It was 65 degrees here in North Carolina today, and I washed my car! Changes are in store over night tonight but I’ll brag while I can!
The coast is a special place any time of the year, but it takes on an amazing quality in the winter. Crisp, clear skies and often some great color both at sunrise and sunset. Our favorite beach within a reasonable drive is Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Amazingly this photo is from a visit there nearly 5 years ago, in January 2007. It’s really hard to believe how quickly time flies.
After writing the last post I remembered that I left out a whole batch of photos that I classify in Lightroom as “Personal” and I forgot to include them when I made the selection of my favorite 11. That’s probably just as well, so this way I get to show a few more favorites, and I don’t have to explain to people why I picked a tree or something over a photo of them!
I get this look from women of all ages....Samonte triplets' first birthday partySamonte triplets' first birthday partyScott & Kristin's wedding at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Charlotte, North CarolinaScott & Kristin's wedding at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Charlotte, North CarolinaReception for Scott & Kristin's wedding at The Big Chill in Charlotte, North Carolina
Sunrise on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Laurel Knob Overlook
I’ve taken nearly 7000 photographs this year. That’s nowhere close to what a lot of people take, but compared with years past it’s a pretty large number for me. Seven Thousand…I’m sure glad that wasn’t film!
A lot of people think it’s cool to do some kind of “Best Of” gallery or a collection of Greatest Hits for the year. It seems a bit cliche to me, but I’m going to do it anyway. But first a disclaimer: Out of the 7000 or so photos I took this year I have only processed a very small percentage of them. So this is not necessarily my “best” or even my “favorite” images from 2011, but it’s a group of photos that pretty well represent what I did this past year. I’ve found it very interesting to see what I’ve done and compare it with what I’ve done in years past.
Most interesting to me is the choice of cameras. Of these 11 photos, 3 of them were shot with the 5D, 3 with the 20D (with Holga lens) and 5 with the G12. The X10 came along a little late, but I’ll be off to a good start in 2012 with it!
I hope you enjoy this little selection of photos. I don’t think there’s anything here that hasn’t already been shown somewhere before, but I think it makes a nice little collection.
I also hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable New Year’s weekend and starts 2012 off making more memories and more photographs.
Spring colors along US 276 in Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North CarolinaMorning fog along US Highway 264 near Pungo Creek Road west of Belhaven, North CarolinaSunset along the Pantego Creek in Belhaven North CarolinaRandom photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North CarolinaRandom photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North CarolinaRandom photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North CarolinaNASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, North CarolinaSteps in front of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North CarolinaBasseterre, St. KittsRope and Cleat, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Random photos in uptown Charlotte on a chilly Saturday in December
Alan Ross recently posted an article entitled “Too Close To Home – Even for Ansel Adams” in which he discusses how he (Alan) rarely makes interesting images close to his home and how Ansel Adams had the same “problem.” Check it out.
It would be easy to read such an article and think, “Gee, I have something in common with Ansel Adams!” Not so fast. I agree that most of us do our best work in places other than where we live. But why is that?
Perhaps the biggest reason we don’t shoot close to home is that we have too many distractions at home. Whenever we’re home we have our “to-do lists” and other chores that make it hard to change gears and just go out and shoot for an hour or so. Maybe we’re too busy planning our next adventure away from home that we forget about what there is to shoot nearby.
I think shooting close to home can potentially result in excellent images, images that only those who take the time to know a place can make, because if we really get to know a location we can go there when the conditions are perfect for whatever we choose to photograph. But we have to work at it and be open to the possibilities because our subject matter is not as clear-cut as it would be if we were shooting somewhere “iconic.” And the great thing is that we have an opportunity to shoot someplace where no one else has photographed. True, it might not be Yosemite, but we can do some truly personal work in a place where you aren’t influenced by others’ photographs.
Why do we seem to make better photographs when we travel to new places? Think about it, and I think you’ll agree that it has to do with several main things: (1) when we travel to photograph we “give ourselves permission” to put our other obligations aside and just go shoot, (2) when we visit a new location we are usually excited, and shooting things that excite us generally results in more personal photographs, and (3) when we’re unfamiliar with a place, we work harder at finding things that interest us, because we have put our distractions (and our preconceptions) aside. There are many more, but I think those are the top three.
