Another Day on Foot at Home

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Another Winter

OK, so the roads are fine and I could drive anywhere I wanted to today.  Normally, I would take advantage of that fact and head out to go hiking or maybe do the rural exploration thing.  However, I had so much fun yesterday just walking around the neighborhood, I decided to keep with that theme for the weekend.  I couldn't help but think to myself that a photographer worth his salt would be able to make great images close to home as easy as if there was a long road trip involved.  We had snow on the ground, and that changed so much of the landscape, and since that was what I would be photographing, I didn't see a reason that I couldn't shoot the snow that was close by.

I woke up shortly after sunrise, and considered my options.  I had gone to sleep last night expecting to wake up to mostly clear skies with snow still on the ground.  The plan was to walk about a mile away from home to an old farmhouse that has been abandoned for many years now.  That was the plan.  That bed felt very good though, and I was more than happy to stay in it and rest a little more.  But part of being a photographer is getting up early for no other reason than the light is better at the beginning of the day.  Since I was close to my subject, I was already getting to sleep in late as it was.  I guilted myself out of bed for the sole reason of, "the snow won't be here forever."  If I passed up on this opportunity, I might not get another chance this Winter.

I got moving slowly with every expectation that I would talk myself out of going to the old farmhouse.  I mean, I have been there about a half dozen times over the years and have photographed it in lots of different conditions.  But there was snow today, and that was not a regular occurrence here in Winston.  But what if I walked the mile out there, and the light is wrong?  What if I can't get any good images?  I could just stay home.  I'm a photographer (insert expletive here)!!  I will go out and try it to see what I can do with the scene.  I had a previsualization of what I was expecting after all.

Shadow of the Tree

When I got outside, I could see that the sky was nice and blue to the North, and the sun was providing some really good light.  As I walked, I could see that the trees were still holding onto the snow that was covering the branches.  It was mostly ice by this point, but it was still there.  If I was lucky, I would get to benefit from this with the trees near the house.  There was very little traffic on the roads and it was almost a nice walk with the warm sun shining on me.  My fingers were numb, but I expected that and had gloves if I needed them.

When I got out onto the main road, I could see the house in the distance.  The light was hitting it just the way I was hoping that it would.  There was a warm glow on the side of the house which was important since it was a white house, and I didn't want it to blend into the snow too much.

Come, Sit a Spell in B&W

When I arrived, the snow was mostly untouched except for deer tracks which I could easily live with.  Having shot this scene many times, I knew that the best lens for the task was my 24-70mm which gave me the option of shooting wide, as well as getting in and doing isolations on the house.  I started off with a pretty standard quarter shot from the driveway.  Looking at the deep blue of the sky and the clouds, I was thinking about doing some monochrome images to really make the snow, and the siding pop.  I grabbed my Singh Ray Color Combo Polarizer to help with the contrast in the sky.

Something that I just love about this old house is the condition of that siding.  The paint has been peeling for years, and there are holds developing in different areas.  There is just so much to see on this siding.  The textures more than make up for the lack of actual color on this house, although the chimney does stand out against the white quite well.  There are also a couple of really interesting trees on the property that I can include in different ways with different compositions.  This is just a really fun little place to shoot.

Essentially Bare

With the blue sky and snow, the trees actually took on a whole new importance to my compositions.  The way they were almost growing around the house was too interesting to pass up, and I was lucky enough to still have the benefit of the snow on the branches.  Like yesterday, that really helped to define the lines of the branches and help the eyes see the flow of the limbs.  In the composition above, the story is actually the tree, and the house becomes a secondary element.  The framing really shows how the tree mimics the roof line of the house, and they really seem to belong together.  The blue sky highlights the entire picture, and draws your eye right to the tree.  The wooden door and chimney provide some much needed visual warmth to the image that is so predominantly cool toned.

Winter Arrives

When I backed up a little bit, there was another really large tree that also favored the shape of the house.  By getting a nice wide angle composition, I was able to use the foreground tree as a framing element for the entire house.  For a bit of added visual interest, I would wait for the clouds to move away from the sun so that a shadow could be cast.  Now, the tree not only frames the house, but is tattooed onto the house itself.  This is a great example of having two different elements connected to each other, and enhancing each other.  An image like this would not have had near the impact without the snow on the ground, so I was really thankful that I pulled up my photographer britches and braved the cold morning to get these pictures.

No Warmth Here

Speaking of the cold, it was right chilly out there standing in the snow.  The blue sky and the cooler color temperatures of late morning were starting to really flatten the image and I needed some help from the warm tones that were present.  The best source of (visual) warmth was the chimney on the side of the house.  One of the last few images of the morning featured that chimney as an attempt to balance out the color pallet in the image.  It succeeded in bringing in a lot of visual warmth that complimented the blues quite well.  The tree behind the house was a nice bridging element to break up the white of the house and snow, against the light gray of the clouds.  The composition worked very well, but I was still quite cold, and wondered when the last fire was ever burning in that fireplace.

Come, Sit a Spell

Funny thing about this old house...I have lived in my house since 2001.  I drove past this house at least once a week and never really noticed it.  In fact, it wasn't until sometime around 2008 that I started to pay any attention at all to this house.  I was still getting started in photography and was leaving the house one day and happened to see the sun really lighting up the side of this farmhouse.  I think it was in June or July, around the middle of the day.  The sun was very harsh, but I started to shoot it anyway.  I even lucked up and got a cat in a few of the pictures.  The final images were all really good, and some of my best rustic pictures to date.  

