South Mountains State Park

Hiking has practically become a second hobby for me over the past couple of months. I have been going hiking lately at least once a week and hoping to maybe starting make it a twice a week thing. One place I have been regularly visiting is South Mountains State Park which is located near Morganton, NC. It is about 45 minutes from my house and during the week is pretty much deserted. The trails are nicely marked and vary in difficulty. So far all of the trails I have hiked also have at least one nice photo opportunity such as amazing views of the mountains, waterfalls, and streams.

Here is a sample from a few of the trips. You can click on the photos for a larger version.

Blue Ridge Mountains

I got up pretty early Tuesday morning, got to the mountains at 7. Did a fairly short 10 walk through the woods in the dark out onto a cliff that I have never been to before in my life. I then waited 40 minutes before the sun slowly slithered over the horizon.

This is one of my fist panoramic images, a larger version can be seen by click the link below it. The pine needles were shot while hiking at Linville Falls, NC.



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2567/4033739154_fb47e608ea_o.jpg





Thanks for viewing!

Whirlpool of leaves

I am unsure of the name of this waterfall. Its located about 10 feet off of US 221 on the Caldwell/Watauga County border in NC. I first wanted to visit here after seeing a photo of it by one of my favorite photographers, Carl Moser. Another favorite of mine Jack Daulton has also shot here and gave me directions several years ago. It took me 2 or 3 tries to find it over a 2 year period, Jack said it was right off of the road, I never imagined it would literally be, RIGHT off of the road.

This waterfall is awesome because the leaves swirly around at the base of it, really cool!

DIY Grid/Snoot

About two weeks ago I came across a couple different DIY blog posts on the internet, each one describing how to do a DIY grid, this time using a substance called coroplast (corrugated plastic). Each blog has various methods on how to make it, but one stood out to me. In particular the way the grid was attached to the flash.

http://blog.phatbabyphotography.com/2009/01/diy-snoot-uh-whats-snoot.html

I really liked how "good" it looked, and I immediately thought, all it needs is a coat of black paint and no one will know that I only spent $8 on it!

The first step in this process was trying to find this so called coroplast. I spent hours googling various art stores and searching websites but to no avail could I find this material. Several of the blogs mentioned that if you can not find coroplast then you can easily use a "for sale" sign, turns out that for sale signs that you can buy at any retail store such as Walmart or Home Depot are made out of this material. Not only that, but so are most politician signs, and with the election coming up there will be plenty of free coroplast for everyone! Okay, not really, thats probably called stealing, even if the sign was just sitting there...

The next step was finding this PVC Pipe fitting, I searched all around our local Lowes Hardware, and more than likely missed the one isle it would have been on. At Home Depot I found it right away, this fitting is not with the other PVC pipes, it is in the section with the gutters. They sell for less than $3 each and are almost a perfect fit for the Canon 580ex (and probably other model) speedlights.



Following the directions from the blog post I cut a little whole on each side of the PVC, and then tested the fit on my flash several times.



I made a grid, carefully measuring and cutting the pieces of plastic. You really want to cut in the straightest line possible, it will make the grid look better in the end. I glued the strips together using some kind of super glue.



Once I finished my grid I test fitted it several times inside the PVC.



What I did now was different than any of the blogs I have seen on the subject, I decided to paint it black, and for two reasons. The first reason, white in theory will act as a reflector where as black should help the light become more direct. Second, the black look will blend in with the flash, making most if not all clients unaware that I am cheap!



So, $8 and several hours later I created a light modifier that could cost as much as $150. Unlike the grids available for speedlights, I dont have to attach any unsightly Velcro to my flash either!

So youre saying, $8, whats the catch? Does it work? Yes!

Here are the samples to prove it, please excuse my dirty drive way and my even dirtier sensor, its time to clean both again!

This first shot is with the flash with out any kind of light modifier on it.



This is with just the PVC snoot on it, the light has become slightly more directional, but not enough to make any significant changes.



This is with the grid installed! Awesome.




I hope to make some updates in the future with some real work examples with the grid. Right now this is all I have

Little Lost Cove Creek Falls

Hows that for a tongue twister? Brandi and I attempted to hike to this waterfall in June 2007 a day or two before I had surgery and would not be able to do anything for a month. At the time, the mile long road leading to the falls was closed, so our hike began there, once we got to the end of the road we had another half mile to go to reach the side trail that leads to the falls but some how we missed that... We ended up getting semi lost in the wilderness of Avery County, NC. After several hours of hiking we made it back to the truck, by my estimation from looking at maps, we hiked around 8 miles or so, going down, then back up around 1500-2000 vertical feet. All while carrying 20 pounds of camera equipment each.

Not too fun, and we didnt even find the waterfall!!!

Two years later, or, just last week, my friend Ben and I headed out to find this waterfall, equipped with better directions, and the luck of the road being open, we found it!







If you get a chance, look up Ben Earp on myspace, he posted a few photos of his own, he got some good shots as well...

DIY

About a year and a half ago I attempted to do my first DIY piece of equipment for use with my photography. Ever since then I have always been interested in finding ways to cheaply make some thing that works great and at least looks good instead of buying some of the many overpriced items out there sold to photographers.

One area that I have deeply dove into is DIY light modifiers for hot shoe flashes. Snoots, grids, (hopefully) softboxes and many other items that can be found. I read various websites with tutorials featuring such items and I get countless ideas to create my own equipment!

