Shadows

Father and Son

This photograph was taken at my son's school yard last week. I had meant to post it earlier, but we got the snow last weekend. It seems like a better picture to end the week with to me anyway.

My son was playing around and rolling down this little hill near the playground. As I was looking around for interesting subjects to photograph, I noticed my shadow stretching down the hill. I took a few frames of just my shadow, before the idea came to me that it would be better with my son's shadow in it as well. I called him up to stand beside me, framed the shot, and took a few photographs of our shadows together. While I was developing the image, I tried a black and white treatment, but that just didn't quite work well for me in this case.

Photographs are where you find them. Even stretching down a hill at your feet.

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On the Fence

Snow Line

While I was out in the snow with my camera this past weekend, one of the things that I played around with was depth-of-field. The depth-of-field of a photograph is now much of it is "in focus" or rather "appears" to be in focus. In particular, the long lines of contrast the snow tends to create are good chances to play around with very narrow, or small, depths of field; i.e. only a very thin sliver of the photograph is actually in focus.

That was what I was trying to do when I took this photograph. I think that it turned out pretty well all things considered. The lens I was using was not the best for this sort of technique as its' largest aperture is limited to f/4.5 to f/5.6 depending on how far out it is zoomed. A lens with a much larger aperture of say f/2.8, or even better f/1.8 oor f/1.4, would produce much better out of focus areas. That means the focus would gradate much more pleasantly to a very creamy / dreamy blur. I still like it though and am happy enough with the picture.


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Branches, Snow, and Sky

Branches, Snow, and Sky

Here is another photograph from our weekend snowfall. I really liked how the snow collected on the branches this time. There wasn't very much wind during the storm so the snow got to pile up on thin objects like the branches in this tree. I was also using a polarizing filter to help bring out the blue in the sky.

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... And Then Came Winter

Poking Through

Just a couple of days after I took that photograph of the flowers starting to bud, we get a nice snowfall to remind us that Winter is still here. This storm was a little different than what we usually get around here. It was heaviest in the Midlands to the Coastal region, and lightest toward the mountains. Charleston got its' first measurable snow in a decade. Here in the Upstate I am guessing we got around 3 to 5 inches. A nice amount, but it wasn't very good for playing around in. The snow wouldn't stick together very well for snowballs or snowmen. It was kind of typical in one way though; almost all of it had melted by 5 pm the next day. There is still some of the stuff lingering in the more shaded areas, but it is pretty much gone everywhere else.

There is a small chance of sleet and flurries tonight, but I don't expect very much from it.

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Hints of Spring

First Blooms

It has been seasonably cool/cold around here lately. The temperature hasn't been getting above 45 to 50 F since the new year. We will have a day or two of sunny days followed by several days of cooler, wet days. All in all, it has been a typical, if slightly cooler, winter. We did have a bit of sleet / ice that accumulated some a couple of weeks ago, but nothing really notable.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I noticed several of the trees around my son's school were starting to get their spring buds and blossoms. The trees certainly couldn't be confused about the seasons as we have not really had much "Spring" like weather. I guess they are just early bloomers. The first hints of Spring to get us through the rest of winter.


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