Last nights swim meet was still going strong after the sun went down. The meet was at a small neighborhood pool. This means I get better angles and closer to the action. In fact when I was taking this image I got a little wet. Getting in close helps draw the viewer into this high energy sport. I was shooting in low light with a long lens. The motion of the water and swimmer takes on an almost painterly quality. LynnFreeny.com
During a ballet most of the dance has an overall feeling of gracefulness. I noticed the dancers shadows as they came close to the background. The shadows simplified the dancers to tones.LynnFreeny.com
It is summer time and I spend some serious time at swim meets. I am always looking for interesting subjects wherever I am. Between heats during a break in the action I shot this image of the warm evening light reflecting off the blue waters of the pool. I know that description sounds like a corny travel ad.LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes I like to complain about the weather. When I go to swim meets I usually do not like to see stormy weather because that could delay or even end a meet prematurely. But in this case I was very thankful for the weather. The red sky gave another element for the moment. I also broke the rules and held the camera unleveled to make the viewer feel more involved in the image.LynnFreeny.com
When I shoot sports photography I like using a telephoto lens so I can put myself in the middle of the action. In this image I used a 200mm lens so I could compact the information causing the swimmers to look like they are almost on top of each other. This helps to convey the competitiveness and excitement generated by these athletes. LynnFreeny.com 
I was shooting at a swim meet when the officials called time while they fixed some problems. While I was waiting I saw this cool shadow. Using Photoshop I converted the color image to lab colors then saved the lightness layer as a gray scale image. Forgive me if you are not a Photoshop person. LynnFreeny.com
I was taking pictures of a musical at Pellissippi State when I saw how interesting the stage lights were. Using a setting of ISO 800 I was able to hand hold the camera. LynnFreeny.com
Tonight I decided to take some photos of VBS at my church. I got side tracked by the light coming through the beautiful stained glass windows. LynnFreeny.com
This spring I took my photography class to Market Square in Knoxville Tennessee. I found this scene in the sculpture garden. By using a telephoto lens with a large lens opening I was able to frame this man enjoying his newspaper. By using a shallow depth of field I was able to isolate the man with his news paper and cigar. LynnFreeny.com
I guess one of my favorite things about photography is capturing a moment in time that would otherwise be missed. In this image I was interested in freezing the swimmers as they came off the blocks. The less than graceful diver in the foreground gives me more than I could have hoped for. A fast shutter speed of 1/500 of a second helped stop the action. LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes people look at me with this confused look on their face as they watch me with a camera. I know they are thinking what is this crazy guy shooting with his camera. Case in point, I found some interesting overlapping patterns as I walked by a building site. The colors seem to vibrate. LynnFreeny.com
When using a telephoto lens inside with a subject like swimming you have no choice but to use a wide open aperture. This produces very shallow depth of field. I try to use it to my advantage. This type of focus helps to isolate your subject. In this image the swimmers head is really the only thing in focus. LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes the time of day is more important than the subject. In this image a picture of these storage tanks would be boring without the sunset reflection giving a warm glow on the subject. LynnFreeny.com
Using a telephoto lens is my main choice when shooting swimmers. Two reasons for the long lens, one I do not like getting wet and I like to get close up details of the swimmers face. In this image it looks like the swimmers are too close. This is caused by the telephoto lens which compacts information. This is why long lens make mountains look taller.LynnFreeny.com
I took this shot on a field trip with my class. Several of my students decided the reflection on the doors of this building had to be photographed. I guess I thought the same thing. I positioned myself so I would not be in the composition. The way the glass is separated by the metal frames helps the the reflection to become more interesting than just one solid piece of glass. LynnFreeny.com
I was at a church picnic today at Sam Houston School House. After eating too much I headed to a bench on the beautiful grounds of the old school house. I looked up and saw a tree canopy of new growth and as you know I had my camera with me so I took a shot. I ended up using the green channel then added a warming filter in Photoshop to get to this final image.LynnFreeny.com
Shadows are under rated by many people. Some photographers try to eliminate all shadows making their image seem so flat and boring. In this image the shadows of the fence on the little girls face add more drama. LynnFreeny.com
Usually when you say birds eye view of something it means seeing at a high elevation. In the case of this image I imagined what it would be like if I was a low flying bird. By tilting the camera I was able to give a feeling flight. LynnFreeny.com
I shot this jet crossing the sky one evening during winter. I used a wide angle lens which created some distortion with the trees in the frame. Extreme wide angle lens usually distort at the edges of the the image. It works well on this type of subject. When a wide angle lens is not level the effect on the edges are even more pronounced. In this image the lens is being pointed upward toward the plane. This kind of effect may not be as desirable when shooting a group shot like a sports team. The people on the sides will look wider or even fat!LynnFreeny.com
I just can't help myself I must capture the reflections I see every day. Here I am stepping out of a rain storm when the sky clears and there it is . Rain drops on this window mirroring the end of the storm. LynnFreeny.com
Reflection is one of those things most of us take for granted. Many times we just look and see a window and miss the beautiful reflection like this one in this image. Keep eyes and mind open and look at the world for those little details. LynnFreeny.com
Photography is about showing your vision to other people. In this image I am choosing to only focus on a small section of this old typewriter. LynnFreeny.com
Some of the most interesting parts of a building is the inside architecture . In this case I looked up at the sky lights of this building. The repeated space give a nice pattern for the composition. The reason I went for black and white on this image was because I felt the strongest element is the contrast of tones. This contrast always happens when windows are included when shooting indoors. LynnFreeny.com
This is the last in my series of power outage images. I was putting a candle in the guest bathroom. I laid my flash light down on the sink. I noticed the crazy shadows created as it bounced of the chrome water spigot. LynnFreeny.com
This is another candle light image I took during our power outage. I love the warm color and the soft edge shadows created by the candle. LynnFreeny.com
The power went off in our house Sunday night. We got the candles out for light. I started looking around for something to do when I noticed the shadows caused by the candle light. The image is one of the results of a night without electricity. LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes you get just the right light for a portrait without trying too hard. What helps you recognize good light is knowing how to create good light. The light on this little girl was natural. It was the light that happened to be there. I like to call it "found light". Just remember it is impossible to find something that you are not familiar with so learn how to create good light. LynnFreeny.com
This morning I was walking around in my front yard when I noticed the Rhododendron were in full bloom. We had very heavy rain fall last night. I moved in close to get the bee tracks and water droplets on the bloom. I used a 100mm lens with extension tubes. With these tubes any lens can be a macro lens by moving the lens farther away from the film plane enabling the lens to focus closer. LynnFreeny.com
I am alway looking for interesting things in boring places. I found this window in a parking lot in Knoxville. LynnFreeny.com
This is another example of using a gobo ( a go between). The tree is the gobo with the church and the tree pointing toward the center of the composition. LynnFreeny.com
If there is good light boring subjects become interesting. The warm evening light is hard to beat.
