Proj 365 Apr 30th

I decided to resurrect my mailbox photowalk. Go through your neighborhood and photograph the flowers around mailboxes. Just stay low, don't stand there and click. Time and weather may make this a time to time thing.

Proj 365 Apr 29th

 Ok, another two for day. I went to lunch at McDonalds in Cary NC near where I work (I know a loooonnnngggg drive). As I got out of my car, here are a flock of geese. The first shot is simply to get McD's in the photo.

Apparently this one either likes me or I have intruded on their space, or they don't want to be photographed. Anyways, they start to charge me! As I had my photo for the day, I retreated inside for the 99 cent McDouble and safety.

Proj 365 Apr 28th

Ok, I promised another beer mug and here it is. The question for this photo is, "If you were standing (or sitting) to the left of the beer mug in this photo, and you reached you to drink the beer, describe how you would do it. (Ok, its not a question but you get the idea.)

Proj 365 Apr 27th

 A Two For Day!!! The first photo is straight from the camera, no retouching.

The second shot has had no Photoshopping done to it. I ran it through Lightroom 2 and cropped to get the lamp post out, increased the clarity and vibrance, and most importantly (this made the biggest impact) raised the contrast to high. A little tweaking on the tone curves and voila - that was all.

I guess life in the photography world has reached a point that if a photo is good, its been "Photoshopped". Sadly, there are a lot of photos out there that have not been significantly altered and stand on their own merit. But people will look at a photo and say, "that's really good, I wonder how they did that in Photoshop?".

Proj 365 Apr 26th

This is another reason I prefer my DSLR over my P&S. The grass in the foreground of the photo is overexposed. The background (trees)  and the middle ground (horses) were ok and could be adjusted but the grass was almost completely blown out. With My DSLR, a circular polarizer would have handled the problem with no difficulty. Hey, photography is a learning experience in a never ending quest for the perfect picture.

Proj 365 Apr 25th

Yeah, it was getting late, too late to go outside. Then I realized, since Doug won the Question the other day about the image and Brian is supplying the Guinness, we will need something to drink from. Here is a little memento from my years in Germany.

Proj 365 Apr 24th

Brian Hatch - This one's for you! Came home and saw this and immediately thought that this is what you need in your work travels, a small portable Emergency vehicle (ok it a fire truck, the kids don't have a EMS vehicle.). Easily transportable by air. Bet it even has room for your camera equipment.

Proj 365 Apr 23rd

Oh come on, it didn't get that hot did it? Got up to about 87 I think. When I came out from work, this is what I saw in the console of my Honda Pilot. I kept a caffeine drink in the Pilot when I worked at Borders and had to work late (all the time. If the store closed at 10, I got off at 11PM and got home at midnight (an hour drive home.)).  Guess with the heat coming I need to drink it. Glad I don't work late for now.

Proj 365 Apr 22nd

Well, I almost got my ducks in a row!!!

Proj 365 Apr 21

OK to the 365 Creative Photo Challenge - What went wrong here? (Besides I'm using on camera flash? (hint - that was a big hint itself!!)).

I will see if anybody gets it by tomorrow.

Proj 365 Apr 20th

What's wrong with this picture? Besides the fact I don't have any trees in my front or back yard. Had a photo of the flowers I took a while back and again hadn't noticed buried down in the flowers was a dead leaf. Need to go get my hatchet and start cutting somewhere if I can find it.

Proj 365 Apr 19th

Ok, a sunset. I was lucky to get this. I had to get up at 3:15 AM to drive to work at 4AM to be at work by 5AM (yes, an hour's drive to work. I am lucky to have it.) Got off at noon and had to go to the allergist and then some other errands before driving back to Rocky Mount. Was first class exhausted when I got home. Was out when I noticed the soft sunset, not the fiery reds, just a softer pick and purple and I liked it decided to try and capture it. Need to get my creative juices flowing again and make the photos rather than stumble across them.

Proj 365 Apr 18th

Ok, I confess up front it is staged just a little. The debris from the storm was in my yard yesterday and I had picked it up but I wanted to use a photo of it so I repositioned it as I found it. The impact of the insulation in my yard is that nobody's house in the area had any siding torn off and insulation blown away. And there is no housing construction in the area. (Home construction - what's that?) Later I found a piece two clocks away as I walked my dogs. I feel fortunate I wasn't in Raleigh or the area south east of it. The Lowe's Home Hardware store (Like a Home Depot) was completely destroyed. So this photo may not be much but it certainly reflects a day of my life this year.

Proj 365 Apr 17th

Here is the same shot as yesterday (as best I could driving - my wife is getting on me about those photography while driving shots). Yesterday I couldn't help but think as I drove through the dust and dirt in the air what the Great Dust Bowl was like. From what I have read and seen photos of, it was much worse than this for long periods of time. (Hard to imagine living through that.)