Since that time, I have ventured back to it many times.  I have seen the aging process at work on the house, and have started to feel a connection to it.  I don't know how much longer this house will remain here, but I do hope that it is a lot longer.  Every year or so, I get the urge to go back and document the current condition it is in.  It fits very well with my wabi sabi approach to photography, and I'm pretty sure that I am documenting something that won't be around much longer.  That is a pretty important reason to get out there and make pictures.

Tall Tales

of course, every time that I am out here with my camera, I keep wondering to myself about what all this house has been through over the years.  I know that it has a lot of stories, and has seen generations growing up up.  There have been tears dropped on the floors, celebrations had within the walls, and friendships developing on the front porch.  These days, it is wood and brick sitting beneath trees that were just saplings when the house was new.  In the passage of time, there is beauty.  As nature reclaims the property, there is beauty.  It is hard to deny that there is a lot of beauty around this old farmhouse.  I'm just glad I'm able to photograph it and hold onto that beauty for a little while.

I wrapped my day up with just over 40 frames shot of this house.  Of that, you can see I have a bunch of keepers.  Considering that I haven't driven a single foot this weekend, I have really been fortunate with the camera to have captured all that I have.  It just goes to show that if you look close enough, there is beauty to be had anywhere.  A photographer doesn't need to travel hours away in order to capture a meaningful image.

A Little Smoke

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Ghostly Visitor

Yes, I went out this morning on a very fun walk through the neighborhood.  Yes, I came back with a bunch of pictures.  I wasn't quite finished yet though.  I've been thinking about doing some studio work for a while.  This includes things like lighting, and taking control of the entire setting.  I've done a little bit of that with my "Badge on Thin Blue Line" photographs, but I wanted to branch out a little more.  Something that I used to do that was a lot of fun was photographing smoke.  Seems simple enough doesn't it?  Well, there is a little more to it than meets the eyes.  First of all, it requires the use of off camera flash, which I am more than a little rusty at.  It requires working in total darkness, and then hoping that the slight movement in the air you create does something great with the smoke.  It's been about eight years since I've done this technique, and it was time to give it another try.

The Waltz

I got everything set up and fitted my 24-70mm lens which was as close to a macro lens that I could muster.  When I did this before, I was using a 180mm macro which was a phenomenal lens, but I sold it when I got rid of all of my gear in 2011.  Oh well, as a photographer I make due with what I have.  For a backdrop, I used to use some black velvet fabric, but that is apparently gone as well.  Sticking with the theme of making due, I grabbed a black sweatshirt from the closet and draped it over the chair in the office.  That made for a perfect backdrop, and it absorbed the light...well, kind of.

I had forgotten a very important step in the setup of this shoot.  I needed a deflector set up on the side of the flash to keep the light from illuminating the backdrop.  For this, I used a piece of black paper.  It did the trick just right, and put the backdrop into total darkness.  The only thing that received any light was the smoke when the flash fired.

The Shift

What I enjoy so much about smoke photography is that there is an infinite number of possibilities for compositions.  It all depends on what the wind does to the smoke.  The idea is to get a totally still environment with no breeze.  That means windows are closed, doors are closed, and the HVAC is off.  Once you get everything still and light the incense, the smoke should go straight up.  By moving your hand near the smoke, you can get all sorts of interesting patterns developing.  Some are simple and some are very complex.  I used to gravitate to the simple ones when I was doing this before, but for some reason tonight, I liked the complex ones.

The Scroll

This is one of those types of photography where you can really play around with the photograph in post production.  While the photo is captured in a low key environment, by playing with the curves, you can actually flip over to a high key shot.  With the white background, you can then adjust the hues of the smoke to get pretty much any color that you might want.  Here is an example of what can happen when you let yourself go wild with the colors.  For the most part this time, I seemed to like the original versions much better, and just adjusted the color temperature to get the tones that I wanted in the smoke.

An Interrupted Dream

The classic look of the smoke fit the bill for what I was after this evening.  I proved to myself that I could still do creative studio work, and got a little more familiar with the flash again.  I'm working myself up to a project that I have been wanting to try for some time now.  I'm hoping that I'm up to the task when the time comes.  It is nice to know that I'm not a one trick pony when it comes to the camera though, and that is a nice thing to find out.

Winston's Winter Wonderland

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Winter's Song

We were supposed to get an inch or so of snow overnight on Friday.  Well, by the time I left work that evening, the roads were already starting to get a little slick in places.  The grass was already covered up and the trees were bathed in this wonderful wet snow covering.  It was the kind that I had been very hard pressed to get pictures of over the years.  Usually, the snow that we get is either too dry to stick to the trees like this, or the rain that usually follows knocks it down too fast.  As I was coming home from work, I was looking at the trees against the white sky and wishing that I had time to get some pictures.  Unfortunately, by the time I got home, there was not nearly enough time to get out with the camera before the light faded away.  I just knew that the next morning would be a different story as the snow fell off of the trees.

