4P Photoblog

Race Reflection

2011-07-28T17:09:00.000-04:00

Race Reflection

One of my nieces has taken up competitive swimming. Last weekend was the state meet for her YMCA swim league. She did remarkably well placing first in a couple of her heats, finishing third in two of her matches and sixth in the other two, both of her relay teams placed first, and the girls of her team placed fourth in overall points. She also qualified for regional in two of her events. Her team was one of the smallest at the meet with around a dozen total swimmers compared to 20+ for the top placing teams. There were only three boys and they placed ninth out of 13 teams of boys. Plus, my niece has only been race swimming for just over one year. As I said it was a remarkable weekend and we are all quite proud of her and her team. She really enjoys it and seems to have found something that she will stick with for quite a while. Oh, and her team's home pool is not an an Olympic sized competition pool. It is shorter, doesn't have the elevated starting blocks, and they don't have the automated timing boards. Yet, they still did so well. Remarkably well.

This was the first of her meets that I was able to attend. So, I wasn't quite certain what to expect. The venue where the meet was held is different from all of the others, I've been told, in that this venue is outdoors while all of the other meets are held in indoor pools. While that meant that it was hot and humid outside, the lighting was better than it would have been in an indoor pool. Sunlight is better for freezing action shots than indoor fluorescent or sodium vapor lighting.

This shot is my favorite of my niece. I liked the reflection and how she seems to be looking down into it as she does the breaststroke. It didn't require very much post-processing. A little added contrast via the tone curve, white-balance, clarity, vibrance, fill light, and sharpening in Lightroom 3's Develop module was all it took.

Swimming Blobs

2011-07-14T17:57:00.001-04:00

Jellyfish

One day we visited the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. The aquarium is quite nice. Its' main feature is a shark tunnel that winds around the main tank. It is quite fun to have so many sharks swimming so close to you while being safe from them. At one point in the tunnel there is a sign marking where a shark had actually attacked the tunnel and left a mark in the acrylic.

While I enjoy visiting aquariums, it is sometimes difficult to get the kinds of photographs I envision. The lighting is all ways suspect and the animals are in constant motion. I prefer not use a flash in aquariums due to the reflections that result from them. Thus, I have to use a higher ISO than I normally do and have to open up the aperture as much as possible to get enough light to freeze the animals' motions. I was able to do some panning with the fish in one of the larger tanks during a lull in the visitors gathered around it. However, that doesn't work well with the smaller tanks with lots of observers crowded around. I don't want to whack someone in the face with the camera after all.

For some reason though I seem to have some success with jellyfish. Maybe it is because they don't move as quickly as fish. The particular jellyfish in this photograph is only a couple of inches long and was only one of a couple of dozen in a moderate sized tank. It was isolated from most of the others and seemed to be a good subject to photograph so here it is.

Keep shooting.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Life

2011-07-12T16:31:00.000-04:00

Pigeon River and Rocky Waters Inn

It has been an eventful few weeks. We spent a few days in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee
area. It rained for most of the time we where there, so I wasn't able to get out with the camera as much as I would have liked. Hopefully, our next trip will be a full week.

The photograph above is taken from a bridge over the Pigeon River looking toward our hotel. The rooms all have a balcony over the water which was nice to sit out on during the evening. Our son had fun one evening feeding the fish the bread we had brought for sandwiches. The manager said he has seen otters in the river but none of the little critters visited while we were out on the balcony.

After we got back, my new eyeglasses had come in. I have never worn glasses before, but my eyes are starting to turn the corner on the age freeway. I have been having to hold stuff further away to read things and my distance vision had started not to be as crisp as it used to be. Technically I am still 20/20 in one eye and 20/25 in the other which makes it odd to be wearing glasses. However, the glasses are Progressive Bi-focals which are correcting some slight astigmatism which was affecting my distance vision, and correcting the problems I was having reading. I had tried to find reading glasses, but couldn't find any that were weak enough for me. All of the readers were much to strong. These glasses I have seem to be just right ... more expensive of course, but just right. It took me a while to get used to the glasses and since I got them right after the Gatlinburg trip, I waited to work on the photographs until I was comfortable with the glasses.

Finally, during that same time my Hotmail email account had gotten hacked or something. Spam was somehow being sent via my Hotmail Contacts list. If you got any of that spam then I do apologize. I have since managed to change the password on the account and the spam seems to have stopped. I used a couple of anti-virius and anti-malware applications to scan my computer and it seems to be free of junk now. However, I used the opportunity to set-up a new G-Mail account which you can find in the sidebar. To prevent automated spambots from picking up and using the new address, I replaced the @ symbol with "(at)". Make the appropriate substitution if you want to contact me.

Oh, I got an iPad 2 for Father's Day. It has become my main internet surfing and reading device. I have my photographs on it an they look great! I just wish I could organize them better. The new operating system for it that is coming out in September sounds like it might help with that.

Keep shooting.

British Car Show

2011-06-10T16:05:00.000-04:00

British Car Show

One part of the Greenville Scottish Games that I enjoy is the British Car Show. It is held on Furman University's shaded mall in front of the main gate to the games. There always seems to be a slightly different mix of cars in the show each year. Many of the cars are older restorations, but there are sometimes new British branded automobiles as well. The new Lotus sports cars are almost always a crowd pleaser.