By using the red channel I was able to get the same effect that I get from a 25 red filter when shooting black and white film. I also used a wide angle lens for distortion. LynnFreeny.com
I spent some time in my back yard today on one of the best days so far this spring and maybe even this year. I found this honey suckle growing on my wood pile. As the sun filtered through the tree canopy I noticed shadows through the sun illuminated leaves. LynnFreeny.com
The other day in Oak Ridge Tennessee I noticed that it was raining with the sun shining. I scanned the sky for a rainbow and sure enough I could see it just above the tree tops. The straight shot was not very interesting so I started looking for a more interesting angle. That is when I saw a reflection from the newly formed puddles of water. Remember most of photography is looking not shooting. LynnFreeny.com
I know this looks like a starry night but it is really another image of the Tennessee River reflecting light on a windy day. LynnFreeny.com
One of the best times of the day to shoot photographs is early in the morning. In the case of this image having fog with sun rise adds some dramatic almost theatrical lighting to such a normal subject. If you shot this same subject an hour later the image would be quite boring. LynnFreeny.com
Using gobos in photography can help you deal with direct sun light. A gobo is actual a "go between", an object that blocks light. By using this tree and a small f-stop of 16, I was able to show the sun in this scene as a star shape. You can use people, cars, buildings and any other found object as a gobo. LynnFreeny.com
Faces of young children can be more expressive than adult. They also look more natural with their expressions. The reason this is true is because adults have baggage that keeps them from looking natural and relaxed. Most adults are worrying about how they are going to look. Kids are kids for the most part and portray a type of confidence that you see in models and actors.LynnFreeny.com
I think most of photography is about looking. Anybody can learn to use camera equipment. Being able to see and capture those things that most people never notice is what being a photographer is all about. LynnFreeny.com
This is an image of New River Bridge in West Virgina. My decision to my the image black and white was because it was the middle of the day which produced very flat lighting. I was able to add more contrast as a black and white photo giving the image more snap. LynnFreeny.com
The thing I remember most about this image was the bitter cold wind that was blowing across this barren rocky mountain top. It was November at sunrise on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine and it was clear, beautiful , and cold. Using the red channel in my RGB image helped capture the rough texture of this mountain overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. LynnFreeny.com
On my way out of work I stopped at a red light and shot this through my windshield. I try to have my camera ready for those times when you just have a few seconds to react. LynnFreeny.com
This image was shot on Saturday in the rain in Cades Cove. I have learned a long time ago if you want to get different images never listen to the weather report. Get out there in all kinds of weather and start capturing more interesting images. LynnFreeny.com
Spring has a more subdued color scheme when compared to autumn. But it has a freshness that makes it as interesting as any other season. I shot this image on Saturday in Cades Cove. This same view in the summer would be one shade of green missing all the detail reveled by the variety of colors. LynnFreeny.com
This is another image I got in Cades Cove on Saturday. Having rain as a factor helped to create some wonderful light. LynnFreeny.com
Here is another image I shot on the photography field trip on Saturday in Cades Cove. I have to say this is one of my favorite places in the Southern Appalachians . LynnFreeny.com
One of the fun parts of photography is that you can break the rules and sometimes it works. This image was shot today in Cades Cove during my photography classes last field trip for spring. In this particular photograph I actually broke the rules three different ways. One I ignored the weather report that it would rain this morning, two I shot directly into the sun, and three I was standing in the middle of the road with a car coming. LynnFreeny.com
Early in the morning is a great time to catch fog in the mountains. This is a look off at Cumberland Gap. This image was shot just after sun rise. LynnFreeny.com
When shooting an image of a city selective views can keep the image from looking too chaotic. I used a telephoto lens to compact the information. This brought buildings closer together. I like the mix of old and new architecture revealing some of the history of Knoxville. LynnFreeny.com
Sometimes even a white board can be colorful if the light is just right. In this case the warm evening light from the classroom window reflected off the white board. LynnFreeny.com
