This afternoon I went on a long photo excursion/hike to see what Mother Nature unleashed here in the Chattanooga area (actually just south of the border around Rossville, Georgia). This slideshow is what I came up with.
To take it one photo at a time, visit the Picasa web album.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Ellipsis Photo Shoot: The Best of 2009
At Ellipsis, Carly wants to see a gallery of our best 2009 photos...
I got my Nikon D40, my first digital SLR camera, back in late January 2009. I've tried to spend the past year learning how to use it. I'm still learning, but here's a Picasa Web Album charting my progress. I've posted most of these before, but a few are new. Click the picture below to enter my 2009 gallery.
EMPS #70: YOUR 2009 GALLERY.
New Year's is upon us, so, let's take a look back at what we all did this last year, as far as our photography went. This week's photo shoot assignment is to create a gallery of your best photography from 2009. Best in this case doesn't necessarily mean the photos you thought were perfect, best can also mean the ones you simply enjoyed taking the most. How you choose the photos for your gallery is completely up to you. You can choose a special gallery, such as florals, or landscapes, or maybe you will choose to highlight your best portraits. It's all up to you, but the photos you choose MUST be from 2009, and of course, your photos can be previously published.
EXTRA CREDIT: Caption the photos you choose for your gallery.
I got my Nikon D40, my first digital SLR camera, back in late January 2009. I've tried to spend the past year learning how to use it. I'm still learning, but here's a Picasa Web Album charting my progress. I've posted most of these before, but a few are new. Click the picture below to enter my 2009 gallery.
 |
| 2009 |
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Almost Christmas Lights
Today's email brought the latest email update from the New York Institute of Photography. This latest monthly newletter has a great article on taking photos of Christmas lights. They could have sent this a few weeks earlier, but it's great info and the lights will be around for a while longer.
Here's a shot of some Christmas lights. No, actually it's a shot of the reflection of some Christmas lights. There aren't actually any trees in this lobby.
Here's a shot of some Christmas lights. No, actually it's a shot of the reflection of some Christmas lights. There aren't actually any trees in this lobby.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Ellipsis Photo Shoot: People and Places
After weeks of procrastination and other obstacles, I'm finally participating in another Ellipsis Photo Shoot. This week Carly wants to see crowds...
EMPS # 67: PEOPLE AND PLACES.I haven't been in very many crowds lately so I'm turning to the archives. Maybe these pictures from last June will warm you up a little bit. Anytime during the summer months you can find a crowd at Coolidge Park in downtown Chattanooga at the north end of the Walnut Street Bridge. The biggest crowd is always around the fountain. Just walk right up and water shoots out all around you; it's a great way to stay cool...
Let's have a little fun this week, by getting lost in a crowd! Grab your cameras and show me PEOPLE AND PLACES! Anywhere you see a people will do. Parks. Malls. Church. Concerts. Art Galleries. Museums. You get the idea. Photographing a crowd is be good, but it can be a crowd of as few as 2. And yes, archived photos are fine, but, as always, I would enjoy seeing something brand new as well! Also, please tell us a little about the place you found the people for your photographs.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Photo Manipulation
I receive a monthly email newsletter from the New York Institute of Photography. This month's issue, along with tips on taking Halloween and fall photos, has an interesting article on the acceptability of digital photo manipulation. Within that article is a link to an article by a professor at Cambridge University on photo tampering throughout history, in which we discover that the practice of altering photographs has been with us almost as long as photography itself.
Three of the photos date from the Civil War. One is an iconic photo of Abraham Lincoln -- with Lincoln's head pasted on the body of John C. Calhoun. Another photo is supposed to show Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops, but was actually made from three photos -- Grant's head on Alexander McCook's body using a background shot of Confederate prisoners of war. The third, a photo by Matthew Brady showing William T. Sherman with his subordinates, has a general that was added to the photo later.
There's a lot of interesting stuff here, including some dictators who had subordinates airbrushed out of existence, some political shenanigans, and plenty of minor manipulations that were done for editorial or artistic purposes. One of those is the famous photo from Kent State that shows Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the body of Jeremy Miller. That photo was altered to remove a fence post in the background that appeared to be growing out of Ms. Vecchio's head. The webpage even includes the latest kerfuffle, the Ralph Lauren ad that has been manipulated to the point where the model's head is bigger than her waist.
I consider myself more of a photographer than a photo editor, but I'm not a snob about it. I usually give my photos a little touch up with a simple editing program, usually Picasa. For example, the latest photo I posted, "Looking West," was touched up a little. I took the photo at the Lookout Mountain Flight Park. After an hour or two of taking shots of hang gliders, I was heading back to the car, camera in hand, when I saw the man on the launch ramp. I raised the camera, made a quick adjustment, took a quick shot and continued walking. I posted it to flickr, then used flickr's editing program, Picnic, to straighten the horizon a bit and play around with the color.
I've never owned or used Photoshop, but I love some of the artistic things you can do with it. It's more of a monetary issue with me; that's a damned expensive program. I downloaded Gimp and played around with it a bit, but couldn't figure out how to do too much with it. If there was some sort of step-by-step guide around, I might play around with it a little more. At this point though, I think I'd be better served to spend more time learning how to use my camera than learning how to edit. I would welcome other view on the matter though.
So where's the line? I'm sure there's a line there somewhere. I believe that any manipulation, except correcting for exposure and color, is unacceptable in the field of photo journalism. Even if your subject has a fence post growing out of her head. Manipulation seems quite acceptable in most other photo fields. It just drives me crazy when they get too carried away with it.