I plan to share my journey on here as well as show some of the own processes I go through to create these items. The biggest thing is that I will be trying to make the items look "good", look like something that should belong on your camera and something that a client wont notice is really a $2 PVC pipe or part of a cereal box. Thats one area that many of the tutorials fail to show or complete. Many of the other tutorials are meant to be something to do during downtime, just for fun, ignoring the fact that there are many photographers such as my self that are unable, or unwilling to spend $125 on an item when I can make it for $10.

In a day or two I will make my first post in this series.

Humming Bird

Looked out the window Monday evening before leaving for the beach and noticed 8 or so humming birds fluttering around the feeder.

Here kitty kitty kitty

These photos are several years old from when Brandi and I visited a zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I really enjoy cats, small cats, medium cats, large cats, cats that could kill me in a few seconds.

Thought I did pretty good shooting through thick glass, hell, back then I didnt have half an idea of what I was doing. Such as the fact that back then I shot RAW but converted to JPG without saving the original CR2 file, wish I still had them now to redit them and save the highlights.










Thanks for viewing, click on the photos to see slightly larger versions or to visit my FlickR page.

Just driving around.

I have always enjoyed just driving around trying to find interesting things to take photographs of and see where a particular road may take me. Two weeks ago I drove around a few roads that I am really familiar with in Caldwell/Avery/Watauga county and had a blast.

A few highlights.









For some reason I have always enjoyed shooting my equipment.

Two Years Later

Two years ago on August 31st, 2007 the last train rolled through Lenoir, NC. The section of the railroad that runs north of Whitnel, through Lenoir to its end point in Valmead were closed in part of a deal to lure Google.com to build a large facility in Lenoir, NC.

Scene two years ago.



Same scene today, grass has covered the tracks and the factories on the west side of the tracks have fallen down, one to a fire the other torn down.

Trains

I had a chance for the first time in several weeks to go out and photograph my favorite railroad, the Caldwell County Railroad. To me, photographing trains is kind of relaxing, usually giving me a chance to enjoy a nice drive while listening to music with the occasional stop to watch or photograph a train going by. In a way its much like any other hobby out there, though most people find it unusual since it revolves around trains and not killing animals or watching athletic men (or women). Ever stop and think how morbid it is to stalk a deer and finally kill it? If somebody does that to a human its a felony. What about watching men stand around for half an hour deciding the perfect way to hit a small ball? What about collecting stamps? Where is the climax in that, you get the perfect stamp, put it in your book, then look at it! Thats more unusual to me than watching something with a couple thousand horse power (maybe 10,000-20,000 horsepower on a class 1 railroad) roll by.

A little shook up

We had a series of thunderstorms last night and I made an attempt at getting some photos of lightning. Here was my best result. Looks like it may storm again tonight!

Myrtle Beach

Brandi and I went to Myrtle Beach a few hours after finishing school. The trip started out very promising and we were looking forward to doing quite a few things while in the area. Unfortunately I started feeling sick the night we got there, Brandi started feeling sick a day later. After a few days of feeling miserable I went to a doctor to find out that I had the flu. I also visited a doctor again when I got home only to find out that I also had pneumonia.

I ventured out alone on the last morning at sunrise as I was unable to sleep. Brandi and I were suppose to do a portrait session with our friend Katie and her boyfriend Timmy while we were at the beach but had to cancel that because of our "illness".

I did it!

Thats it, unless I die before tomorrow I will have finally graduated with my degree in Photographic Technologies.  

Divine Proportion

I was walking one of our 8 dogs today when I noticed this little grass or thingie or what ever its called growing from a cucumber plant in our backyard. I had to go get my cameras and try to get a few shots of it once I saw it.







This next week is going to be crazy. Shoot this sunday, the 12th, possible shoot on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and another for sure shoot next Sunday. Only 3 weeks left of school for good, only one week left of the most stressful part though. Well then again I do have another speach to make.

Oh Deer

Thursday, Brandi and I decided to do a "day" trip to Cades Cove. She took her poodle, Vinny, with us which kind of slowed us down a little bit, usually it takes 3 - 31/2 hours to get there, this time it took about 4 or so. Vinny did a great job though and I must admit I actually enjoyed the company of a dog. I also misjudged when Sunrise would be so we got there about an hour after sunrise, and with it being the middle of summer, the light is already getting bad my 730 or 8am. We left a little after 330 and got there about 730 or so. I also had not slept at all before leaving and only slept a few minutes during the course of the day. I joked with Brandi and my family, telling them that I slept for 5 minutes when we stopped in Cades Cove, 5 minutes near Gatlinburg, and another 2 minutes randomly while driving, I finally got to bed after 40 hours of almost no sleep, it was great..

All kidding aside I Got a few decent shots, I only took 120 images, compared to some trips where I have easily taken 1,000 or more. I had one deer in particular that modeled for me for a while until another car drove by. We also saw several Bears but never had a chance to photograph any of them for various reasons (please buy me a 500mm f/4), the biggest reason being that people do not use the pull offs/parking sides that are EVERY WHERE in Cades Cove, and by the time you get to where the action is either a Park Ranger is making everyone leave, or the bear has gone.


Im only rambling now.

Portraits.

I just figured that I would post some of the portraits I have taken over the past couple of years. More can be seen at www.CherishTheMomentPhotography.net The business that I have with Brandi.