The car show is now kind of a sentimental favorite of mine since it was some of my photographs of cars from a couple of years ago that got me invited to be a photographer for the games last year and now this year. I wasn't able to get many photographs from the car show last year due to the VIP's schedule. However, I did make it a point to get some shots from there this year.

This particular photograph shows that the cars are lined up for quite a long ways down the mall. In fact, they are lined up down both sides of the mall. Quite an impressive collection of classic British automobiles. The photograph is also a handheld, three-shot HDR composite so that the shadows are not blocked out to complete black. I tried to process the image so that it would look fairly natural without the over exaggerated colors that HDR can sometime cause. It's not perfect, but I think it gets close to it.

Keep shooting.

2d Marine Division Band

2011-06-09T17:49:00.000-04:00

2d Marine Division Band

I love marching bands. Way back when I was in high school I played trumpet in the band. My high school had an excellent band program for both concert and marching bands.

Thus, I was thrilled when the 2d Marine Division Band came out during the Greenville Scottish Games' opening ceremonies. One thing that I didn't know is that they serve as security platoons for their headquarters command elements as well as providing musical support for the five major commands at their base in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Being in a Marine band doesn't get you out of combat. They have been deployed into active combat deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here is a grateful salute ...

Keep shooting.

USMC Color Guard

2011-06-08T17:02:00.000-04:00

US Marine Corps Color Guard

The US flag was presented by a color guard from the US Marine Corps during the Greenville Scottish Games' opening ceremonies. I have always liked the Marines' "dress blues" uniform. They are very striking and formal. However, I did not envy those young men being out there in the mid-day sun and heat. I suppose that they get used to it when they go through boot camp down at Paris Island. On the other hand, I was sitting on the ground in the shade of the review stand where it was at least somewhat bearable.

Keep shooting.

Published in Fete Greenville

2011-06-08T16:48:00.000-04:00

Some of my photographs from the Scottish Games were just published in Fete Greenville. Fete Greenville is a monthly, online magazine about events happening in Greenville, South Carolina. My photographs are on pages 5, 11, and 43.

It is kind of neat to see my photographs used in some of those layouts.

Keep shooting.

The Royal Highland Fusiliers

2011-06-07T17:17:00.000-04:00

Royal Highland Fusiliers

The gentlemen in the above photograph are members of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS). These eight men were the honor guard for the VIPs of the Greenville Scottish Games. They recently returned home from deployment in Afghanistan.

I find it fascinating how military uniforms and traditions vary even between nations as closely related as the US and Great Britain.

More later.

2011 Greenville Scottish Games

2011-06-02T14:50:00.000-04:00

2011 Greenville Scottish Games

The Greenville Scottish Games were held this year on Saturday, May 28 at Furman University. This was the second year in a row that I volunteered to photograph the games for them. Unlike last year where I was predominately charged with following Prince Edward, I was able to take in the games at my own pace. Both approaches were interesting and fun. However, this year I got to see and experience more of the games than I did last year. I also didn't have to run backwards near as much as I did last year while follow Prince Edward. ;-)

This photograph is the main field which is surrounded by the clans' tents and the review stand. Paris Mountain is visible in the background. I thought that the overall view was reminiscent of photographs that I've seen of the Scottish Highlands. Granted, the Highlands don't usually get temperatures around 95 degrees F with near 100% humidity. Still, it seemed an appropriate view of the games' character.

Keep shooting.

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T12:49:00.000-04:00

Old Glory at Patriot's Point

Thank you.

"Mine!"

2011-05-19T16:26:00.000-04:00

"Mine!"

And here is the heron after it caught it's lunch. I don't think he wanted to share it.

Keep shooting

Posing

2011-05-18T14:57:00.000-04:00

Heron Posing

This is a different heron than the one in yesterday's photograph. This particular heron was at another pond than where I watched the first one. It did not seem as shy around people since it would get much closer to us than would the other heron. As people threw out bread for the ducks and geese, the heron would be right there with the other birds. However, it would not eat any of the bread. It was waiting for it's preferred dinner to come eat the bread instead.

Keep shooting.

Taking Flight

2011-05-16T22:36:00.000-04:00

Great Blue Heron in Flight

This past weekend I went out to the ponds at the Milliken Research Center. It was a beautiful afternoon and there were quite a few people out there. There was at least one large family gathering / party, plus lots of families with small children feeding the birds.

A couple of the Great Blue Herons that hang out around the ponds were present and I decided to concentrate on them. The herons are generally quite a bit more hesitant with people and tend to fly away if someone gets too close which makes them harder to photograph. That also means that you have a better chance of getting some photographs of the herons actually doing something interesting than the ducks and geese floating around.

This was the first heron that was came to at the ponds. I crept slowly toward it trying to keep my camera on it. Then I noticed a couple walking from the other pond to the one the heron and I were at. The couple was coming up generally behind the heron and I figured that the bird would take off when it felt they were too close. Luckily, I was right and I got some shots of it as it flew to a safer perch.

It was a productive 45 minutes to an hour that I was at the ponds. So, stay tuned as there are more to come.

