I'm on the road, but not posting here.
Check out http://www.theesbr.blogspot.com for posts from this trip.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Picture of the Day 2005.05.21
"Bahama Gets a New Fire Chief"
Kyle was fascinated with the fire truck...so much that we had to visit it twice. Snapped several shots of him in and around the truck. These are the best.
Yes, I know I'm no longer on the road, but I used techniques learned while on the road to create this and I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think?
Sunday, May 15, 2005
The Smokies
I set the alarm for 6:00 to be able to hit the park about sunrise. The alarm goes off, I get up, get ready to go and look out the window. Man is it dark. How did I mess up the time for sunrise. Get to wondering and then check my watch. My watch says it's 5:30, not 6:30. I check the alarm clock. It says it is 6:30. Guess which one is right. I got up an hour early.
About 6:15 I head to Tremont Road, planning to shoot for about 2 hours. I'm there by 6:30 and have chosen my first location for shooting. It's a good place to shoot. A river runs down the by the road and there is adequate plant life (small widlflowers) to keep my interest. After shooting for a while, I check my watch. 7:35. Plenty of time. I continue to drive and shoot a couple of locations. Again I check my watch. 7:35. OOPS! My watch stopped. I check the clock in the car. It's almost 9:00. So much for my 2 hour plan...and I still have to finish here.
It's about 9:15 when I head out. Destination Sugarlands Visitor Center to find Kyle some gift to take back home. I'm stopped by the fly fisherman 'begging' to have a picture taken, but the flies are chewing on me and I don't stay here long at all. My schedule is shot, so when I leave Sugarlands I go in to the edge of Gatlinburg for breakfast. I'm back on the road near 11:00.
It begins to rain as I leave Cherokee and I'm getting a bit sleepy so I stop in Dillsboro for a brief respite of sleep and doze for about 1/2 an hour in a parking lot on the river. When I wake, the rain has eased so I head on down the mountain toward Waynesville.
Just before getting back on I-40 below Waynesville, I pull out into the left lane to pass some cars and just as I pull into line, the car dies. Fortunately I am able to pull to right and make the shoulder without incident...except for ticking off one or tow drivers. Scary. Lots of wondering about what to do, but after about 1/2 of waiting, the car restarts and I'm on the way home without further incident. The day finishes at home about 6:30.
What a day. What a week. What an experience.
About 6:15 I head to Tremont Road, planning to shoot for about 2 hours. I'm there by 6:30 and have chosen my first location for shooting. It's a good place to shoot. A river runs down the by the road and there is adequate plant life (small widlflowers) to keep my interest. After shooting for a while, I check my watch. 7:35. Plenty of time. I continue to drive and shoot a couple of locations. Again I check my watch. 7:35. OOPS! My watch stopped. I check the clock in the car. It's almost 9:00. So much for my 2 hour plan...and I still have to finish here.
It's about 9:15 when I head out. Destination Sugarlands Visitor Center to find Kyle some gift to take back home. I'm stopped by the fly fisherman 'begging' to have a picture taken, but the flies are chewing on me and I don't stay here long at all. My schedule is shot, so when I leave Sugarlands I go in to the edge of Gatlinburg for breakfast. I'm back on the road near 11:00.
It begins to rain as I leave Cherokee and I'm getting a bit sleepy so I stop in Dillsboro for a brief respite of sleep and doze for about 1/2 an hour in a parking lot on the river. When I wake, the rain has eased so I head on down the mountain toward Waynesville.
Just before getting back on I-40 below Waynesville, I pull out into the left lane to pass some cars and just as I pull into line, the car dies. Fortunately I am able to pull to right and make the shoulder without incident...except for ticking off one or tow drivers. Scary. Lots of wondering about what to do, but after about 1/2 of waiting, the car restarts and I'm on the way home without further incident. The day finishes at home about 6:30.
What a day. What a week. What an experience.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Finals
Today we graduate. In the lab at 08:00 to learn a few more quick tips and tricks and then begin to print.
The topic of the morning is not new to me, so I begin playing with a couple of pictures. These are photos that I took on Tuesday, but I need something to print. I have two, but would like a couple of more for the afternoon printing session. One turns out to be the picture of the day.
