2007.12.03
Hunting for something
10.27.13 - Mark
Yesterday my family went Christmas tree hunting. It still feels too early to start celebrating Christmas, but my mom wanted to get the trees yesterday so we drove up to Santa's Delight Christmas Tree Forest in Virginia. The place lets you pick and cut (and drag) your own tree, and picking and cutting down our Christmas tree is an old family tradition going back farther than I can remember. The farm and Virginia is nested in between a few mountain peaks, and is really photogenic so I armed myself with my camera. I took a few good photos, mostly family, but towards the end of our hunting a colorful sunset started forming.
It's probably the mountains, but truly beautiful sunsets are rare in North Carolina, and I've yet to see one that really matches the sunsets we had in Iowa where dirt and debris provided deep rich sunsets. Last night in Virginia however, something was working right, so I turned on exposure bracketing and snapped a few series. I was hoping to get a short HDR panoramic series, but for some reason Canon doesn't allow exposure bracketing when shooting in manual so unless I can work some major photoshop magic I'm not getting a panoramic. I did however get a good single frame set, and after playing with it in photoshop for an hour, I've managed one rich HDR photo from the farm:
Sunset over the Trees (View Large - 2793x2088)
Link | 0 Comments | christmas HDR holidays images life nature photography photos sunsets Virginia
2007.11.25
The Panoramic: Season 2
23.36.39 - Mark
A couple weeks ago I made my way up to Raven Knob for some fall photography. I was a few days late for peak color so a lot of the photos I took around camp don't have those stunning fall colors, there were a lot of leaves already down. I have a few photos that still have some great color (and I still need to play with them some in Photoshop) and I still got some beautiful photos, but hiking up to 1860 feet (give or take some elevation) gave me a stunning view of the area, in aggregate fall was still in full swing. This panoramic doesn't come close to doing the scene justice. I sat down on the rocks taking the view in for about 15 minutes before I even bothered unpacking the camera. I'll probably print up some copies of this image like I did the summer Raven Knob Panoramic but it's going to be a while before I order more panoramas, they're not cheap to print. Anyways, enough talk, no point in trying to create 1000 words when the image is worth more than that.
Fall from 1860 feet
View Medium (3175 X 1024) Suitable for a multi-screen desktop
View Large (7453 x 2404) Suitable for printing
Link | 0 Comments | autumn fall images panoramic photography photos Raven Knob
2007.11.11
Mountains and Butterflys
23.48.12 - Mark
Simply because I haven't posted anything to the blog in a couple days.
The Monarch at Pilot Mountain
Link | 0 Comments | butterfly images photos Pilot Mountain
2007.10.24
Dynamic
18.49.20 - Mark
I've been wanting to play with High Dynamic Range photography for a few months now. Every once in a while I put my Canon S3 into exposure bracketing mode and shoot a few sets, and when I get motivated I try out some software that merges them. At that point I normally get frustrated when I don't get results like I've seen in the HDR flickr group, and then table the idea again.
At least now I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to understand how much more there is to HDR photography than simply taking a series, merging them, and admiring the results. I spend over a couple hours working though HDR tutorials and playing with images in Photoshop last night, but the results I got illustrate the point.
Left: Average exposure from camera. [View Fullsize]
Center: HDR image created with Photoshop CS3's Merge to HDR feature. [View Fullsize]
Right: HDR image created manually in Photoshop CS3 (following this tutorial) [View Fullsize]
The pictures are from The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Savannah, GA. I've got a couple more HDR sets from the church, but I may try out some more local scenes first. I think I want to try and match what I can actually see before I use HDR for surreal effects.
Link | 1 Comments | HDR images photography photos Photoshop
2007.10.23
Good Night Mayberry
00.34.26 - Mark
Good Night Mayberry
Here's the other photo I mentioned last week in Orange Night. Main Street Mount Airy, looking at Snappy Lunch, Floyd's City Barber Shop, and Opie's Candy Store.
Link | 0 Comments | images Mayberry Mount Airy night photos
2007.10.17
Orange Night
17.31.22 - Mark
Orange Night - Fall is here
Last night I was the monthly meeting of Mount Airy's Photography Club, I on my way home I drove past a small park at the end of main street, and the lighting and arrangement of stuff looked cool in the orange glow of the street lamp, at least more interesting to me than in broad daylight. So I circled around Main Street, parked at the end of the otherwise deserted street, and grabbed my camera and a tripod and snapped away. I really like manual settings. I couldn't have taken this image with automatic white balance and unadjusted exposures.