Bark in the Blizzard

Well, when I work up, I looked outside to see what changes had happened.  What was this...the trees were still covered in snow, and the sky hadn't changed much at all.  I was going to be able to get some pictures today!  With the roads questionable, and my truck still clean, I didn't care to go out in search of pictures with the possibility of getting involved in a crash (I don't trust other drivers on slick roads).  Instead, I opted to stay home and do a little walk around the neighborhood and search out the trees that I found interesting.  A tree is a tree after all.  No since in driving to photograph something that you can walk out of the house and photograph just as easy.

Textures of Winter

I started out with the intention of looking everywhere to see what I could photograph.  The first part of my hike took me probably 200 feet from the front door of the house.  This was an open lot with trees all around it.  I went ahead and pulled out the camera and set it up with the 70-200mm lens.  I skipped adding any filters because with the snow coming down a little bit, I needed to keep the hood on in order to protect the front element.  There wasn't much need for any filters anyway as everything was very evenly lit with the thick clouds above.  The snow was actually reflecting the same light that was in the clouds, so I could pretty much shoot in any direction and include any part of the landscape with the same exposure.  The trick became picking out compositions.

Chilled Path

For the most part, I knew that I was going to be shooting woodland shots and predominantly monochrome compositions.  There were exceptions to that plan.  When it came to the monochrome choice, there were a lot of exceptions with splashes of color that added to the image.  I found a lot of interest in the woods around the house, and to be honest, this was the first time I had really tried to shoot in the neighborhood.  The snow made things much more interesting than they normally looked.

Wonderland

The thing that I most enjoyed about my little walk in the neighborhood was the absolute quiet that surrounded me.  The snow absorbed so much of the noise that was normally in the air leaving nothing but the crisp morning.  It was like going on a hike in an empty forest, I absolutely loved it!  The longer I was out, the more the snow started falling though.  I was sure glad that I had that lens hood on.  The rest of the camera was getting pretty wet, but nothing that I was really concerned about thanks to some pretty good weather sealing on the body and lens.

Winter's Fright

What I was finding was that the snow was doing a great job at simplifying the backgrounds in the images.  You could still make out the snarl of limbs, but the white made the primary trunks and branches stand out.  The textures of the bark really showed through which was one of my goals for this outing.  I wasn't really wanting to capture the typical snow scenes as those are always done, and I was already getting tired of seeing them on social media.  The last thing that I wanted was for my pictures to blend in with everyone else's from the area.  I had to put my little spin on the winter weather.

Snow Coatings

I don't get out to do much snow photography normally.  With my primary job as a Police Officer, I have been forced to drive in the white stuff every year for the last 18 winters.  I am confident in my ability to get around, but having seen the wrecks caused, I would just much rather avoid the situation all together.  In winters past, I have looked out of my window and wished that I had gone out to capture some of the snow shots, but had never really considered just going for a walk in the neighborhood before.  Thanks to my new "woodland" techniques, I am much better prepared for the types of photographs that I have been getting so far this morning.

Overlapping Seasons

I think at the furthest, I had walked about a half mile from home.  Considering I had never gone and shot around the neighborhood I was really surprised to see the image count adding up.  When it was all said and done, I had over 50 frames shot, and for the most part, they were all different compositions, and mostly different locations.  It didn't take long before I was already counting this little morning walk as a success.

Dancing

Since I was starting to feel pretty good about how things were going, I started to get a little creative in my compositions.  I started to find interesting trees in the landscaping of lots, as opposed to the wild trees on the edges of properties.  Some of these actually turned out pretty good.  I did have to be careful of the framing to avoid including the houses in the compositions.  These were not quite rustic enough to actually fit my style of photography.

Radiating Winter

As I was shooting the scenes and looking in the histogram, I was pretty sure that there was going to be minimal post processing needed on these.  The contrast was already there, and the lighting was already so even that there wasn't much need in dodging or burning in the images.  It really did just rest on the compositions and what I found to put in front of the lens.  Some scenes really worked well, others didn't quite have the visual strength to make it past the original culling process.  However, I have to admit that I came back with well more than the half dozen I was expecting to.

Woodland Hush

Just as I was getting good and warmed up, I started to think about some other things that I could photograph.  I was seriously thinking about an old farm house that is about a mile from my house.  I've photographed it several times in the past and have always had pretty good luck with it.  I wanted to try a few things with it, but I didn't have a very clear idea of what I was after.  As I was shooting the trees, I considered some different compositions and techniques that I could use.  The sky wasn't going to work in any of the compositions because it was just too featureless to loom right over top of the house.  That meant that I would be shooting more intimate shots.  That was good since, I was going to have to keep my long lens on due to the snow that was falling from the sky.

Three Trees

Speaking of snow, it was falling pretty heavy at this point.  So much in fact that I had to stop down the aperture a little bit to slow the shutter speed.  I was seeing that the falling snow was starting to show up in the photograph and soften the overall look of the image.  While that would work for some photographs, I didn't want it to show up in these.  The longer shutter speed was able to eliminate the snow flakes as they fell.  But looking at the rate they were falling, I realized that it was getting too heavy to really continue.  I checked my weather app, and it was showing snow for the next couple of hours at least.  I wasn't seeing my chances improving for shooting the house any time soon.

