Flooded

The South has been getting drenched for the last week or so.  Today was particularly bad.  My hometown, Rossville, Georgia, has gotten 4 1/2 inches of rain today, about equal to the average rainfall for the entire month of September.  When that happens, the Chattanooga Creek tends to jump out of its banks.  Here are a few pics from the neighborhood...

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Bugs

The topic of the latest Ellipsis Photo Shoot is Bugs...

EMPS #55: BUGS.
Ants, Cockroaches, Beetles, Sow Bugs, Earwigs, Pincher Bugs, Bees, Wasps, Fire Flies, Snails, Slugs, Banana Slugs, Spiders, Scorpions... no matter who you are, one of these things probably BUGS you. So, grab your cameras this week, and photograph the BUG and share it with us!

This week's photo shoot comes at an inopportune time.  I had just removed a wasp nest from the old homeplace and stupidly didn't think to take any shots of it before the removal.  And while bugs are always around, I didn't really find any interesting bugs to work with this week.  So as much as I hate to do it, it's back to the old archives for these pictures of butterflies.  Interestingly (or maybe not), these pictures come from the same trip to the Tennessee Aquarium as the last Ellipsis Photo Shoot .  Yes, they do have a Butterfly Garden there.

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Archived Photos

At Ellipsis Carly wants to see archived photos...

EMPS #54: Archived Photos.
I have a super easy assignment for you this week... ARCHIVED PHOTOS. Here's what I want you to do. Climb into your ARCHIVES and choose a photo which you haven't displayed before and share it with us. Any subject will do, as long as it is family friendly. The only condition is that it has to be older then a month, and has not been displayed.

Extra Credit: Tell us about the photo. Where did you take it? Why did you take it? Was there something difficult about the experience?

Here's a trio of photos taken at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga back in April...



This picture of a shark swimming amongst a school of little fish seems a little odd. I don't know why it turned out like it did, but it's got sort of a cool quality to it.



I think this guy is a weedy seadragon, a close relative of the seahorse. (At least I remember them being displayed together in the same area.) Yes, this is actually a fish. He makes good use of camouflage to avoid being eaten. Let's just hope he doesn't run into a vegetarian-type fish because he looks like a floating salad.



This guy here is just too cool. You have to be when you're pink and black.

Taking pictures of fish at an aquarium is not an easy task. You're in the dark, shooting through glass. It is very hard to avoid big flash spots in your photos -- a task I failed to accomplish in the first two photos.

Lightning

"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." – Henri Cartier-Bresson

The first couple of thousand you take with a new camera usually suck too. Case in point, the photo below. Nothing about it is particularly good, but it is a milestone. It's the first time in years I've been able to capture lightning...

Jumping Off a Mountain

I once spent the better part of an afternoon watching people jump off the side of a mountain...

Photos taken at Lookout Mountain Flight Park

Round Robin Photo Challenge: The Old Place

The latest Round Robin Photo Challenge is The Old Place.

Show us someplace that's been around a long time, preferably 50 years or more. It can be an interior or exterior or both. The spooky Victorian mansion on the corner is fair game, or the abandoned amusement park. Or go for someplace that's really been around a long time, such as Stonehenge, a canyon or a mountain range.

This is the John Ross House, located in my hometown, Rossville, Georgia.



Although only one-eighth Cherokee, John Ross was the first elected chief of the Cherokees and fought vigorously against their removal on the Trail of Tears. The home was built along the Old Federal Road by his maternal grandfather John McDonald in 1797. In 1962 it was dismantled and rebuilt a couple of hundred yards away from its original location in this small park.

John Ross left with the Cherokees and the house became the property of a Reverend Scales. Thomas G. McFarland bought the house in 1835 and lived there with his family when the Civil War began. General Gordon Granger used the house as his headquarters before the Battle of Chickamauga. General George Thomas used it as his headquarters after the battle.

Update: In comments Carly wants to get a bit closer. Okay...






Once upon a time there was no fence, and you could walk all around the house as much as you wanted. They kept the house locked except for rare times when it was opened for tours, but you could walk through the middle and all around it. It's been a long time since I've seen it open. I'm going to have to find out who is responsible for that and when it's going to be open again.

One little tidbit about the house: It has what they call a spirit room, a room with no windows and doors. Also, while dismantling it to move it down the road, they discovered a passage that didn't seem to go anywhere. I have a theory that in those days, living on the frontier and never knowing when you might be threatened, that it might have been a good idea to have a room that no one but you knew how to get into. But it's just a theory.

