Turtles at Beaver Lake

I had a few moments between jobs.

What do you think?

olc

Mother's Day

So, this is a bit of a story... Mom is 91 this year and needs nothing but a smile. I love her but was challenged to find a present she would like. So I decided to get these cats, mother and child. Part of the idea was to get an image that really shows off it's beauty. I will matt and frame it for her to display.

Money and......?

I think it says it all. What do you think?

olc

Grove arcade on the 5th of July

Truly, this is a typical scene at any mall. But I to this one the day after we celebrated our counties' independence. If you look at the toddler reaching out to the flag, yet it is totally enshrouded in her  mommies backpack.

Dogs on the 5th of July

I had this really great lens for a shoot. Really, I had to rent the thing from my peeps at Ball Photo and supply. I wanted to use it a lot. Sunday was beautiful and I had time to walk around Downtown AVL. After a minute, I decided to focus on the dogs I saw. The lens was a 24-70mm 2.8. I have used this thing a few times and really love it. It makes me look goo. Kinda like I know what I am doing!

This guy was just being thee while his person made money. I thought the eyes were most powerful.

When I was younger, we had an Italian Greyhound. They are great dogs with fantastic personalities. These two were prancing around with their people and I could not let this opportunity go by.

My editorial note here. 

People are kinda funny. During my brief foray in dog photog I found 3 distinct dog owners. The first was  the street entertainer with his dog as a kinda of prop. They ignore the dog unless it needs something, and go on with their crowd pleasing show.

While the people who had the Italian Greyhounds were simply being tourists who had dogs as companions. They were nice and very into the moment. I wonder if they learned that from their four legged friends.

The third kind just seemed to be annoyed that any one would possibly be looking at them. They would look up at me and realize what I was doing then ignore me. I have a couple pictures of them, but are not posted here for various reasons.

3 Amigos

Not sure what to say here. This was taken on the 4th before fireworks.

Bike night at the local Harley dealer

I went over to see what was up and a free hamburger or two. These guys, The Dirty Soul Review were playing, Great guys! They have a Fantastic sound. Their bass player lives his music, The lead singer in tattooed and has a penetrating voice, while the drummer Plays them like they are a part of her SOUL. They had a sax player who added depth to their sound.

olc

The Girls last night

We went downtown last night to listen to Shindig on the green. The girls want to get something to drink...

Fathers day a week later

My wonderful Runtyun made a fantastic effort for my Fathers day commemoration this year. I have not had a chance to do right by it until now.

Thank you my wonderful child!

Oh yeah, I missed this one

A Batch of photos

I have finally gotten around to watermarking and editing a bunch of my images and am posting them now!This is one of the first shoots I did. They are barn swallow chicks, I think. They are hungry and about to fledge.

My Friend Ashley and I sometimes go out for a ride. I have a small project taking pics of barn an a sub genre of Barn Quilts. This is the first in the series.

This little cutie was at Pack Square and just begging me to get her picture.

I love this rose. I have been studying it for awhile now.

I screwed up my courage when I saw this little one playing at a fountain and asked her mom if I could take a few. This was mid day but the shadows where perfect.

 This is gang markings under a bridge. I like the Bokeh of the sand on the lens causing a sun flare.

 I took this for a contest celebrating fall. I did not even submit it, but I like it enough for here.

I had an early morning delivery to Johnson City and decided to bring my camera and stopped at a rest stop on Rt 26 and was really lucky to capture this.

Roses

I have a flash, and anyone who has ever taken photography a little seriously will understand that using it is a little intimidating. So Friday night, I spent a minute taking a few pics of a rose bush that Is blooming. It was around 1100 PM and I was a few beers into it and this is the best of the lot. What do you think?

I cropped it a little but did little else to improve it. if you want I can give spec on aperture, and other info.

Finally, I have finished working the Car show!

 This is the engine of a Vette. I liked the chrome and red juxtaposition enhanced by the blue go the body. I did a Little enhancement of the shadow areas, but nothing more.

This car has the name Bad Penny, I think it is a '57 chevy. I enhanced some of the colors, but did nothing else.

Here is the engine. On this one I worked the sky a little.

These are the pins that hold the pins in place. I pulled some color out to make the rust vs. chrome pop!

I learned a little from this shoot. Mostly, I need to talk with the owners to get information about the history of the cars.

So, what do you think?

olc

Corvette!

I was cruising Craigslist to settle my GAS needs. I found a guy that had a tripod for sale that was in my price range... (.50 cents or less!) He had one that was only $25. This is perfect because I want to mount my flash on it for portraits. We made arrangements to meet at the local Foodlion.

I showed up there and saw there was a car show going on...at sunset...with the sun shining on all of that chrome...

My buddy and I made the deal, I think it was good, but all I was thinking about was getting over to the cars, so I don't really know yet, LOL.

I need your opinions here. Which is better?

