Published in Fete Greenville

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.

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Prestwood Sunrise

Prestwood Sunset

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

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Still around

World War I Memorial Panel

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

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No Parking, Any Time

No Parking, Anytime

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

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Light & Curves

Light & Curves

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

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Something Different

Old Warehouse

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

We were just having some fun playing around.

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

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Waterfall Cove

Lake Jocassee Waterfall Cove"

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

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Haze ... all day!

Haze on Lake Jocassee

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

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Jocassee Waterfall

A Jocassee Waterfall

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

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

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

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Lake Jocassee

Jocassee Reflections

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

More after the jump.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Photowalk Wrap-up

Tower

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Carolina Gallery Photography Invitational Winners

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

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

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

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

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Fireworks

Fireworks

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

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

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

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

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We control the horizontal ....

Optical Illusion

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

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Stumphouse Tunnel

Stumphouse Tunnel

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

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

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Something to go back to

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.

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The Best View

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.

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The Spartanburg Photograph Guild

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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Lunch Time

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.

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Spring Reflections

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?

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