Walking Along the Shore of Percy Priest Lake in Nashville

This image was shot on a grey day with a cold wind coming off the lake. It seemed to be a perfect setting for black and white photography. I used a 15mm lens placed very close to the ground to capture the weather wore rocks with large cracks pointing the direction of the walkers.

Snow on Christmas Night

I decided to go out in my back yard to get some snow pictures in the dark. I just shot these a few min. ago. Here is how I set my camera : manual at ISO 1000 1 second f-3.5 with the on camera flash on. The flash was set at rear shutter which means the flash go off at the end of the exposure. Also the white balance was set on auto. The orange sky is from the street lights.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ballet Gloria Christmas " What Child is This"

Out of all of the Christmas programs to see this is at the top of my list of can not miss! It is also a great opportunity to capture images of dancers. The lighting and overall production is second to none in the Knoxville area. I sat on the front row to one side in order to get this angle. The camera was on maual with the white balance set on tugsten. I used a 100mm lens at f-2.8 at 1/4 with ISO 200. The slower shutter speed eabled me to capture the motion of the dancers. Link to Ballet Gloria.

Percy Priest Lake This Weekend in Nashville

I took a short hike from a Nashville neighborhood to the rocky edge of Percy Priest Lake. Using a 15mm lens I carefully composed my image to make sure my own shadow did not show up on the rocks in the foreground. I wanted to get the ripples on the surface of the lake caused by a strong wind. I actually toned down the color in Photoshop. Exposure info- f-5.6  1/500 ISO 200.

Moon On A Windy Stormy Night

I saw the moon through the clouds as I was driving home so when I got to my driveway I pulled out my camera using a 200mm lens to capture what I saw. Ended up taking two exposures. One for the clouds then one for the moon. Exposure Info. for the clouds  f-2.8   1/100  ISO 3200  for the moon   f-2.8   1/640  ISO 200. As you can see there is a big differences in the cloud exposure compared to the moon exposure. The way to understand why the moon needs less exposure is the fact the surface of the moon is as bright as a sunny day here on earth. Remember it is the same sun that lights the moon and earth. By the way I used Photoshop to combine the two images.

The Moving Walkway at The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC

Using a 15mm lens I turned the camera sideways in order to include more of the led lights that are used to light the tunnel between the two main galleries at the National Gallery in DC. The bright light in the center of the image is from the cafeteria that has a large window bring in light from outside. Exposure info- f-5.6 at 1/30 ISO 1000.

Old and New in Knoxville Tennessee

Evening light reflecting off a glass builting made a wonderful background for older style archtecture in downtown Knoxville. I used a 300mm lens to bring everthing closer and to make the building look closer together. Exposure information- f-8 at 1/30 using a tripod to keep the camera steady.

Bricks Along an Alley Way in Knoxville

Sometimes I get into shooting everything with one focal length. I used to do the same thing with a paint brush when I was in school. Maybe it is being lazy but it gives me a challenge to find the best ppossible subject for a certain lens. In this case I was using a 15mm lens. I moved in so close to the stack of bricks I almost touched them with the front element of the lens. Exposure details- f-5.6  1/125 at ISO 200.

Bowling With Color

In the photography world there are subjects that need to be color or need to be black & white. In the case of this image it screams for color. Even the shiny floor is reflecting all of the colors of the bowling lanes. The kids look like they dressed for their surroundings. I shot this with a 35 mm lens f-stop 3.5 at 1/125 at ISO 1000 with the white balance set at tungsten.

Halloween With Dorothy on The Yellow Brick Road

I shot this during Halloween. I wanted to get a picture of Dorothy as she moved down the sidewalk along with the surrounding neighborhood. I decided to use a small pop up flash on the camera to stop the action of the walking girl but used a long exposure to capture the houses. I set the camera on manual. I used an f-stop of 5.6 with an exposure of 1 second with a 15 mm lens. The houses are showing the motion of me holding the camera for 1 second. The flash lite the girl that was in a very dark area. This is not in the manual on how to use a camera. In other words braking the rules can be fun.

Cades Cove Smoke from Blacksmith Shop

This was taken during my photography class trip to Cades Cove. I used a 15mm lens at f-5.6 at 1/250 at ISO 200 with a manual white balance with the camera set on manual. I was really trying to capture the shadows from the trees. The smoke from the Blacksmith shop was a bounce.

Sunday Morning Frost

I was walking the dog this morning and found this wonderful frost on the ground, Usually when I walk the dog it is dark but thanks to the time change I had some early morning light. I used a 80-35 zoom set for macro and my camera was set on manual. I had my white balance set at 6250k with an f-stop of 3.5 at 1/60. To keep my knees from getting wet from the frost I used the live view to compose my image. I also used manual focus.

