Random Thoughts

I wanted to update the blog since it might be a couple weeks before I get a chance to post new work.

The photo above was the result of a quick trip to the Franciscan Monastery last weekend with Greg Daily. I love Tulips, but it seems like I never have enough time to shoot them. Work, weather, and my personal life seem to get in the way.

It seems that I will miss the Bluebells this year. Bluebells are tough to shoot, but I like the challenge.

I’m missing Redbuds for sure. I have one in my front yard, but my house makes a lousy backdrop.

I’ll be making my 3rd trip to Lorton Prison early next week. I’m lucky enough to get occasional access, but the time on site is limited. You find your shot, take your shot and move on to the next one. You really don’t have time to work the scene or contemplate the possibilities. I’m grateful for the experience nonetheless. I will be looking for opportunities to shoot wide angle HDR panoramas on this trip.

The following day Jack Nevitt and I leave for the Smoky Mountains. In addition to the normal landscape photography, we are planning on shooting Star Trails! If the results are worthwhile, you can be sure I will share the results.

Grunge and Ghosts

I don’t believe in Ghosts, but the location of my latest adventure seems to be a popular place for ghost hunters and kids with spray paint. So far I have not seen any ghosts and I’m not sure why a ghost would want to hang out in such a place.

Click here for a large gallery of photos.

Cherry Trees

This morning I met friends Jack, Greg, and Charles (from the Loudoun Camera Club) at Meadowlark Gardens for an early morning of shooting the Cherry Trees. We elected to avoid the crowds downtown and shoot locally.

This is just my opinion, but I think Cherry Trees are difficult to shoot. While beautiful to behold, I find them hard to craft into a compelling photograph. When challenged, I try to think of how I can approach the scene from a different perspective. This morning after walking around the lake and not finding the perspective I liked, I reached into my bag and grabbed the Lensbaby. I typically use the Lensbaby for close up shots, but I like how it rendered this shot. The bench and cherry trees are all that matter and the Lensbaby helps to direct your eye.

While some might not like the lack of edge to edge sharpness, I like to think it is sharp enough.

First Hint of Spring

Tonight after taking Big Duke for his 2 mile walk I decided to see what I could find in my garden. I started shooting some daffodils and crocus, but settled on this impressionistic image of a red tulip. Spring is just around the corner and I’m going to have to stop shooting so much grunge HDR and get back into flowers and landscape.

Blog picture was shot with a Lensbaby 3G.

Two out of Three

I had originally planned to visit Longwood Gardens 3 times this year before spring arrived in the Mid-Atlantic area. It looks like I’m going to have to settle for 2 out of 3 this year. Last weekend I joined friends Alan and Greg for a day trip to Longwood. First stop The African Blue Poppies!! These are really nice poppies and Longwood puts them out for 2 weeks this time of year. I know lots of photographers that go just for the Blue Poppies.

In addition to shooting the Poppies and doing some macro work, I tried my new favorite thing, Ultra Wide Panoramas. The Blog Photo is a 14mm frame panorama of the Orchid Room at Longwood.

During my last Longwood posting, I mentioned that I had not found my groove in regard to shooting flowers this year. During the last trip I felt that I got a little closer to being on top of my game.

Click here for a small gallery.

Shooting to Extremes

Yesterday concluded the annual Meadowlark Photo Expo for 2009. It was a great event as usual and went off without a hitch, thanks to my friends Sara and Greg and all the other members of the Northern Virginia Alliance of Camera Clubs. So yesterday afternoon I was working the speakers tent and one of the lectures was by Ian J. Plant on shooting to Extremes. Two of the many things Ian mentioned, was going out after a storm and sometimes placing himself or his equipment in less than safe environments.

So that got me to thinking about the Blog shot was taken last fall in Shenandoah National Park. A storm was breaking up and I beat feet to go up in the mountains before it cleared. The Extreme part was where I decided to take the picture. I was at the edge of one of the pull offs looking West and decided that going down the hill 20 feet or so would provide me with a better vantage point. Considering that the storm was clearing, a smart photographer would have concluded that the rocks might be slippery. I started to think this might be the case so I put my first foot down and checked to see if the rocks were slippery. All seemed fine and I took the next step. That’s when this became extreme. I fell and hit the rocks extremely hard, I was sliding down the hill extremely fast, and stopped just before going over a 15 foot or so overhang, all while holding my camera and tripod in the air.

So at this point my first thoughts were of gratitude that the bad fall was not worse and I was not permanently injured. I did get an Extreme bruise on a part of my body that will go unnamed.

Anything for the killer shot!

Meadowlark Photo Expo

For the 2nd year I have been fortunate enough to be juried into the Meadowlark Photo Expo. This year 4 of my prints were accepted out of a possible 6. I’m told that there were about 1000 entries vying for 200 spots. The amount of talent in this area is tremendous and doing so well against so much talent is quite an accomplishment. This year I only chose from pictures that were taken during 2008 and considering how much time I spent shooting old cars and prisons it made my work in selecting the entries a little difficult. However, with the help of friends Karen, Sara, and Alan we narrowed down 20 or so possible images to 6.

I’ll be at Meadowlark both days next weekend. If you live in the DC area please come and see the Expo.

By the way, the photo above was one of the 2 entries that did not make the cut. The competition was tough!!