Baby Kong, A Chrismas Village's Nightmare

The above photo of our grandson Garrett trampling through a village began the day of his dedication. We were at his other grandparent's home in Macon. Billy and Nancy have a huge Christmas Village on display each Christmas. Thomas said, "Hey if I hold garret up in the village, can you do a pivture, put sky behind him?" I said sure.

 The photo at the bottom is what we shot that day.

I had been looking for the perfect sky since Christmas. Week before last I found this night sky as I was leaving a Westside basketball game. I wanted to have him circled by biplanes ala King Kong. I was worried about finding good biplane photos, but found some royalty free online.

I put the images together in Photoshop Elements 9. I bought the program to teach a class, and hve really enjoyed using it. A great program. It is a great program for the cost. I have dumped Photoshop from the laptop and replaced it with Elements.  If you are really interested in image editing, give it a try.



A Bit Of Solar Flair

I photographed a training day for teachers this morning at the Museum of Aviation. It was presented by the NASA Regional Educator Resourse and had some cool classes. One of the things I knew I wanted photos of was the awesome array of telescopes set up by astronomer Stephen Ramsden. He was allowing folks to witness solar flair up close.

I had to wait a while for someone to stop and look therough the telescopes. He was set up in the amplitheater between the two buildins that housed the varoius classes. Quite a few folks passes by before Nancy Sills, a science teracher from Harris County, stopped to talk to Stephen and look through the telescopes.

My first shots were pretty standard stuff, nice light, low angle. You could see Nancy and Stephen in the photograph. Then I decided I should show the sun. First I shot with the sun peeping over the end of the telescope, making a bit of flair. Guess I made a photographic pun, if there is such a thing.  For the last photo I moved a bit to the side, getting more sky and having the sun to the right of the telescope.

The lst two would have worked better with a little flash popped on the telescope and Nancy. This is one of those times when the old D-70 would come in handy with its ability to sync a flash at a really high shutter speed.

Oh, well, it will be interesting to see which one the editor picks.

The Red Canoe

I had a very early assignment at Veteran's high School this morning. Was at the school by 7:30am, so I had a drive in the fog and darkness. All the way over, I was looking for a photograph, but nothing caught my eye.

It was lighter by the time I left the school. Driving down Woodard Road I noticed this tree standing on a small island in a pond.

It looked good, but I drove on by without stopping. I got about a mile down Moody Road, and turned around. I had to go back and give it another look.

The bottom photo was my first shot, kinda from the angle I first saw the scene. It didn't quite work for me, so I moved around a bit. I saw the red canoe, and knew I had my photo.

I also zoomed in a bit on this photo, isolating the tree a little.

Glad I went back.

Flashback to 1977

Found these negatives from Gladys Laskeys, from 1977. Those wonderful windows made such swwet light.

Digital is wonderful, but sometimes I do miss my Tri-X, some Dektol and a good Leitz enlarger.

And I still miss Gladys.

This Ain't The Circus

I shot for the Telegraph Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a full day, started with the Forest Hills UMC food giveaway and ended with Northeast-Central basketball. Sunday I was scheduled to shoot the Ringling Brothers Circus. At the last minute, they decided not to let us cover their show. Really odd.

I was on my way to an alternate story when Metro Editor Oby Brown(one of the best editors I ever worked with) called with another assignment.

The Macon/Bibb County officials were gathering at the EMA Center to discuss plans for dealing with the winter storm that was about to hit Middle Georgia. So I headed to City Hall.

This was a news story. News stories do not always make the most interesting photos, but because of their importance, come first. And often make you look a little harder for an interesting shot.  EMA Director Don Druitt was leading the meeting which began with a statewide webcast by the National Weather Service.

I shot during the webcast, photographing Druitt, Mayor Robert Reichert, Commission Chair Sam Hart, and whatever I thought might be important or just photogenic.

The webcast ended and the weather map was still projected on the huge screen in the room. My idea was to get Mr. Druitt addressing the group with ther map n the background. He began talking and moved to the center of the room. THe projected map fell across his face and upper body. Made a really cool image, I had my photo.

Monday's work was photographing the actual storm My favorite MOnday photo was this poor little bird sitting atop an ice covered bird feeder. You know he must be thinking, "I know I flew south!"

Using the Radial Blur Filter

Last week I was playing in Photoshop and rediscovered the Radial Blur filter. With this filter you can either add a zoom effect or a circular blur to an image. I tried the effects on these two photos of Beca. The top is with the zoom filter. Back in the late 60's and early 70's a cool thing to do was to shoot a photo at a really slow shutter speed and with a zoom lens, and spin the zoom ring while the shutter was open. Wtaever was in the very center of the photo would be kinda in focus. It was pretty hit or miss. Mine were mostly a miss.

The top photo was with the zoom effect. The bottom with the spin.

With both photos I went back after I applied the filter and used the History Brush to restore a little of the image.



A Look At Some Tri-X Oldies

It has been a while since I have been able to scan any black and white negatives. Over two years ago I had to replace my old computer. My old Minolta scanner software was not compatible with the new computer, and since Konica bought Minolta, they were not interested in keeping software updated. Since I didn’t have a scanner I quit shooting film. I have several rolls of Tri-X and Ilford HP-5 stuck in the equipment locker waiting to be processed.

I decided it was time to get my scanner cranked back up. I checked for available scanner drivers and opted for VueScan from Hardwick Software. I have not been disappointed with it. It works much smoother than the old Minolta software, and gives better image control.


Two of the first images I scanned with the setup are these of Macon model Sheila Harvell. I always loved the umbrella photo but had completely forgotten the TV shot. It is a cool image.


I will be scanning in more old images, but as a goal for 2011 I want to shoot at least one roll of film a week. We will see how that goes. I have a roll of color print film in one of my old Nikon bodies, and have some Tri-X and HP-5 waiting to go in the F5.



I will share some images soon.