The Great Smoky Mountains

Terry and I spent a few days this last week enjoying the fall colors in the Great Smoky Mountains national park.  We rented a chalet in the mountains just outside of Gatlinburg.  The weather turned out not to be too cooperative as it rained every day except one.  But, we still managed to enjoy ourselves and come away with some pretty decent shots.  Believe it or not, cloudy and rainy days produce some of the best shooting conditions for waterfalls and river shots - which was what I was mostly interested in.  There’s just not as much contrast you have to deal with and the light is nice and dispersed.

I posted the pictures in 2 spots - new updates to my Tennessee galleries where I added just a few of the best and a new personal gallery which contains everything.  Just click on any of the pictures or highlighted links to be taken directly to those galleries.

Made the front page

Pretty cool - I was on the road this week when I got a call from the sports editor from the Hill Country News.  I had submitted several photos from the last game I shot w/Vista Ridge -vs- Georgetown for them and was a bit surprised when they used the one they did.  Seems as Liz had a surprise for me - the one I had thought was the best was going on the next print version’s front page.  Way cool.    Here’s the shot:

Alaska’s Inside Passage

So we’ve been back a little over 2 weeks since our cruise to Alaska.  We’ve been so busy since with our move that I haven’t had a chance until now to post the pictures.  These are probably the best I’ve ever taken but it wasn’t hard given the scenery I had to work with.  Alaska is simply breath-taking in her beauty.

To set the stage, we took a cruise aboard the Star Princess (Princess Cruise Lines) to Alaska’s inside passage.  It was mine and Jill’s gift to one another for 25 years of marriage that we celebrated earlier in the summer.  We went with 4 other couples from Austin - 2 that we knew and 2 that we met for the 1st time on the cruise.  Not that I’m a cruise afficianado, but doing a cruise with others is the only way to go.  We had a ball with all of them.  The couples were Joel and Deborah Altsman, Fred and Gaynelle Bahrenburg, Ron and Sue Revell, and Chuck and Barbara Hammel.   The cruise was a 7-day cruise leaving from Seattle with ports of call in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway with a half-day scenic cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord.

We got to Seattle on friday night and met up w/everyone on Saturday.  The forecast was for rain in Seattle but it was nowhere to be found on Saturday.  We had a beautiful day to explore the city with temperatures in the 70s and blue skies - a far cry from the 100+ degree days we had in Austin all summer.  We started our exploration with a “duck” tour through Seattle and then went to the Pike street market.  The market was gorgeous as there were flowers everywhere.  Speaking of everywhere, LSU was playing the University of Washington that night so there was more purple and gold than you could shake a stick at.  We had lunch at Athena’s in the market and dinner at Anthony’s Pier 66.  Jill and I went back to the space needle where I grabbed a few shots of the skyline at night.  On Sunday, the weather returned to Seattle-normal where it was rainy and cool.  I managed to do a little hiking up the hills on the north side of the city where I got one of my favorite shots of the skyline.  We all loaded up the van about 10:30 and headed to the pier to board the ship for a 4:00pm departure.  The good news about rainy weather is that mother nature blesses you with rainbows which we got to see 2 on our departure.

Monday was a cruise day where we steamed to Alaska and got a chance to rest and explore the ship.  The Star Princess was gorgeous.  The crew was as spectacular as the ship.  We had our 1st formal night Monday night where everyone got all dolled up.  Jill looked particularly gorgeous as did all the ladies.  Even the men cleaned up nicely.

On Tuesday, we sailed into Ketchikan and spent the day exploring the shops in the rain.  We had read about the rain forest and there’s a reason they are appropriately named.  It rained every day we were in Alaska.  Apparently that area gets rain about 300 days each year.  We learned that sunny days are so rare, that when they do happen, the schools and governments declare a holiday so everyone can go out and enjoy them.  Kinda like snow days in Texas.

Wednesday was the best day of the trip.  We started the morning early with a scenic cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord to Sawyer glacier.  It was the most scenic of the entire trip.  That afternoon, we arrived in Juneau and took a wildlife exploration tour to see humpback whales and then a trip to Mendenhall glacier.  It was awesome as we got to see a number of whales, bald eagles, black bears, seals and of course the glacier.

