Month: September 2007

Nothing like home on a Saturday night…

I went through some more of my South Carolina pictures. As I go through them I’m finding the disappointments as well as the gems. In all of these I only had to adjust for color correctness… the exposures were good from the get go (I hope I’m getting better at this). I did find that one of my lenses is in need of a serious cleaning. Well, hopefully it’s the lens and not the sensor. I don’t want to pay to have the sensor cleaned and I don’t have the confidence or tools to do it myself. What to do, what to do… anyway, enjoy!

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

This is an alley just off main street in Greenville, SC. The US Bicycle festival was happening on a blocked off section of Main Street at the Greenville Hyatt Regency. I took this one just cuz I was bored walking toward the street. I liked this one because of the contrasting colors as well as the detail.

Aperture: f/32
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 35mm

This was taken from an observation point at Caesar’s Head State Park in South Carolina. We were pretty high up in the hills at this point and at the top of this particular hill. The view was definitely breathtaking. The downside to this was that it was cloudy that day. This is one of the few pictures from that observation point that came out good because the sun was able to peek through the cloud for a short time. I know the trees in the lower right distract from whole picture, I left them in because it gives a good perspective as to how high up I was when taking this picture.

Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

Taken at Cowpens Battlefield National Park in South Carolina. I took this one just for the sake of taking a picture. Even though there isn’t much going on here, the detail captured in the trees helps bring out the natural contrasts. That makes a great contrast against the relative evenness of the sky (at least I think so).

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

Taken at Cowpens Battlefield National Park in South Carolina. This is another shot of the monument in front of the Visitor’s Center. In the photo are my wife and her sister. What makes it for me is that this shows 2 non-Americans appreciating an important piece of the history of our nation. They both showed great interest in it, and that seems to be lacking in a lot of Americans who have had families here for more than 2 generations.

I’m still going through all of my South Carolina pictures. It’s taking a while due to the fact that not only am I taking a photography course, but also I have a day job and an taking an anatomy course (which itself takes a lot of time outside the classroom). So today I decided to post some pictures from my cruise last July. Some of these were taken with my DSLR, others taken with my point and shoot. I will label each picture with the camera used along with the other information. Most of these were fixed in Aperture, mostly for exposure and color issues (I do get lucky every once in a while with a shot). I deleted the project, so I don’t know the details of what I did to fix them. That’s not a bad thing, though, now you can just enjoy them.

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO100 with -1.0ev
Focal Length: 59mm

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/25
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO100 with -1.0ev
Focal Length: 24mm

Camera: Olympus Stylus 770SW
Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO80 with 0ev
Focal Length: 7mm

The top picture is Montego Bay, Jamaica. The 2nd picture is the Jamaican countryside as seen from the deck of the Carnival Conquest. The third picture was taken on our shore excursion (helmet diving) by the guide using my Olympus. One of the great things about that Olympus is the fact that it is waterproof to 33 feet as well as weather proof, which is a great thing for shooting cloud formations.

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO100 with -1.0ev
Focal Length: 21mm

Camera: Olypmus Stylus 770SW
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO80 with 0ev
Focal Length: 7mm

Taken at Grand Cayman Island. The top picture is where we entered the country. We had to anchor offshore and take a tender into the country as the water is too shallow for the cruise ships. That picture does it for me as it shows thunderstorm remnants in the distance (the anvil top from the cumulonimbus hasn’t fully dissipated; neither has the altocumulus). The storm was well off the island. The second picture shows a stingray swimming by. We were on a sandbar (ocean water waist deep!!) feeding the stingrays.

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/13
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 72mm

Camera: Olympus Stylus 770SW
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO80 with 0ev
Focal Length: 7mm

The top picture shows the port of Cozumel, Mexico. What struck me about this port was how colorful the buildings are in appearance. It’s definitely a nice departure from Galveston, TX, where the cruise ship moves past all the cargo terminals. Oh, and the blue water doesn’t hurt either. The second picture is my idea of Heaven on Earth – Isla Pasion. This is where the Corona commercials are shot. I didn’t want to leave.

Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO400 with -2.oev
Focal Length: 18mm

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO800 with -2.oev
Focal Length: 18mm

Both of these were taken with the Canon DSLR. The top picture is the ceiling just below the vertical portion of the cathedral ceiling in front of the elevator bank in the ship’s main lobby. The ship’s architect said in an interview that his inspiration for the Carnival Conquest was the art and artists of the Impressionist Era. You can definitely see that here with the reproductions of various paintings all in a collage. The collage spreads all the way up the vertical portions up to the 8th deck where it becomes balcony. The second picture is a shot of the main lobby itself. The top floor (deck 5) held retail shops, casinos, lounges, and clubs… the middle floor (deck 4) held the photo area (photos taken by Carnival for sale) along with the main dining rooms, and the lowest floor (deck 3) held the lounge in the main lobby as well as some other lounges off to the side.

