"Mine!"

"Mine!"

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

Keep shooting



Read more!

Posing

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.



Read more!

Another Dogwood

Dogwood

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

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Spring in Spartanburg

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.

Read more!

Glendale Mill

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.





Read more!

Moody View

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.


Read more!

I'm back

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.

Read more!

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.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

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.

Keep shooting.


Read more!

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.

Keep shooting.


Read more!

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.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

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.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Photowalk Reminder

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

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

Keep shooting.

Read more!

The Carolina Gallery Photography Invitational

Poinsett Bridge in Autumn

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

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

More after the jump.

Furman Lake at Twilight

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

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

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

Keep shooting.
Read more!

Big Ball in the Sky!

Big Ball

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

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


Read more!

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.

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Red, White & Boom!

Fireworks over the Chapman Cultural Center

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



Keep shooting.

Read more!

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk

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

Keep shooting.

Read more!

Spring Fling Reflection

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

Read more!

Lunch

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.

Read more!