On Thursday we arrived in Skagway and took the White Pass rail into the mountains and then finished the day with shopping.  Fred and I tried to do a helicopter tour with a hike to the glaciers but it got cancelled due to the weather.  Apparently, the helicopter tours get canceled due to weather about 60 percent of the time.  No biggie - got to spend the day hanging off the back of the train taking snaps instead!

Friday was another cruise day as we headed to Victoria, BC on Saturday.  Jill and I got a couples massage on Friday and even managed to get all dolled up again Friday night for a lobster dinner.  Turns out our ship set a record for the amount of lobster consumed in one sitting.

Our last port of call was Victoria, BC and fittingly it ended up a visit to Butchart gardens which were simply stunning.  We got there late enough that we got to see everything with daylight and at night.   I got to take some time-elapsed photos on tripod where it looks like nobody else were in the gardens.

The trip was simply excellent and lived up to everything we had hoped.  I hope everyone enjoys the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.   The gallery contains pictures that all of us took - the ones that include a copyright from me are the ones that I took.  Make sure you click on any of the pictures to see more in the gallery.

Mixing a little pleasure with business

June was a killer month.  I think I was home just 6 days during the entire month including weekends.  I decided to take only my point & shoot (a Canon SD780) with me.  So all the pictures in my gallery (click the picture below to see all of them) were done w/that camera.  Point & shoots are IMO alot harder to shoot and get good pictures than using an SLR.  The lag in shutter speed is the biggest issue and w/changing lighting conditions, it’s alot harder to get the right exposure.  I found myself defaulting to auto or program mode more and then perhaps making the biggest mistake of them all - just clicking and not thinking as much about composition.  But the convenience is just awesome.

I started the month out in Las Vegas at ops reviews.  You’ll see pictures from the event (mostly the best systems engineering team in the world).  These guys let their hair down a bit when we went go-cart racing and overall had a ball.  What a colorful group.  I was out on the west coast w/Jeff doing interviews so you’ll also see pictures from San Diego.  What a beautiful city.  And the weather was outstanding.  I was actually a bit cold at night - and then returned to Austin where 100 degree plus days have been with just most of June.

Anyway - I did manage to have a little fun in an otherwise grueling month of business travel!

Using my photos

It’s come to my attention through some of my auditing software that there have been some illegal downloads of my photographs.  Suffice it say, I’m not happy.  I post pictures on my website as a convenient way of sharing what I shoot.  Galleries that provide free downloads are denoted with an asterisk (*) at the beginning of them.  The rest are meant to be viewed on this site and may not be downloaded or used without my expressed written consent.  For a copy of my usage policy - please click here.

I offer downloads for a small charge to help offset the cost of this site and the equipment I use.  You may not see it, but there’s alot of time that I spend, particularly on sports shoots, weeding through the shots that I take and then cropping the ones I do keep.  To date, I’ve only embedded my copyright logo at the bottom so that the web displays are mainly of the photographs.  If forced, I will begin putting digital copyright protection in all photos. This will make the photos less viewable.   I hate to do this since most people are not trying to game the system or in my view - cheat me.   If you’ve downloaded work without my permission, I ask that you go back legally through the web and download the prints you want. Please keep in mind that copyright laws are enforceable and can result in fines or jail time or both if I chose to take legal recourse.

Thanks to all of you that are playing by the rules.

The D700 Rocks!

I got my new Nikon D700 in this week and it is a major step up from my Nikon D200 - and that’s been a great camera.  I considered the D300 as well but went with the D700 and am glad I did.  The D700 is a full frame sensor where the D300 is not.  That means I get a wider angle with my lenses than on the DX line.  And while the D300 has great low-light performance, the D700 is off the charts.  I shot the D300 last week for a game and had the ISO at 3200 with low noise, but at 6400, the images got very blurry.  The D700 - I shot at 6400 with virtually no noise.  The usability rocks as well since many of the features I used can be assigned to buttons or quick-access menus.

But enough of the pontification - look at the images and see if you can see the difference.