It's a photo of a plant that I was trying to do a close up of, and it just didn't work. So today I retrieve it and play with it. I turn it black and white, paint back in some color using layers, and then add a filter to make it look like a painting. A really neat transformation that saves the 'photograph', though I don't know if that is the appropriate word or not.
I call the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and find I will not be able to get in to Cade's Cove at sunrise as planned. Bummer. Not to worry though, Bill has an alternate shooting location for me. Tremont Road. The road that leads to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. I've never been up this road before thinking it was a private road for the Institute. Not so. So that is my location in the morning.
We print and talk through the afternoon. A relaxing fun afternoon. Al brought his own printer, so I'm only sharing the printer with Nancy who is not printing a lot. I get 4 prints done on various papers before the afternoon is over.
I download my files to disk and am surprised that I have almost 3.5 gigabytes worth of data. Some of my picture files turned out to be quite large. I finish just before 5:00, barely in time to let Bill get out the door to pick up his son for baseball and the event is over.
What a week.
I pick up Krystals to eat on the road, and drive to Townsend and check in to the Best Western there after only one wrong turn. The room is OK and has a balcony where I sit to relax a bit. Here I fall asleep for about 1/2 an hour. I'm tired.
I drive over to the Park scout my shooting locations but it's getting too dark to tell much so I stop, gas up the car, grab a sandwich and head back to the hotel for some rest. One more shoot and my photography week is done.
The topic of the morning is not new to me, so I begin playing with a couple of pictures. These are photos that I took on Tuesday, but I need something to print. I have two, but would like a couple of more for the afternoon printing session. One turns out to be the picture of the day.
It's a photo of a plant that I was trying to do a close up of, and it just didn't work. So today I retrieve it and play with it. I turn it black and white, paint back in some color using layers, and then add a filter to make it look like a painting. A really neat transformation that saves the 'photograph', though I don't know if that is the appropriate word or not.
I call the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and find I will not be able to get in to Cade's Cove at sunrise as planned. Bummer. Not to worry though, Bill has an alternate shooting location for me. Tremont Road. The road that leads to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. I've never been up this road before thinking it was a private road for the Institute. Not so. So that is my location in the morning.
We print and talk through the afternoon. A relaxing fun afternoon. Al brought his own printer, so I'm only sharing the printer with Nancy who is not printing a lot. I get 4 prints done on various papers before the afternoon is over.
I download my files to disk and am surprised that I have almost 3.5 gigabytes worth of data. Some of my picture files turned out to be quite large. I finish just before 5:00, barely in time to let Bill get out the door to pick up his son for baseball and the event is over.
What a week.
I pick up Krystals to eat on the road, and drive to Townsend and check in to the Best Western there after only one wrong turn. The room is OK and has a balcony where I sit to relax a bit. Here I fall asleep for about 1/2 an hour. I'm tired.
I drive over to the Park scout my shooting locations but it's getting too dark to tell much so I stop, gas up the car, grab a sandwich and head back to the hotel for some rest. One more shoot and my photography week is done.
Friday, May 13, 2005
Create
It's a late start for us this week. I get to sleep in this morning till about 6:30. Not due at class until 8:00. And I end up getting there late by lolly-gagging around the room till it's too late.
Our early morning session is spent on scanning. Film scanning versus flat bed scanning. I'm interested because somewhere I have thousands, and I mean thousands, of slides and prints that are laying out there rotting away that I need to preserve. It's cool what you can do. An all digital world is here.
About 09:30 we head off for the marina on Melton Lake. Our goal...To photograph the rowers on the lake. The NCAA rowing finals are being held here (Oak ridge) this weekend. Alas, there is little activity when we arrive. A couple of teams on the water rowing, but mostly things are quiet. However, I get in to photographing the artifacts of rowing...boats in storage, oars on the dock, abandoned shoes on the doc, oars in the water, and so on and so on. I really get in to this kind of shooting....Story telling. I shoot for over an hour. I think everyone else gets tired of waiting for me, so we soon off to town to download pictures from the shoot. I've shot over 100 pictures this morning.
While downloading, the conversation turns to laptops. Al is extremely frustrated with his, so we go to Staples at lunch so he can pick my brain for information. Afterward we eat lunch at The Soup Kitchen. Then back to class.