Keep shooting

Another Dogwood

2011-04-06T15:21:00.000-04:00

Dogwood

Here is another shot of the dogwoods. It is a bit more of a traditional viewpoint.

Keep shooting.

Spring in Spartanburg

2011-04-04T17:49:00.001-04:00

Dogwoods

It has been Spring for a few weeks and I have been remiss in my Spring photography. Truthfully, just as it officially turned to Spring we had a blast of Winter-like weather, i.e. cool, wet and overcast. Anyway, here is a different view of one of the dogwood trees in my yard.

Keep shooting.

Glendale Mill

2011-03-28T16:42:00.000-04:00

Glendale Mill Sentry

Another photograph from the Spartanburg Area Conservancy's Glendale Shoals Preserve. This is one of the "towers" of the old Glendale Mill that still stand. Seeing it from this angle made me think of the sentry towers in European Castles for some reason.

Keep shooting.

Moody View

2011-03-25T16:45:00.000-04:00

Reflections and Ruins

This is another photograph of Lawson's Fork Creek in the Glendale Shoals Preserve in Spartanburg County. It is taken very close to the same place as yesterday's photograph if not the exact same location. I was trying out different compositions with the reflections and the trees. As I was developing the image I started to feel that it needed a more moody treatment and converted it to black and white. I think that it works for it. If you look carefully, you will see a couple of the old mill's chimneys through the trees and their reflections in the water. That is were the "Ruins" in the title came from in my mind.

In order to further accentuate the "moodiness" I made a few other tweaks to the image in development. First, I selectively darkened and brightened areas to try to lead the eye down the rapids. Next I reversed the expected sharpening of the image's elements. By this I mean that I reduced the sharpness of every thing except the water, and then I sharpened the reflections. To me this gives a sense that the reflections might be more "real" than the actual trees and ruins. It does at least seem to help convey the moodiness that I was feeling with the image. Finally, I added a slight vignette along the edges to bring the eye into the image.

Well, that is what I did and why I did them anyway. I hope it worked the way I intended them to.

Keep shooting.

I'm back

2011-03-24T13:18:00.000-04:00

Down Lawson's Fork Creek

It has been a while hasn't it? I've been dealing with a lot of stuff and hadn't been able to get out with the camera very much. Things have not really settled down, but I am trying to make time for photography again now that the weather is more agreeable. However, it does seem to like to rain on the weekends for some reason.

Earlier this week I went to the Glendale Shoals Preserve. It is a conservation preserve of the Spartanburg Area Conservancy based around the historic Glendale Mills property. Lawson's Fork Creek flows under an iron trussed bridge, over the mill's dam, and over exposed rock below the dam. The preserve has a couple of trails, numerous picnic tables, and some historic kiosks relating the story of Glendale Mills and the area's natural features. I didn't spend very much time there, but I do look forward to going back and exploring it in better detail.

This photograph is Lawson's Fork Creek as it re-enters it's wooded embankments below the shoals before leaving the Preserve.

Keep shooting.

January Snow

2011-02-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

Gate Lines

Here is a shot from last month's big snowfall. We got six to eight inches of snow with a quarter-inch of ice on top of it by the end of that day. The ice and snow mess stayed around for the rest of the week as the temperatures didn't get above freezing until the next week. It was an unusual winter storm for us. We get storms like this every 5 to eight years it seems.

Keep shooting.

The Past Month

2011-02-08T15:27:00.001-05:00

Howdy.

It's been awhile, huh?

This past month I've been fighting a corneal abscess due to an eye infection / irritation. It started the week of Christmas just after I had a bad cold. I have had similar symptoms the past couple of years, but previously they had always gone away in a week or so. This time it wouldn't go away. It took awhile to get in to see my doctor because of the holidays and the week everything was closed down from the big snow we had in early January. My doctor referred me to an ophthalmologist who has had me on eye drops and an antibiotic ointment gel with almost weekly visits to monitor the condition. Today's appointment was quite good and it looks like it is finally healing properly and it should be behind me soon.

As a result of this, I haven't been taking any photographs. The times that I have had similar symptoms in the past where all after long days with the camera. So, I didn't want to do anything to irritate it further. I do have a few photographs to process from the big snow we got, so hopefully I can get some of those up by the end of the week.

The ophthalmologist told me that this can be a recurring condition, particularly in the Spring and Summer which is when I had had the symptoms in the past. But now I know what to be aware of, and he gave me some advice on how to prevent it.

As they say, "that's life".

Keep shooting.

My Favorites from 2010

2011-01-08T12:01:00.003-05:00

With 2010 gone, it was time to look back at the photographs from the year. You may have noticed a couple of new links in the "My Links" section in the sidebar. One of those links is for the gallery of my favorite photographs from 2010. It is around 190 images and I probably could edit it down to a much smaller number of "the best". But favorite and best aren't the same things and these were MY favorites, so here they are. There is a Flash slideshow of the gallery which you can see in the full post (click the Read More link below).

Also, I have added a link to purchase prints of some my photographs. I have gotten enough requests that it felt like a good time to make it available. There is a limited selected right now, but I will add more over time. I will likely reorganize it into various categories as I add more images to purchase.

I hope your holidays were merry and your new year is a good one.

Follow the link for the slide show.

Keep shooting.

