Category Archives: Photography

A Matter of Balance

July 27, 2013 Tom Dills 8 Comments

Balancing Rock, on Long Island near Tiverton, Nova Scotia

My barber always talks about shape and balance when it comes to a good haircut. Three of my photos hang on the wall of his shop, and he always refers to those photos when he is talking to a customer about balance. I’m also aware that he says this partly for my benefit when I’m there, but it also illustrates his point. He also happens to be one of the biggest fans of my photography. 🙂

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about balance, mostly in terms of managing competing priorities, but also how it relates to my photography. Visual balance is relatively easy, I think, partly because it is subjective, but also because there is a pretty wide range for success. Time balance is somewhat more difficult, and is really what I have been spending my time thinking about.

Balmoral Grist Mill Museum in Balmoral Mills, Nova Scotia

Whether at work, spending a weekend at home or on vacation, I struggle at balance. It’s mostly because of the classic “only 24 hours in a day,” but is also because there are so many interesting things competing for my time! I have to spend a certain amount of my day at work, because they pay me to be there. And I have to spend most of my time there doing the things they want me to do, because that’s what they pay me to do. Other than that, my time is mine, but within certain constraints, and subject to multiple distractions. Those of us who work for a living and have interests outside of work – which I think includes just about everyone I know – constantly face the dilemma of competing priorities.

When we sold our house and moved to our apartment in May, I was looking forward to all kinds of time to work on some projects I had been trying to get to for a long time. I promised myself time to write more on my blog, process more photos, update my website, make some prints and build a new computer. I haven’t done any of those things – yet. But the reason for that is that I have been doing other things that have had a higher priority. A lot of it has been Kathy & me taking a collective sigh of relief from the drama of selling our house and moving. And our new place is still mud and dirt, so there’s going to be a lot more time, I think. Now that we’ve had a nice vacation and I have several thousand more photos to process, I had better stay glued to my chair for a while!

The 'Atlantic Guardian' scallop trawler, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia — The ‘Atlantic Guardian’ scallop trawler, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

On our recent vacation, I faced a dilemma regarding the balance of time for photography and time to enjoy the other aspects of being in Nova Scotia. With sunrise before 6:00am and sunset after 9:00pm, trying to photograph sunrise and sunset, especially sunrise, was going to be problematic. I love sunrise, but it comes way too early for me most of the year, so I was satisfied to rise with the rest of the world at 7:00, have a nice breakfast and be on my way at a reasonable hour. And I managed to sneak in a little sunset activity after dinner in a few locations. It was enough to satisfy my photographic needs while enjoying the tourist side of things by having a nice dinner every night. Did I miss some photographic “opportunities?” Perhaps, but this wasn’t a photography trip, and there is way more to do in Nova Scotia than take pictures. They have food and wine there! This was a vacation with Kathy and friends. So I accepted that, adjusted my mindset accordingly and we all came away happy and satisfied. Good balance.

I chose to not take a computer with me on this vacation. Besides the obvious weight and bulk, my opinion is that having a computer along provides a huge potential for distraction. If it was just a matter of backing up my photos every night and putting it way that would be fine, but then comes the temptation to process a few “just to see what I got,” then there is some kind of software update, while you wait you open Facebook and before you know it you have wasted 2 hours while everyone else is waiting to go to dinner. No thanks. The people I care most about are with me, and those who aren’t can wait until I get home.

Boar’s Head Lighthouse, near Tiverton, Nova Scotia

We deal with visual balance in photography, and I think that dealing with visual balance helps to deal with time balance, because it forces us to evaluate all of the possibilities and come up with the one (or the few) ways to achieve the balance we are looking for. Just like I feel that visual balance is essential to good composition, I’m convinced that time balance is essential to a happy life. How a photograph is balanced visually is a huge influence on how successful a composition is. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that every photograph has to be IN balance, just that HOW it is balanced influences the success of the composition. And the same principal applies to how we manage our time. I’m working at finding that balance in my daily life, so I can find that right mix of time for work, time for me, and time for those who love me and who I love. I hope to continue to work on that balance for a long time!