Winter's Contrast

I abandoned the want for photographing the old farm house for the time being.  The plan was to go home and wait the snow out, hoping that I could venture out later in the day.  I left the camera in the garage, just in case, to keep condensation from forming on it, and inside of it.  When it became apparent that things weren't going to change, I went back out and packed it up.  I'll possibly be going out tomorrow morning to try some shots of the barn with hopefully a blue sky above it.  Who knows, I might get two treks in this weekend without even putting a key in an ignition.

A Rainy Day in Randolph County

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Bamboo Thicket

Looking at the weather for this morning, I was expecting 70% cloud cover over pretty much all of the state.  This could mean many different things when it comes to lighting.  I've seen that forecast cover bright blue skies all the way to completely cloud covered and great for waterfall photography.  I would have taken my chances with some waterfall photography except for the fact that we have been rather dry lately and the water levels were sure to be way down. I was actually really wanting to get out and hunt some old barns and maybe some old cars instead though, so that was what I planned on doing.  I had heard from a number of coworkers that the area of Randleman, NC in Randolph County was a great place to find barns.  I had been there one other time and found a single barn that was worth photographing, but decided I would give it another try.

I left right at sunrise and found myself in an increasing mist of rain on the other side of Kernersville.  That rain continued to be a full fledged downpour by the time I got to the other side of Greensboro.  I continued on seeing that the rain was only supposed to last another 50 minutes or so.  In that time I could be there and hunting the barns.  I arrived at the section of Hwy 311 where there were supposed to be barns.  I saw a few small ones, but nothing that really caught my eye.  It was still raining, so I started the getting lost portion of my ride.

One of the side roads I came to had a nice old house at the corner that I thought I would see if there was an angle I could shoot it from.  It was too isolated from the trees and the sky wasn't detailed enough to take up that much of the frame.  However, to the side of the lot, I found a grove of greenery that turned out to be a patch of bamboo which had an interesting texture to it.  I pulled over and figured I would give that a try since the rain was slacking off.

I pulled the camera out with the 70-200mm lens on it and added a Polarizer.  I framed up a few shots and got a total of nine different compositions from the trees.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but at least I had gotten the first exposure out of the way.  I packed up the camera and got back in the truck.

From there I drove around, making turn after turn after turn.  I saw a few barns, but nothing that really grabbed my attention.  What was worse though, was it seemed that every street I went down there were "No Trespassing" signs along every field, and under every mailbox.  Even if I found something to shoot, I was going to have a hard time avoiding having a gun pointed at me.  I've gotten spoiled shooting landscapes for the better part of the year now.  I've forgotten how difficult rural photography can be...and dangerous.  It is always beneficial to have a contact with the property owner prior to going out to shoot a barn, or old home.  I had nothing along those lines today, and it became a scouting trip more than anything else.

After several hours of driving around aimlessly, I set my course to the house and gave up for the day.  As I was going through my nine images, I wasn't overly impressed with any of them, but did have one that was worth processing at least.  It was a long morning, and I don't have much to show for it, but I had a good time scouting at least.  I also have a bunch of work to do to prep several sold prints of mine so overall, this will be a very productive day.

A Ford and a Flag

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Rural America

Sometimes being at work pays off.  I was driving around doing some patrol when I found myself on a road that used to be in my zone.  Something was different though.  I passed by a barn that I had thought about photographing before years and years ago, but never really liked how it looked.  This time there was an addition that I had not seen before.  I was pretty sure that there was a Ford pickup parked in front of the barn, and I'm pretty sure that there was an American Flag on the front of the barn.  I had to turn around to be sure.

Yep, I had seen what I thought I was seeing.  The truck wasn't exactly what I would want to photograph since it was actually in pretty good condition.  The barn wasn't exactly what I wanted to photograph since it seemed a little plain.  However, both of them together, tied in with the flag made for a scene that just screamed Americana.  I drove down the side road to see what was around, and to see if I could figure out where the owner might live.  I couldn't really make out the indication of ownership, but happened to see a man coming from the mailbox near the main road.

I drove up to him and introduced myself.  I explained that I was trying to find the owner of the barn and truck to ask if I could photograph it at some point.  As it turned out, he was the owner and gladly gave me permission to photograph it.  Since I was at work, I told him I would be back at a later time to give it a try.  I was thinking the following weekend, but as luck would have it, I had a community function on Thursday that was going to cause me to work late.

Patriotic Shine

There were supposed to be clouds developing during the mid morning that were going to provide the light that I was most wanting to work with.  However, as the morning progressed, the clouds never really showed.  Before the warm light of early morning went away, I made my way out to Greensboro and got set up at the barn.  The sun was already pretty bright, but it had cleared the trees to the East allowing the truck to get full light and not just patchy highlights.  There was still a little bit of color in the tree above the truck which I thought was important for many of the compositions.  This was why I didn't wait for a better weather day honestly.  I would have all winter to shoot the truck under different skies, but the tree would be rid of all of the leaves by the end of the week.

Looking at the scene, I was able to shoot from anywhere, but since the sky wasn't all that great, I didn't care to go overly wide in focal length.  Instead, I opted to keep my 70-200mm lens on the camera and added a color combo polarizer to bump up the colors and contrast.  I started to frame up different compositions with that combination and found that to be the idea setup for the conditions I was shooting in.  I tried lots of different combinations with the primary elements of the truck, flag, and barn.  The idea was to have them all work in unison.

