Tennessee River Through Knoxville

Some people think when it gets dark it is time to put your camera away. At night some of the most boring subjects become magical. This image was taken after a "Boomsday" fireworks display on the Tennessee River in Knoxville Tennessee. The exposure was around 30 seconds which caused a river full of boat traffic to disappear leaving only there lights. The camera was on a tripod because of the long exposure. LynnFreeny.com
Note: I will be teaching a photography course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this spring. Click here for details.

Deer in Cades Cove

My favorite place to photograph white-tailed deer is Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Using a 200mm lens is always long enough for the deer in this area. Early in the morning or in the evening is the best time to shoot this subject because the light is better at these times. Also the number of deer is greater at this time of day. In this image the doe are wandering through tall sage grass with the sun shining toward the camera. This camera position helps to silhouette the animals. A little space in front of the animals helps the viewer anticipate the forward movement of the animals.LynnFreeny.com
Note: I will be teaching a photography course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this spring. Click here for details.

Tree Shadow at Night

I am still posting shadow images. This shadow was from a tree with a street light being the main source of light. The sheen from the pavement is caused by a light rain coming down at the time of the exposure. Night photography is very interesting but when you add rain it gets even more dynamic. LynnFreeny.com
Note: I will be teaching a photography course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this spring. Click here for details.

Window With Morning Shadow

Shadows are one of my favorite subjects. This shadow helps to lengthen the composition. Keep your eyes open for shadows they can add a special element to your images.LynnFreeny.com
Note: I will be teaching a photography course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this spring. Click here for details.

Field of Yellow Wildflowers

I am set up with my tripod and 6x7 camera in the back of my pickup truck for this image. I have two reasons for using my truck to shoot from. The main reason I am set up this way is because it helps me get a high vantage point keeping the landscape from looking too flat. The other reason is because Ansel Adams used the roof of his Cadillac to photograph from. If it worked for him it should work for me. When taking pictures it is always good to shoot above or below eye level. Everybody sees the world from eye level making this view boring at times.LynnFreeny.com
Note: I will be teaching a photography course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this spring. Click here for details.

Details of a Log Cabin With Window

This subject is all about textures and tones making it a prefect black and white subject. I wanted to keep the composition dynamic and simplified. With a 28mm wide angle lens I moved in close enough to cause a perspective distortion with the strong horizontal lines of the cabin.LynnFreeny.com
Note: I will be teaching a photography course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this spring. Click here for details.

Ducks in Reflecting Pond at Sunset Maryville Tennessee

The time of day is one of the most important elements to consider when shooting outdoors. My favorite time is morning and evening. In this image of the silhouetted ducks the reflection of the sunset is one of the most interesting parts of the subject. LynnFreeny.com

Green Moss Covered Barn in Cades Cove

I am always telling my students to work a subject. What I mean by that is to find a good subject then start looking at all the different angles. In this case the most interesting thing was the thin green moss that had grown on the shady side of this old barn. By using a wide angle lens I was able to capture the elongated shape of the barn.LynnFreeny.com

Water Fountain Reflecting Warm Light

I was taking an evening walk on Greenbelt Park in Maryville Tennessee when I noticed this unusual reflection on a water fountain. A street light had come on as daylight was fading. This very orange light mirrored off the stainless steel surface creating a beautiful contrast from the cool light of evening.LynnFreeny.com

Comet Hale-Bopp Over Maryville Alcoa Tennessee

It was the spring of 1997 and I like many others saw this amazingly bright comet in the sky called Hale-Bopp. I went up on Foothills Parkway just in time to catch the last part of the setting sun and this beautiful but almost scary object in the sky. The comet seems to be coming down on the city lights of Maryville and Alcoa. LynnFreeny.com

Old Weathered Door

Detail in the wood grain was what got me interested in this door. By using my 4X5 view camera I was able to capture the many shades of gray along with the lines in the wood grain. By isolating a small portion of the door I was able to simplify the composition. Remember when composing a photograph include only what is interesting.LynnFreeny.com

Block Glass With Warm Sunset Light

My favorite time to shoot is evening and morning because the quality of light can be extraordinary. In this image of a block glass window what caught my attention was the warm light of a sunset shinning through. The repeated square shapes help to give an interesting rhythm to the composition. LynnFreeny.com

Shadows of Bottles in a Window

Shadows can be one of the most dynamic elements in a photograph. The angle of the sun has to be just right to capture a shadow like the one in this image. Because the bottles allow some light to go through them, their shadows have color. LynnFreeny.com

Valentine Written in Stone

I found this 1943 carved valentine in the mountains of West Virgina. This heart was chiseled out on a rocky cliff near Morgantown. Wow! It has been there for 65 years. True love endures. LynnFreeny.com

Red Barn With a Green Cadillac

I love driving the back roads. Why? This image is one of the reasons why. I found this subject on a country road in East Tennessee. I started shooting the green Cadillac when the owner came out of his house to see what I was up to. I said to him "what an interesting car!" He opened up and said with pride he had been working on this car for about a year and was planning on driving it in a few months. By the use of Adobe Photoshop I desaturated the original color image from my 6x 7 transparency. LynnFreeny.com