This afternoon we're given a project...take some of the images we've shot this week and create the cover for some sort of brochure. I concentrate on my images from the morning and produce Oars on the Water for the Oak Ridge Rowing Association. It's a fun afternoon. Quiet but fun.
I should say quiet except for us trying to buy a laptop for Al over the internet. We start looking at Alienware machines. I've never given these folks a second look, but am impressed with what I see this afternoon as we poke and prod for Al. I'm going to consider them for our next computer purchase. Good value I think. And the equipment is getting good reviews.
I finish a bit early, format some compact flash cards and we all depart about before 5:00 so Bill can make his soccer practice. On the way out he praises my afternoon creation as being done well. Asks me if I have any more of my work with me. If so, bring it back. He'd like to have the other students see some of what I've done.
Talk about stroking my ego.
I come back to the hotel to finalize my change in plans for going to the Smokies to shoot Saturday and take some drugs (The Soup Kitchen gave me indigestion) and check to see what images I can share with the group. The good news is I have some of the Yosemite pics on the laptop, so I have something to share.
After supper, Al orders his new laptop. Bill brings in Krispy Kremes, fresh off the truck. And we begin talking about printing. Techniques, paper, and sizing are all covered. When Bill decides to print a couple of examples, we take a look at my 'portfolio' while we wait. Generally speaking, I get favorable comments. And then we just talk. We seem to do that well. This group gets along pretty well.
Tomorrow, no shooting. We'll meet at 8:00 to edit photos and print them. We expect that to take most of the day.
Today's picture of the day is the project I created this afternoon. Nothing terribly exciting, Just a practice in some of the techniques we've learned this week.
Don't know if there will be a picture of the day tomorrow or any posting. Don't know if I'll have internet connectivity in Townsend. If not, I'll wrap this road trip up on Saturday when I get home.
Goodnight.
Our early morning session is spent on scanning. Film scanning versus flat bed scanning. I'm interested because somewhere I have thousands, and I mean thousands, of slides and prints that are laying out there rotting away that I need to preserve. It's cool what you can do. An all digital world is here.
About 09:30 we head off for the marina on Melton Lake. Our goal...To photograph the rowers on the lake. The NCAA rowing finals are being held here (Oak ridge) this weekend. Alas, there is little activity when we arrive. A couple of teams on the water rowing, but mostly things are quiet. However, I get in to photographing the artifacts of rowing...boats in storage, oars on the dock, abandoned shoes on the doc, oars in the water, and so on and so on. I really get in to this kind of shooting....Story telling. I shoot for over an hour. I think everyone else gets tired of waiting for me, so we soon off to town to download pictures from the shoot. I've shot over 100 pictures this morning.
While downloading, the conversation turns to laptops. Al is extremely frustrated with his, so we go to Staples at lunch so he can pick my brain for information. Afterward we eat lunch at The Soup Kitchen. Then back to class.
This afternoon we're given a project...take some of the images we've shot this week and create the cover for some sort of brochure. I concentrate on my images from the morning and produce Oars on the Water for the Oak Ridge Rowing Association. It's a fun afternoon. Quiet but fun.
I should say quiet except for us trying to buy a laptop for Al over the internet. We start looking at Alienware machines. I've never given these folks a second look, but am impressed with what I see this afternoon as we poke and prod for Al. I'm going to consider them for our next computer purchase. Good value I think. And the equipment is getting good reviews.
I finish a bit early, format some compact flash cards and we all depart about before 5:00 so Bill can make his soccer practice. On the way out he praises my afternoon creation as being done well. Asks me if I have any more of my work with me. If so, bring it back. He'd like to have the other students see some of what I've done.
Talk about stroking my ego.
I come back to the hotel to finalize my change in plans for going to the Smokies to shoot Saturday and take some drugs (The Soup Kitchen gave me indigestion) and check to see what images I can share with the group. The good news is I have some of the Yosemite pics on the laptop, so I have something to share.
After supper, Al orders his new laptop. Bill brings in Krispy Kremes, fresh off the truck. And we begin talking about printing. Techniques, paper, and sizing are all covered. When Bill decides to print a couple of examples, we take a look at my 'portfolio' while we wait. Generally speaking, I get favorable comments. And then we just talk. We seem to do that well. This group gets along pretty well.