Latched But Not Locked, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

Photography

Hidden Treasures

July 5, 2013 Tom Dills 5 Comments

Bearded Beggarticks (Bidens aristosa) along the Torrence Creek Greenway in Huntersville, North Carolina

I recently sold a couple of prints to a repeat customer, and before I made the prints I went back over the files, as I often do, and made a few tweaks to take advantage of a more recent version of Lightroom than I used when I originally processed the photos a few years ago. As I was going through my library, specifically the folder where one of those prints resides, I went back and looked at some of the other photos in that folder. As often happens, a number of my “picks” for that day hadn’t been processed, and I was playing around to see what some of them might look like processed. I came across this version that I think I like even better than the first. It is a different flower, but the composition and the lighting make it a bit more dramatic than my original favorite. I made a small print of this one, but think I may have to go a little larger and make one to hang on the wall.

My “former favorite” is below. I’ll be interested in thoughts on how the two compare.

Photography

Taking Comfort in the Familiar, and July 2013 Wallpaper

June 30, 2013 Tom Dills

Sunset from Morton Overlook, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN

I guess it’s human nature that we find comfort in returning to things and places we have been before and know well. Even when we have moved on to so-called “bigger and better things” we never completely get away from our past. Whether that is good or bad is to be determined, and is up to each of us to decide.

While it’s where I started my “serious” photographic endeavors, I find myself doing very little classic “Nature Photography” these days. Not that there is anything wrong with it, as there are few things I enjoy more than standing at an overlook in the pre-dawn cold or the late evening dusk waiting for that Magic Moment. But there’s just so much more to do than that. As much as I love it, in many ways, as a photographer I’ve moved on.

I need to be a little cautious here, because I have a lot of good friends for whom nature photography is exactly what they want to do, and they spend all of their spare time, effort and money doing it. So I’m not trying to make myself out as better than anyone, or suggest that I am more of an artiste than someone else, just because I like taking photographs of peeling paint and shadows. It’s just that after a few hundred sunrises and sunsets, eventually they all sort of started looking the same to me. While I still do my share of sunrises and sunsets, flowers and bugs, there’s only so much time, and I want to see what else there is!

So with all that said, this month’s calendar is one of those cliché photographs from an iconic location. Morton Overlook in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of just a handful of places you can shoot sunset standing next to your car. Plus, it often has just the right combination of good light and interesting sky that it often produces interesting results. The downside, however, is that there is really only one view. You seldom need anything but a 24-70 lens, which is what I used for this photo. You can go wide or long within those limits, but for the most part that’s about what you have to work with. The rest is up to the fate of the weather conditions. Makes it a little hard to be contemplative or creative, it’s mostly a matter of luck.

This was taken with my long-obsolete Canon 20D and the now-ancient 24-70 lens. Re-processed in Lightroom 4 to take advantage of some new technology. Still not a bad photograph, I’d say. And I’ll have that lens with me for a while!

Photography, Travel

A Little “Wining”

June 23, 2013 Tom Dills 11 Comments

In the wine cave at Morgan Ridge Vineyard, Gold Hill, North Carolina

Kathy & I enjoy visiting wineries – they have wine there! 🙂

This past weekend we met up with Earl & Bonnie and visited Morgan Ridge Vineyards, located about an hour east of Charlotte, and just south of Salisbury. I had come across a Groupon for a tour and tasting there, but had never heard of it before, so we decided to check it out. It’s out in the middle of nowhere (for us) but was worth the drive and we had a nice visit.

After a nice buffet lunch prepared by their resident chef, we received a tour from owner Amie Baudoin. One of the things we like best about visiting wineries is hearing the stories of the owners, and Amie told us some good stories and gave us the history of the place, from a farm run by her father to the present day winery, to their plans for the future.