For many of us, we live where our jobs are. If we lived in the Caribbean or Alaska or the Rocky Mountains one would think it would be easier to shoot close to home. But that’s not necessarily the case. We get so used to things we see every day that we lose sight of how wonderful our home is. I used to work with a woman who grew up in Hawaii but always talked about how beautiful North Carolina is. She told me that since she had lived in Hawaii so long she didn’t think it was anything special. Wow, I can’t imagine that!
I’ve spent the last several years shooting on the greenway that runs through my neighborhood. It’s been a fun project, documenting the change in seasons in different weather conditions and different times of the day. But even when all I have to do is walk out my front door, it can still be a hard thing to do. For a while I tried doing a regular shoot there for some of my local photographer friends, but turnout was generally pretty low. Those who came out enjoyed it, and I had some regulars, but it’s just hard for people to get excited about shooting somewhere so close to home.
To be sure, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with traveling to other places to photograph, and I certainly do my share! We love to travel, and there is nothing better than going to a new place, returning to a place we haven’t been in a long time, or even going to a familiar place in different conditions or at a different time of the year. I’m planning to do my share of traveling in the coming year, too. But I think if we work at it we can see our home the way we see new places. Try it and see, and let me know how it goes!
Imaginon Children’s library in uptown Charlotte on a chilly Saturday in December
Kathy & I were talking the other evening about her experiences photographing this year, and she mentioned how much she enjoys just walking around with a camera, taking photographs of things she sees and things that interest her. She seems to have the most fun – and does her best photography – when we are just wandering around with our cameras, no tripods, no bags full of gear, just a camera and a lens.
There are obviously times were a tripod is simply necessary to get a photograph. And when I need one I’ve got a couple to pick from. But the biggest problem with a tripod (besides having to carry it) is that it’s another piece of gear to think about. Just like carrying extra lenses, a tripod gives you more choices to make, another bunch of problems to solve. Adjusting, leveling, making sure the feet don’t crush some unsuspecting lichen, etc. takes time and attention away from the task at hand. It’s like carrying a bunch of lenses. The more lenses I carry the better the chance that I’ve got the “wrong one” on the camera. Of course I can solve that by walking around with multiple cameras slung Pancho Vila-style over my shoulders. Yikes! No thanks.
Some people handle all that just fine, but for many of us and certainly for me, having to fuss with the equipment distracts me from the flow of creativity. That’s what I love about the simplicity of using a compact camera or an SLR with one lens. I start out seeing based on what I have with me, I stop worrying about whether I’ve got the right lens on the camera or whether the tripod is the right height or not and I just go out and shoot. If I need to get lower I get down. Sometimes I lay on my back on the ground. I’d never bother with that if I had to adjust a tripod to get that low.
Admittedly there are some concerns with shooting hand-held. Concerned about precise composition? It’s perfectly OK to crop a little if you need to tidy up an edge or straighten a horizon. I can’t get straight horizons on a tripod with a built-in level in my viewfinder! I might get a little softness from camera movement so I have to be careful with shutter speed, although with today’s cameras cranking the ISO up a stop or two (or more) isn’t a big deal. And most of the handheld shooting I do is in daylight so that’s not too big of an issue. And you know what? If you use good technique and don’t try to make huge prints they’re probably sharp enough! I find that the best cure for soft photos is often to just stop looking at them at 100%
The tripod is definitely a great compositional tool. If you ever want to see how unsteady you are at hand-holding, switch your camera to video mode and try to hold a composition. That may convince you to use a tripod! But there are times when leaving it at home allows you to fully engage your creativity, to just go out and shoot. You may be a little limited in what you can do, but I firmly believe that if your shooting style allows you to respond to the things that “call your name,” you can react to them in a way that shows through in your photographs that a razor-sharp, technically-perfect but clinically emotionless photograph just can’t match.
Random photos in uptown Charlotte on a chilly Saturday in December
– Do people really buy the stuff that is advertised on those hand-written signs at intersections? “Microfiber Sofa & Loveseat $499” “We Buy Houses” “Carpet Cleaning – 3 Rooms $79” “Computer Repair $20” I guess they must, otherwise we wouldn’t see them.