Cades Cove This Weekend

I took my photography class to Cades Cove this weekend and as usual the place was beautiful. Most of the fall colors were on the ground from the high winds earlier this week. I had to get on my knees for this image. I used a 15mm fish eye lens at f-5.6 1/125 at ISO 200. This is early morning light that helps because of the low angle and warm temperture. The low angle with this wide angle lens helped show off the leaves on the ground.   

Artist at Work on Pellissippi's Campus

On one of my evening class field trips on the main campus at Pellissippi I found a student from an art class doing the same thing as my photography student, trying to capture interesting subjects in the fading light of the evening. Thanks to the windows of the building behind the drawing student I was able to show the sunset and the warm light from the sunset. I used a 17mm lens at f-5.6 at 1/30  ISO at 200 and white balance set for daylight ( the one with the little sun symbol ). Using a wide angle lens forces you to come in close to your subject which makes you image more intimate for the viewer.

Soup and Pumpkin Party

I think the reason you learn the rules of photography is so you can find ways to break those rule in order to produce interesting images. The way I broke the rules on this image was by moving the camera during the exposure. I used an exposure of 2 seconds to capture the light from the candles in the jack-o-lantern as I moved the camera. I did not use a flash but let the other parents taking pictures help light my image with their flashes. Exposure information- f-stop 5.6 shutter speed 2 seconds White Balance Day Light at ISO 400 with flash provided by other cameras on the scene.

Wet Weather at Market Square in Knoxville TN

With a 15mm wide angle I got down as low as I could without getting my knees wet. I got into a duck walk position trying to capture the sky reflecting off the rain covered walk way. The camera was set at ISO 400, f-5.6 at a shutter speed of 1/30. The conversion to black and white was done in Adobe Photoshop by using the red channel and converting to gray scale. Note of interest- I am working on a book that will take a select number of images which will include a more detailed explanation than is on the blog. The book will take image by image revealing what I learned by taking that particular image. The book will be out by the first of the year. I will announce it's release on this blog site.

Portrait of a Bald Eagle

When someone says portrait photography most people think of pictures of people not animals.The principles of good portrait photography also applies to good animal photography. In the case of this Bald Eagle I used a long lens 200mm and set the lens at a large lens opening f-2.8. The long lens helps you get close to the bird without disturbing him to the point of flight. With humans a long lens works in the same way by giving you and the person some comfortable space between you. The large opening of f-2.8 produces shallow depth of field to separate the eagle from the background which is the same thing you would do when photographing a person.

Middle Prong in Tremont Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This image was shot during the last Advance Photography field trip in Tremont. Exposure info: f-32 at 30 sec. ISO 200 lens 17mm. I needed to have every thing in focus so I chose the smallest lens opening possible. With this tiny lens opening I had to use a very slow shutter speed which caused the motion of the water to become smooth and almost fog like. A shutter speed of 1/30 or slower will show motion while extreme depth of field will is possible at f-32. I had to use a tripod because holding for 30 seconds and producing a sharp image is impossible. A good rule of thumb is your shutter speed should match your lens length in order to be able to hand hold your camera.

Starry Night on Foothills Parkway

I took my family up to Foothills Parkway tonight to star gaze and maybe see some of the fireworks at Booms Day in Knoxville. The fire works were too far away and were quite small but the stars were out in all of their glory. I shot this 30 second exposure with my camera on a tripod and lucked out in catching some traffic as it zoomed by. I was shooting with a 17mm wide angle at f-3.5 at ISO 1000. My white balance was set for  tungsten light to give the sky a blue color. It was a good clear night with a little bit of a chill in the air.

Another Duck at Dollywood

The sky and trees lite by evening light  reflecting off of the water created a nice background for this duck in Dollywood. I used a 200 mm telephoto lens at f-stop 2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/250. The large lens opening of f-2.8 helped put the background out of focus.
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Duck in Green Reflections

I was at Dollywood with my family and of course my camera when I saw these wild ducks in a pond next to one of the water rides. I am always looking for interesting subject whereever I am. In fact I like to find things in places that most people do not considered a great location for photography. The evening light helped the colors to pop. I used a 200mm telephoto lens with an f-stop of 2.8 which produced a shallow depth of field . The shutter speed was set at 1/250 to freeze the fast swimming duck. The lush green vegetation turned the pond into a colorful background for the duck.

Shadows in Dollywood

Shadows are so under rated in most peoples minds. I have had students showing me a photo and then start apologizing for the shadows! Some images can be all about shadows. This photo is an example of the subject being the shadow. As I walked behind my daughter and her friend I saw their long shadows in the evening light. Camera settings were f 3.5  1/250  ISO 400. I converted the RGB file to BW then changed it back to RGB and added  a warm tone using Adobe Photoshop.

