Frontyard Stars...

 

After I get home on Monday and Friday nights(I have to travel to cburg on those days) I like to look up at the stars for a while.  Lately with the clear skies I have been able to enjoy the nice band of stars that make up the Milky Way. 

 

Not a bad view if I do say so myself:)

 

During the day the view is a little different, just below the treeline in the image is our neighbors property.  It is inhabited by about 15 old cars, a swan statue, and a goat tied to a chain that gets moved around(to mow the lawn presumably).

 

 

 

12k ISO @ 1.8 - Sigma 50mm

Cool Colors, Cooler Car...

It ain't easy being me...  I mean... I get to go on little photo outings in probably the coolest car ever.  It has Air Conditioning, working defrosters, freshly changed wipers blades, no cup holders(who has time?) and a sweet sexy bra that covers up a ding in the front.... you guessed it(as you have probably noticed me driving around in my sweet ride).... its a 1997(almost antique!) Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 4dr v6!  This baby has got slick new Walmart tires keeping her tied to the road as I race through sweet curves and dodge little roadside animals at high speeds(sometimes even over 40mph).

But I think the best part about it is that there is no center console.  This means two very important things.  1. If you find yourself driving to Wisconsin or Montana or Virginia or Utah, and feeling tired, you can tip the seat back, point your legs to the passenger floor board and take a super comfy nap.  2.  If you are with your girlfriend coming back from some ritzy high classed date, Applebee's, for example, you can move the armrest up and she can sit in the middle right next to you.... and with the optional tape deck/mp3 adapter cord, you can play your favorite romance Metallica tunes while you cruise....  Yep...   I'd say life is good:)



It's like the sun follows this car anywhere:)



Wide shot of Rocky Knob taken from on top of the Oldsmobile @ 24mm



A 50mm perspective of some nice rays this morning.

The Crooked Road...

There is a little place near Woodlawn, VA called Crooked Creek Fish Management Area.  I drive by this area every time I go to work in Christiansburg, VA.

Whenever I am looking for a place to expore, I always look at Google maps and pay attention to the green areas(public lands, national forests, parks, etc).  Today I did a little exploring for both photography and fishing opportunities.  While I think the area leaves a little bit to be desired photography wise, the drive through the dense foggy forest was quite relaxing:)

Once in a Red Moon...

Ok so I don't have any cool racing photos to show you... but I can say I was in one heck of a hurry after trying to go through Hillsville VA on the opening day of the Flea Market.  Even at 6am the bustle of the town and people setting up booths were really slowing things down.  
After making it out of Hillsville, and onto an open two lane highway, things were going well and I was on time to make it to Rocky Knob to catch the sun breaking the horizon. 
The fog was thick, thick enough to make it so my reaction time was longer than the distance I could see at the speed I was going(basically if a deer popped out it's 'goodbye')

About 3 miles from the top of the knob, I noticed the moon very graciously setting over nice rows of trees and fog.  I stopped the car and started taking some shots handheld with the Pentax K20d and an old Sears 135mm 2.8.  The crop factor of this camera body and the length and superb sharpness of this old lens make for a nice combo when shooting telephoto landscapes.  To get the composition below, I ended up sprinting down the parkway to get into a better position. I am glad I spent the time to stop and shoot this moonset, because the lens of the Sears 135mm struggles with flare when shooting into the sun, so my results were going to be better in a lower dynamic range/no flare situation.

The cool part about this is that, when I composed the moon photo, I actually couldn't make out what was in the foreground fog... turns out that an old run down building sits there(lucky me:)

 

 

Have a great and safe weekend!!

 

 

I love Spiders (Part 2)

I opted to set up a flash behind my subject here.  I like how all the water drops catch light and make a really nice line throughout the image.  If you look closely, you can see little starbursts on the points of light(notably the larger drop right infront of the spider on the first image).  The aperture was closed down to f14 for these images.  A small aperture is usually a nessecity for macro photography, as a razor thin depth of field is very hard to work with.

Click the images to view a larger version.

Thanks for Looking:)

 Thanks for looking:)





Front Stoop Macro Photography

I had most of the day off yesterday, and while the dog was doing her 'numbers', I opted to take some photos of the slowly wilting flowery plants in the front yard.  After first seeing the spiders and the bees, the next 400 exposures were a bit of a blur.... :) 

1:1(maximum magnification on the Tokina 100mm Macro) photography is difficult on a moving subject.  It is made even more difficult when you are leaning over in odd stances.   Your depth of field(the part of the image that is in focus) is razor thin at f2.8, almost unusable this close.  If you stop your aperture down to f10 or so, you have a few milimeters of focused area to work with.