Last post of 2010, first Christmas Snow EVER

2010-12-31T16:07:00.002-05:00

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.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T14:15:00.002-05:00

Neighborhood Lights

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Prestwood Sunrise

2010-12-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Still around

2010-12-07T17:02:00.003-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Blue Ridge Parkway Sunset, Day 2

2010-11-23T15:58:00.004-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Sunbeams

2010-11-19T16:10:00.005-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Time for a close-up

2010-11-16T15:09:00.004-05:00

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.

Colorful Slope

2010-11-15T15:26:00.003-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Veteran's Day

2010-11-11T18:34:00.003-05:00

Old Glory at Patriot's Point

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

Keep shooting.

Just After Sunrise

2010-11-10T15:55:00.004-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Blue Ridge Sunrise, 2010

2010-11-09T15:40:00.003-05:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Blue Ridge Parkway Sunset, Day 1

2010-11-05T16:52:00.002-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

More Fall Colors

2010-11-04T16:16:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Fall Colors 2010

2010-11-03T16:34:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

The one that started it all

2010-10-27T17:07:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

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

2010-10-26T15:26:00.003-04:00

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)

Keep shooting.

The Badlands in Color and B&W - part 1

2010-10-25T15:02:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Drive-by shooting ...

2010-10-21T20:18:00.006-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

South Dakota Bandlands

2010-10-20T15:21:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Scale (Part 2)

2010-10-18T16:22:00.004-04:00

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?

Keep shooting.

Framing

2010-10-13T16:09:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Scale (Part 1)

2010-10-12T14:58:00.006-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Mount Rushmore and the Errant Polarizing Filter

2010-10-11T15:57:00.005-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Rising Water

2010-10-08T16:28:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

In North Dakota

2010-10-06T15:22:00.002-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Back in town

2010-10-05T12:12:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting

And here is the rest of it.

No Parking, Any Time

2010-09-17T16:54:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Light & Curves

2010-09-16T19:14:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

In the dark

2010-09-10T15:56:00.002-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Retirement Roses

2010-09-09T16:53:00.002-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Sunrays, Blue Sky

2010-08-26T17:43:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Sunburst

2010-08-24T09:45:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting

Something Different

2010-08-13T13:54:00.002-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Waterfall Cove

2010-08-12T16:43:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Haze ... all day!

2010-08-11T17:38:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Jocassee Waterfall

2010-08-09T17:10:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Lake Jocassee

2010-08-06T15:38:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Photowalk Wrap-up

2010-07-28T17:19:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Carolina Gallery Photography Invitational Winners

2010-07-27T18:31:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Photowalk Reminder

2010-07-22T16:31:00.005-04:00

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!

Keep shooting.

The Carolina Gallery Photography Invitational

2010-07-16T11:21:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Big Ball in the Sky!

2010-07-09T19:04:00.005-04:00

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.

Fireworks

2010-07-08T16:59:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Red, White & Boom!

2010-07-06T16:36:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-02T15:59:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk

2010-06-24T12:17:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

We control the horizontal ....

2010-06-18T15:26:00.003-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Issaqueena Falls

2010-06-16T17:08:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Stumphouse Tunnel

2010-06-15T17:12:00.004-04:00

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.

Keep shooting.

Something to go back to

2010-06-11T14:15:00.003-04:00

Reflective Sculpture

As I have mentioned before, I really like to photograph reflective subjects. While waiting for the next leg of my assignment after lunch during the Greenville Scottish Games, I found this metallic sculpture near one of Furman University's athletic buildings. I don't think this is "the" image I wanted to get of it, but I do think there is something there I can work with in the future when I have more time. It is something for me to keep in mind to revisit next time I'm visiting Furman.

We don't always get the shots that we want the first time we see a subject. Sometimes you don't get it the second, third or forth times either. That's OK though. Photography is a growing experience and a way for us to see the world differently. There is no reason not to continue to revisit places, even after we get "the" shot we wanted. Who knows, we might get an even better image then we thought we could in the first place.

Keep shooting.

A Work in Progress

2010-06-10T16:34:00.004-04:00

Painting the Greenville Scottish Games

An addition to this year's opening ceremonies for the Greenville Scottish Games, was this painter. He was creating an interpretive piece to capture the spirit of the games which would later be presented to Prince Edward as a gift. I didn't get to watch him the entire time, but it was interesting to watch him work while the pipe bands were performing.

Keep shooting.

Massed Pipe Bands

2010-06-09T15:44:00.004-04:00

Massed Bands

During the opening ceremonies, all of the participating Pipe & Drum bands gathered together to perform for His Royal Highness, Prince Edward. It was quite impressive with between 400 to 500 musicians on the field together. They performed a new march which had been written to commemorate Prince Edward's visit to Greenville, South Carolina. An international competition was held for the composition of this particular march. Mr. Donald Patrick Sargent of Ashhurst, New Zealand composed "Greenville's Salute to the Earl of Wessex" which was the selected winner of the competition.

Keep shooting.