Tomorrow, no shooting. We'll meet at 8:00 to edit photos and print them. We expect that to take most of the day.
Today's picture of the day is the project I created this afternoon. Nothing terribly exciting, Just a practice in some of the techniques we've learned this week.
Don't know if there will be a picture of the day tomorrow or any posting. Don't know if I'll have internet connectivity in Townsend. If not, I'll wrap this road trip up on Saturday when I get home.
Goodnight.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Vision
I'm up at 5:00 today, but am almost late and I don't have a clue where the extra time went.
This morning we're headed to Norris Dam, about 1/2 hour drive from our location in Oak Ridge. Our hopes of taking shots of the dam are pretty much shot by the dense fog surrounding the late formed by the dam and the Clinch River. At our first stop, we can't even see the dam, even though it only a short distance from where we are standing. Off to our alternate plan. It's a nature trail that runs along the river below the damn, about 500 feet above the water. Our hope is to find some wildflowers to shoot.
We never find those flowers. In fact, we kid the theme of the day is green. Everything we encounter is green. No flowers, lots of ferns and moss and poison ivy, but no flowers. We manage a few shots anyway, and after about an hour of hiking and shooting, head back to the trailhead. On the way back to town, we stop and shoot at an old grist mill for about 20 minutes. The good news is the fog has kept the temperature cooler, but as soon as it burns off, the sweat starts running with great abandon. It will be hot today.
We will be inside for most of the rest of the day. What will we learn today? Non-Photoshop. How to do panoramas. I'm glad to learn. Bill and I inessence saw the same shot today, but he got it because he knows how to do panoramas. We learn how to put text on and in photos. Then we break for lunch. I'm back to the room to make reservations for Townsend and check email and do a couple of other things. I grab a quick burrito on the way back to the Gallery.
After lunch, we work on a method to create a ragged border to pictures, a technique you see in the POTD (Picture of the Day) today. Less than perfect,but something to try anyway.
Then the question comes. What do you want to do with your photography? In essence Bill is signalling us that he's taught us all he intended to teach for the week, except printing, and wants to know what we want to study. This leads to a conversation about our goals, or vision, setting oneself apart by unique creativity, and the art of photography. Bill is excited, pulling pictures off the gallery wall to make his points. I am inspired to try some new things. Some may not work, some may. We're in to filters. Photoshop filters and how we can use them to our advantage. It's a fun hour or so of discussion and something that gets me pumped about doing some new and different things with photography.
At the supper break, I'm off to Big Ed's Pizza for supper. It's a well known place to eat evidently and I should try out. The menu: Pizza, coke, and/or beer. That's it. I order a small and watch the patrons of this place. It's an interesting place. Pizza is good but not great. It's just one of those things you must do.
Afte supper Bill loans me his new 'brush' for the Wacom tablet to try out. And then there is silence for about an hour as we work on our individual projects. That hasn't happened all week. I start tearing down my gear a few minutes before 9:00. But as our custom has developed, we continue to talk and I leave again about 9:45.
But we sleep in tomorrow morning. We'll begin at 8:00, do class for about an hour, then head to the marina to shoot the rowers. It's the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships this weekend.
But I am tired, so enough for today. I'm off to bed.
This morning we're headed to Norris Dam, about 1/2 hour drive from our location in Oak Ridge. Our hopes of taking shots of the dam are pretty much shot by the dense fog surrounding the late formed by the dam and the Clinch River. At our first stop, we can't even see the dam, even though it only a short distance from where we are standing. Off to our alternate plan. It's a nature trail that runs along the river below the damn, about 500 feet above the water. Our hope is to find some wildflowers to shoot.
We never find those flowers. In fact, we kid the theme of the day is green. Everything we encounter is green. No flowers, lots of ferns and moss and poison ivy, but no flowers. We manage a few shots anyway, and after about an hour of hiking and shooting, head back to the trailhead. On the way back to town, we stop and shoot at an old grist mill for about 20 minutes. The good news is the fog has kept the temperature cooler, but as soon as it burns off, the sweat starts running with great abandon. It will be hot today.
