An Exercise

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1. Pick 50 or so or your best images.
2. Categorize them by focal length: telephoto, macro, wide angle, normal, etc.
3. Chances are, you’ll notice that you have a lot of images in one or few categories, and not as many in others.
4. What does this tell about where you’ve been (growth-wise), how you view your photographic world, and in what areas you should be practicing?
5. Growth is critical to improvement IMO, so grow!

Note: for me personally, I learned that I see the world as a telephoto landscape. The areas I need to work on are wide-angle and “normal” focal lengths…

How about you?

Blue Ghost Fireflies

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Time lapse image, about 23 seconds 50mm, f/2.8

One of several shots! Only a few exposures turned out.

Time delay (long exposure) photo of Blue Ghost fireflies. The males fly around 2-3 feet above the ground, the females stay pretty much stationary. Look for the dots/commas/dashes, and those are the females. Pretty rare to capture these, I’m told

 

23 sec time lapse image of several Blue Ghost fireflies

Aerial Photography

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December 19th, 2011
My first aerial photography gig, with South Wings. We flew over and around Pinnacle Mountain Logging Project and also the Seven Falls Development area.

I was up with a water quality expert (Rachel Hodge) from the Environmental Conservation Organization in Hendersonville, NC. Also on the flight was a reporter from the Hendersonville Times-News (Jessica Goodman) and pilot Jack Lynch.

9th Annual Appalachian Photography Competition Finalist

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December 9th, 2011
Three of my images were selected as finalist entires to the 9th Annual AMPC!

Categories were
Adventure
Blue Ridge Parkway, a Ribbon of Road
Culture
Our Ecological Footprint
Flora/Fauna
Landscape.

Over 1000 entries submitted, and only 50 finalist images were chosen to hang in a special exhibit.
The public reception will be held at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, NC on February 3rd, 2012.

Finalist in the Category: Culture, "Creation at the Potter's Wheel"

Finalist in Category: Culture, "Carpenter"

Finalist in the category: Blue Ridge Parkway, "Emerging"

Best In Show (Grand Prize):
$1,000 furnished through proceeds and sponsor contributions
Blue Ridge Parkway – A Ribbon of Road:
$500 cash award provided by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
Our Ecological Footprint:
$450 award ($200 cash award provided by Appalachian Voices and $250 prize package from the Mast General Store.
People’s Choice Award:
$350 cash award furnished by Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters
Primary Category Winners:
Winners of the 4 primary categories (Adventure, Culture, Flora/Fauna, and Landscape) will receive Mast General Store Prize Packages valued at $250

Read the press release here:
Link to Press Release

Keeping it Parallel

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I kept my sensor parallel with these two droplets to make sure both were in focus

I think a lot of people try to take pictures of more than one object within the frame without really understanding how their gear works. They compose two or three flowers in the picture, for example, then are disappointed when one or more of the subjects are fuzzy (out of focus). A lot of the time, they are choosing a shallow depth of field for the benefit of a bokeh background. Under certain circumstances, this just makes the problems worse, not better, and the frustrated photographer is left scratching his (her) head.

One common mistake is not keeping the subject(s) parallel to the sensor in your camera. This creates depth of field errors where some of the subject(s) are outside, or beyond the plane of focus. Sure, you can increase the Aperture value (smaller aperture, larger f/number), but how will you know that everything is really sharp until you get the images downloaded on your computer? Viewing the LCD on the back of the camera is helpful, but not foolproof, especially in the field with varying light conditions!

The best way to make sure your gear is set up is to just check that the subjects are parallel with the back of your camera. Your sensor’s in there, and if the back is positioned correctly, then so is your sensor.

Keep it parallel to keep it sharp!

 

Wind Sculpting

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High winds sculpt the swirling clouds around Mount Pisgah on the Blue RIdge Parkway

I was out on one of my favorite stretches of Blue Ridge Parkway early one morning in April when I was soon being pummeled by cold temperatures and the high winds that can show up almost out of nowhere. The temperature outside was 27 degrees, and it cut through my layered clothing pretty good. Ok! I’m awake!

I noticed some clouds swirling around Mount Pisgah, one of the tallest peaks in view at 5,721. I wanted to capture the action of wind sculpting the moving, swirling clouds around a rock solid stationary object, so I set my camera for manual exposure at f/18. The available light gave me a 10-13 second exposure, plenty of time for cloud sculpting! The light added a nice touch, too I think.