Fickle Fay
Exactly one month ago, remnants of Tropical Storm Fay moved through the Watauga county area, raising creek, river, lake and reservoir levels briefly, providing some relief from the year long drought suffered by a majority of North Carolina. After flooding much of Florida by stalling and meandering its way across the sunshine state several times, Fickle Fay temporarily delayed morning commute routes around the High Country on August 27, 2008, by flooding roads and washing out low-water bridges. By early afternoon, as floodwaters began to recede, I was most amazed by the amount of trash left behind on bridges and riverbanks.
To get some idea of the height at which the river crested, here is a flooded photo of one bridge and a photo of the same bridge from the very next morning when the owner was clearing debris.
Filed under environment, photography | Comments (2)Learning Light
In my ventures to learn all about photography, I have been focused on light (pun intended) this past week, specifically, learning how to properly use available light and how to break the basic rules of using light in photography. Since my main educational means is just taking photos as much as I can and seeing what comes out and what doesn’t, time has not been on my side in learning the basics of recognizing when the light is right for shooting. I have gotten frustrated over the last several weeks numerous times when I have been out shooting hoping for great results only to be disappointed when I look at my photos later and most if not all are just not pleasing mostly due to lighting issues. Some are blurry because of not enough light and some have blown out highlights because of too much light. Others have bright spots or poor reflection from harsh light or don’t come out at all from using wrong settings (or when I am in a hurry to catch a fleeting opportunity I forgot entirely to change settings before pressing the shutter release). With this recent post from This Week in Photography and my participation in this assignment last week from Digital Photography School, I now have a better understanding of light as it pertains to making great photographs and why I have been very dissatisfied with the outcome of my photos.
Filed under photography | Comment (0)Vote for my photo please!
Please help send me (all expenses paid by the contest sponsors) to one of four scenic national parks to take photos and receive instruction from four different professional photographers. There is less than 45 hours left in the contest so be sure to vote for my photo before 2pm EST on Friday, September 5th. This is the first of four chances to win one of four spaces at these workshops so if my photo doesn’t happen to win this time (from the pool of almost 3,000), I do plan to enter different photographs in the other contests. Your votes are very much appreciated. Thank you to all who have and will vote for my photos!
UPDATE: Final submission total for this contest was 4,101 photos. Thanks to all who voted.
Filed under photography | Comment (0)