We will be inside for most of the rest of the day. What will we learn today? Non-Photoshop. How to do panoramas. I'm glad to learn. Bill and I inessence saw the same shot today, but he got it because he knows how to do panoramas. We learn how to put text on and in photos. Then we break for lunch. I'm back to the room to make reservations for Townsend and check email and do a couple of other things. I grab a quick burrito on the way back to the Gallery.
After lunch, we work on a method to create a ragged border to pictures, a technique you see in the POTD (Picture of the Day) today. Less than perfect,but something to try anyway.
Then the question comes. What do you want to do with your photography? In essence Bill is signalling us that he's taught us all he intended to teach for the week, except printing, and wants to know what we want to study. This leads to a conversation about our goals, or vision, setting oneself apart by unique creativity, and the art of photography. Bill is excited, pulling pictures off the gallery wall to make his points. I am inspired to try some new things. Some may not work, some may. We're in to filters. Photoshop filters and how we can use them to our advantage. It's a fun hour or so of discussion and something that gets me pumped about doing some new and different things with photography.
At the supper break, I'm off to Big Ed's Pizza for supper. It's a well known place to eat evidently and I should try out. The menu: Pizza, coke, and/or beer. That's it. I order a small and watch the patrons of this place. It's an interesting place. Pizza is good but not great. It's just one of those things you must do.
Afte supper Bill loans me his new 'brush' for the Wacom tablet to try out. And then there is silence for about an hour as we work on our individual projects. That hasn't happened all week. I start tearing down my gear a few minutes before 9:00. But as our custom has developed, we continue to talk and I leave again about 9:45.
But we sleep in tomorrow morning. We'll begin at 8:00, do class for about an hour, then head to the marina to shoot the rowers. It's the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships this weekend.
But I am tired, so enough for today. I'm off to bed.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today is Janie's special day. HER BIRTHDAY!
We'll celebrate when I get back, but for now, I say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE!
Have a great day!
We'll celebrate when I get back, but for now, I say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE!
Have a great day!
Frozen Head
I'm awaken at 5:00 by the phone call from the automated system. The day of a friendly voice on the other end is gone. I snooze till the alarm goes off at 5:30. Get up, get ready, and head for the CDI (Campbell Digital Institute.)
I'm a couple of minutes early for our 6:30 call, and am talking to Janie when the others arrive. Soon we're off for Frozenhead State Park, about 1/2 hour away. The down side is, that since I've left the hotel, it has started to rain. Not hard, but it is raining. We forge ahead, less Carol who is really not interested in pure nature photography. It's the guys morning out.
On the ride up we converse on topics from printers to why Bill left his medical practice to become a photographer. (I learn later in the day that Bill has not totally quit the practice of medicine...he spends 3 to 4 nights a month working the Emergency room. It pays the car payments and the children's college fund. But the real dream is to go to National Geographic one day and say: "Got an expedition? I'm a doctor and a professional photographer. I could fill both roles on your expedition.")
Our ride takes us by Brushy Mountain State Prison, the prison that once housed the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King.
And Bill is a professional. We've been walking less than two minutes when he spies a purple leaf on a fern and puts Al to photographing it. I continue on up the trail and begin to work some ferns and a small waterfall just off the trail. We had hoped for more water in the creek, but it is not to be...even with a slow rain falling. I guess I spend half the time shooting and the other half talking to Dr. Bill. I really like this guy. We seem to have a lot in common and converse easily.
One result of our conversation: I will probably leave Oak Ridge on Friday evening and go to Townsend TN to attempt to get up early and be in Cades Cove for an early morning shoot on Saturday. I'm going to try and get a reservation in Townsend shortly.
After a couple of hours working the dreary forest, we head back down the trail to leave. I still have my camera with the wide angle lens mounted out and on the tripod. So I stop on the bridge over the stream to snap the last couple of shots before we leave. These will turn out to be the best shots of the day...with a little hep from Photoshop.
We spend the morning and most of the rest of the afternoon working photos in Photoshop. Here a couple of good shots begin to emerge from the mix.
I invite Al to lunch at Krystal with me, but he declines. Not a Krystal man I guess. So I'm off for this unique culinary fare. I eat three, with some fries and a drink. The stomach holds. If Krystals don't do me in then nothing will. I guess I'm cured of whatever was ailing my stomach.