Proj 365 Apr 16th

A two for day. I was originally going to use just the top photo but added the second one when I saw what tomorrow's post was. I had been at the Seymour-Johnson AFB Air Show. (Photos will be posted on my website when I get through working on them). The Golden Knights Parachute team had already canceled due to high winds and then after the show started and some flights had taken place, the Thunderbirds canceled. The storm coming is was the one that killed 44 people in the sought and 22 of them in North Carolina. As I came home and drove past the community college, this is what I encountered. It isn't night, it is about 2PM in the afternoon. This is the result of the winds blowing across a farmers field to the left of the photo. You should be seeing a traffic

in the center of the top photo. The sign you see in the bottom is immediately to my right at the side of the road.

Proj 365 Apr 15th

A little night time photography with the P&S. No surprises, not nearly as capable as the DSLR (again a lot depends upon the lenses you use). The girls are liking my new work schedule. Since this photo we have been going our for a walk in the evening and getting fed afterwards, say about 7:30 or 8PM. (My old schedule had me coming in from work at 11Pm to midnight.)  Again, this shows some of the issues of on camera flash (and a small weak flash like pop-ups tend to be, especially on P&Ss).

Proj 365 Apr 14th

On my way back home from my first day at work at my new job. (Not scheduled to work again until Sunday) Had gotten off at 5:15. On my way home, I suddenly realized it was BRIGHT and SUNNY!!!  At Borders I had always closed the store meaning getting off an hour after closing or about 10 or 11 PM usually. Always went home in the dark. Never any traffic. NOW I have traffic (Ok its not that bad but compared to what I usually experience. I know traffic, try Friday 5:30 PM downtown Atlanta Connector of I-75 and I-85 combined! That's traffic!)

Anyway, Know this isn't much of a photographic challenge (other than trying to drive looking at the car one distance away and focus the camera and shoot an image that appears much closer - GOT to quit doing this, wife is going to kill me if the photography doesn't.) but it does represent a day in my life and big change at that, getting home before dark, etc. woo-hoo!

Proj 365 Apr 13th

I have been planning and working on this shot for about a year. On my way to work I noticed the Raleigh skyline to my left as I drove to work on Hwy 64. Figured it would make a nice sunset shot, BUT the power lines were in the way. Then on another trip I notices that the exit ramp for Hodges road had huge hill between the entrance ramp and the highway. I catch that exit on the next trip when I have time before work and stop and climb up the hill. Perfect! But the sun was too far to the left as it was winter then (I'm facing west). So I calculate as the sun shifts back tot he north during the summer, I need to be there about September. BUT, I never had time to get it, the wether wasn't right, there was no colorful sunset, you get the idea.
Back to present. Looked at the calendar and saw I could get the shot and would have time to do it my next rip to Raleigh. Weather looks good so I am hoping this will yield a colorful sunset. (Red sky at night, sailors delight..). Made sure I was there at about 7:30 (sunset here currently). Barely made it. Proceeded to fire off a series of shots t various shutter and apertures. On a quick pick for Proj 365, I liked this one.

Did a spot fix for a little glare beside a water tower in the distance. Negative exposure gradient in LR2 to take out the barely discernible cars and road. Some clarity and vibrance. No Saturation or luminance adjustment.

May try again in September and try to catch the sun more to the left as it moves southward.

Some photos have taken ages to get. I have a series of a railroad track that I have in the fall, winter, spring and summer. A year long project.

Proj 365 Apr 12th

Yeah, I know. Shouldn't have gone by but I had to one last time. I wanted to see what happened on the las day after I left. Pressed the lens of my P&S to the window and snapped. Sad. Other than the overhead shelves (couldn't be sold as they required an electrician to disconnect the wiring and remove the facing in front), the Info desk (Seen here bolted to the floor), and the magazine shelves, nothing was left. Bye to all my friends there.

Proj 365 Apr 11th - Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't ...

Today was "Feel like a nut" day.

This is  a three photo day. Was out shooting and decided to get a photo of some of my wife's flowers in bloom. A little early so I popped the flash up (didn't bring my Ext flash with me). Took the photos (See left) What! Waayy to dark. Tried again, maybe the flash didn't fire. It fired, but still way too dark. Check settings for flash, ok, flash exposure set to -2/3 which is where I normally keep it. TTL seems to flash a little hot. Raised it to Flash Exp +1 Still too dark. OK, time to .... Oh yeah, I had been playing with remote flash the other day after the Flash Buss Tour and the pop up was set to Commander Mode. Checked it and sure enough, it was in Commander Mode and set to no power. Only enough flash to trigger the remote flash unit and to see, not enough to affect the photo.

 Sooo, I reset the pop up to TTL mode. Much better but a little too hot. Oh, yeah, forgot I had changed the flash exposure. Knock the flash exposure back down some and ...

we have this.

Lesson learned, always reset settings, especially for photo and flash exposure compensation, and don't forget the remote flash settings. Glad it was on my D300 and not the P&S. I feel like I am mining for diamonds as I have to keep drilling down through all the menus.

Proj 365 Apr 10th

Ok two comments up front about this post.
(1) Had one of those days where there were multiple things to shoot so this is a three for day or more.
(2) NOBODY can tell my wife about this. She wouldn't believe I wasn't going this fast and I always kid here about her lead foot and how she confuses the I-95 sign for the speed limit. (Woke up on a trip back from Georgia and looked at the speedometer. Her reply was "I was just keeping up with traffic." Funny, I didn't see AJ Foyt to or Parnelli Jones out there!!)