Colfax Moonshine

One of the compositions that I did worked out the issue of the rather bland sky by omitting it completely.  The barn became a backdrop to the truck, and the flag took care of the negative space.  In that particular composition, I was at the perfect angle for the sun to be reflecting heavily off of the gas cap.  I tried to avoid the reflection, but in the end decided to embrace it.  I dialed in a narrow aperture to get some nicely defined light bursts from the cap.  I figured that would help draw the attention to the door art which somehow really fit this scene.  

I then moved in to look for emblems to photograph.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come up with many compositions that I really liked.  In fact, I found no emblem pictures with this truck.  The patina wasn't quite aged enough to really make the emblems stick out.  I tried some other isolations with similar results.  It would seem that with the current conditions, I was pretty much left with overall compositions with the three main elements.  Just to round things out, I swapped over to my 24-70mm lens to get a little different perspective on the truck as well.

Considering I had only about an hour and quarter to work the scene, I somehow managed to get 27 images.  Of these, I found these three that I thought had merit to stand on their own.  They are fundamentally different compositions, and I like each of them.  The red, white, and blue theme carries through from the flag to the truck, and then to the sky with the leaves.  Artistically, there is a pretty good balance here with the colors.

Edit 12-02-2017

After having a day to sit on these pictures, I decided to give them a shot as black and white to see how they would turn out.  With the truck being a very dark shade, I didn't hold out much hope, but in the end, I was actually pretty happy with the conversions.

Rural America in B&W

Colfax Moonshine in B&W

Patriotic Shine in B&W

Tommy's Garage

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Wide Grin

It is actually Thanksgiving Day, so I should probably say "Happy Thanksgiving!"  The truth of the matter is Toni is at work, and it just isn't feeling much like a holiday without her here.  Since she was going to be gone all day, I decided to be a little productive and go out and try to get a few pictures.  The weather was supposed to be clear and cold.  I wasn't going to do much with landscapes with that kind of forecast, so I decided to go and hunt some Old Iron instead.

I got up when Toni left the house at 5am, and headed out to Yadkinville, NC, where I was hoping that an old Plymouth was still sitting.  I had visited it two or three times in the past with varying degrees of success.  I wanted to get out there as first light was hitting so that I could get the warm sun on it, and avoid the bright undiffused sun of daytime.  While I was driving, I was looking in my mirror and saw that there were actually clouds in the sky.  There was an opening near the horizon as well.  It was shaping up to be a great sunrise from what I could see.  The problem was, I had nowhere to shoot it from.  I had to enjoy what turned into a fantastic sunrise from the mirrors of the truck.  Oh well, my intention wasn't to go out and do landscapes today anyway, and I still got to enjoy the sight.

I arrived at Tommy's Garage shortly after sunrise and was happy to see that the car was still there.  The problem that I was facing was it was sitting next to a late model Chevrolet, and Oldsmobile.  I was going to have to get creative with how I shot this car.  I had already planned to shoot isolations of the emblems and chrome.  However, the car was in much worse shape than I had remembered which made it difficult to get in to find great details.

Splitting

What used to be a pretty straight front end had been torn apart.  The hood was now split in half, and the chrome trim on the grills had been removed.  What chrome was left was torn from the front and bend down.  At least the "Plymouth" emblems remained for a focal point.  The patina of the car was still very nice and worth playing around with.  I was able to get a few view of the front of the car as the sun was still low, and behind the clouds.

Looking Over My Shoulder

One nice addition to the lot that had not been there before was an old Chrysler drag car called "Baby Hemi" next to the trees.  As I was composing shots on the front of the old Plymouth, I couldn't help but include the little dragster in the back.  It was almost like a generational comparison between the two.  It interested me, and gave something to put in the empty space in the upper left of the image above.  I liked it so much I used that little car once again for a supporting role in an intimate capture of the antique.

Baby Hemi

This old Plymouth has always fascinated me with the classic lines.  The front end has been my focus for years, but today it was the rear that caught my eye.  I liked the lines and the curves of the rear end (and yes, I know what you are thinking right now).  What can I say, I enjoy some curves.

An added element that was present on the rear of this car was the wheels.  These were intricate spoked wheels with plenty of patina to match the condition of the car.  The whitewall tires were period correct, and also helped to balance the color tones.  This is the first car I can think of that I wanted to use the tire and wheel as a focal point in so many shots.  It just played along so nicely with the flow of the design.

Dynamic Pose

Like I said, those wheels and tires really set the lines off on the rear of the car.  The soft angles, the matching patina...it all just worked together.  For a little touch of character on the right rear quarter, the side window was rotated slightly out of the closed position.  That window shared lines with the roof, and helped to make the whole image flow.  At first, I was wishing that the sky had been cloudy for this shot, but decided that the blue tones were very much needed to balance the overall warm tone of this image.

Lenses and Rust

As I was wrapping up the morning, I went to the rear of the car.  I didn't find any emblems or adornments that I really liked back there, so I started to look at the lights.  There were some interesting lines present that framed the remaining lights on the passenger side.  I started to work out a composition surrounding those lights.  I decided that I needed to include the bumper as a visual frame to the bottom.  The vertical lines of the body and trunk lid helped to frame the lights, and the patina took care of all the negative space.

After about an hour and a half, I had hit all of the areas that I thought that I could.  As I was packing up, I decided to try one more composition looking through the windshield.  It was helpful that the glass was mostly gone, leaving a nice broken frame to work with.