I hope you enjoyed these. I have almost 400 pictures from the cruise between the 2 cameras, but these are among my favorites. I invite and comment and criticisms.

Tonight in my photography course we worked to develop our very first roll of film. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it through tonight. There weren’t enough dark rooms for everyone, so the teacher had me remove my film in a bag. Basically it was a black plastic back with arm holes so I could removed the film from the canister, thread the film onto a spool, and place it in a developing tank. Well, it took me forever to open the canister (the plastic tip end wouldn’t come off in one piece, so I had to work at it for a while). After that, I had a hard time getting the film threaded onto the spool. That was no fun. In due course a dark room became available. I was able to get the film, spool, and tank out of the bag in the dark room. After a few more minutes of trying, I finally got the film onto the spool and into the tank. All told that process, which should have been less than 5 minutes, took me a little over 15. To help soothe my bruised ego, the teacher did tell me that using the bag can be a little more difficult and usually takes a little practice before everything runs smoothly.

The chemical portion was more tedious than anything else. After I put the film through the fixer, I had 24 developed negatives. One bad thing did happen during the film extraction from the canister – in the process of removing the plastic, I ended up nicking three of the pictures. After photo-flo and drying, I now have 24 negatives. On Thursday we are going to make a contact sheet and prints.

That being the case, I went through some more of my South Carolina photos. Here are some more I think you’ll enjoy.

Aperture: f/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed: 1/4
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

Both the above photos are of Hooker Falls in the Dupont State Forest in North Carolina. I decided to see what I could do if I slowed down the shutter speed from the original (in the top) to the point where motion could be seen. The effect was immediately obvious. The waterfall itself goes from being suspended water drops to constant streams. The water surface in the second photo is a lot more smooth. Since the wind was almost non-existent this day, slowing the shutter speed to 1/4 had a negligible effect on keeping the leaves in focus.

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

This is the pool directly in front of Hooker Falls.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

This is Triple Falls in the Dupont State Forest in North Carolina. This is just upstream from Hooker Falls.

Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

This is Green River Road at the Cowpens Battlefield in South Carolina near Spartanburg. The battle was part of the Southern Campaign during the American Revolution and fought by troops under the command of General Daniel Morgan. Where I was standing to take this picture was around the area where the Washington Light Cavalry (not associated with General George Washington) was stationed in the order of battle. This battle was significant in that it demonstrated one of the few successful double envelopments in the history of the warfare. What makes this even more impressive is the fact that the double envelopment was performed by an inexperienced general (Gen. Morgan) against Colonel Banstre Tarelton, a pupil of General Lord Cornwallis (known as a military genius of his time). To give perspective, the most notable use of double envelopment was by Hannibal in his defeat of the Romans at Cannae in 216BC.

Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 27mm

This is the monument in front of the Visitor’s Center at the Cowpens Battlefield National Park near Spartanburg, SC. The plaque lists the key officers involved in the battle on the side of the Continentals. The inscription on the side reads as follows: “The Congress of the United States has caused this monument to be erected on the site of the Battle of Cowpens as a testimonial to the valor and in appreciation of the services of the American troops on this field in behalf of the independence of their country”

The best part of the photos is this – in all cases I did not need to adjust the exposures. In all the above photos, save one, the only processing done was to increase the saturation (I’m still struggling a little with setting proper white balance). The monument photo required just a little bit of straightening as it was crooked by about 2-degrees.

Let me know what you think.

This weekend for Labor Day my wife and I went to Spartanburg, SC to visit her sister. Over the weekend we went to a couple of parks and a couple of historical areas. I took close to 190 pictures with my Canon and my wife took a good number of pictures with the Olympus. One of the places we went was the Walnut Grove Plantation, which was granted to Charles Moore by King George III of England in the 1760’s. Since this was a historical place, I thought making the pictures black and white would have a nice effect. Here is the main house of the plantation along with a small structure with a wagon underneath. Both the master (scaled down) and the digitally processed images are shown.

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/2500 sec
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

Cropped, exposure dialed back, contrast dialed up, and highlights dodged.

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO 100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

Cropped and exposure dialed back.

Here is one last photo I decided to add. It originally was a little underexposed as I metered the wrong area, but that was easily fixed in Aperture. There is also a little noise as this was taken at ISO1600… but I think that would be a little more difficult to detect when the image is scaled down. The thing that really stood out for me was how I was able to get the depth-of-field on the bird almost perfect. The Crucifix on the wall behind the bird was only about 3 or 4 feet away.

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO1600 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

I’ll post more pictures as I look through them. At this time I think I will leave these black and white versions as the final images because I think it highlights the fact that this is a historical area. Let me know what you think.