I've got some good evening images of Main Street (at the Mayberry end of Main) I'll post later. Mayberry at night has an interesting feel to it.
Link | 0 Comments | autumn fall images Mayberry Mount Airy night photography photos
2007.10.05
My Corner of the Universe
02.10.11 - Mark
I got around to hanging some of the art I own tonight. The art from right to left: A framed copy of my Raven Knob Panoramic (which I've been selling), one of Troop 109's lithograph prints of Raven Knob by Richard Tumbleston, and a personalized copy of Willard Gayheart's "Raven Knob" print.
Link | 1 Comments | art life photos raven knob space
2007.09.17
Me2
08.31.46 - Mark
So it's late, you get bored, you have a little technology and next thing you know you've cloned yourself...
Actually I was helping a friend figure out how a photo was taken, and got sucked into the DIY approach. Fairly simple, take multiple photos of the subject, add each image to a new layer in Photoshop, align them, then mask off or erase unwanted background in each image (except the base image). Little more detail, and a lot of example can be found in this Flickr discussion thread. All I have to say is you have got to love the power of Photoshop.
Link | 0 Comments | flickr howto images photos photoshop
2007.06.24
Taken Out
10.56.07 - Mark
Camp has taken a lot out of me (I've been up there for about a month, a solid two weeks more than most people). While I had every intention of making periodic posts here, the time involved with finding something to write about, writing it, lugging the laptop to a place it can connect to the internet, and then posting it is a slightly higher price than I'd like to pay. Instead, I'm enjoying camp as best I can, dealing with tons (~100 in my regular sessions) of bored scouts, making sure the staff I'm responsible for doesn't mess up, taking every opportunity to take photos, and of course, finding every opportunity to catch up on some much needed rest.
One thing I am working on in my little spare time however is making prints of the Panoramic photo I took from the Knob. There's been a near universally positive response to the image, and many of the people who have seen the image want to own a copy.
Anyways, it's about time to go back to camp...
Link | 0 Comments | camp life photos projects Raven Knob
2007.06.07
Moonrise
10.44.26 - Mark
Moonrise over Lake Sobotta
Link | 0 Comments | images moon photos Raven Knob
2007.05.22
Seeing the big picture
17.35.02 - Mark
Today's adventure in photography is panoramic photography. This is a photo of Camp Raven Knob (from the upper knob) that I've been wanting to take for years, but have more or less lacked the experience, tools, and skills to pull it off. That's changed - when I was at the local art council's photography club I knew one of the members had some experience with digital panoramas and asked for some tips after the meeting. The tips were take the photos on full manual controls, take the series in the portrait orientation, then stitch them together in Photoshop by hand - aligning them in layers, then using layer masks to smooth out sharp lines and other misalignments. I have to say that his tips worked out really well, and the results are worth the extra time and effort involved.
Here's the first stitched image, A 15 or 16 image series forming one horizontal row. It's not particularly well suited to serve as a desktop (unless your desktop is a flight simulator or you have 3 or 4 wide screen monitors as your workspace). I took a series with two horizontal rows, but I might try and get a 3 or 4 row series later on. I'll stitch the two row series together next, and if it turns out well that may make a better candidate for desktop images and prints. I also might have to dig around for some QTVR software and use one of the 360 series to make a panoramic movie. For now, I really want to make a panoramic photo into a poster, but I want to have the image first (then worry about finding a reasonably priced large format printer...)
View Medium (4764 X 1024) Suitable for a multi-screen desktop
View Large (12100 x 2600) Suitable for printing - maybe
Link | 0 Comments | geek images panoramic photography photos Raven Knob tips
2007.05.18
Goober's Pizza
23.43.52 - Mark
I'm picky about my pizzas, but Goober's Pizza a spin off of the already awesome Goober's 52, (warning - sucky hyper annoying flash content at both sites) produces decent California style pizza. They advertise "Chicago style" pizza which on it's own isn't bad, but is far from even resembling authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. Photo at left is the BBQ Chicken California style pizza I split with my brother earlier tonight. It was good.
Link | 0 Comments | Goober's Pizza images photos pizza restaurants
2007.05.17
Light Drawing
23.49.28 - Mark
A bit of fun with long exposure settings and a mini Maglight. Here's a howto article on Instructables.com
Link | 0 Comments | images light lightdrawing photography photos
2007.05.16
Tourist in your own town
23.48.07 - Mark
A couple years ago Mount Airy had some consultants come in to state the obvious for piles of money, one of the obvious (at least to an objective observer) things that they suggested Mount Airy do to increase tourism was to promote tourism within the the city limits to citizens. I think their words were "to be a tourist in your own town" at least for a day or two. Like all reports from outside consultants it was never widely circulated, but I had been interviewed in their research and knew enough to pay attention to the public meetings.