During dinner I'm back to the hotel to get some equipment ready for the evening session, laptop among them. The evening session is to be a run of Photoshow Gold, a piece of software that allows you to build slide shows of your work. It looks like it may be worth a shot. At the end of the evening session, I have a trial version installed and am playing with it.
Trying to get my iPod music to work with the show, I put on a Harry Chapin song. Shortly there after our conversation turns to music. We talk...Harry Chapin, James Taylor, George Winston, and so on.
I finish the evening session at 9:45, leaving the others behind to close up shop. Tomorrow we meet again at 6:30 to go to Norris Dam for the daily shoot. Another early morning call.
Now, for the picture of the day......
I'm a couple of minutes early for our 6:30 call, and am talking to Janie when the others arrive. Soon we're off for Frozenhead State Park, about 1/2 hour away. The down side is, that since I've left the hotel, it has started to rain. Not hard, but it is raining. We forge ahead, less Carol who is really not interested in pure nature photography. It's the guys morning out.
On the ride up we converse on topics from printers to why Bill left his medical practice to become a photographer. (I learn later in the day that Bill has not totally quit the practice of medicine...he spends 3 to 4 nights a month working the Emergency room. It pays the car payments and the children's college fund. But the real dream is to go to National Geographic one day and say: "Got an expedition? I'm a doctor and a professional photographer. I could fill both roles on your expedition.")
Our ride takes us by Brushy Mountain State Prison, the prison that once housed the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King.
And Bill is a professional. We've been walking less than two minutes when he spies a purple leaf on a fern and puts Al to photographing it. I continue on up the trail and begin to work some ferns and a small waterfall just off the trail. We had hoped for more water in the creek, but it is not to be...even with a slow rain falling. I guess I spend half the time shooting and the other half talking to Dr. Bill. I really like this guy. We seem to have a lot in common and converse easily.
One result of our conversation: I will probably leave Oak Ridge on Friday evening and go to Townsend TN to attempt to get up early and be in Cades Cove for an early morning shoot on Saturday. I'm going to try and get a reservation in Townsend shortly.
After a couple of hours working the dreary forest, we head back down the trail to leave. I still have my camera with the wide angle lens mounted out and on the tripod. So I stop on the bridge over the stream to snap the last couple of shots before we leave. These will turn out to be the best shots of the day...with a little hep from Photoshop.
We spend the morning and most of the rest of the afternoon working photos in Photoshop. Here a couple of good shots begin to emerge from the mix.
I invite Al to lunch at Krystal with me, but he declines. Not a Krystal man I guess. So I'm off for this unique culinary fare. I eat three, with some fries and a drink. The stomach holds. If Krystals don't do me in then nothing will. I guess I'm cured of whatever was ailing my stomach.
During dinner I'm back to the hotel to get some equipment ready for the evening session, laptop among them. The evening session is to be a run of Photoshow Gold, a piece of software that allows you to build slide shows of your work. It looks like it may be worth a shot. At the end of the evening session, I have a trial version installed and am playing with it.
Trying to get my iPod music to work with the show, I put on a Harry Chapin song. Shortly there after our conversation turns to music. We talk...Harry Chapin, James Taylor, George Winston, and so on.
I finish the evening session at 9:45, leaving the others behind to close up shop. Tomorrow we meet again at 6:30 to go to Norris Dam for the daily shoot. Another early morning call.
Now, for the picture of the day......
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
The Versace Vision
Well Vincent (Versace) isn't here, but no one has attempted to give the class a new name, so after a restless night's sleep, I'm off to class at the Bill Campbell Digital Institute and Nature Gallery.
I arrive promptly at the appointed hour to find Al, one of the students, already conversing with our instructor Bill Campbell. Since Bill is a MD turned photographer, and Al is a pharmicist, they are talking shop...medical shop. I remain clear of that conversation.
About 10 mintues later, Carol arrives. An Oak Ridge native, she is the only female in the class of three students. But my the time she arrives, the conversation has turned to Nikon vs. Canon, and Carol, a Canon user, will not win arguments with the three Nikon bigots well on the way to espousing the virtues of Nikon cameras and glass.