Three of the photos date from the Civil War. One is an iconic photo of Abraham Lincoln -- with Lincoln's head pasted on the body of John C. Calhoun. Another photo is supposed to show Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops, but was actually made from three photos -- Grant's head on Alexander McCook's body using a background shot of Confederate prisoners of war. The third, a photo by Matthew Brady showing William T. Sherman with his subordinates, has a general that was added to the photo later.
There's a lot of interesting stuff here, including some dictators who had subordinates airbrushed out of existence, some political shenanigans, and plenty of minor manipulations that were done for editorial or artistic purposes. One of those is the famous photo from Kent State that shows Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the body of Jeremy Miller. That photo was altered to remove a fence post in the background that appeared to be growing out of Ms. Vecchio's head. The webpage even includes the latest kerfuffle, the Ralph Lauren ad that has been manipulated to the point where the model's head is bigger than her waist.
I consider myself more of a photographer than a photo editor, but I'm not a snob about it. I usually give my photos a little touch up with a simple editing program, usually Picasa. For example, the latest photo I posted, "Looking West," was touched up a little. I took the photo at the Lookout Mountain Flight Park. After an hour or two of taking shots of hang gliders, I was heading back to the car, camera in hand, when I saw the man on the launch ramp. I raised the camera, made a quick adjustment, took a quick shot and continued walking. I posted it to flickr, then used flickr's editing program, Picnic, to straighten the horizon a bit and play around with the color.
I've never owned or used Photoshop, but I love some of the artistic things you can do with it. It's more of a monetary issue with me; that's a damned expensive program. I downloaded Gimp and played around with it a bit, but couldn't figure out how to do too much with it. If there was some sort of step-by-step guide around, I might play around with it a little more. At this point though, I think I'd be better served to spend more time learning how to use my camera than learning how to edit. I would welcome other view on the matter though.
So where's the line? I'm sure there's a line there somewhere. I believe that any manipulation, except correcting for exposure and color, is unacceptable in the field of photo journalism. Even if your subject has a fence post growing out of her head. Manipulation seems quite acceptable in most other photo fields. It just drives me crazy when they get too carried away with it.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Ellipsis Photo Shoot: One Subject, Four Perspectives
Carly's photo shoot at Ellipsis this week is to take four shots at capturing the same subject...
EMPS #59: 1 Subject 4 Perspectives.Here's a collage of four shots of my favorite subject, my grandson Isaiah. The photos (going clockwise) include the very first shot I took with my new camera back in January, a jaunt up to Point Park, a photo with my wife, and dressed as the Cat in the Hat.
Just as the above photograph illustrates, choose 1 SUBJECT out in the world, any subject, and show me 4 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. Use lighting, or time of day, or color, or anything you can think of to help us see your subject in 4 distinctly different ways. Archived photos are fine for this one, but brand new is even better!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Bridges
At Ellipsis, Carly wants to see photos of bridges and walkways...
This is a view of the Walnut Street Bridge. It was built in 1890 and closed in 1978. After sitting idle for more than a decade, it was refurbished and opened as a pedestrian bridge/walkway.
The bridge comes off of a high bluff on the south side of the Tennessee River. To reach land at a comparable elevation on the north side, the bridge has to pass over a bit of flat land. This is a view from underneath.
This is another Chattanooga bridge. Everyone calls it the Market Street Bridge, but its official name is the John Ross Bridge. It is a bascule bridge, meaning that it has a section that opens up to allow river traffic to pass underneath. Those are big counterweights on either side of the section that opens. The Tennessee Aquarium can be seen across the river. The Walnut Street Bridge can be seen in the background, underneath the bridge.
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EMPS #58: Bridges and Walkways.On a little walk through Coolidge Park in Chattanooga back during the heat of the summer, I snapped a few pictures of a couple of the bridges that span the Tennessee River. Here's a sample...
Let's go for a walk... shall we? Ok photographers, you know what to do, go out and find me some BRIDGES and WALKWAYS. Autumn, for most of us, is in full swing, so show me something like that, or feel free to dip into your archives and wow me with something you haven't displayed before. Lets cross the BRIDGE together... shall we?
This is a view of the Walnut Street Bridge. It was built in 1890 and closed in 1978. After sitting idle for more than a decade, it was refurbished and opened as a pedestrian bridge/walkway.
The bridge comes off of a high bluff on the south side of the Tennessee River. To reach land at a comparable elevation on the north side, the bridge has to pass over a bit of flat land. This is a view from underneath.
This is another Chattanooga bridge. Everyone calls it the Market Street Bridge, but its official name is the John Ross Bridge. It is a bascule bridge, meaning that it has a section that opens up to allow river traffic to pass underneath. Those are big counterweights on either side of the section that opens. The Tennessee Aquarium can be seen across the river. The Walnut Street Bridge can be seen in the background, underneath the bridge.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Round Robin Photo Challenge: In Motion
This is my first Round Robin Photo Challenge in quite a while. The topic this time around is motion...
A complete linking list for all the participants is at the Round Robin Photo Challenge blog. Check out the other entrants and play along, if you'd like.
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Let's capture objects in motion, whether it means moving the camera to keep up, or capturing the blur of movement against a static background.This wasn't too hard. Just go out by a nearby highway and practice panning until you get the shot(s). I set the shutter speed fairly low (about 1/30 of a second) and got these two shots. Because it was getting late in the evening, I had to do some basic fixes to the photos, mainly adding a little more fill light...
A complete linking list for all the participants is at the Round Robin Photo Challenge blog. Check out the other entrants and play along, if you'd like.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
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...
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Bugs
The topic of the latest Ellipsis Photo Shoot is Bugs...
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EMPS #55: BUGS.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.
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!
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Ellipsis Photo Shoot: Archived Photos
At Ellipsis Carly wants to see archived photos...
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.
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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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
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...
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...
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