FStop Blog

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Georgia Nature Photographer’s Association Photo Expo this past weekend at Callaway Gardens.  It was my first trip to Callaway and gave me a great opportunity to start using my newly acquired Canon 50D.  This photo was taken on Sunday morning a the Butterfly House with guest speaker, Nancy Rotenberg.  WOW what a wonderful treat to be able to listen and be taught by Nancy!  I returned physically and mentally exhausted but really had a great time.   Shout out to Jo who received an honorable mention for her Taos lightening photo!  Way to go, Jo!  Thanks for encouraging me to go along as well!  We had a great time talking about photography into the wee hours.

Canon EOS 50D ( hand held), F5.66, lens focal length 135mm, exposure time 1/200 second(s), shutter speed 0.0051 second(s).

As always, please click on the photo to view the larger image.

“Listen a hundred times; ponder a thousand times; speak once.” — Turkish Proverb

The photo on the left was the one I chose to submit for Assignment #20: Paiting Light at The Mindful Eye.  Due to the cold weather, I was “forced” inside my home for a subject. The bugle is an antique from the 1800′s, a gift from my mother to me a number of years ago and the flag was mysteriously planted in our front yard about two years ago on Memorial Day.  In fact everyone on our block had one just like it below their mailboxes…hmmm…but that’s another story LOL.  The background wall is a bit darker than mint green, hence the “green” glow highlighed by the one LED that I had placed off to the left side and one in my hand as well. This is straight out of the camera – resized only.

Overall I wasn’t pleased with my choices, but decided to play with some options and took it to the next stage of black & white.  I modified it slightly by adjusting the highlight, midtone and shadow and I felt like I was really liking what was appearing before my eyes, but it wasn’t quite what I really wanted.  So I continued to fiddle around more and decided to overlay the black & white version onto the original photo at a 29% transparency. I really liked the outcome of this and might even revisit it for a few more tweaks.  Ulitmately I decided to try my hand at my first triptych which is what you see in this post.

As always, please click on the photo to see the full size.

Canon A590IS @ 5.8 mm lens focal length, F5, shutter speed 8 seconds, awb, iso 100

Picture this…New Year’s Eve, Eddie’s Attic early show – one of the best rock/blues/guitarist/singer/songwriters (Michelle Malone) of our time backed up by an equally skilled band (Drag The River) and you have yourself one rockin’ new years party.  Toss in the camera and well….this is a ”G” rated site lol   Had a blast with my friends Tam and Jo – actually maxed out my card (and dinky spare) as well as filled up Jo’s card on her camera…but it was worth it!  Thanks for letting me use the “big girl” camera Jo!  You da bomb!

I was able to get two video snippets before my cards ran out – to see them, click here.

As always, please click on any photo to see the full size.