Morgan Ridge Vineyard, Gold Hill, North Carolina

One of the things I find interesting, and the thing that sometimes makes me a lousy photographic documenter of things like winery visits, is that for all of the photos I took (only about 50, since we had better things to do – like taste wine!) I didn’t take any pictures of Amie during our tour, and I didn’t take a single photo of the vineyards, the buildings or the grounds. I kick myself after the fact, because you would never know I was there from the pictures I did take. I just forget, I guess. But I get so far out of “snapshot mode” sometimes that I do sometimes just forget. I spend so much time looking for little details that I miss the big picture. I will admit though, that when I am doing something like a tour I also spend time listening to the speaker, which I hope shows interest in what they have to say, and doesn’t just make me look like some distracted tourist with a big camera.

We’re getting ready to jet off to Nova Scotia in a few weeks. I do need to put my tourist hat back on for that trip!

Photography

Farmer’s Market

June 9, 2013 Tom Dills 2 Comments

Kathy & I visited the Farmer’s Market yesterday morning – specifically the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market – with friends John & Marcia. Amazingly, for all our interest in fresh, local food, we had never visited before. John & Marcia are veterans and showed us around, then we explored for a little while on our own.

I had conversations with a number of vendors about their products. One guy was selling honey, and had samples taken at different times of the year. It was amazing to taste the differences between them.

The produce was amazing. There were vegetables I had never seen or even heard of before. But all I had to do was ask, and I found out not only what it was, but how to cook it and when to buy it.

There is a group of Korean folks who sell flowers all over town. They operate a number of stands and frequent many of the festivals and markets, selling beautiful bunches of flowers for $10 each. They had several stands at the farmer’s market. It was fun to watch them as they assembled the bouquets from the pails full of flowers they had on hand. They talked and joked and generally seemed to be having a good time.

Kathy & I stuck to the basics and brought home a few veggies and some peaches. It was the first batch of peaches of the year, and they aren’t quite at their prime. But it is still great to get fresh peaches, and we’ll be back for more.

The kitchen in our apartment is a little small to do a lot of prep work in, but we’re getting by. We bought some things to get us through the week. One of the things we are looking forward to in our new place is a kitchen big enough to have plenty of room to work. Then we can become farmer’s market aficionados, too.

Photography, Travel

Still Here

May 4, 2013 Tom Dills 6 Comments

Wandering around downtown Waynesville, NC on a weekend perfect for a wanton disregard of critical obligations.

I thought I had better post a few words and some pictures just to prove that I am still alive and kicking. Things have been a little hectic lately around The House of Dills.

After about 5 years of preparations, Kathy & I decided in February that this seemed like the right time to put our house on the market. We began working with a Realtor to get things finalized so we would be ready for the spring sales market, which we expected would be a good one. It’s amazing how much there is to do to a house to get it ready to sell – things you haven’t thought about or had just put off because you just hadn’t gotten around to it. Despite having been “getting ready” for the last couple of years, there was still a last-minute rush to get things done.

In true Tom & Kathy fashion, we did the sensible thing and immediately headed out of town for a quick rest-up before we got started. That was the weekend in February when we headed to Charleston, SC. When we returned, we dove head-first into a 6-week period of repairs, staging and primping. I also took photos for the listing, which I’ll probably share in another post. By the end of March, we were ready.

Kathy & I had decided that we didn’t care to be hanging around the house for the first weekend that the house was on the market, figuring that most of our traffic would come that first weekend and we likely wouldn’t spend much time in the house anyway. Another excuse to travel! The listing hit the MLS on a Wednesday, and we immediately started getting calls for showings. We went to work on Friday packed and ready for a weekend in Waynesville, NC, one of our favorite weekend getaway destinations. By the time we were ready to come home on Sunday, our Realtor called to tell us that we had “multiple offers.” Amazing.