Broken Wheel

it was a different image than I usually capture, but there was something about it that I really liked.  It was odd enough that it didn't make my first round of cuts, but as I was looking back through the 51 images that I had shot I had a change of heart.  It was good enough to be one of the seven that I deemed good enough to be keepers.  Considering it was a day where I just went to get a few emblem pictures, I ended up coming back home with a lot more.  I really do like this car, and I'm glad that it still sits there.  I don't know how much longer it will be though, since it is pretty much a rusted shell at this point.  At least I've had plenty of time to play with it on many occasions.

South Mountain on a Whim

Saturday, November 18, 2017 (Part 2)

A Desperate Grasp

I had just finished up with my sunrise shoot at Salem Lake and had decided that I wasn't wanting to spend the day there.  I had been paying attention to the weather since late Friday night and knew that the clouds would be hitting the mountains around 10am or so.  I wasn't sure how thick the clouds were going to be, or if they would be of good quality for some grand landscapes.  Simply put, I didn't have a clue what I was going to be able to shoot with the clouds that were coming.  I had been to Stone Mountain and Hanging Rock recently, and at this point, I am a little tired of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I wanted to do something a little bit different with my day.  I had thought about going to South Mountain State Park, but had no idea what I was wanting to shoot there.  I just knew that I wasn't going to mess with the main waterfall since it is one of my least favorite ones to photograph.

I had about two hours to consider it because I found myself driving West with South Mountains as my destination.  As I was making my way to the mountains I was looking at the sky.  Unfortunately, it was a lot more sunny than I was expecting, and I wasn't seeing much in the way of interesting clouds.  I really thought about turning around, but there was something in the back of my head that said to keep going.

Over the years, I have come to learn to listen to that little voice in my head.  It will come up with random ideas for destinations and I have no idea why I want to go there.  Then it will push me to continue going even when I start to get discouraged over the weather.  I even remember having the conversation with myself somewhere around Davie County that I don't know why I'm going, but something there was calling my name, and I needed to see this Trek through.

When I arrived at the park the sky was nearly clear and what clouds were there were thin and weren't going to off much in the way of shade.  I thought about going on one of the trails leading up to an overlook that I had never been to before, but thought against it.  Something in my head was telling me to go down the High Shoals Waterfall trail which I had been down every time I have come to this park.  It follows the Jacob Fork Creek and was well in the woodland.  This was a concern because the sun was quite bright and not conducive to moving water photography.  But that voice in my head was saying get on the trail!!

I need to get my meds adjusted I think.  I'll put that on the list for later this week unless I disagree with myself.

I started off walking down the trail and was happy to find that there was still a good deal of color in the trees.  I had expected them to be nearly bare by now, so I was getting a little excited.  I also found that the light was pretty soft for the most part as the thin clouds were diffusing the light fairly well.  There was actually a good chance that I could get some water pictures, or some woodland shots.

Jacob's Fork

The first area that caused me to stop was a fork in the creek, so to speak.  The voices in my head like to rhyme it would seem.  I've shot this section a couple of times with a wide angle lens.  Today, I decided to get a little more intimate with a particular section of the creek.  I started to compose around a pair of cascades and found that the compositions were just not compelling at all.  They didn't capture what I was seeing.  It was the addition of the yellow leaves hovering atop the cascades that were driving my want for a photograph here.  I flipped the camera on its side, still fitted with the 70-200mm lens and a Singh Ray Color Combo Polarizer.  I was able to get into position on a rock (didn't have my tall waterproof boots on) and capture the bits of color above the cascades. 

As I was fine tuning the composition I knew I was onto something.  The images that I was seeing in the LCD were conveying exactly what I saw with my eyes.  I was looking up into the sky and seeing blue skies, but for some reason the lighting here was perfect.  The water flow was nice, and the wind was relatively calm for the moment.  The little voice in my head was saying "I told you so!"  Yeah, there was obviously a reason for me to be here and it was working out well.  It was time to sit back and embrace it.  Oh wait, I can't sit back, I have to work the camera.

Nice and Easy

Since I had my long lens on, I knew that shooting intimates of the cascades would be a good idea.  I turned my attention to the right and found a nice section of rocks where the water was washing over them.  I got the camera into position and cropped in tight to the rocks.  I tried a couple of different compositions before settling on one.  There was a nice balance to the image, and the water was nice and soft as it flowed over the rocks.

Before I packed up the camera I looked for some more compositions.  I started to shoot the branch above the cascades, but when I got home to look at it, I decided that it really needed the context of the creek below to make a compelling image.  The handful of shots that I made of the branch were ultimately tossed in the bin and weren't worthy of keeping.

Dabs of Autumn

As I worked my way along the trail, I cam upon another section that I have photographed several times before.  The star of the scene has always been a tree that looks like it is yawning in agony.  I wanted to try my hand at photographing it again, but there wasn't any color in close proximity to it, and it wasn't a pronounced at it needed to be.  It was, however, still interesting, and worthy of being in a composition.  I decided to look big instead.  I grabbed my 24-70mm lens and added the the Singh Ray Polarizer again.  After a bit of rock hopping, I was in position to shoot the composition that I had in mind.