The first image has a little blur in the background...

While the other is straight out of the camera.

Both have a little work done with the White Balance, but that is all. It is a subtle difference, but one that could be important .

So, please leave a comment on which image you like better!

Thanks olc

Cutie at Pack Square

Last night my beautiful Runtyun her friend Angie, her Mom and I went to watch a movie at Pack square. It was raining a little, but still nice. The movie was fun, Big Hero 6. As we were waiting for the movie to start, I spotted this little cutie. There is some more going on in the back ground.

All I did was crop the photo a little and adjusted the White balance.

olc

Feed ME!

At the warehouse where hold the freight I so proudly deliver, there is this colony of birds. Their eggs hatched and the parents have to feed them. When we walked onto the bay the parents would dive bomb us. Originally I wanted to get pictures of this, but they flew too fast. So this one came along.

All I did was crop the image a little. no other PP

olc

A spring ride, part 2

A couple of weeks ago my freind Ashley and I went for a little ride. I have posted a couple of picks of her from the ride, now here are a few more.

I enhanced the clouds a little, and then brought out some details in the forground. This is from a road looking over a mountain farm. We are looking at Canton N.C. I want to go back, maybe this Saturday, to see about getting some spring flowers and leaves....a little spring color, if you will.

This is another image I took. Actually, I walked about 100 feet and turned about 90 degrees and captured this image. I worked on this image for a New York minute trying to pull these details. I like the clouds, But when I worked on the detail of the mountains, I think they worked out well.

A little further down the road, we encountered this barn. I had to enhance the clouds a little, but for the most part, this image is straight out of the camera.

She was out for her morning stroll.

I pulled some detail from the barn interior. But this ladies' natural beauty is all of her own.

The whole reason for the ride and shoot was to take pictures of barns. Believe it or not, there were some chairs by the door on the right. I love photoshop!

olc

The Grinner at sunset

I call my bike The Grinner because of the facial contortions I experience whenever I ride it. The Runtyun and I talked about what we would call the bike. She wanted to call it Bob.

The other night I rode a little and found this place looking over Looking Glass Falls from the Blueridge Parkway. To tell the truth, I don't think The sky was so well defined. So, I played around a little in post. I enhanced the clouds a little. Then worked on the rock face to pull some more details. Of course, The Grinner was perfect, so I did not do anything to it.

It seems that I take a lot of pictures of the bike. I am always looking for people to have as models, so if you want to be immortalized in digital media, let me know. All we need is you and a nice background!

olc

Took a ride last Saturday night

This is my first forey into shooting the moon. I used my 55mm-250mm lens set at max. I think the exposure was pretty long, like 4 seconds. By the time I was able to take the pic, the moon was too small to fill the view finder, but I think the image is pretty OK.

I did a little PP to enhance the shades of the moon, but other than that the image is straight out of the camera.

olc

A spring ride with Ashley. Part 1

The riding season has begun! 

Ashley reached out the other day and said let's ride! We talked about a bunch of stuff including up coming shoots. I guess she has found a guy she likes and he has a Chevelle which he has refurbished. I need to figure out where is best to highlight the car and Ashley. Hmm, This could be a lot of fun! I wonder if I can get him to pay for the lens rental???!!! I am going to do a little boning up on car fotog and the angles used before this one. Though the guy may not be big time, I really don’t know, he may know someone who is indeed an avenue to photographic riches. HMMM...

O yeah, the ride and shoot we already had, is the subject for today! The truth, is I have not gotten a chance to look at the images and I only took about forty, but I think some came out well. I did work on one with Ashley in it. Unfortunately, part of the sky was washed out in muddy white clouds with no definition, so I had to crop it severely. It looks OK on screen, but I fear it may not print well. 

During the post processing though, I used the new Photo app from Apple. It is great for removing objects that distract from the subject! However, the importing and exporting of images is a little problematic and I need to ponder if I want to be restricted by Apple's need for control.

The sun was a bit of a problem during the whole shoot. Clouds kept obscuring the flow of light and the later in the day, say mid-afternoon, the clouds began to leak. There was one series of shots of a red barn with the mountains in the background that may have come out nicely, But I know that I will have to do some work on them to make ‘em right.

More when I have worked some more pics and have an idea where it is all going.

                                                                                                                 

This is the first image I worked from the shoot. As I am still learning EVERYTHING about photography and post shoot processing I am pretty happy about this result. But because I am ever inquisitive, I went on line, or someplace to see what I could do to improve the whole picture. You see, I cropped the crap out of the original. The clouds are over exposed and make the whole thing hard to look at, so I took them out. Now I know how to modify the image to “pull” info out from the image. SOOO…

Well, I know that the beautiful Ashley is still a little out of focus, But you can still see her beauty. Not only that, but we can see beyond her where I have enhanced and defined the clouds and landscape a little.

More later!

olc