Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Stairs

The topic for this week's Ellipsis Photo Shoot is Stairs...

Going up? Coming down? Either direction is fine. This week, I simply want to see some stairs! Archived photos are fine, but as always, new photos are encouraged. If you do decide to go with an archived photo, please try to make it one we haven't seen before, or at least in the last 6 months. :)

Extra Credit: Show me some stairs of historical or cultural interest.

When I first saw this assignment, I immediately thought of the Stairs to Nowhere in front of the Tennessee Aquarium in downtown Chattanooga. Since I couldn't get downtown this week, to the archives we go.

This is a very old photo taken many years ago with my trusty old point-and-shoot Olympus showing the Stairs to Nowhere. They go up, then right back down the other side.



As you can see in this much newer (but still old photo), they're very ornamental in front of the building.  I'm not too sure that they have any cultural or historical interest.

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Strange or Unusual Sights

I'm very late on this assignment -- I completely forgot about the deadline until I started seeing some of the other photographers' posts showing up on my feed reader.  Carly is pretty understanding though, so I'm posting it now.

The assignment is to post a photo of a strange or unusual sight...

EMPS #85: Strange or Unusual Sights.
This week, I want you to show me the STRANGE or UNUSUAL! Let your imagination out to play and WOW me with your photography! Archived photos are acceptable for this assignment, but you know how much I enjoy seeing new photos. :)

It doesn't get any stranger or any more unusual than this Pinto motorcycle...

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: In the Forefront

This week's Ellipsis Photo Shoot is fairly straightforward...

EMPS #84: In The Forefront.
Ok photographers, grab your cameras and show me a photograph of an object specifically in the FOREFRONT. The purpose of this week's assignment is to make us more aware of not just what's in front of us, but the backgrounds of our photos as well. I want to see some photography that captures the imagination. Any subject will do, it's all up to you, but this week... NO ARCHIVES! Get out in the air, and find your subject! Concentrate on both the FOREFRONT and the background, but make the FOREFRONT the star of the show!

This year marks my grandson's first foray into the exciting world of Dixie Youth Baseball so that has been the subject of most of my recent photography. I don't know if this is exactly what Carly is looking for -- not much depth of field -- but a lot of foreground stars.

Round Robin Challenge: An Almost Photo

If I understand the point of this Round Robin Challenge, the idea is to post a photo (or several) that didn't turn out exactly as you planned them.  That's pretty much the opposite of my usual routine -- to throw out all the photos that didn't work and show you the good ones -- but here goes...

This photo was a timing problem.  It was my first (and so far, only) trip to a NASCAR race.  I was trying to take a photo of the cars as they passed my seat in Turn Three lined up for the start of the race.  At the exact moment I went to snap the photo, the lady sitting in front of me suddenly threw up her banner.  Not too bad of a photo, but not exactly what I was going for.  Think she might be a Jeff Gordon fan?



This photo was taken in Chickamauga Battlefield not long after I purchased my camera.  I was still trying to work out all of the controls and settings.  I was set up to take landscape photos when we (my wife, my grandson and I) suddenly came upon a herd of deer in an open field to the right.  Before I could change lenses and settings the deer were spooked by our presence and took off, running through the field and crossing the road far in front of us to get to the safety of the woods.  I snapped what I could get, but it wasn't quite good enough.



Most of my photo mistakes are due to lighting problems.  Here I was trying to get a photo of this cannon at Point Park on Lookout Mountain overlooking Chattanooga.  The cannon was in the shade and the the city below was in bright sunshine.  To get the cannon properly exposed the city below was severely washed out.



And finally another photo ruined because I didn't know what I was doing with my new camera and another bad lighting problem -- it was nighttime. 

Check out the Round Robin blog for this and other challenges and play along with us. Check out the linking list to see what all the other Round Robins came up with this week.