The idea is a good one. Most people who live in one area for a long period of time never realize what their area offers, more so if you live your whole life in the same geographic area.
I haven't forgotten this fact (being a non-native helps that) but stay in one place long enough and even the most aware people loose track of little joys. Yesterday I happened to to go the local art council's photography club and as part of their meeting they conducted a brief photowalk. It didn't take time for locals to "welcome" us to Mayberry (can't blame them, what else do you assume a dozen, mostly older, people with cameras are?) I'm not a fan of the whole Mount Airy Mayberry connection, but I can't deny it and too many baby boomers are too nostalgic for Mayberry for it to fade away anytime soon. The walk reminded me of that, but it also reminded me of some of the other little joys the area offers.
So, don't forget to take some time to be a tourist in your own area. Chance are you'll find something interesting.
Link | 0 Comments | images life Mayberry Mount Airy photography photos random tourism
2007.05.10
Disc Golf
23.42.53 - Mark
I'm happy, Mount Airy now has a disc golf course - which means I won't have to drive 30-40 minutes to the other public courses (Raven Knob is a bit closer, but technically private and besides I play it frequently during the summers). The new course, installed sometime in the last three weeks, feels short to me, at least when considering the pars, but they're a fun enough 9 holes. I went out today with my youngest brother and Dad, and did alright. I'm rusty but still shot one under, and my brother didn't do too bad for his first time. From what I'm told it was sort of last minute, but if there's enough interest they'll expand it to 18 holes, which would be nice (especially if there's more planing and distance involved with the back nine). My brother and I are already planning on regular excursions
The course is at Westwood Park (google map), just take a right at the entrance and drive to the end of the parking lot, when you're facing the shelter, the course is in the field off to the right. Here are the pars (at least they ones they told me)
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 34 |
Link | 0 Comments | disc golf images life Mount Airy NC photos
2007.05.06
Flickr Reloaded
22.42.17 - Mark
So I finally got around to connecting my flickr account to a yahoo ID (and got past how stupid Yahoo/Flickr is for forcing that on users) and dug out some of the Raven Knob Photos from last summer (just in time for this summer...) and uploaded them to my account. Anyone who was reading last year has probably seen them, but I wanted to put them up on flickr anyways. I need to stow some other stuff on there, but I'd really like an upload solution that lets me upload full resolution versions to my site, and then forward scaled down versions onto flickr. Its not that I don't like web apps, its that I've got Gigs to spare on my server, and Flickr limits me in a number of ways that fail to justify $25/year (at least to me).
Link | 0 Comments | flickr photos Raven Knob web yahoo
2007.05.02
Burgers and fries
23.54.22 - Mark
I will never understand why people like McDonalds. Fresh grilled burgers on toasted sourdough bread, DIY fries, and a pile of cole slaw. So much better than beef like substances stored in gallons of preservatives and reheated with an overgrown easy bake oven...
Link | 0 Comments | food good happy life photos
2007.04.27
Lizard Love
23.50.02 - Mark
Lizards in Love
I've found (and photographed) at least three lizards creeping around in the yard, but these two are the most fun to watch, plus they're so preoccupied that after a minute or two they simply stop caring about any observers. I've got a short video of these two as well. I'll get around to putting together a video sampler in a few days - the S3 really does have a great video mode.
Right now I'm both looking forward and dreading tomorrow. There's an air show at the local airport and I plan on going over with my camera. The only problem with that is that I know going will flare up my desire to learn how to fly, which of course I can't afford...
Link | 7 Comments | cameras images life lizards photography photos
2007.04.24
For the birds
18.07.35 - Mark
One of several photos of Hawks in flight that I took at Pilot Mountain last week
A Robin that happened to perch on a stone retaining wall in the backyard earlier today
I love my zoom lens, but I really need to find a better way of posting photos online. Maybe time to fire up the flickr account again...
Link | 2 Comments | birds images photography photos
2007.04.20
Damn good day.
23.55.55 - Mark
Today was a very, very good day. From waking up an watching a couple movies to taking my camera out to Pilot Mountain, or building a $2 macro photo studio and fixing some other stuff around the house. It's been a very enjoyable day. I didn't even need it and I feel immensely recharged, so right now life is very, very good. I'll save the writing and photo sorting until after I've had a good night's sleep.