Getting Up Early

2010-06-08T15:55:00.004-04:00

Sunrise at Furman

All of the landscape photography books say that you should plan to get up early so you can catch the sunrise and the morning's "magic hour". When I was covering the Greenville Scottish Games, I was told to be there around 6 am. The sun had already risen, but wasn't yet visible due to nearby Paris Mountain. It didn't take long for it to climb above Paris Mountain though, and give a nice silhouette effect to some of the trees on the Furman University campus. The colors in this image are due to using a Shady White Balance setting when processing the image. There was a bit more blue in the sky at the time. However, I thought the extra warmth (i.e. orange and yellow tones) that the Shady White Balance setting adds to an image provided a better overall color palette.

When I process my images, I usually try a variety of White Balance settings to determine which might be the better match for how I want the image to appear. Sometimes it helps to get the White Balance perfect. Other times, the White Balance can add a creative choice of color tonalities to an image. It depends on what you want or need the image to do.

Of course, I wasn't really needed to photograph anything so early in the morning. I am glad that I did arrive that early though. I was able to get this photograph and a couple of behind-the-scenes photographs of people finishing preparations for the games that I would not have been able to get otherwise.

Keep shooting.

The Best View

2010-06-04T15:41:00.003-04:00

The Best View

When I saw these girls had climbed up on to the light-pole, I knew it would make for a good picture. That vintage-styled clock added just a bit of extra flair. To me, the photograph captures the excitement of the parade and some of downtown Greenville's personality.

Keep shooting.

There She Is ...

2010-06-03T16:12:00.004-04:00

Miss America

The current Miss America, Caressa Cameron, was one of the parade participants. She also sang the US National Anthem at the Scottish Games the next day. I don't think that I got a single bad picture of her on either day, although the one above is my favorite of all of them.

Keep shooting.

Parade VIPs

2010-06-02T16:13:00.003-04:00

Parade VIPs

Here is a photograph of of the VIPs watching the Great Scot! parade from the reviewing stand. His Royal Highness, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex is waving to a parade participant, the Mayor of Greenville is next to him, and one of the Clan Chiefs is on the right of the photograph.

More photographs later.

Great Scot! Parade

2010-06-01T16:58:00.003-04:00

Spectators

I know it was quite on the blog here last week. I apologize for that, but I was getting ready for something. Now that it is finished and have approval to post the photographs, I can finally talk about it here on the blog.

More after the jump.

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted about permissions to use some photographs that I took at last year's Greenville Scottish Games in this year's program. I thought it would be a good opportunity, so I agreed. However, it didn't end with just those photographs. I was also selected to be one of their volunteer photographers for this year's event. More importantly, this year the Greenville Scottish Games had a major VIP ... His Royal Highness, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. It is the first time that a member of the British Royal Family has visited a Scottish/Highland Games in the US, perhaps even outside of Scotland. It also marked the first visit of a member of the Royal family to South Carolina and the Upstate. To top if off, I was the "Principal" photographer for the Games tasked with documenting the Prince's visit to the Parade as well as the Games. Needless to say, it was an exciting opportunity.

The Festivities started Friday night with the Great Scot! Parade in downtown Greenville. The review stand was in front of City Hall which ironically put Prince Edward directly across from a local hot dog restaurant called "The Hot Dog King". I thought it was quite humorous placement. The parade itself was fun to cover. All of the clans attending the games were present, as well as all of the pipe-and-drum bands. There were also various other dignitaries, Miss Teen South Carolina, Miss South Carolina, all of the current Miss South Carolina contestants, and finally Miss America.

How often am I going to get to cover an event with a member of the Royal Family and Miss America?

The photograph above shows just a few of the many spectators that lined the streets early to see the parade.

I am still excited about this past weekend.

Keep shooting.

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T10:48:00.003-04:00

Old Glory

Today is Memorial Day here in the US when we remember those who have fallen in service our country.

Always remember.

Thunderbirds

2010-05-21T15:12:00.003-04:00

Mirrored

The finale and highlight of ShawFest 2010 was the Thunderbirds' performance. I had hoped to get some nice photographs of them, but was thrilled with some of the ones I actually managed to capture. The photograph above is one of my favorites with the two soloists performing a close pass. I love how the vertical stabilizers are matched together in the shot.

Follow the jump for another shot of these two planes.

Really Close

Now that is close! The aft fins near the rear of the engines look like they are actually staggered together. In other words, they are closer together than the planes would measure vertically. Like I said, it is Close!

Also, look very closely at both planes. They are number 5 and 6. Click the links below the photographs for larger images if you need to. The numbers are painted near the front of the engine intakes. Notice something odd about them? The number 5 plane is the inverted plane in each photograph. See anything odd about his number now? His number is right-side up in each photograph, yet his plane is inverted. He is the lead soloist and inverted in most of his passes past the viewing area. Thus, his number is painted upside down on his plane so that the number is right-side up when he makes one of his many inverted pass in front of the spectators. I thought it was kind of neat when I saw that the first time in these pictures.

Keep shooting.

Thunderbirds' History

2010-05-20T15:36:00.003-04:00

Thunderbirds' History

One of the demonstrations later in the afternoon was of a restored jet fighter. I don't remember the name and designation of this particular fighter, but it was one of the first, if not the first, jet fighter in the newly formed US Air Force. This was the first US jet fighter to encounter MiG fighters in the Korean War. It was also the first jet fighter used by the Thunderbirds demonstration squadron.