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Black & White Photography

Over at Ellipsis, Carly has the weekly photo shoot. This week the topic is B&W...

EMPS #28: BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY.
Ok everybody, grab your camera, fire up your imagination, and show me some BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY. The subject matter is completely up to you. Do something a little Silly, Fascinating, Spooky, Gothic, or Artsy Noir... it's completely up to you! Just make it BLACK & WHITE.

Extra Credit: Write a little about what it was like to for you to take a BLACK & WHITE photo as opposed to color.

I had intended to do more. I especially wanted to take some photos using my camera's B&W setting, but a rainy, cool weekend kept me close to home, so I've cheated a bit and applied a B&W effect to an existing color photo.

I didn't cheat much because the original photo didn't have much color, just a few hints of blue amongst the gray clouds.

This photo shows a weather change in the Chattanooga area. It's a beautiful, blue-skied, sunny day when suddenly a line of clouds comes pouring over Lookout Mountain and the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Bloggers Community Photo Challenge: Birdhouses

This is my first-ever entry in the Bloggers Community Photo Challenge. The current topic is "Birdhouses."

A local metro Chattanooga tourist attraction, Rock City, used to advertise almost exclusively by painting "See Rock City" and other slogans on barns throughout the South. Somewhere along the line, they introduced the Rock City birdhouse to spread the word.

The photo below was taken on Lookout Mountain near the upper station for the Incline Railroad, just a couple of miles or so from Rock City. The neighborhood of St. Elmo is seen in the background, down below in the valley.

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Hit Me with Your Best Shot

Over at Ellipsis, Carly has the weekly photo shoot...

EMPS #26: HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!
Ok, now it is your time to shine! We photographers might tackle a lot of subjects, but we all have one type of photography that is our very favorite. Landscapes, Still Life, Night photography, Portraits, Pet photography, Seascapes, Sunsets, Macro photography... it's all good. For this assignment you are welcome to look in your archives and post your best photo, or you can set the scene sometime within this week, and show off the type of photography you feel you excel at. If you do go with a shot from your archive, try to make it one you haven't posted before, I am really interested in seeing something new if possible. HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!

Extra Credit: Write a little about your personal style as a photographer. Why do you like a particular subject? What is the most challenging aspect of photography for you?

Hmmm! After being without a camera for so long, I don't think I qualify as a "photographer" yet. And I'm far from having a "style." But I like to take photos of the natural beauty around Chattanooga. So put me down for "landscapes."

Carly wants our best shot, but something we've never posted before. A couple of weeks ago, I took a jaunt to the top of Lookout Mountain to Point Park. It was a hot, hazy day -- more appropriate for late spring or early summer than February -- leaving this photo looking washed out. But there's something about it I like...



I probably could have "fixed" it with Photoshop, but I prefer not to mess with it. I like to leave photos "as is" as much as possible. I've taken better photos with my new camera, but I've posted them before -- a sunset and Napoleons. The latter was taken during this same jaunt to Point Park.

Working with a new DSLR, the most challenging aspect is trying to figure out all the different settings to use to make the photo look right -- ISO, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, flash mode, etc., etc., etc. I'm still trying to sort it all out. I can usually take a better picture by just using a point-and-shoot mode than I can by trying to adjust everything. Hopefully that will change as time goes by.

Chattanooga Public Art

This is "Pathos Sweet Lost and Found" by J. Aaron Alderman of Brevard, North Carolina. It's located in downtown Chattanooga near the Market Street Bridge.

Round Robin Photo Challenge: Light Moves

Oops! I was excited about finally being able to participate in a Round Robin Photo Challenge again. And it was an easy subject: Light Moves -- Take a picture that shows the quality of the light. By that I mean the hues of a sunset, water reflected on water, refracted light, something interesting with light. What could be easier? After all, photography is just using aperture and shutter speed to harness, control or manipulate light. Any interesting photo should have something to say about the quality of light.

But I digest. I was excited, but you're supposed to post your photo(s) for the Round Robin Photo Challenge on a certain day. I was thinking it was Sunday, but no, it was supposed to be posted before Sunday. Sorry, but in the spirit that it's still Saturday somewhere, here's my entry. Don't laugh, it's the first time in many, many years that I've had a camera that was capable of some night photography...






This is a couple of shots taken from Missionary Ridge. You can see I-24 to the left as it curves up through the gap in the ridge. Chattanooga comprises most of the other lights you see. Lookout Mountain can be detected in the background.

This is a more realistic shot -- maybe a little darker than how it really looked...