I did not use my lens' focus for the bee pictures below, I set the lens to its closest possible focus point, and just moved the camera back and forth inch by inch to get the focus right.  Then, when I was done, I deleted about 300 some exposures:)




Most of the flowers here have started to get depressed and look like this.

 Once I noticed the spiders I knew I was gonna be photographing for a while..



A spider scurries into a flower



I have always thought that Yellowjackets looked awesome.  But these are a different kind that have a shiny green back and stripped bottom half.   They are sweet looking and the Tokina brings out the detail very well. 

Barbed Wire, Spiderwebs, and Red Sky

I am hoping you will enjoy these images from the Parkway.
The fog was thick as I left the house well before sunrise. It scattered just enough to allow me to see some really nice color.

On the way back I grabbed a few macro shots of some barbed wire near the house.



A soft landscape shot at 1.4




More 1.4 Landscape

 

A classic North Carolina Scene taken by sticking 3 images together.  Shot with the Sigma 50





I am under the impression that young spiders, new to the web-making scene, use these barbs as practice:)





Refraction... I shot this with apertures 14, 6.3, and 2.8.   The 2.8 image left only the largest drop in focus, with everything else out of focus.  6.3 allowed a few more of the drops to come into focus, but still not the results I wanted.  At 14, the shape and detail of the barb shows just enough while not being distracting.



Thanks for looking:)  Feel free to leave a comment or a question(no need to log in)

A new dress, a new lens

The gf recently got a new dress, so I got a new lens to match the occasion.  After going back and forth for quite sometime, I ended up purchasing a Sigma 50mm 1.4 over the Canon 50mm 1.4.   It's kind of a gamble when you buy third party lenses, but I feel like this one paid off.  The images are awesomely sharp, the bokeh is very creamy, and the lens feels nice mounted to the camera(bigger/heavier than the canon).  I have shot with the Canon 50mm 1.4 multiple times and have nothing negative to say about it, but lets face it, after almost 20yrs, Canon should consider an update:)

Among other lenses considered were the Ziess 50mm 1.4, and the Canon 50mm 1.2L.  I had almost decided on the Ziess, but its straight aperture blades and manual focus were a bit of a killer, especially since it retails for $300 more than the Sigma.  I briefly considered the Canon 50mm 1.2L, but realized that with that much cash($1350), I could purchase a lens, a tripod, and a plane ticket out west:)  This was a no brainer with my current photography habits:)

Here are some images of my wonderful girlfriend Ashley:)  All shot with the Sigma 50mm 1.4.  And all shot mostly wide open.  Enjoy...

The Camera You have with You

"Your best camera is the one you have with you"- a gazillion (correct) people

I remember when I first started enjoying photography, I would carry my camera everywhere.  I always had my bag around my shoulder.  As my life has gathered other responsibilities(like a real job) I use my phone more and more to take photos.  A camera phone will never replace a stand alone digital camera(at least not until they put an actual lens into them) but having the ability to snap, edit, and share photos on the go is something that we all have come to enjoy... and with good results.  Here are a few images shot with a Samsung Charge smartphone. 

I left some of them in full resolution, so you may have to scroll to see the entire image.  Unless you have a high resolution screen(unlike me:)

Ashley at Devil Canyon(in camera panorama)

The Green River, UT

Macro Fun

A tunnel in Billings, MT

Lady bug next to a HUGE PITFALL

The Neighbors across the street.

Just down the road

Plants plants everywhere here..

The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, UT

Virginia Countryside 4-12-12

 After work this afternoon I decided to hop in the car and take a cruise through a small part of southwest Virginia.  I head from Galax, where I live, to Comers Rock.  It's located out by Elk Creek.  Along the way I snapped some shots with a 50mm f2 manual focus lens mounted to my Pentax k20d.  I finished up the day on top of Comers Rock, and shot the last image with a 135mm f2.8 manual focus lens mounted to the same camera.  Thanks for looking.

Weeds on the roadside 

The crop factor on this camera leaves everything smashed into the frame when I can't back up too far:)

Tree farm

I like the soft look this lens provides

Some phlox growing around a mailbox 

A common view of the Blue Ridge Mountains