So we came home, settled on the offer that looked the best and seemed like it would have the best chance of closing, and signed. Now we’re waiting. In NC the buyers have a period of time – the Due Diligence period – when they can pretty much just change their minds and walk with minimal consequence, and that period expires next week. We have every indication that the buyers really want the house and that we will get through with no issues, but you just can’t be 100% certain. You really can’t start heavy-duty packing just in case the house has to go back on the market. In the mean time we have been organizing and getting ready to pack and move, so we’re ready to go once we get the green light that the deal is going to go through. It’s a frustrating process, but one that I suppose will benefit us when we decide it is time to buy.

Here are a few photos from our weekend to Waynesville. Just so you’ll know I’m still around and doing a little photography. We’re planning to move to an apartment on May 23, and we’ve already got plans to head out of town on May 25 for another getaway weekend, so all is good here!

Photography

April Wallpaper

March 31, 2013 Tom Dills

Sunset from Waterrock Knob, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

Well, that was sure fast! Last I remember I was posting the March wallpaper.

For this month’s calendar I’ve gone way back into the archives. This photograph was taken in May, 2005 at Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesville, NC. This is one of the first photos I made with my then-new Canon 20D. In fact, this was frame number 194 on that camera. Considering that I turned that camera over at least twice, shooting well over 20,000 files, this was truly in the very early stages of my digital era. The file was in pretty good shape, but had not been updated to the latest process version in Lightroom. I made the conversion, which improved noise reduction and sharpening primarily, tweaked the contrast and color just a bit, and here it is.

Things are cranking here at the House of Dills. We’ve got some interesting projects going on, some of them photographic, some not. But April promised to be exciting, so stay tuned as things develop!

Photography

For The Birds

March 24, 2013 Tom Dills 8 Comments

Luke, a Bald Eagle at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

This past Saturday, I met up with Paul and Earl at the Carolina Raptor Center for a session of their twice-yearly PhotoWild! Event, where, usually in four sessions over a weekend, the Raptor Center staff show some of their birds in several photography-oriented sessions, limited to a relatively small number of photographers. This was the first time I had attended such an event. And despite the fact that the Raptor Center is only about two miles from my house, it was only the second time I had ever been there. I travel to Latta Planation Park, where the Raptor Center is located, on a regular basis, but don’t generally think of stopping there.

Dudley, a Great Horned Owl at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

PhotoWild! is one of the Raptor Center’s major fundraising events for the year, and they do good work there, so I didn’t mind paying to attend.

I generally shy away from outings to places like zoos and gardens, as I don’t find such places conducive to the more contemplative type of photography I prefer. There are certainly many things to photograph at the Raptor Center, and this outing certainly provided plenty of material. I see shooting at a place like the Raptor Center more of an “objective” type of photography, where I’m presented with a subject not of my choosing and I generally shoot what I see, taking a bunch of pictures and hoping to end up with something I like at the end.

Skoshi, a Red-Tailed Hawk at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

In an environment where a subject is a wild animal, can be easily spooked and is being shared by as many as 20-30 other photographers, there aren’t a lot of choices in how to photograph. As a result it can be a little tough to be creative, and can prove difficult to get a shot that reflects something other than a simple documentary photograph. Sometimes I just sat and watched, admiring a creature that only a few people can see at such a close range. They are truly beautiful creatures and worthy of our respect.

Zlaty, a Golden Eagle at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

All that said, however, it was a lot of fun. I was astonished to realize that, over the course of about 4 hours, I created over 1200 files. I’d like to say that I took over 1200 photographs, but that would be overly generous. Between the blurry shots with moving wings or heads, or the many out-of-focus motion shots, I ended up with far fewer “photographs.” My initial pass through the frames – while admittedly very cursory and perhaps overly critical, resulted in only 38 “keepers.” I’ll probably end up with more once I go back through them, but that’s a pretty low success rate. I’m glad it wasn’t film!