– I find it interesting – and this is from recent first-hand experience – that when you go to a car dealer’s website, are interested in a specific car that their website shows they have and is in stock, you click the button that says “Click Here for Your EPrice!” and you never actually get a price. Never! You get automated e-mails telling you to call them for a price, sometimes the message says “please call to let me know the specific car you are interested in.” Then they send you e-mails you can’t reply to, and when you e-mail to tell them you are no longer interested they don’t stop calling!
– Is it just me, or does all the peripheral gear required to turn an SLR into a movie camera make people look like a dork? Seems to me if you need an auxiliary viewfinder, a contraption to hold the camera still, a special tripod head and all that other stuff that the camera isn’t really designed to shoot video, even though it can.
– How come so many nature photographs look so unnatural?
– How come whenever someone posts a really nice photo online somewhere, someone always has to ask either “where is that?” or “what were your exposure settings?”
– Why do some drivers feel it is necessary to drive on the grass or the berm, just to get into a left-turn lane where the light is red? A few seconds of patience and you could be there anyway!
– I recently read a Q&A in a photography magazine where someone wrote in to ask, “what settings should I use to photograph in Antarctica?” The answer person was much kinder with his answer than I would have been. Not to sound arrogant, but if you are planning to spend the money that a trip to Antarctica costs, shouldn’t you know what settings to use?
– I was talking to a real estate agent about the various methods used to market real estate these days. She told me that one of the things they do for the “less tech savvy” is mail out postcards. She then told me that the postcards contain a QR code so that the person could scan it with their smart phone and it would take them directly to a website with information about the property. Scuse me, but if someone knows enough to scan a QR code with their smart phone, they probably don’t need a postcard in the mail. Just a thought.
My son Kevin's Subaru STI - Taken with my Fuji X10
I spent part of my lunch break today looking at an electronic version of a major photography magazine. I say “looking at” because there was very little to read. I was astounded at how little content there actually was in the magazine, and amazed at how many advertisements there were. I don’t watch television and I use an internet browser that blocks advertising, so I’m not a very good judge of just how pervasive advertising is in our world, but as I flipped through the pages I couldn’t help but wonder what it was that I was actually paying for. I finally got to the point where I started thinking about writing this post and stopped reading the magazine.
Here’s a summary of what I found. Please understand that these numbers are approximate and used to illustrate a point. You don’t have to figure out which magazine I’m referring to and correct my numbers. If you do you’re missing the point:
The magazine has 140 pages including covers
The first actual article doesn’t start until page 32
Over half of the pages (78) are full-page advertisements
Only 48 pages had no advertising at all, but 4 of these were the intro and table of contents
Included in my “No Advertising At All” page count total were:
7 pages of “product news” that essentially contain short advertisements for products disguised as news
A 10-page Advertising Feature that, surprisingly, had ads for other products mixed in
A 2-page “article” about a new printer that looked suspiciously like a product brochure or press release
A 10-page article about creating photo books that conveniently listed some companies that publish photo books
A 4-page article about cloud storage with similar helpful links
To their credit, there were 3 feature articles that consisted of approximately 25 pages. Of course many of these pages had advertising on them, but many contained full-page photos.
Shelby Cobra - Taken with my Fuji X10
I now remember why I dropped most of my magazine subscriptions a year or so ago. I tried a couple of my old favorite photography magazines in electronic versions because the price was significantly better than the paper version. They were tough to pass up at the teaser prices. But now that they are coming up for renewal they are wanting regular magazine rates again, and I just can’t see spending the money for something with so little content. I gladly pay for National Geographic and Lenswork as I feel that the content of those publications makes them worth the price I pay.
I used to figure that the advertising paid for printing the magazine and that my subscription fee paid for the postage to get my magazine to me and the publisher’s profit. But when my magazine gets beamed to my iPad electronically there isn’t much in the way of distribution cost. So who gets the money? I’m not sure, but I think I’ll hang on to my money, thank you very much.
Somebody's Lamborghini - And you thought photography was expensive? Taken with my Fuji X10
This is one of those topics that could easily turn into an angry rant, but it’s something I truly find amusing and I want to have some fun with it so I’ll try to keep my commentary on the light side and I hope you will agree. This is not about photography, so bear with me.
