.

Just a couple of years ago, when we were in the midst of our most recent drought, my sister said the lake was as much as 20 feet below normal. All of the docks were stranded on dry lake bed and some of the lake's coves and branches were not accessible via boat. Luckily, we've had more rainfall the past couple of years and the lake was close to normal. The waterfalls that we saw had plenty of water flowing over them and were quite picturesque.

The biggest problem was that it was foggy and overcast all day long. I think that we only had thirty minutes to an hour of sunlight peeking through the clouds in the afternoon. The sunlight eventually went away as afternoon thunderstorms were starting their daily build-up.

The photograph above was taken as we were drifting into one of the coves to view a waterfall. I turned around and saw these interesting reflections caused by our boat's wake and took a few of frames. This was the best of those frames. Normally, I try not to place a horizon line right in the middle of the frame as that tends to make for a rather static and boring composition. However, I decided that the contrast between the well defined trees and the smooth, wavy reflection would look best with a symmetrical composition with the horizon line in the center of the frame.

It is also a good example of not letting yourself get "shot blind" with what you think you want to photograph. We were trying to get closer to a waterfall and I was kind of focused on that. On a whim, I turned my head and noticed the smooth wake and reflections. I was only able to get around three or four frames before the wake had settled down thereby loosing the interesting dichotomy between the two halves of the image.

Sometimes it is OK to break the "rules" of composition, and it is always a good idea to look around for other interesting things to photograph.

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Photowalk Wrap-up

Tower

The photowalk this past Saturday was fun. Michael from the Photography Guild was there plus a few others that I recognized from our meetings. Of course there were new people to meet as well. Ken Toney was the walk's leader. I hope to be able to go out on more photography trips with some of the people I met.

The weather was hot and humid with a bit of the typical haze we have this time of year. Sunscreen, hats and lots of water were the order of the day.

We all kind of broke up in to separate, smaller groups and went in different directions. I saw that most people made it from Spartan Photo Center where we started to Main street. There was a mix-up at the place we were supposed to meet back up together, so we all met back at the store.

The photograph above is Spartanburg's only downtown "highrise" tower. Downtown is on a large hill and this building can be seen from miles around if you're in the right places.

Scott Kelby posted group photographs from a lot of the participating cities around the world on his blog. Our group is there in the post. Follow this link to the post and scroll down to the "S" cities and we are the Spartanburg, SC group. I'm not saying which one I am in the photo though. ;-)

I hope to do this again next year. Maybe it will be earlier in the morning or towards the evening when it is not so hot.

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Carolina Gallery Photography Invitational Winners

Post is a bit late today. I just forgot about it.

Carolina Gallery has posted the images of the winners from it's photography contest that I posted about earlier. This is the contest where I placed third in the Color category.

Here is the link. If you don't see the photographs at first, then click on the "Photography Invitational" link on the left.

Congratulations to all of the winners. There were some outstanding images entered in the contest.

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Photowalk Reminder

It has been hot and humid and not fit for man nor beast to go outside during the day around here. In other words, a typical Southern summer. Thank goodness we have air conditioning this year, because we didn't last summer.

Anyway, just a reminder that Scott Kelby's 3rd Annual Worldwide Photowalk is this Saturday, July 24th. There are still a few spaces in the Spartanburg, SC photowalk if you are interested in joining us. It should be a lot of fun and I hope to meet some new people who enjoy the hobby in the area as well I do. Hope to see ya there!

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The Carolina Gallery Photography Invitational

Poinsett Bridge in Autumn

The Carolina Gallery, a local art gallery here in Spartanburg, held a photography contest recently. Last night was the opening reception for the gallery's show of the contest participants' entries. The show is scheduled to run from last night through August 4th.

The contest had two categories: Color and Black & White. More than 150 photographs were on display last night. Styles ran the entire gauntlet of photography from landscapes to fashion, from realistic to ultra-stylized. I was really impressed with the variety of images selected for the show. There are a lot of really good photographers who entered the contest from the local area, North Carolina, and even Georgia.

More after the jump.

Furman Lake at Twilight

You may recognize the two photographs that I posted today. I've posted them here before and these photographs were my entries in the competition. It was the first photography contest that I have entered and I wasn't really sure what to expect. As I said, there were lots of great images in the contest and such things always come down to the opinion of someone that you don't know. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that my Poinsett Bridge image was named the Third Place winner in the Color category.

I wasn't able to sleep very much last night for some reason. It wasn't as if I was jumping up and down all night. I was just too happy to be able to go to sleep. Maybe there is something in this photography stuff for me after all? My mind was spinning with the possibilities.

If you are in or passing through the Spartanburg area between now and August 4th, then stop by Carolina Gallery downtown. The photography show is on the third floor, but the other two floors are also filled with paintings, sculptures and local crafts you may also enjoy viewing.

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Big Ball in the Sky!

Big Ball

When you are photographing using long shutter speeds, you can do things that you normally try to avoid doing in order to get some interesting effects. Usually, you try to keep the camera nice and still on the tripod so that you don't get a blurring image. However, if you are deliberate with your camera movements or adjustments, then you can get effects like the one above. This was taken by zooming my lens while the shutter was open. This caused the streaks streaming into the building as well as changing the apparent depth between the building and the fireworks. In this case it made the fireworks appear as a big ball and as though the fireworks were launched from in front of the building rather than from behind it.

Breaking the "rules" of photography can result in interesting images so long as you understand what you are changing and are careful with how you make those changes.