In no hurry we converse for a while. The conversation is good, and we get to peruse some of Bill's work on display in the gallery. Some new ideas here for displayiong your photography.
But after a while we start. It becomes quickly apparent that I am the advanced Photoshop user for this class. But it also becomes apparent that with the class size I'm not going to have any problem getting my questions answered. Plus, it's stroking my ego...to have the instructor look at you prompting you for your opinion when a question is asked by the other two students.
Stoked ego or not, I'm learning. Exposure was one of my concerns. We learn some techniques to help. I learn more about processing RAW files giving me greater control over what I get out of the camera. We talk about hardware and how to set it up (mine is in good shape.) And we look at ways to combine photos to make one shot that is properly exposed.
It's a good morning and goes quickly.
I skip lunch due to an upset stomach (could it be those Krystals I had at Strawberry Plains last night...surely not.)
After lunch we talk about shooting techniques some more then off to the UT Arboretum for an afernoon shoot. Carol has invited her teenage daughter and a friend to come and act as models for us. So we work on outdoor portraiture for a while, learning the value of reflectors for punching light into a subject with out using flash.
But I'm more interested in the flowers and treee and soon drift off to shoot those. And do till we break for supper about 5:00. (My supper is a Subway turkey sandwich...easy on the stomach. And now I'm beginning to feel better.)
We reconvene at 7:15 and edit photos until 9:30. This makes for a long day.
Alas, the wind did in most of my pictures of flowers. Just too blurry to be good enough for publication. So there will be no picture of the day today.
Tomorrow, we meet @ 6:30 for the morning shoot. So now I must go to bed.
Goodnight.
I arrive promptly at the appointed hour to find Al, one of the students, already conversing with our instructor Bill Campbell. Since Bill is a MD turned photographer, and Al is a pharmicist, they are talking shop...medical shop. I remain clear of that conversation.
About 10 mintues later, Carol arrives. An Oak Ridge native, she is the only female in the class of three students. But my the time she arrives, the conversation has turned to Nikon vs. Canon, and Carol, a Canon user, will not win arguments with the three Nikon bigots well on the way to espousing the virtues of Nikon cameras and glass.
In no hurry we converse for a while. The conversation is good, and we get to peruse some of Bill's work on display in the gallery. Some new ideas here for displayiong your photography.
But after a while we start. It becomes quickly apparent that I am the advanced Photoshop user for this class. But it also becomes apparent that with the class size I'm not going to have any problem getting my questions answered. Plus, it's stroking my ego...to have the instructor look at you prompting you for your opinion when a question is asked by the other two students.
Stoked ego or not, I'm learning. Exposure was one of my concerns. We learn some techniques to help. I learn more about processing RAW files giving me greater control over what I get out of the camera. We talk about hardware and how to set it up (mine is in good shape.) And we look at ways to combine photos to make one shot that is properly exposed.
It's a good morning and goes quickly.
I skip lunch due to an upset stomach (could it be those Krystals I had at Strawberry Plains last night...surely not.)
After lunch we talk about shooting techniques some more then off to the UT Arboretum for an afernoon shoot. Carol has invited her teenage daughter and a friend to come and act as models for us. So we work on outdoor portraiture for a while, learning the value of reflectors for punching light into a subject with out using flash.
But I'm more interested in the flowers and treee and soon drift off to shoot those. And do till we break for supper about 5:00. (My supper is a Subway turkey sandwich...easy on the stomach. And now I'm beginning to feel better.)
We reconvene at 7:15 and edit photos until 9:30. This makes for a long day.
Alas, the wind did in most of my pictures of flowers. Just too blurry to be good enough for publication. So there will be no picture of the day today.
Tomorrow, we meet @ 6:30 for the morning shoot. So now I must go to bed.
Goodnight.
Monday, May 09, 2005
The Story of the Road
I"m sure the road has a story to tell. Acutally lots of stories to tell. The problem is connecting with them.
I think about that as I stop on top of the mountain between Asheville and Knoxville for a break after a 2.5 hour run from Clemmons. While stretching the back and the legs and visiting the rest room, I become aware of a family, I think, doing the same. They are in two vehicles. One, a Lincoln with some age but still in good shape. The other, a pickup, loaded with furniture...standing 8 feet tall over the road because the load is constrained by a mattress or box springs on each side of the truck bed and one across the top.