Inn in Maine at Night

Photographing businesses can be boring sometimes. The answer to this problem could be as simple as shooting the business at night. In this image of a small Inn in Camden, Maine I was able to capture the quaintness of this mom and pop place after dark. I did not need to worry about muggers here but some of the mosquitoes I saw could have carried me and my camera away. The tripod was a must because my exposure was about 2 seconds.LynnFreeny.com

Looking Up at Alum Cave Bluff

Most of the time when you are taking a landscape photograph you are holding the camera level. In this image the camera was actually pointed up toward the sky in order to include the tree and the cliff. This is Alum Cave Buffs in the Great Smoky Mountains. It is not really a cave but a cliff with a large over hang. LynnFreeny.com

Adobe Church in New Mexico

As I was driving on the back roads of New Mexico I found this beautiful adobe church. I decided to simplify the composition by showing only the top of the church letting a adobe wall dominate the foreground. The placement of the top of the church demonstrates the use of the rule of thirds. LynnFreeny.com

Rock Guitar Player in Concert

Sometimes in still photography in order to capture the way the moment felt you have to show motion. By using a long exposure, 1/2 a second , I was able to convey the high energy of the music that was being played along with the movement of the musician. In photography breaking the rules can open you to more creative images. In this case shooting a long exposure without a tripod of a moving subject was breaking the rules. LynnFreeny.com

Sunset in Traffic

While most people get on their cell phones while driving home after work, I am using my camera. Don't worry I only shoot when I am setting still or when someone else is driving. In this image I caught a reflection of the setting sun at a red light. Remember I alway have my camera ready for recording interesting things I see in everyday life. LynnFreeny.com

Ice Layers Little River Great Smoky Mountains

Several cold nights along a body of water in the mountains cause some wonderfully beautiful layers of ice to form. This was shot early in the morning in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at a temperature hovering around zero. The repeated curving lines in the ice help add a rhythm to the photograph.LynnFreeny.com

Great Smoky Mountains and Chilhowee Lake

I am alway thinking of different angles and ways of looking at things. I think eye level is boring for most photographs. Why? Because most people spend the majority of their lives viewing the world eye level. That is why I enjoy aerial views of subjects. It is about as far away from eye level as you can get. This is a view of the Great Smoky Mountains surrounding Chilhowee Lake in the early morning hours giving a surreal color pallet along with fog. LynnFreeny.com

Refections on a Car

Reflections are one of those elements that most people ignore. As a photographer, reflections are great for adding interest to your images. In this image I pulled up in a parking space and I noticed this great reflection. Keep in mind when shooting reflection it is best to use a f-stop of 16 or 22 to get as much depth of field as possible. Why? Because your field of focus can go from close up to infinity. LynnFreeny.com

Grass in Frozen Puddle Maine

I was up on Cadillac Mountain in Maine waiting for the sun to raise when I noticed some interesting ice patterns on the ground. The temperature was close to zero with a very strong wind that was hard to ignore(serious wind chill). Because of the melting and refreezing , layers of ice formed around these small pieces of grass. What normally would have been a small puddle of water was now beautiful patterns of ice thanks to the freezing weather. LynnFreeny.com

Swimmer Stop Action

I went to swim practice tonight to capture some images for my files. Swimming is my favorite sport to photograph. Why? Because there is fast movement, reflections from the water and unexpected stop action results, swimming is great fun to shoot. There are a few things to keep in mind when covering swimming with your camera. A 80 to 200mm telephoto zoom helps you get close without getting wet. Using a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster will help you stop the action.In this image my shutter speed was 1/250 with the zoom lens set at 200mm. LynnFreeny.com

Stormy Sky at Sunset

When cold air mixes with warm air at sunset the sky becomes a beautiful array of colors and shapes. This also means a possibility of very strong storms. In this image of the mixing of warm and cold air I found out later their was a tornado warning. Be careful!LynnFreeny.com

Cades Cove in the Snow

Cades Cove is one of my favorite places. When it snows in the Cove it becomes a wonderful place to photograph. This is a Cantilevered Barn found mostly in the East Tennessee area.LynnFreeny.com

Snow on New Found Gap Great Smoky Mountains

Snow in the Great Smoky Mountains makes winter temperatures more bearable. Snow can change a colorless landscape into a winter wonderland. By using a large format camera I was able to capture as much detail as possible.LynnFreeny.com

Wedding Portrait

I like to use a 50mm 1.4 lens for portraits because of its large lens opening . In this image I am shooting at f-stop 1.4 which creates a very shallow depth of field. LynnFreeny.com

Bikes Shadows

Shadows can be one the most interesting elements when included in a photograph. Many times people do not seem to see shadows. Evidence of this shows up in paintings done by amateurs. Without shadows objects look flat. In this image the bikes are somewhat boring but because of the shadow I was blown away by the subject. LynnFreeny.com

Little River in Winter Snow and Ice

The icy river in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a wonderful subject for photography. By using a tripod with a large format camera was able to capture detail and motion. A long exposure of 1 second helped show the movement of the water. The large format helped with the fine detail.LynnFreeny.com