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Fireworks

Fireworks

Photographing fireworks really is not too hard. In order to get the streaks as you see in this shot, you have to use a long shutter speed. This particular photograph was around 3 to 4 seconds long. Because the shutter speed is so long, you need to secure the camera which generally means using a tripod. I also use a cable release remote to trigger the shutter to further minimize any camera vibrations which could affect the image.

I set my camera in Manual mode (that is not as scary as most people thing it is) with the Aperture set to between f/5.7 to f/11 depending on how much I want in focus. Then I place the shutter speed in the "Bulb" setting. This allows me to hold the shutter open for as long as I want. While shooting fireworks, I try to open the shutter when I see the rocket streamers going up, and keep it open until the final bloom is finished. I will use the image on the LCD to gauge the exposure and adjust how long I keep the shutter open.

Holding the shutter open longer will capture more movement and more fireworks in a single frame. However, you can over expose the image if you keep the shutter open too long. In the end, it really just matters what you want to capture and what you want the images to look like. I don't even have may eye to the viewfinder for fireworks except for the initial framing. Once you have the camera set on your tripod, your framing won't change too much unless you really want to try different angles. Live View can be very useful in this situation as well which I did use a few times.

Photographing fireworks is one of those times when you can really play around with the camera and get some neat effects.

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Red, White & Boom!

Fireworks over the Chapman Cultural Center

Our club meeting on July 3, was a big success. We had close to forty photographers present some of whom also brought their family. There was a meeting prior to the fireworks show to discuss how to photograph fireworks. Mike at Spartan Photo Center also had some "games" where he gave away some stuff. I got a small Nikon badged, Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knife, a National Geographic belt pouch, and a coupon for a free filter. We were set up right across from the Chapman Cultural Center in downtown Spartanburg which was great because the fireworks were launched from directly behind the center. Here is a slide show of my favorite shots from the evening. I'll post in more detail about some of them later this week.



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Happy 4th of July

Thunderbird History

This weekend is the 4th of July here in the US when we celebrate the nation's birth. I am planning on going to Spartanburg's fireworks show this year. We'll be having a photography club meeting just before the fireworks, and should have a good position for the show.

I have recently found a couple of websites / blogs I would like to point out.

First is Stuck in Customs. It is Trey Ratcliff's site which focuses on HDR (high-dynamic range imagery). Lot's of great photographs and tutorials on his site.

Next is another HDR centric site, but with something a twist due to current events. High Dynamic Range Imaging is Michael James' blog where it reviews HDR software, compares various cameras and equipment in regards to HDR usage. He is an architectural / real estate photograph on Florida's Gulf coast. This is the little twist I mentioned. Some of his recent posts detail how his business has been affected by the BP Oil Spill and how he has had to change his business to compensate for it.

Finally, a non-photography related site that I find really fascinating. I am a long time sci-fi reader and fan. Recently, I discovered Frederik Pohl's blog The Way the Future Blogs. Mr. Polh is one of the "old school" of sci-fi masters who has influenced a lot of today's writers, readers, and scientists. His blog features glimpses into science fiction's past with his memories of other writers he has known over the years. His insights in the the likes of Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clark, and Issac Asimov provide a unique look into the past of some of the people who have had profound influence on the science, fiction, and culture of today's world.

Have a safe and happy forth.

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Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk

Scott Kelby is hosting another Worldwide Photowalk again this year. There are cities lined up for it all over the world. There is even one in my hometown this year, Spartanburg, SC. Head on over to the official website for it to find a photowalk near you if you are interested in participating.

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We control the horizontal ....

Optical Illusion

The above photograph is one of the optical illusion exhibits at the Children's Museum of the Upstate in Greenville, SC. It was a fun afternoon. Lots of interactive exhibits for Connor to play with. Heck, I enjoyed some of them too. For instance I got to land the Space Shuttle! I didn't crash either. Don't ask me to dock with the International Space Station though, as I couldn't figure out how the controls worked.

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Issaqueena Falls

Issaqueena Falls

A couple of hundred yards away from the Stumphouse Tunnel is Issaqueenq Falls. The falls are named after a Native American women who was said to have used the falls to escape pursuers. Depending on the story she either jumped off the falls to her death or she hid on a ledge below the top of the falls. It is a pretty waterfall. I wonder what it looks like surrounded with Autumn colors? Guess I'll have to remember to go back this Fall to find out.

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Stumphouse Tunnel

Stumphouse Tunnel

Yesterday we took a day trip to Walhalla, South Carolina to visit the Stumphouse Tunnel. The tunnel is an incomplete railway tunnel started just prior to the Civil War. The state ran out of funds for it and it was never completed. Clemson University purchased it in the 1920s and used it to store it's blue cheese until they perfected modern refrigeration systems later in the century. The area surrounding the tunnel was saved from development in 2007 by a coalition of local conservation organizations and businesses. It is still owned by Clemson University, but the park is operated by the City of Walhalla.

This photograph is an high-dynamic range (HDR) composite of five images taken at different exposure settings. I thought HDR would be the best way for me to get some depth into the tunnel otherwise it would have been a black void in the mountain side. I'm fairly happy with the image, but it could be better. I forgot my tripod, so the individual frames didn't line up as well as they could have, hence the final image is not as sharp as it could be. Plus, I still am having trouble with the colors getting a bit over saturated by the processing. The greens and especially the yellows seem to get boosted too high for my liking. HDR is still something I need to practice more of ... if only I would remember to take my tripod more often.

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