What is their story? They seem happy. Headed for home? Headed for a new home? I will not find out tonight.
And what about all those truckers on the other side of the interstate? What are they doing with those brightly lit rigs idling in the parking lot? Where have they been? Where are they going? What is life like for them on the road? I will not find out tonight.
Tonight the story of the road for me is time. I've left Durham late this evening and anticiapte a midnight arrival in Oak Ridge. But that can only happen if I keep moving. So I will not tarry on this mountain top tonight. I will not hear these stories. Instead I will push down the hill, 5 miles over the speed limit, so I can arrive at my destination before the day is officially done.
I have a t-shirt that reads "The journey is the destination." If that is the case for me tonight, I don't have much to look toward. It's a push night. And push I will.
But this is familiar road. I've driven it many times. To visit family in Cookeville. To go to my job as advance man for the Rhymes with Reason. To return to my 2 year assignment in Huntsville. The road itself has not changed that much. Lot's has changed on it's edges, but even that has fixtures that remain this many years. The first view of the mountains as you leave Hickory. The pull up the hill after Old Fort. The Biltmore Estate. A Holiday Inn near Sevierville that has provided a comfort and shelter on occaision.
My pleasures of the evening are twofold: being able to cross the mountains with the sunroof open since the speed is low enought to let that happen and listening to gospel music on my iPod.
Those pleasures end. The speed limit comes back to 70 mph, too fast for the sunroof, and the plethora of radio stations makes it too hard to tune my iPod on the road.
My journey ends wandering around Oak Ridge looking for the route to the hotel. I arrive at exactly midnight, six hours and 24 minutes after leaving Durham. Basically 6 hours driving time.
I have not heard the story of the road tonight. I've only heard my story reflected back to me. Perhaps next time I'll hear the story the road is telling. But my story is there somewhere I suspect...at least in part.
I think about that as I stop on top of the mountain between Asheville and Knoxville for a break after a 2.5 hour run from Clemmons. While stretching the back and the legs and visiting the rest room, I become aware of a family, I think, doing the same. They are in two vehicles. One, a Lincoln with some age but still in good shape. The other, a pickup, loaded with furniture...standing 8 feet tall over the road because the load is constrained by a mattress or box springs on each side of the truck bed and one across the top.
What is their story? They seem happy. Headed for home? Headed for a new home? I will not find out tonight.
And what about all those truckers on the other side of the interstate? What are they doing with those brightly lit rigs idling in the parking lot? Where have they been? Where are they going? What is life like for them on the road? I will not find out tonight.
Tonight the story of the road for me is time. I've left Durham late this evening and anticiapte a midnight arrival in Oak Ridge. But that can only happen if I keep moving. So I will not tarry on this mountain top tonight. I will not hear these stories. Instead I will push down the hill, 5 miles over the speed limit, so I can arrive at my destination before the day is officially done.
I have a t-shirt that reads "The journey is the destination." If that is the case for me tonight, I don't have much to look toward. It's a push night. And push I will.
But this is familiar road. I've driven it many times. To visit family in Cookeville. To go to my job as advance man for the Rhymes with Reason. To return to my 2 year assignment in Huntsville. The road itself has not changed that much. Lot's has changed on it's edges, but even that has fixtures that remain this many years. The first view of the mountains as you leave Hickory. The pull up the hill after Old Fort. The Biltmore Estate. A Holiday Inn near Sevierville that has provided a comfort and shelter on occaision.
My pleasures of the evening are twofold: being able to cross the mountains with the sunroof open since the speed is low enought to let that happen and listening to gospel music on my iPod.
Those pleasures end. The speed limit comes back to 70 mph, too fast for the sunroof, and the plethora of radio stations makes it too hard to tune my iPod on the road.
My journey ends wandering around Oak Ridge looking for the route to the hotel. I arrive at exactly midnight, six hours and 24 minutes after leaving Durham. Basically 6 hours driving time.
I have not heard the story of the road tonight. I've only heard my story reflected back to me. Perhaps next time I'll hear the story the road is telling. But my story is there somewhere I suspect...at least in part.
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