Frozen Waterfall

In the winter waterfalls freeze and melt and refreeze. This natural cycle can repeat itself many times to form some of the most beautiful but natural ice forms. I like to think of them as a kind of abstract sculpture. In this image in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park the deep blue winter sky reflects off the ice.LynnFreeny.com

Details of Frozen Waterfall

It has to be very cold for several days to cause a waterfall to freeze. This image is a closeup of a frozen waterfall. As I was looking for interesting details in the ice, I noticed as I moved at different angles the colorful reflections varied in intensity. I spent 30 minutes just searching for that angle that would reflect the most color from the surrounding environment. LynnFreeny.com

Sunset Light Through Church Window

I was photographing a concert at a church when I noticed the glow of the evening light through the windows. A good rule of thumb is to always look around for things of interest when you have a camera, even on assignment. These images that I take for myself are usually my favorite.LynnFreeny.com

Ice Covered River

When I am in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park one of my favorite places to be is along a stream. In this case the temperature was close to zero causing ice patterns to form over the moving water. These abstract lines and curves were paper thin. As the sun rose and lit the delicate surface of the ice, the beautiful design quickly disappeared into the moving water of the stream. The dominant blue tint was caused because the ice was in the shade.LynnFreeny.com

Church With Clouds

Time of day can make or break an image. In this case the time was evening and the cloud cover was beginning to break up. With the help of Adobe Photoshop I saved the red channel and discard the green and blue channels. This is the same as using a no. 25 red filter with black and white film. LynnFreeny.com

Portrait of a Groom

This portrait was taken before the wedding. I wanted to capture the expression that reveals the feeling a groom has before the wedding. In this case confidence seem to be reflected in his expression. The evening light helps add a warm tone to the image. By using a 50 mm lens at f-1.4, I was able to put the the background out of focus. His position to the far left helps make the composition more dynamic. LynnFreeny.com

Diving Swimmer in Purple

This is a stop action sports image. But it also shows a small amount of motion blur in the swimmer. The cropping and an unlevel camera angle add tension and force the viewer to look toward the right hand corner at the swimmer. Yes is is OK to hold the camera in an unlevel position.LynnFreeny.com

Tree Shadow in Snow

Shadows are always under rated. Driving on a back road I saw this tree in the snow. I thought the shadow looked like the roots of the tree. The results can be amazing when shadows are added to a composition.LynnFreeny.com

Morning Sky With Clouds

As I walked with Charlie my dog this morning I captured an interesting sky. I moved to an angle so the trees would be in the lower right side of the composition. This helped balance the image with the trees pointing toward the sky. The repeated shapes of the smaller clouds in the upper part of the sky gave a rhythm to the image. LynnFreeny.com

Snow on Small Plant Skeleton in Cades Cove

I was standing next to a small stream in Cades Cove in 15 degree weather looking for an interesting subject. Along the stream I found this tiny plant that had caught some of the recent snow fall. I used a telephoto lens with an extension tube attached to my camera. With a sturdy tripod, I positioned the camera so the small stream in the shadow would help define the snow covered plant. I determined my exposure using the sunny 16 rule which states that on a sunny day your exposure will be f- 16 with a shutter speed that matches your ISO. Because I was using an extension tube I had to add one stop more to the exposure.LynnFreeny.com

Red Car and Reflections on Pellissippi Parkway

Having a camera while riding in a car can be fun. I took this image while passing a car on the interstate. I was not driving but riding. I used the watercolor filter in Adobe Photoshop to give the image more texture and color saturation. I used a fast shutter speed of 1/500 to freeze the car's movement. I simplified the composition by cropping in tight with a telephoto lens. Remember you do no have to show everything. In fact when composing a photograph only include what is interesting.LynnFreeny.com

Chimney Tops and Half Moon in Snow Great Smoky Mountains

This image is an example of my favorite winter weather in the mountains. It is the day after a snow storm. The sky is clear, the air is cool, and the sun is warm. Using the 25 red filter with black and white film I was able to darken the blue sky. The size of the moon was made visible with the aid of a telephoto lens. This is Chimney Tops in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is very steep trail in the summer and a very slippery and dangerous trail after a winter snow.LynnFreeny.com

Snow Covered Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains

Winter is always interesting in the Southern Appalachians. From frozen fog to heavy snow storms the world of dense green vegetation of summer seems so far away. When shooting snow remember that all light meters are calibrated to 18% gray. What that means is the meter in your camera tries to give you an exposure that is mid gray. Snow in the mountains is beautiful because of the bright white color it has. Gray snow is kind of like gray teeth. It is not very attractive. I always tell my photography students that they are much smarter than their high tech matrix light meters. With all of this said the best way to capture white snow with your camera is to expose your film 1 stop more than the meter suggest. LynnFreeny.com

Frozen Fog in the Southern Appalachians "Hoarfrost "

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

Red Berries in Ice

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

Shadows at Night From Full Moon

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

Eyes of a Baby

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

Snow In Christmas Play "Annie"

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

Early Morning Fog

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