In the winter heavy fog is very common in the Southern Appalachians . In the higher elevations, when it is below freezing ,this winter fog coats everything in its path. In this image the valley below had fog but no hoarfrost. As I went up the mountain and got to a higher elevation I found this winter wonderland scene with hoarfrost covering everything in site.LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes we have ice storms in the Southern Appalachians. These storms usually start out as light rains that turn into frozen precipitation that coats everything with ice. Beautiful! It is an opportunity for photographers but dangerous for travel by car. I prefer foot power in this type of weather with camera in tow. I found these red berries on one of those ice storm walks.LynnFreeny.com
As I walked Charlie on a full moon night the light from the moon was so bright very strong shadows from the trees were visible. Yes I used a heavy tripod and a long exposure to record this moment. LynnFreeny.com
Portraits of children and babies can be very rewarding. The openness and innocence that shows in their eyes is always worth capturing. In this image I positioned myself eye level with the baby. This meant that I had to sit on the floor. When photographing children it is important to get at a low level. At my own eye level I would have missed the eyes and gotten a picture mostly of the top of the child's head. I also used a 50mm lens set at f 1.4 so the background would be out of focus. LynnFreeny.com
I got a chance to see a very professional local Christmas play at Pellissippi State in Knoxville Tennessee. Southern Kids In Theatre performed the musical "Annie". This image of a snow scene makes me feel cold thanks to the actors and snow effects. In order to make snow look like snow you have to use a very fast shutter speed. Using a slow shutter speed will make snow look like rain because the snow flakes form lines of motion.LynnFreeny.com
I was on my walk with Charlie ( my dog) this morning in the fog. Suddenly the sun started to rise, and we became surrounded by this golden light. The large oak framed by this light was perfect. I love the unplanned images. Being in the right place at the right time can be great.LynnFreeny.com
In the Southern Appalachians we don't get a display of the northern lights but we do get wonderfully moon lit winter clouds. This is just out side my house in the middle of the road. The moon is hidden by the drifting clouds. Without this full moon the clouds would almost be invisible . LynnFreeny.com
Night photography can be magical. With a heavy tripod and the use of long exposures you can capture some beautiful images. This is Blount County Court House in Maryville Tennessee at Christmas. The exposure was 5 seconds at f-5.6 at ISO 100. LynnFreeny.com
Portraits are interesting because I am always trying to capture just the right look that shows someones personality. That is not so easy because you are recording very complex information into a two dimensional glance so to speak. In this case the bride shows a very confident attitude just before her wedding. I used a 50mm lens set at f-1.4 . At such a wide opening the background gos totally out of focus eliminating any distractions.
I never hunt or stock wildlife. If I get an image of an animal it is because I just happened to be in the right place. For this image I was at a stop sign so my car became a sort of blind. I always have my camera and it just happened to have a 200mm lens was mounted on it. One shot out the window and it was over, the hawk disappeared into a near by wooded area.LynnFreeny.com
Night traffic is always interesting as long as you are not stuck in it. I used a very long exposure to capture the movement of the traffic. The white lines are the vehicles moving toward the camera with head lights showing. The red lines are the tail lights of traffic going away from the camera. The camera was set at f-16 to give me a long exposure of 7 seconds with the ISO set at 100. Notice how the street lights have a star effect caused by the tiny lens opening of f-16. LynnFreeny.com
This is the CSX Rail Tunnel at Harper's Ferry, West Virgina. I set up my tripod and composed the image, then out of no where this rail road worker starts walking out of the tunnel. The figure helped give the photograph scale and also showed movement as he walked toward the camera. Also the comparison of small figure and the huge dark tunnel opening helps give the image some tension and depth. LynnFreeny.com
Winter can be a very colorless season in the Southern Appalachians. With the absents snow and ice subjects look dull and uninteresting. I had that kind of thinking going on in my mind when I came upon these wonderful shadows in Cades Cove. Cropping so the sky did not show helped simplify the composition and keep the attention on the magnificent shadows. LynnFreeny.com
I saw this lone tree and thought it would make an interesting image. I wanted to show how different this hardwood looked among these every greens. I took the color away from the tree and the background sky. This helped the green plants standout even more. The actual title of this image is "Lonely" . LynnFreeny.com
I like to find things that remind us of the past. This is painted on a wall at the former J and K. I used photoshop to mix black and white with color. The patterns of weeds in the parking lot show how nature is beginning to take over. LynnFreeny.com
I was walking Charlie ( my dog) tonight and saw this moon rise. I headed back to my house to get my tripod and a long lens. With an exposure of about 1/2 second at f-2.8 I was able to show detail in the sky. The air is so clear that the shadowed side of the moon is visible. LynnFreeny.com