What happened was my Garmen lost satellite contact and when I turned it back on later and I reset the max speed (I usually do when I enter a lower speed limit. Figure it might be some defense (probably not)) I saw THIS! Theoretically possible for a Honda Pilot (110 max) but I wouldn't try it. 

 Oh the shots we miss. The weather was nice and warm and the bicyclists were out and I got stuck behind this group (notice on-coming traffic). (BTW getting this shot is harder than you think. If you zoom in, you think you are driving too close and if you zoom out, you tend to get too close. I don't recommend doing this).  Just as I put the camera down, the lady in the back reached back and scratched (you know where). Oh I wished I had kept the camera ready, it would have been priceless. Oh, well.

 Some people are different. This is a private home, NOT a museum or anything like that. This is in Durham county. Raleigh passed a law about not have sofas and stuff like that on the front porch. Maybe Durham ought to consider a similar law. Don't see the usual object? Go to the next picture.

Hey, everybody has a canon on their front porch, what's the big deal? Keeps salespeople away I bet!

Proj 365 Apr 9th

I was helping a neighbors kid (same neighbor as yesterday's post but a different, older kid (about 11 or 12)) do a photography assignment. Of 11 things, one was a night shot. For all the photos except this one, I explained things to him but made him take the shot. But for this one, we tried the "night scene" setting (We were using my P&S, no way is he getting ahold of my Nikon D300!)  but it didn't work. It looked good on the screen (almost said viewfinder which it lacks) but when we pressed to focus and take, it got darker. We played with various settings but he was getting frustrated so when I finally got one to work. I called it his as he had paid good attention and I didn't want to frustrate him any more. A little soft but it was getting late and both of us were getting tired. // BTW - they would have to discuss photography so I explained to him the 3 big things are the ISO (sensitivity to light), shutter (how quick it opens and closes letting light in), and aperture (how big the opening in the lens is). They were also going to discuss the business of photography. I told him the easiest way to make money in photography is to sell the camera and equipment.

Proj 365 Apr 8th

Oh the things you find in your yard in the morning. I took the dogs (beagles) out for their morning walk and to put them in the backyard. Usually I find where somebody has thrown their cigarette butts along the front of my yard along the street as they walked (walking for health??). In most place people are a little more respectful but in NC tobacco is king and people think its a way of life to throw butts anywhere. Enough of that. Anyway, as I walked them I spotted this. At first thought is was some beer bottles some kids throw out as they cruise at night. But when I got closer I found a tool box! Yeah. But then I saw it was my neighbor's kid's box he left when he was out. Oh well, thought it made for an unusual picture of a day in my life.

Proj 365 Apr 7th

Today slipped up on me and this is the only photo (actually one of two of the flowers) that I took that day. Didn't realize it until later. Was getting a photo of my wife's flower bed for her. Glad I did this for her.

Proj 365 Apr 6th

One of the joys of having a good point and shoot (thanks kids for the Christmas gift) is that you can capture shots that you just wouldn't have otherwise because you didn't have the big DSLR with you.  I was impressed with this as it didn't take but just a little crop, a little clarity, a little vibrance  and a touch of saturation in LR2.

Proj 365 Apr 5th

Apr

Ok, I've gotten behind a little. Funny how time flies and slips away. Anyway, I decided to go back and retry the flower shot I took the other day with a little more attention to depth of field and front focus. Better.

Proj 365 Apr 4th

The master (Joe McNalley) at work. I went to the "Flashbus" tour where the speakers were Joe McNalley (the last staff photographer at Life magazine) and David Hobby (the www.Strobist.com). An incredible experience. The seminar was about photography lighting. McNalley and Hobby come at it from different approaches but arrive at pretty much the same point.

Lighting is the main thing in photography. Photography is controlling and capturing light. If you need to learn lighting, this is a great learning experience to add to your learning.

Since this is a Proj 365 thing - go to http://hldphotos.blogspot.com/ (no www) and I will have lots more photos loading i a little while. (typing as fast as I can for three blogs and a web site and those that know me know about my famous (infamous) typing skills like the time I typed one too many s's in the word as and did it twice in one day!)

Proj 365 Apr 3rd

I had kidded people that everything was on sale except the paint on the walls. Guess I was wrong, they sold the walls!! Actually there never was a wall. They sold the bookcases and that is what was behind them.

Proj 365 Apr 2nd

For all you taking photos of "It's Spring" here is a "You know its spring shot." Its amazing how challenging it can be to line yourself up exactly with the rows and not just "a little off center"

Proj 365 Apr 1st

Wish it was an April Fool's joke but it isn't. I'm really going to miss the folks there (co-workers and customers) they were a great group of people.

I learned a lot there including some amazing trivia - like "What time did the music die?" I got as far and American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy. Talking about Buddy Holly's plane crash but what time?? I was amazed that anybody knew that kind of detail.