Butterfly Swimmer Stop Action

High speed photography can capture things that happen so fast they are not seen by normal observation. Using a 200mm lens at f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/1000 I was able to capture the energy of the swimmer as he worked his way to a finish.

IR Photography With an Old Friend

Using my 11 year old D-1 Nikon I began taking infared images around my front yard. Using a 30 year old 24mm fixed Nikkor lens at 2.8 with a Hoya Infrared RM90 filter I was able to capture my 1991 Miata. My conclusion old is cool!

Insects Flying into the Pool Lights

I went to a summer swim meet last night. As I was leaving I noticed a flurry of activity in the lights around the pool. That bright round object in the sky is the moon. It was a hot and hunid night. Great for swimming and bugs! My camera was set at f-4 at 1/8 at ISO 1600.

Washington DC Sunset with Washington Monument

Using a 200mm lens in the evening light I was able to isolate the sky and the Washington Monument just before a stormy night. My photography class at Pellissippi will begin June 16 th.

Tall Building in Downtown Knoxville

Using a wide angle zoom I was able to convey the height of this buiding in Knoxville. I always work a subject. What I mean by that is shoot different angles and views so you have something to chose from when you start editing images. I have a photography class at Pellissippi this summer that starts June 16 th.

Pink Dogwood

Over the weekend I started walking around my yard with my camera in tow. The sun was too bright to take pictures. The colors seemed to be washed out. I decided to get shots of the harsh sunlight through the flower making the bloom a kind of light souce. Even in bad light don't give up. Look for dfferent angles of view.

Knoxville Building Reaching for the Sky First Tennessee

I love tall glass building because they are shinny and flashy. Well what I am really trying to said is how wonderful glass reflects. Moving in very close to this structure at a low angle I was able to show the extreme height as it reached toward the sky like a tree trying to find the sun . Distortion is what I was trying to get by moving in close.

Man's Best Friend Downtown Knoxville

Somtimes the light is just right. This image of a chocolate lab had the help of a cloudy sky. On a cloudy day the sun becomes this wonderful large light source that creates light that looks very much like studio lighting. With this even light the shadow details are incredable. I found this dog in the back of a truck on Gay Street in Downtown Knoxville. Notice the catch light (white refletion) in the dog 's eye. This same lighting can be duplicated in a studio using one large soft box overhead .

Tremont in the Spring

These are some of the images I shot during a field trip with my photography class to Tremount this past weekend. These were all taken in early morning light. This time of the day is great for photography because the sun is still low in the sky giving a nice warm and even tone light. As the sun gets higher in the sky the colors seem to fade making it hard to capture the beatiful colors of nature.

Tremont Along The River

This is a shot I made during my photography class this past weekend. In order to capture an image like this you must use a very small lens opening which in turn requires a very slow shutter speed. The small f-stop gives the subject enough depth of field to keep the reflections and rocks in focus. The slow shutter speed shows the motion of the water. Tech Info :  200mm Len  f-32 at 1 sec. 200 ISO and yes I used a tripod.

Witnessing for Christ

When I took this picture of graffiti at Market Square in Knoxville I did not realize there was a message or a sort of conversation on it. Check it out. This is a very creative way of witnessing for Christ and it could be life changing for some one. Technical info-- 15mm lens  f-5.6 at 1/125. This wide lens gives me some great distortion!     

Working an Image of a Leaf

Photography is like anything else. The harder you work the more you will get out of it. I like to tell my students to work an image.That means looking at all angles and views of a subject. Weather you are shooting people, landscapes or objects such as a leaf use your camera to study and record different views and angles. Get to know your subject through the images you make.The images on this post are of one leaf. Be brave shoot shoot shoot! This is the digital age of photography. In the film days I always had the sick feeling in the back of my mind how much is this shoot going to cost me. That fear is gone as I continually increase how many images I shot of one subject. Make sure when you find that next interesting subject get all the angles (low,high, front,back) and don't worry about those people that give you a funny look as you get down on you stomach to get that interesting angle.

Stop Action Swimmer

Sports photography can be approached in two different ways. Stop action (fast shutter speeds) or showing motion (slow shutter speeds) are the two different ways of capturing interesting sports images. In this picture of a swimmer I used a shutter speed of 1/500 to freeze the swimmer and the water revealing what the eyes could not see. When using shutter speeds of 1/60 or slower motion can be shown .

Indoor Shadows in Knoxville TN

Most of my favorite subjects are things I just happen to see.The early morning sun light coming through these windows created these dramatic shadows. I used a small lens opening f-16 so I could get sharp focus from one end of the composition the the other. Here is a good link that will help you understand f-stops and shutter speeds which make up what is call a proper exposure. PHOTOHEAD