The picture is an odd shape because I had to crop out someone's head and then even out the composition. There were something like 70,000 visitors at the air show that day. I have quite a few photographs of the backs of people's heads. Still, I like the image. It is kind of a history meets the present sort of thing.

Keep shooting.

Mustang

2010-05-19T16:05:00.003-04:00

P-51 Mustang

One of the demonstrations that really catch my attention at airshows are the old warbirds. These are usually reconditioned WWII era fighters and bombers. I am fascinated that some of these planes are still flying and impressed that there are people who care enough for these aircraft to keep them in the air.

This particular plane is the P-51 Mustang which escorted Allied bombers on bombing missions deep into Nazi territories. Thousands of these planes were manufactured for the war effort. Only about a hundred or so are still flying according the airshow's announcer.

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Our Money's Worth

2010-05-18T15:17:00.005-04:00

Warranty Information

When I was walking around the air show's ground displays, I noticed something amusing stenciled on one of the missiles of an F-16. It gave me a chuckle and I had to take a snapshot of it which you see above.

The missile's guidance module seems to be out of warranty. I wonder who fixes it if it doesn't work? ;-)

Keep shooting! (Even if your missiles are out of warranty :-) )

Out on a Wing

2010-05-14T14:49:00.004-04:00

Wingwalker

In addition to the military demonstrations, there were also civilian aerobatics. This wingwalker was quite impressive. You couldn't get me to do that ... ever. Fly in an open-cockpit biplane? Sure. It would be fun. Hanging from the wire supports during take-off with no straps holding me in? No way! Climbing around on a fabric covered plane in mid-air where a wrong step will put my foot through the wing? No chance in you know where! It was fun to watch, but I wouldn't want to do it myself.

Keep shooting.

Watch Where You Shoot

2010-05-13T13:31:00.003-04:00

Out of the Sun

So, there I was panning my camera as an F-16 made a pass by the viewing area. My camera was happily clicking away when all of the sudden there is a bright flash and the entire world turns to white. Well, it turned white for my eye that was at the viewfinder. The other one was fine. What happened? While panning with the fighter jet, the plane crossed in front of the Sun. To make it a bit worse I had my telephoto lens zoomed all the way out to 300mm. Luckily the shutter blocked the sun and I was able to blink quickly enough to not cause any damage. My eye just watered for a couple of seconds.

However, imagine my reaction when I looked down at my camera's LCD display and saw the Highlight warning blinking on and off revealing the sharp crisp shadow of the F-16 as it emerged out of the sun's disc. Straight of the camera the photograph was this:

Into the Sun!

However, because of the highlight warnings (i.e. the "blinkies" screen) I knew that I might actually have an interesting abstract image. A little processing in Lightroom 2 and I was able to massage the picture up top out of the overblown pixels. I think that shooting Raw files instead of JPEGs might have helped as well since the file recorded more information.

I do not recommend photographing directly in to the sun. However, don't automatically delete what might at first seem to be a "bad" image. There might be a gem hiding amongst those pixels

Keep shooting.

Flares

2010-05-12T15:14:00.003-04:00

Dropping Flares

One of the demonstrations at ShawFest was an "Airfield Attack" which was conducted by the Air Force's Viper East demonstration team. During part of the demonstration, the fighters dropped flares to illustrate how they would avoid a heat-seeking missile. The photograph above is one I'm quite pleased with as I managed to capture a flare just after it was released and while it was still close enough to illuminate the plane. A little luck and a camera that can capture seven-frames per second really helps in these kinds of situations.

Keep shooting.

ShawFest 2010

2010-05-11T15:13:00.004-04:00

Jumping Over the Moon

This past weekend we went down to visit my parents again. The reason was to go out to Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina for their ShawFest airshow. I have been wanting to photograph an airshow for quite a while now. However, the couple of bases in the state have been sending so many people overseas that they have had to cancel the airshows. As a matter of fact, the Charleston Air Force Base canceled their airshow just a couple of weeks ago. Luckily Shaw AFB was able to have their show this year.

More after the jump.

The airshow itself got started off with the Army's Golden Knights. The picture above shows two of the Golden Knights connected to each other. They are so high up that they appear to be one jumper and one parachute. But, when I zoom in I can make out the second parachute and jumper. A crescent moon was just barely visible through the daylight haze, and I'm glad that I was able to get at least one shot of the Knights in the frame with it.

Here are a few other photographs from the Golden Knights' demonstration:

Opening Event

Golden Knight Overhead

Two Golden Knights Connected Together

More to come from ShawFest 2010 throughout the week.

Keep shooting.

Spring Fling Reflection

2010-05-07T13:03:00.004-04:00

Spring Fling Reflection

When it comes down to it, most street fairs seem to be similar. There's an area/street for vendors, a few fully equipped stages for bands/musicians, an area/street where you find all of the food vendors, smaller performance areas for local organizations, maybe some amusement rides and games for the kids, and a lot of people milling around. Yet, each one is different in some way. Those difference can inform you about the community that is presenting the event. Some street fairs are subdued. Others are rowdy. Some cater to more urban communities, while others serve more rural communities. Some are artsy, others mundane. One thing they all have in common is that is a time for those communities to come together and reacquaint themselves with each other.