Even in winter the really good swimmers are still hard at work. I was taking photographs of a year round swim team today. I used the rule of thirds for my composition. By placing the swimmer on the left side of the frame, I was able to give space in front which helps give room for the the forward movement in the image. This same arrangement works well with any fast moving objects( cars,running horses). LynnFreeny.com
This image of the setting sun was shot from a moving car. I shot at f-2.8 with a 150mm lens. The sharp focus is on the sun .The telephone lines, street light, and cedar tree are not in sharp focus which helps frame the sun making it stand out in the image.LynnFreeny.com
Animals are great subjects to photography. This horse was shot using a technique called panning. The way you do this is by moving your camera at the same rate of speed as the moving subject using a slow shutter speed. It is kind of like the same thing you would do if you were using a movie camera and following the action.LynnFreeny.com
Fog makes everything look interesting. This image of a street in Knoxville is a good example of what I am talking about. Fog is made up of small water particles that act like millions of tiny mirrors that reflect any light source , in this case the orange street lights. LynnFreeny.com
Snow adds a little extra visual excitement to landscapes. In the image I used a 4x5 view camera with black and white film because a want to capture as much detail as possible. The choice of no color was used to bring out the white shapes the snow made as it covered rocks and trees. This is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes the sky is the most interesting subject when you are photographing landscapes. In this image the sky caught my attention first then I looked for an interesting ground to go with it. One of the worst ways to frame landscapes is to make equal amounts of sky and ground. The image will be much more dynamic when these two element are not the same. In this image the majority of the composition is the sky.LynnFreeny.com
When shooting pictures of buildings many times the hardest thing to show is scale. By including a familiar object in the composition, it will give your image a reference for scale. In this image people at the bottom of the frame are the familiar objects that show just how large the Washington Monument really is. Using the red channel in Photoshop, I was able to produce a very dark sky that contrasted with the the white monument.LynnFreeny.com
Finding a different angle for a very photographed place is not easy. This stone fence in front of the Capital building in Washington DC helps show a different angle. The strong vertical lines with and repeated shapes from the fence add just the right amount of strength to the composition. LynnFreeny.com
If you live close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park you will never ask where that name came from. This image shows an almost daily occurrence in the park. Fog forming in the valley below rises as the sun comes out. I like to be on the edge of the fog so I can get sharp objects that will contrast with areas softened by the fog.LynnFreeny.com
Leaves are off the trees in the Southern Appalachians but there is still some color to capture on film. A super saturated sky is what happens after the sun has disappeared behind the horizon. Patiences helped in this case. I just waited until the sky was glowing with warm tones. Notice the lower part of the sky is red because it is closer to the setting sun while the upper part of the sky is starting faint to a cooler purple. LynnFreeny.com
I take my camera everywhere. I know this may seem I have gone to far by having my camera in the bathroom. Well I could not help it when I saw the light and plants showing through the frosted glass of the bathroom. The image remains me of the impressionist painters.LynnFreeny.com
Fog is an amazing thing to photography. Getting images of it frozen can be very interesting. In this early morning shot near New Found Gap in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park the frozen fog coats every limb and plant in its path. LynnFreeny.com
Bad weather can be a good thing for nature photography. After hiking all day in the rain I was ready to give up on interesting light when the clouds opened up. I was amazed to see purple fog in a skeleton forest. I measured the light in the sky as the main subject knowing this would cause the trees to become a dark silhouette against the purple sky. LynnFreeny.com
Churches are very plentiful in small towns in the Southern Appalachians. Here in Greeneville, Tennessee this church reflects off one of many historical buildings in the downtown area. LynnFreeny.com
When it seems like I am in a not so inspiring place with a camera some people ask me the question," What are you taking a picture of ?". This image was taken along Interstate 40 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Shooting at f2.8 I was able to cause the lights to balloon out of focus creating an interesting background for the chain link fence. I used a tripod because the shutter speed was 1/2 second. Remember beautiful images are everywhere so get out there and get inspired. LynnFreeny.com
Frozen fog also called "hoarfrost" in the Southern Appalachians is called "pogonip" by Native Americans out west. The beauty of "hoarfrost" is that it coats the trees with a thick covering of frost only where fog travels. In this image you can see the evidence of how selective this type of frost can be. The frost produces a very reflective surface which causes the coated trees in this image to appear blue as the trees reflect the deep blue sky above.LynnFreeny.com
Black and white photography can be so powerful when it comes to capturing tone. In this image of a church steeple there is a feeling of loftiness as the tip of the steeple disappears into a very dark sky. The distortion was caused by positioning myself close to the building. With the use of a number 25 red filter I was able to darken the sky to absolute black. LynnFreeny.com