Lookout Mountain -- A Picasa Web Album

A new Picasa Web Album, Lookout Mountain...

Lookout Mountain

Also added a couple of new photos to my Chickamauga Battlefield album.

Ellipsis Photo Shoot: RED

Now that I've finally got a new camera and am a photographer again, I'm able to participate in Carly's weekly photo shoots at Ellipsis again. This week's topic is red. I've mulled it over and this advertisement for Coca-Cola is all I've got for now, but I'll think about it some more...



This is the red part of my beverage bottle and can collection. This is about a third of the complete collection. It started out as a Coke collection, but has grown into a collection of assorted beverages. It's nothing fancy, mostly just items I've picked up at the local convenience store. I look for "special" items and put them up instead of just drinking them like most people.

Coca-Cola has the market on red in the beverage industry. On the back row are bottles and cans from the Beijing Olympics. There are five cans and nine bottles each featuring a different country. In the front row on both sides are assorted Coke Christmas bottles and cans. In the middle is a set of Coke Olympics nesting "cans" and a couple of Olympics pins.

Also up there somewhere are some NASCAR tie-ins, two Coke mugs and pill boxes, two Budweiser items (a bottle and a can) and a Mountain Dew. Oh, and a tomahawk. It's a homemade (in someone else's home) Braves tomahawk. I put it up there because it had a red A on the ax part, then absent-mindedly covered that part of it up. All you can see is the curved brown handle.

The oldest item is a Coke TVA 50th anniversary bottle from 1983. The only empty item is a Mexican Coke bottle. I occasionally buy a Mexican Coke from the local bodega, but haven't saved a full bottle yet. They're made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and taste quite different from an American Coke.

Yesterday's Sunset

Here in the Chattanooga area, we don't have sunsets as much as we have the Sun disappearing behind mountains. The photos below, taken in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, show the Sun setting behind a section of Lookout Mountain known as Flat Top...

Giving the Economy a Little Prod

Tax Season is a welcome time for poor people, especially if they have a child or two they can claim. There's no waiting for the April 15 deadline. As soon as those W-2s come in from your employer, it's off to a nearby tax preparation professional to get 'em done. You're looking for someone who can get you some money as quickly as possible in the form of a refund anticipation loan. This usually means paying outrageous preparation fees for filling in some numbers that you could do yourself and paying usurious interest payments on that RAL, but you can usually have your money within a day or two.

For poor people, tax season is a godsend. It's a time to catch up on whatever big bill you've been putting off paying or it's a time to make a big purchase that you could otherwise never be able to afford. You see, if you have a child or two to claim and are poor enough, you qualify for the Earned Income Credit and a Child Care Credit, which means that you get back whatever money you've paid in through the year plus a significant amount extra.

So there I was with money in my pocket for the first time in a while. Instead of doing something sensible like putting it away for the many rainy days that lie ahead, I've been doing my part to stimulate the economy. It was time for the major purchase I've been putting off for a long, long time, a purchase I would not be able to make without some kind of financial windfall. It was finally time to buy a new camera.

When the New Year began, we (the wife and I) began browsing and comparing. I had a film SLR many moons ago, then purchased a digital point-and-shoot camera when digital cameras were still a new technology (and I was not so painfully underemployed.) My trusty Olympus was with me for many years through thick and thin before finally dying on me a while back. We thought about a nice digital point-and-shoot camera, but finally decided that now was the time to move on up to a digital SLR. The Nikon D40 seemed to be the basic jumping in point. We looked at kits and finally found two stores that were carrying the D40 with two lenses and a few other extras. The price between the two stores was three cents.

But we started the day at another store. Circuit City is going out of business and advertising big savings. Don't bother. They haven't gotten serious about liquidating yet. The basic Nikon D40, which has been listed at around $450 at several stores, was listed at $500 at Circuit City. Subtract their 10% liquidation discount and the camera was the same price there as everywhere else. No kits available -- no extra lens, no extra anything. Just a store full of customers wondering where all the discounts were. We went to one of the two stores with the deal we were looking for and laid the money down.

After spending Saturday night charging up the battery and beginning the slow process of deciphering the owner's manual, I awoke Sunday morning to the news that the same camera package was listed in the sale papers at the same store for $50 less. It somehow slipped the friendly salesperson's mind to let us know that they were about to mark it down. So Day One with my new camera was spent returning to the store to get some money back and delivering a few more minor prods to the economy. I haven't had a chance to do much except figure out all the camera's point-and-shoot modes and play around with them a little, but below are a few of the first photos with my new purchase. Many, many more to come...