Nothing to Speak of but Fun Nonetheless

This past Saturday (9/8/2012) I up and decided to head to the Everglades for some photos. I grabbed the family and some photo gear, got in the truck, and off we went. We arrived at the fist destination just prior to sunset… the perfect time. We doused ourselves with a heavy dose of bug spray and I started setting up the gear. Within a few minutes we all realized that the bugs seemed to be more attracted to the spray than repelled and my family ended up back in the truck with the AC going. I stayed out and battled the little critters for a few shots. Nature was not cooperating.

I decided that since not everything was coming together I would still make the best of the situation. I worked on composition and I worked on exposure technique. This is something you can do regardless of what the world around you is doing (or not doing in this case). Each of these is the first image in a given composition and I used the Zone System to ensure that the tonality of the photograph was exactly where I wanted it to be. I didn’t "chimp" to find the proper exposure. I used the spot meter on the camera which was set to manual mode to target a specific part of the image. Then, setting the exposure to the tonality desired I clicked the shutter.  Nature (or people) will not always be at their best. They will both have their good days and their bad days but that should not stop you from becoming a better photographer. Sure, I have better images out there but given the situation… They aren’t bad at all and on top of that it was fun! 

Tennessee 2012

Today was the first day in the Smoky Mountains in about a year.  I set the alarm clock for 3:00am to drive to Clingman's Dome for sunrise and to scout it out for Astral Photography (later this week).  When I arrived I found it to be less than desirable.  In fact, it was downright bad.  I could see about 30 feet with no break in the clouds.  Based on that I started my way down and decided to try a few places I knew about.  I was fortunate that Clingman's was the only place fully engulfed in clouds.  During my decent I also came across a coyote and a black bear.  It was a treat for me.  However, you will not see any images of those critters because it was just too dark to bring back some shots.  The remainder of the trip was pleasant and as you can tell the mountains did cooperate a bit.  I am heading back out the Wednesday weather permitting.  All the editing you see here is being done on my small laptop so full edited versions will be seen after we get back to South Florida.

I should be posting more images this week!