Back roads have interesting subjects and lots of curves. The combination of a beautiful Victorian house and interesting clouds in the evening light made this subject worth the drive. Using the red channel only and converting the image to gray scale gave me the same effect as a number 25 red filter with black and white film.LynnFreeny.com
Shadows at times dominate our vision. In this case the shadow becomes the main subject because of its sheer size. The tree is massive, but the shadow is even larger because of the low angle of the evening sun. The real trick to this was to make sure I positioned myself in the shadow so my own shadow did not show up.LynnFreeny.com
Early mornings always reward me with interesting subjects to photograph. Here is one of those subjects that is missed by most people because the actual object is not very popular. This is a close up of dew on a trash can lid. The curving lines are caused by large water droplets traveling down the slick plastic surface of the trash can. It reminds me of the surface of some far away planet. LynnFreeny.com
Shadows are such important elements in photography that I am always looking for interesting ones. In this image the shadows even have a color cast from the flame of the lamp. Also, some highlights from the glass globe create bright reflections on the wall. The strong crossing shadows are from the window which is lighting the subject. Never underestimate shadows and their ability to add to a composition. LynnFreeny.com
No, it's not Christmas lights but it may be Christmas shoppers. With a 200mm lens focused on a fence along interstate 40 in Knoxville, the headlights and taillights balloon out of focus creating a magical light show. LynnFreeny.com
I often walk with my eyes toward the ground this time of year looking for that leaf that needs to be photographed before it denigrates. This Bradford Pear leaf became one of those leaves that made me say, "Wow!", when I saw it. LynnFreeny.com
Many times shadows become much more interesting than the actual object they came from. This image of shadows on a porch illustrates this very concept. Also, notice negative space in the shadows seems to glow in the bright white areas of the image. LynnFreeny.com
Some very everyday objects can be transformed by light. In this image of bottles in a window the direction of the light caused the bottles to actually become a light source. I am always looking for this type of effect. One of my favorite things to shoot are leaves that become a light source as the sun shines through them. LynnFreeny.com
Shadows are important. This image is an example of the shadow being the dominant element. With the help of Photoshop I was able to tint the balloon red in this black and white photograph. The late day low angle of the sun causes the elongated shadows. This image was used on a Psychology text book cover.
Night photography is interesting in a city. If it is raining you get the bonus of reflections from the wet streets. In this image I was stopped at a red light. I looked to the right and saw a row of street lights, car lights and glowing signs in the background . With a 200 mm lens I knew I could compact the information and include all the interesting elements. LynnFreeny.com
Remember always have your camera with you. I was on a commercial flight cruising at about 30,000 feet when I saw this rainbow out my window. I used a lens hood pressed against my window to help shade any reflections. LynnFreeny.com
My favorite light occurs in the evening and morning. At these particular times of day most things look more interesting. Why? Maybe it is because you only see this quality of light once a day. This is an evening image of Knoxville Tennessee at sunset. LynnFreeny.com
Here is another example of shadows used in photography. Shadows repeat the the shape of the original creating a rhythm in the image. They also make complex objects very simple helping us to see things like the delicate positioning of the dancers hands. Remember not to under rate shadows when looking for subjects to capture on film. LynnFreeny.com
Shadows are under rated in the world. Some people never notice shadows. Without shadows the world would look really crazy. Have you ever been to the state fair and see the paintings with no shadows. Objects in paintings like that cause the cabins or barn to look like they are floating in front of a natural background. It looks out of this world. As a photographer you should almost be obsessed will shadow awareness. Shadows can make or break an image so watch out for this seemingly harmless element when doing photography. The image here was taken at Tremont during my photography workshop. LynnFreeny.com
This subject caught my eye because of the complementary color relationship that was screaming at me visually. In the art and design world complementary colors are often used to bring attention to objects. Red and green are the complementary colors in this image. On an artist color wheel they are opposite of each other. When colors are opposite on the color wheel they create a type of visual excitement that give the colors more punch. LynnFreeny.com
This cascading section of the Middle Prong in Tremont in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park craves a zig zag pattern through the rock surface forming a modest but beautiful water fall. In order to avoid strong shadows this image was shot in the early morning hours. Another great time to shoot this type of subject in the Southern Appalachians is on a cloudy days. Always make sure you have rain gear on a cloudy day in the mountains because if there are clouds usually rain will follow. LynnFreeny.com