I decided to make the tree a supporting element to a much larger composition that also included the colorful trees in the background.  The foreground was made up of a medium sized cascade that flowed over the rocks and was slightly covered by the remains of a tree.  The creek itself balanced out the foreground to the left with one additional small rapid that made for a left boarder.  There is a lot going on with this picture, but it did encompass everything that I was "seeing" in the scene.  

Natural Tapestry

As I was shooting the scene in front of me, I was a little surprised that the sun was starting to cause me problems.  The landscape was bathed in nice and diffused light, but the sun was peeking out over the trees to my right and causing some lens flare issues.  I was able to deal with it to a point by using my Boonie hat to shield the front element, but that was getting increasingly difficult.  I abandoned that composition and moved to other elements that caught my eye.  One of the areas that I started to focus on was a bunch of trees on the other side of the creek.  I had enough reach with my current lens to grab an isolation, so I composed an image that anchored on a single trunk, but focused on a "Y" shaped tree in the background.  The whole idea behind this composition was to capture the colors in an abstract fashion. It went reasonably well.

One thing about Fall is many of my compositional rules get thrown out the window.  I am more interested in capturing the colors rather than doing things "right."  That isn't to say that the images aren't carefully crafted, they are just a little more lenient when it comes to composition.  They are more "fun" images to shoot, that is for sure.

A Seasonal Song

With the sun causing me problems I decided that it was time to move on.  Funny thing is, I didn't even consider heading home.  I just knew that the next section would have better light than this one.  Again with that voice in my head.  But you know what....it was right.  The next water feature that I came across was in the shade, and the clouds had returned too.  The lighting was great once again.  Looking at the scene, I thought about shooting an intimate of the cascades, but I was remembering how well the first section had turned out incorporating the colorful trees above.  I decided to give that a try first off.  I kept the 24-70mm lens on the camera and started off with it in portrait orientation.  I carefully composed the image to include the trees as well as the cascade.  For a bit of depth, I opened it up to include the rocks on either side of the cascade.  I moved side to side until I got the twin trees in the background to help balance the placement of the cascade.  This was shaping up to be another one that I was excited about when I started looking at the LCD.  I tell you what, this is now my favorite trip to South Mountains!

I tried some more compositions on this section of cascades, but didn't really care for any of them after seeing how well the initial one turned out.  It was time to move on down the trail though.  I knew that the next stop would be some of my favorite cascades to work with.  My gut was telling me that the light would be too harsh there with the sun climbing further into the sky.  That voice in my head kept saying to continue on though.  I'm not going to stop listening to it now, so I continued on.

Rooted in Autumn

When I got to the boardwalk, I wasn't overly impressed with the scene in front of me.  There wasn't much color to be had in the background, but the light was good.  I decided to look for a composition.  As I made my way around the first bend, I found a nice little curved tree with exposed roots at the base of a thin cascade.  I could see some promise with that tree, so I looked for a composition.  The only way I was going to get one that would work was to climb over the railing like I had done the last time I was here.

Once I was on the ground, I looked at how things went together.  I decided to leave my 24-70mm attached for this location since I was kind of close in.  I started to hunt for compositions and decided to go simple to start with.  I flipped the camera on its side and shot the first composition as a portrait shot.  The curve of the tree was used to counter the slope of the rock to the right.  The water gave a nice visual division between the two rocks.  It was a good composition, but I knew that there was better to be had here.

Cascades of Fall

The composition that I was looking for actually had nothing at all to do with the tree.  While it was nice, the odd way the rocks fit together and the way the water cascaded through them was what I was now fascinated by.  I altered my position once again, and framed a tight shot at the top of the cascade.  The diagonals were striking and the water highlighted that fact.  There was even a tree in the background that was able to be placed along the right third for a balancing element to the the terminal position of the cascade.  This image was very much abstract, but I thought that it worked even better than the full image with the tree that had originally caught my attention.

Autumn Boulders

I was pretty much done with the section that had grabbed my attention, so I started to look around.  I was looking at the section that I had photographed so successfully back in the early Summer and found that the lighting was better this time.  I moved around on the rocks to get into a better position.  I found myself wondering if I was going to slip and fall rock hopping with a full pack on my back and holding a camera on a tripod.  I wasn't the poster child for grace, that's for sure.  Somehow I managed to get into position on the rocks without hurting myself or my equipment.  I framed up a shot that was different than what I shot last time.  I chose a horizontal format to fully take advantage of the leaves on the rocks as my best shot for color.

I tried a few different compositions from this precarious location before looking for my escape route.  Wait a minute...the section that I had started photographing was now looking completely different from this angle, and I was liking it....a lot!  I moved slightly from my position and found that sometimes you just have to walk with your left hand on the rock right beside your right foot in order to get to the next rock while using your tripod as a hiking pole.  My footing was terrible, but I got into position for the composition I was already excited about.

Keeping Balance

I got the composition put together just as it had been in my head.  The one balancing rock was jutting out from the cascade like the head of a dinosaur.  The cascades were framing it just perfectly.  The rocks to the right and left framed the entire photograph.  There was a patch of fall color in the background which was framed by two trees above the rocks.  These trees were slightly curved and mimicked the cascades below for an unmistakable balance.  Everything in this photograph just came together perfectly, and I could tell in the LCD that I had nailed the composition, the histogram showed a perfect exposure.  I was happy!