Estrella, a Spectacled Owl, at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

Even though it wasn’t necessarily a “successful” outing photographically, there is always a lot to learn every time I pick up a camera. I found that I have a lot to learn about photographing birds in flight, and just having a camera with a purportedly excellent focusing ability doesn’t guarantee good shots! Exposing dark or light birds against a dark or light background is an opportunity to practice good exposure. And after identifying the birds in 1200+ frames, I know a lot more than I did before about owls, hawks and falcons!

Aletta, a Rough-Legged Hawk at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

All in all, I’d have to say that I enjoyed it and would do it again. I’ll have to think about my “opportunities” from this first session and try to figure out how to do it differently, and perhaps better, the next time.

Paul Lester at PhotoWild! at Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, North Carolina

Photography, Travel

The “Other” Charleston

March 12, 2013 Tom Dills 6 Comments

Along a street in Charleston, West Virginia — A Few of My Favorite Things!

Kathy & I spent this past weekend in Charleston, West Virginia. Why Charleston? We met up with friends from Ohio with whom we are planning a vacation this summer, and it is roughly half-way for both of us. It was a planning weekend for us, easier than trying to talk on the phone, or Skype, or send e-mails back and forth. A friend of Kathy’s remarked that “only we would take a vacation to plan a vacation.” Well, duh! 🙂

It wasn’t really a photography weekend, but I did take a camera. I almost always have at least one camera with me, and although I didn’t carry it to dinner, when we went out for breakfast or lunch, or just for a stretch, I took it along just in case I saw something interesting. I don’t think I came back with any prize-winning shots, but it was good exercise.

Random photos while walking around Charleston, West Virginia

I’ll eventually get around to writing more about it, but I’ve been on sort of a “one camera, one lens” kick the last couple of months. I bought one of the Canon 50mm 1.4 lenses a few months ago, and I don’t think I’ve taken it off my camera! I just love the simplicity of the single focal length, and have really enjoyed the discipline of having to work a little bit to refine a composition, rather than just twist the zoom ring. It really makes me think about what I am shooting and what I’m trying to show. At first I was afraid the 50 would be a little wide, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Sculpture at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences, Charleston, West Virginia

I think I could have represented Charleston in a more favorable light had I gone a few weeks later, but things were still pretty brown there. The trees were just starting to show some buds and the grass – what little we could see downtown – was still pretty brown. And the whole place had that “could stand a good rainstorm” look that cities get when the snow has just finished melting. Not that they’ve had a lot of snow, but that was sort of the look it reminded me of.

Close-up of the sculpture at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences, Charleston, West Virginia

In just a little over a week, Earl and Paul & I are going to go shoot some birds at the Carolina Raptor Center. I suppose I’ll have to take the 50 off for that, but I’ll probably put it back on as soon as I’m done!

Photography, Travel

Oh. And There Was Food!

March 10, 2013 Tom Dills 2 Comments

In the comments to my last post, Paul gently chided me about the fact that, in a post about our visit to Charleston that I didn’t talk about the food. Sorry! It was one of the most important things we did that weekend, but frankly I had been planning to write more than one post about our weekend, and one of them – this one, in fact – would be to talk about the food.

Juanita Greenberg’s Nacho Royale

Our visit to this place was rather a fluke, as the day we arrived it was pouring rain, the town was full of people attending the Southeastern Wildlife Expo, which we knew was happening but had no idea it was such a big deal. It’s a big deal.

Anyway, the bellman at our hotel told us that we needed to go to a place called Bubba Slyes Deli, located right around the corner on King Street. So off we went, only to find that Bubba had called it quits just the day before and the place is now closed. Practically next door to Bubba’s is a place called Juanita Greenberg’s Nacho Royale, which sounded like an impossibly interesting name. They didn’t have a wait, so we went in. Overall it was decent faux southwestern food, but it hit the spot and the beer was cold, so mission accomplished.