The 1st is a shot from last night’s game using the D700.  The 2nd was taken 2 weeks ago (same stadium) with the D200.  Excluding for the white balance setting (which explains the different shades of green in the grass), there are a few key differences.  First, notice how much brighter and better exposed the D700 picture looks.  That’s due to me cranking the ISO up.  Next, notice the track and bottom of the stadium in the backgrounds.  You’ll see there is much more detail on the D700.  It’s almost a blur on the D200.  Next, look at the different tones on the black jerseys.  There are actually shuttle shades of black in the D700 picture.  Same holds true for the whites on the jersey.  With the D200, you just don’t get that range at night.  Look at the stadium seats and you’ll really see the difference.  But the real value is in the workflow and quality of pictures themselves.  I used to take 300 pictures per game to get 100 or so that I could work with.  It took me 90 minutes or so to process everything since I had to run the D200 images through noise reduction filters.  About 1/2 of my images were blurry due to the auto-focus speed and predictive tracking at night.  Now with the D700, my yield is about 80% so the ones I toss out are mostly due to poor composition.  I only put the 6400 pictures through an extra noise reduction step.  And I also shoot fewer pictures since my yield is so much better.  So…..I now spend about 30 minutes post game to do get the pictures processed, uploaded, and my blog entry written.  Combine that with better pictures and you can see why I love my D700!

The importance of composition in photographs

In a follow-up to his series on why your camera doesn’t matter, Ken Rockwell has written a nice piece on one of the reaons why - composition.  Most people spend too much time (myself included) on trying to get the exposure correct and think about what they’re actually shooting later.  I read Ken’s article today and it reminded me that the difference between great photographs and average ones are really in the composition itself.  Start off with a badly framed picture and there’s not alot you can do to fix it.

Let me show you what I mean.  Below are 2 photos I took in Bonaire.  Neither are particularly great, but one is definitely more compelling.  They’re both are of the same palm tree, but both have very different compositions.

This was the 1st picture of the day.  It was just before sunrise when the sky’s colors change by the minute.  I had my flashlight out and noticed how vibrant the coconuts when I lit them.  When I saw it, the story was the coconuts but also the gorgeous sky.  I just used the palm tree itself as a backdrop to help frame the real story.  So I metered the sky since I wanted that exposed correctly, and then turned on the flash for fill.  I then framed the photo where I was very closed and allowed the palms to completely fill the frame.  I also turned the camera for perspective.  Voila.  Again, not great, but you can see a very purposeful shot.  Now, had I been smarter, I would have changed my angle even more to eliminate the small bush o the left that adds nothing to the picture.  I could crop it out in photoshop but that would cut into the coconuts to do so and look like I was cutting off what I found so interesting.

Fast forward to this picture.  This was taken about 5 minutes after the 1st.  Sky was a little bluer and I wanted to capture the palm tree itself with the hotel in the background.  I stood further back so the fill light from the flash didn’t light up the coconuts as much.  The sky while pretty doesn’t do anything for you.   So as you look at this one, what’s important?  Was it the building, the tree, the sky, the coconuts?  It’s ok and captured the moment, but there’s nothing else.  I could have processed the image in Photoshop to make certain portions stand out, but that takes time and does little on the composition.

I hope this helps a bit.  It’s certainly a focus for me and something I hope to improve on.  I always try to remind myself, what’s the story you’re trying to tell before you push the button.

Tom Kite Charity Golf Tournament

On the evening of Sunday, September 13th, I’ll be one of the official photographers shooting the Kids Classic Auction party - which is the kickoff event for the golf tournament.    This is the 14th year of the event which benefits the Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.

For more information on the event, please visit KEYE TV which is one of the co-sponsors of the event.

Your Camera Doesn’t Matter

Alot of people see my gear and assume that I must take great pictures since it looks so expensive.  I wished it were that easy.  If I’ve learned anything over the past few years of doing more serious photography - gear matters little.  Yeah - my wife would tell you I’ve spent a small fortune on it, but the truth is that some of my best photographs were taken with simple point & shoots or were scans from old 35mm prints.  Think about it - some of the best photos ever taken in history were done with what would be considered ancient gear by today’s standards.

So here’s a link to a site that I frequent often - Ken Rockwell.  He’s entertaining and if you read enough on the net - you’ll find folks that swear by him and others who believe he’s a rank amateur.  I tend to fall somewhere more to the fan side.  I don’t take everything he says as gospel and realize his whole site is his opinion.  That being said - he challenges the status quo on thinking about what constitutes great pictures and for the average joe on the street - offers some great advice.

So without further adue - here’s a link to the article that causes me to really think about what I buy and why - Why Your Camera Doesn’t Matter.