Every morning on my drive to work, between dropping Kathy off at the bus stop and arriving at my office I pass 12 intersections with traffic lights (careful to not say that I go through 12 traffic lights!). The pattern of the lights is pretty predictable, and you sort of know which ones are going to be red when you get to them and which ones might stay green depending on traffic, etc. And the amount of traffic is pretty consistent unless there’s an accident on one of the freeways. While it is a 4-lane road it’s not like the interstate where there is a “slow lane” and a “passing lane.” Both lanes move along at about the same speed. I’ve learned in my nearly 2 years of making this commute that it takes just about the same amount of time every day. When school is in session it takes 15-20 minutes, and when school is out it can take 12-15 minutes. Not a bad drive either way, all things considered.
For the most part a group of cars moves from one light to the next. Some people turn off, some cars get through the next light while others don’t, and some people enter from side streets. But for the most part you just go, and you just get where you are going.
While I’m driving I pay attention to what other cars are doing around me. I often observe behaviors and “project” an imaginary scenario on people based on how they drive. Most drivers are content to just drive, while others drive like they are on a personal mission to get to work faster than everyone else. Maybe there’s a prize, I don’t know.
Some common behaviors and general observations:
– Coming up to a traffic light, people from the right lane make last-minute moves to the left lane, and people from the left lane make last-minute moves to the right. I guess it’s like choosing the checkout line at the grocery store. It’s an amusing dance.
– If there’s a truck in the right lane, everyone moves to the left lane until there is no one behind the truck, then the left lane gets so long that people start switching to the right lane behind the truck, figuring that they will find a spot to jump back into the left lane in front of the cars in the left lane. In reality it makes very little difference because inevitably someone who moves to the left lane won’t go any faster than the truck.
– Coming up to an intersection in the left lane, someone will inevitably move to the right lane, pass the person in front of them, move back into the left lane then make a left turn. The reverse happens too – right lane to left lane.
– People seem to hate empty space. If a car in front of someone changes lanes or turns, leaving a large gap between them and the next car, they speed up to close the gap then slam on the brakes. They don’t seem to understand that they can’t go any faster than the people in front of them, but they evidently like to try.
– I saw a car with the license plate “WHATEVA.” I thought that meant the person was laid back and casual, but their driving was anything but. I guess it meant they didn’t care what anyone thought about their driving!
– At one of the intersections approaching work, I have the option to make a left turn, make a big loop that is about 3X as long as the regular way but comes at my office from the opposite direction. Since this avoids waiting through the final two lights, I always thought this “short cut” was faster even though it was longer. But one day I timed it – exactly the same.
– You can almost always tell who is looking at their phone by how much room they leave in front of them at red lights. Then they take a few more seconds to get moving when it turns green. Look out for the ones that don’t stop when the car starts moving – they have a hard time staying in their lane!
– People frequently make left turns from the right lane and right turns from the left lane. I figure they must be using GPS. Anyone who was actually paying attention would know their right from left.
I often wonder if I should have been some kind of behavioral psychologist. I find the study of humans fascinating. I always wonder what (if?) people are thinking about and what makes them tick. It’s a lot more fun than fiddling with the radio dial, checking e-mail or sending text messages. The observation of other people is great entertainment. One of these days I’ll figure out how to make a photography project out of it!
See, I did find a way to tie this in to photography!
Views from the 5300’ summit of Sugar Mountain, Sugar Mountain Resort near Banner Elk, North Carolina
I had a special request this month for a “snowy mountain scene” and I just happen to have a few. Taken a couple of years ago, I had the privilege of shooting an assignment at Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk, NC. As luck would have it a very nice snowstorm blew through a couple of days before my scheduled visit, and the folks at the ski resort were kind enough to let me ride the chairlifts without skis. You wouldn’t want to see me on skis!
This is a view from the 5300’ summit of Sugar Mountain at Sugar Mountain Resort near Banner Elk, North Carolina.
Wall and shadows along Wigley Avenue, Basseterre, St. Kitts
Monte Stevens recently made a post on his blog titled “Seeing Shadows.” The comments indicated a general affinity for shadows and I am also a fan. About the same time Monte made that post I was making these photos, unbeknownst to each other. Within a few days, anyway.
I wish to suggest that we may be known as Shadow Geeks.
Tree Shadow along Paseo de la Princesa, San Juan, Puerto RicoLamp and Shadow along Paseo de la Princesa, San Juan, Puerto Rico