Once again I was pumped on this Trek.  I was getting images that I had never seen before along this hike. That voice in the back of my head was so right about making me come out here today.  I was getting some great images that I had overlooked so many times before, and the remaining leaves were really making things fantastic.

Freshly Fallen

Since I was in a new location on the rocks, I decided to look around and see what Else I could find.  I went back to the section of the cascades to the left and found that I was elevated enough now to see a rock at the base with some leaves on it.  I went ahead and moved the camera, and slowly rotated my own feet on a couple of rocks.  I got an image formulated, and shot the composition that had sparked my attention.  It was a simple image, and one that appealed to me because of how the water in the foreground seemed to be circling the rock as if to highlight it in the picture.

Sliding Through

While I was here, how about the other side of the cascade?  Yep, there was a composition there as well.  I went ahead and got the camera in position and composed a final image of this section of cascades.  What I liked about this composition was that the rock in the lower left was a nice counter point to the mossy rock at the top right.  The water made for a great diagonal off of the rock that had leaves on it which formed a bond with the rock in the foreground.  Geometrically, this was a great image.  There was just enough color in it to keep it quite interesting as well.  With this composition shot, I decided that it was time to get off of the rocks.

I had now been standing on the uneven surface for about a half hour now and my feet were getting sore and stiff...not to mention my calves.  Consider this, in order to maintain balance, I was basically putting all the pressure on the balls of my feet...for that full 30 minutes.  I was having a hard time making my legs and feet work to get back to the boardwalk, but I finally did.  I climbed over it with most of my dignity in tact as well.

Once on the boardwalk, I looked up the trail to the main falls, which I could see from where I was standing.  I fully expected the voice in my head to say continue on to the main falls.  To my surprise, the voice told me to turn back towards the parking lot.  I didn't mind since I really don't like this waterfall and there are a lot of steps to get to to the viewing platform.  As I came off of the boardwalk, I happened to see another section of water that looked kind of promising.

A Flowing Ribbon

I worked my way to the creek and set up my first composition.  It was fair, but there wasn't anything special about it.  I recomposed with the same results.  My problem was...there was too much in the frame and I couldn't get any closer to the section I wanted to photograph.  I ultimately decided to swap out lenses for my 70-200mm.  This gave me the reach that I needed for what I was trying to get.  I isolated a section of the cascade which had caught my attention.  It turned out great in the LCD and it was one that I was planning on doing as a monochrome image when I got home.  As it turned out though, I really liked the warm colors on the rock to the left and decided that it worked very well as a color image because of that rocky wall.

Hopeful Reach

This one composition was all I got from this location and then it was back to the trail.  I ended up passing by the one section with the yawning tree and stopped once again to see if there was anything that I could pick out with the long lens.  Well, I happened to see an element that I had not seen before.  This might be because the sun was now shining through the trees and highlighting areas that had been in the shade before.  Regardless, I found a couple of compositions in the trees, and started to pick them out with the long lens and polarizer.  There was this one birch tree that really caught my eye as it was bathed in sunlight, and had some interesting bends to it, as well as branches that looked an awful lot like a hand.  I had a lot of fun shooting this one.  The trick was waiting for the wind to die down.  By this time, the wind was really starting to be a problem.  The forecast had been calling for 40mph gusts later in the day.  It wasn't that bad, but it was bad enough to make shooting a still photograph difficult.

Autumn Antlers

As luck would have it, there was another fascinating tree to the left of the one that I had just shot.  I panned the camera over about 30 feet and composed an image around this other tree.  What really drew me to it was the symmetry of the branches, and how they tended to all work together.  Of course the brilliant colors behind the tree didn't hurt either.  I only shot two frames here because the wind was picking up and I was having a really hard time getting shots in between the gusts.

I went ahead and found a nice level spot and broke the camera down to put it back in the bag.  It had been a great day.  I had shot nearly 130 images between Salem Lake this morning and South Mountain this afternoon.  Considering I had not even really planned this day out, I had gotten some tremendous images and I was so glad that I had decided to take advantage of my bachelor day and go out with the camera.

On a funny note, after I got the camera packed back up, I was walking down the trail and came across a Japanese Family that was sitting and resting.  The husband had a Nikon camera around his neck and seemed to take interest in my gear.  He looked at me and pointed as he said..."Anata no sankyaku ni mizu ga arimasu."

Uh...OK, sure.  I replied "Hi there".

He again pointed and said something to the effect of "Anata wa sankyaku kara mizu ga tarete iru."  He was now pointing to my tripod at the Manfrotto Logo.

I replied that it was a good tripod and I really liked it.  I could tell he was getting frustrated and he exclaimed once again....

"Anata no sankyaku ga anata o murashimashita.  Anata wa sono shizuku o miru koto ga dekimasen ka?"

I could see the water dripping out of the top of the tripod and finally understood that he was telling me that my tripod was wet.  It all made sense now.  I said that it was OK that there was water coming out of it.  I had been using it in water half way up the legs.  As I was telling him that, I realized that he had no idea what I was saying.  His response, a smile and a thumbs up.  I'm sure he was thinking "What an idiot!" but at least he thought it with a smile.

That pretty much wrapped up my day, and all that was left was the two hour drive home and the processing of the images.  Again, it was a great day to be outside, and I had a blast at South Mountain.