USMC Color Guard

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.

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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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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 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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Autumn Red

Autumn Red

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

Hope that everyone has a good weekend.

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Colors

Autumn Afternoon

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

Getting out the Vote!

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

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Niagara Falls at Night

Niagara Lights

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

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

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

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