Hall’s Chop House

This was the real reason we ventured to Charleston in the first place. Long-time food & wine buddy Stefan Stanton, formerly a manager at Dressler’s Restaurant in Charlotte – our favorite hometown restaurant – is now a full-time surfer dude and occasional waiter at Hall’s Chop House, reputed to be one of Charleston’s top restaurants. And what a place! It was partly due to the anticipation of seeing Stefan again (it had been a year since he left Dressler’s), but from the moment we walked in the door, the people at Hall’s – including it seemed most of the Hall family – made a point of welcoming us, introducing themselves and basically making us feel like the most important people who had ever showed up at their place for dinner. And what a nice feeling after too many less-than-enthusiastic chain restaurant experiences.

The service from everyone from the bartender to the bus boys – and most especially our waiter – was superb. Stefan introduced us to their sommelier, who recommended a couple of excellent wines, making it easy to choose from their enormous and outstanding selection. Hall’s specialty is dry-aged beef, and while I have had it before, I have never had dry-aged beef like THAT before! It is fairly rare to find a restaurant that dry-ages their own beef, knows how to pick it and – most importantly – knows how to cook it. I had a dry-aged Ribeye that was easily the best restaurant steak I’ve ever had. Kathy had a filet that she could have cut with her fork, and it was delicious. And the dessert – let’s just say that you can’t go wrong with any of the desserts!

Stefan is clearly loving life, and it was great to connect with him and experience Hall’s. He seems right at home there, and I swear that if I could find a way to marry into the family he might just have a job for life! Overall, Kathy & I agree that our dinner there was probably the best restaurant experience ever. We don’t have the resume for that to mean very much, but we’ve been around enough to know what’s good, and Hall’s Chop House is beyond good. It was truly fabulous.

Caviar & Bananas

Another unlikely-sounding place, this is officially a gourmet market and café, and is located just a little out of the way from the tourist traffic, near the College of Charleston. We went there for a late breakfast on Sunday, which explains why I don’t write about my Sunday lunch – we didn’t have any! Their signature dessert – which I did not have but should have – is Caviar & Bananas. It’s described on their menu as “Bruleed Bananas, Sweet Tapioca, Local Honey, Brown Sugar, Marscapone & Almond Tuile. Yummy!

Basil

Recommended by our buddy Jon Dressler, we visited Basil, a Thai restaurant just up King Street from Hall’s, for dinner on Sunday night. Believe it or not, neither Kathy nor I had ever eaten Thai food before. So, trusting Dressler, we went. It was great! I know that I am probably very inaccurate to say that it is a lot like Chinese, but I thought it was a lot like Chinese, with some different spices and flavors. The wait – even on a Sunday night – was over an hour, which we passed across the street in the bar at The MacIntosh, which looks like a nice restaurant itself. Next time!

There is a Basil restaurant in Charlotte, also. We’re going to have to ‘give Thai another try.’ We really did like it!

Jack’s Café

Practically next door to Caviar & Bananas on George Street, is this Monday-Friday, breakfast-lunch only place called Jack’s Café. It’s nothing fancy, but Jack himself has been running the grill for nearly 40 years. Good, fast diner food, served with a smile at a reasonable price, it’s sometimes just the ticket. The cheeseburgers are supposed to be excellent, so we’ll probably need to go back for lunch. Next time!

So there are the highlights of our Tour de Food in Charleston. Every person who goes as their favorite places, and we now have a few more of our own. The next time we go, we’ll definitely make room for a return visit to Hall’s. And some day (Paul) I’ll get to Hyman Seafood! 🙂

Tom Dills Photography Blog

Category Archives: Photography

A Matter of Balance

Hidden Treasures

Taking Comfort in the Familiar, and July 2013 Wallpaper

A Little “Wining”

Farmer’s Market

Still Here

April Wallpaper

For The Birds

The “Other” Charleston

Oh. And There Was Food!

Photographs and stuff!