Spartanburg's Spring Fling has been a nice, friendly event the past several years that I've visited it. The attendance has been quite good each year, even when the weather hasn't been the best. There has been a lot of things to see and do, plus there is almost always something new each year.

The photograph above is of a vendor's tent reflection in the black/green marble facade of a classic old building downtown. While it is a Spring Fling vendor's tent, it could be a vendor's tent almost anywhere else. Yet, I really could only get this particular shot in Spartanburg because that is where this beautiful old facade is located.

I like reflections. They can be so many different things.

Keep your fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow. If it stays nice, I should have something kind of different to show off next week. I'm excited about it. Here's a hint ... "I feel the need. The need for speed!"

Keep shooting

Lunch

2010-05-06T15:17:00.002-04:00

Lunch at Groucho's

During Spring Fling we at lunch at Groucho's Deli. Groucho's is a local sandwich shop right on one of the corners of a main intersection downtown. The sandwiches were good, the service was great. It's a very casual kind of place. Kid's can draw on the walls with crayons if they want. All in all Groucho's is a nice place for a quick sandwich and to escape the mid-day heat.

I saw these bills and the menu and immediately thought they made an interesting picture together. Something different, but it's good to be different sometimes. Pixils are free after all.

Keep shooting.

Spartan Photo Center

2010-05-05T15:34:00.003-04:00

Spartan Photo Center had a couple of tents at Spring Fling. They were selling framed prints, some small photography items, and they were also making digital photography caricatures of people. Additionally, they were handing out our fliers for the Spartanburg Photography Guild meeting tomorrow night. Which reminds me .. the meeting is tomorrow night, Thursday, May 6, from 6-8 pm, at Spartan Photo Center across from Spartanburg's Chapman Cultural Center.

Keep shooting.

Smile!

2010-05-04T15:54:00.003-04:00

Clydesdale Smile

Spartanburg's Spring Fling was once again a fun event. The day was overcast and we did have some showers in the afternoon. However, there was still a lot to do. I did get to see the Budweiser Clydesdales pull their wagon. That was actually when it started to rain, and because of it the horses were packed up and left the festival early after their lap around the block. One of the lead horses seemed to have the whole posing for cameras thing down. He was smiling all of the time when someone pointed a camera at him.

Keep shooting.

Weekly Fling

2010-04-30T17:20:00.006-04:00

Yeah, it has been slow around here lately. We did go out to Converse College a few days ago. However, I didn't get any photographs that I particularly liked. That does happen occasionally. Sometimes the photography clicks, and sometimes it doesn't. Kind of like Life, I suppose. So long as you keep working at it, you are ahead of the game. It wasn't anything to do with Converse's campus, which is quite lovely. I simply didn't get the best images that I wanted. Of course, that just means that I'll have to go back and try again.

This weekend is Spartanburg's annual Spring Fling event. It is the city's spring street fair. Rides, street performances, stage performances, artists, musicians, vendors, etc. There is usually a lot going on and some fun for everyone. This year I'll be helping the Spartanburg Photography Guild hand out fliers for our "Meeting and Greet" kick-off next week. We'll be at the Spartan Photo Center tents on and off throughout the day tomorrow. Other times we will be wondering around to enjoy the festivities.

Spring Fling runs from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon.

Come on out if you are in the area.

Keep shooting.

The Spartanburg Photograph Guild

2010-04-23T15:02:00.004-04:00

A couple other local photographers and I are trying to start-up a local photography club. It is called The Spartanburg Photography Guild.

Our first gathering will be a "Meet and Greet" style affair. Here are the details.

When: Thursday, May 6, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm,
Where: Spartan Photo Center
197 East St. Johns Street
(directly across from the Chapman Cultural Center)
Spartanburg SC, 29306

We will have some refreshments, get to know each other, and discuss our love of photography.

If you are in the Greenville / Spartanburg, South Carolina area and have an interest in sharing your photography with others, then please come; we would love to meet you.

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Pretty Birds

2010-04-16T15:25:00.003-04:00

African Grey Parrot

Some of the animals at Hollywild Animal Park have been rescued from owners that could no longer care for them or that needed to find the animal a better home. Tank, the rhino I showed a couple of days ago, is one of Hollywild's rescued animals. He has been at the park for about twenty years now.

The park also has a few parrots that local owners brought to the park because they couldn't care for them any more. Above is the Park's African Grey Parrot. African Greys are extremely intelligent birds. Some have learned not only how to mimic words, but how to use them in context as well as teach other parrots how to "speak" English. Case in point. When I finished photographing this parrot, I told it, "Thank you." The bird promptly replied with, "You're welcome." This got quite a few impressed chuckles from the other photographers.

More after the jump.

Yellow-Naped Amazon Parrot

Above is Hollywild's Yellow-naped Amazon parrot. It has a yellow patch on the back of it's neck, i.e. the nape, hence the name. This bird was quite a talker and had a very clear voice. It mostly said "Hello" with various inflections, but it did use other words and phrases too. I believe it said "Goodbye" to a photographer that was leaving it. The bird also seemed to relish the attention as it always had this mischievous gleam in it's eyes.

Scarlet Macaw

Finally, I got to photograph this Scarlet Macaw. These are the birds that come to mind when most people think of parrots. They are large birds who need a lot of room. Their tail can be a couple of feet long for example. This particular macaw kept moving around the tree it was placed in which make getting good shots of it difficult. Still it was a beautiful bird.

