Dogwood

I've written before that I really don't care much for flower photography. And I don't. But, it was a tough winter and the flowers have burst out in impressive fashion this spring. They seem to be exuberantly celebrating warmer weather with the rest of us. Spring is an interesting dichotomy to me. Do the blooms of spring occur because of winter's pruning? Is life springing forth in the void left by death?

I have a pink dogwood tree in my front yard. It's something of a survivor. A big limb fell out of a nearby pine tree last year, breaking the top out of the dogwood and leaving it mangled and misshaped. But I don't have the heart to cut it down.

I shot this image with my 105mm macro at f4.5 at 1/100. I love the bokey and the narrow depth of field. The early morning sun fringed the blooms and leaves with golden light. And if you look closely, you can see a whispy tendril of a spiderweb in the bottom-right corner.

Balloon Glow

Since getting serious about photography, I have wanted to shoot a balloon glow. Saturday, there were no gigs, no high winds, no rain, and no other reasons to keep me away. A delay because of winds did keep the balloons from launching on time, so there was limited time with a dusk sky. And I discovered that the limitations of the Nikon D200 in lowlight are significant at ISO 400, something I already knew, but seemed to forget.

I was also suprised by the large number of people with nice cameras and really expensive glass. There were pro-grade lenses left and right. I've searched the Internet to find shots from others, but have had little luck. Of course, not all great images are shot with great gear, and certainly not all photographers with great gear shoot great images. I regularly prove that constant.

The setup for Macon's balloon glow isn't great. The balloons are set up in a bottom, most of them inside a track at Macon State College. Capturing the setting sun and dusk sky is made difficult because of the surrounding hills, buildings, interstate, and significant light pollution.

Now that I've had a taste of shooting a balloon glow, I want more. I can't wait to find an opportunity to shoot a bigger event with more balloons and perhaps a better setting. For now, I have a few noisy shots (see the entire set) to remind me of the lessons learned and the desire to shoot them again.

One From the Archive

I was going through some old shots that I had never processed and stumbled across this one. Despite fog and cold, this was one of those opportunity of a lifetime moments that will go with me forever. I desperately want to return to this spot, hopefully on a day when the weather is more cooperative. Thought I’d share it with you.

I’ve always loved a good quote, especially one I can throw out in a presentation. I ran across these this week and couldn’t resist sharing them.

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

The first one fits perfectly with my philosophy on writing. It sounds a lot like something Mark Twain once said. Can anyone tell me where this image was taken and who said each of these four quotes.