The park also has a yellow-crested cockatoo which I only got to see briefly, and didn't get any particularly good photographs of it.

All of these photographs with the parrots were taken with the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII which I got to borrow from the Nikon representative. It is such a nice lens. I love how it makes the background blur out to such a smooth set of tones and colors. That blurring effect makes the subject stand out so nicely from the background.

Have a good weekend. Maybe stop by Hollywild if you are in the Greenville or Spartanburg area.

Keep shooting.

Turs

2010-04-15T16:18:00.004-04:00

Baby Caucasian Turs

One of the highlights of Hollywild's Photography Day event was getting to see these Caucasian Turs. Unfortunately, I don't recall if they are Western or Eastern Turs. Turs are from the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia. The San Diego Zoo is the only other facility in the US with this same variety of Turs. The Turs at Hollywild are part of a breading program and are not on display to the general public. They are not very large animals, and they were quite shy with all of us sitting there photographing them. They spent a lot of time hiding from us and watching us as they didn't know if we were going to eat them or not. I'm sure the large cameras and lenses didn't help either.

More after the jump.

Female Caucasian Turs

There were a couple of babies in the herd already. The one in the top photograph was the oldest and most outgoing of the two. The other infant was completely black, quite cute, and very shy. It stayed in the shade so much I didn't get any really good shots of it. The two kids should have a few more playmates in a couple of weeks as several of the females are expecting calves. The female in the second photograph above was one of the more visible of the animals. She may have been the designated "lookout" for all I know about them. The thing that I find most interesting about the Turs are their eyes. Look closely at the female and you'll notice that her irises are rectangular and not round. Quite an unusual feature I believe.

Prior to the event, I didn't know that Hollywild participated in breeding programs like this, but I suppose I really shouldn't be that surprised. It is good to know that a place here near Spartanburg, South Carolina is helping preserve some of the world's wildlife.

Keep shooting.

Proud Watusi

2010-04-14T16:05:00.004-04:00

Proud Watusi

This is a Watusi. It is a type of African cattle. Hollywild Animal park in Spartanburg County has several of these in its' safari area. They have some of the most impressive horns that I've ever seen.

Keep shooting.

Lunch Time

2010-04-13T15:41:00.004-04:00

Zebra'a Lunch

During the Photography Day event at Hollywild Animal Park near Wellford, South Carolina, we were were able to drive around the "Safari" area in our cars at our own pace. The Safari area has a large herd of deer, llamas, emus, watusis (big African cattle), bison, and other cattle. This photograph is of one of the zebras nibbling on some hay near lunch time. I was starting to get hungry myself, although not for hay.

Keep shooting.

Hollywild Photography Day

2010-04-12T15:53:00.004-04:00

Tank

This past weekend, I went to Hollywild Animal Park for their Photography Day event. This was the second time that they have had the event. The first time was last month. It is held in conjunction with the Spartan Photo Center who arranged to have a Nikon representative present as well. The Nikon rep was there to answer questions about equipment as well as with a full stock of camera bodies and lenses that could be borrowed during the event. I borrowed one lens after lunch. The new 70-200mm, f/2.8 VRII zoom ... such a sweet lens. I want one!

More after the jump.

As part of the event, participants had access to some areas that are usually off-limits to the general public. First, we got to get close to Tank, the park's "working" white rhino. Tank was a tad camera shy at first, but he did eventually come over to pose for us. Today's photograph is one of the my favorites that I got of him while we were visiting with him.

It was quite a fun day. There were a lot of photographers at the event. I know that a group came down from Charlotte, North Carolina for it. My guess is somewhere around 40 or so photographers in all made it out to the park. The weather was simply perfect for it as well. It wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, and it was a nice partly cloudy day with plenty of sun and just enough clouds to keep the skies interesting.

Stay tuned. There is more to come from the day.

Keep shooting.

Spring Reflections

2010-04-09T15:02:00.003-04:00

Spring Reflections

I saw these trees reflected in one of the ponds at Swan Lake in Sumter and thought that the colors would make a good image. With reflections like this I always wonder how I should have the image oriented. The way it is in this shot is how it was when I saw the reflection. The trees are across the pond, so the tops of the trees are closest to me in the reflection. You can see some ripples in the water in the upper portion of the image which gives the clue that it is a reflection and not simply an upside down photograph of some colorful trees.

Would it be better this way, with the reflection "upside down" but correct for how I saw it? Or would it be better rotated so it looks like the trees are "right-side-up", but you wouldn't realize it was a reflection until you noticed the ripples at the base of the trees?

Keep shooting.

Wood Duck

2010-04-08T14:51:00.003-04:00

Wood Duck

This little fellow was quite a patient little model. My father had been photographing him for about five minutes before I caught up to him. A second male wood duck had been there earlier, but escaped to the pond as my father started to take pictures. After I had gotten my couple of snaps, we found out why this guy had been waiting. His wife came out from underneath a feeding station where we hadn't seen her. I guess she had be freshening up of a date or something. She and the male duck waddled off to the pod together to enjoy the Spring evening ... and get some privacy.

Keep shooting.