Boredom with Legos

Sometimes all you need is opportunity. Boredom is a good lubricant for creativity. Despite spending an afternoon walking on the beach, complete with sailboats, brooding clouds, and scores of windblown sea oats, it was a stack of Legos and the need to escape from holiday festivities that brought inspiration tonight.

I've always thought that photography should tell a story or convey an emotion. Seeking a unique composition and creative lighting turn a snapshot into something more significant. Composition doesn't always come easy to some, but Nikon's creative lighting system makes putting speedlights in the right place and controlling them with ease.

So one D610, one 105mm macro, two SB800s, one eleven year old pretending to be a light stand, one Christmas tree, one foil wrapped package, and a pile of Star Wars Legos later, you've managed to avoid meaningful conversation and create an interesting shot. For you camera nerds out there, it's f2.8 @ 1/80th, 105mm, ISO 400.

Almost Hiking Cochran's Falls

A couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to hike a few trails in the North Georgia Mountains. The last trip was an attempt to reach the top of Cochran's Falls, which is near Amicalola State Park. It's the second highest waterfall in the state of Georgia. What was once a one mile hike has become 2.3 miles after forestry officials blocked a long stretch of road and attempted to make this waterfall much more difficult to reach after hikers/climbers fell some thirty feet into the creek.

Despite a four plus mile hike through a very muddy, bug infested trail and a resolve not to be denied a chance to photograph this fall, I was forced to turn around when the trail vanished into a slippery rock face with no handholds.

Not to be completely denied, I was able to work my way out into the creek and photograph a couple of very pretty smaller cascades below the main falls. One of these days, I will make it back to Cochran's Falls, perhaps from the private property above the falls. Until then, I'll have to be content with some nice shots of the lower sections.

The Many Faces of Lake Michigan

At one time, there were as many as 247 lighthouses along the coast of Michigan. There are still 115, many still in operation. As an unapologetic lighthouse lover, I jump at the chance to go anywhere there's a lighthouse to enjoy-- and photograph. So on a recent trip to Charlevoix, Michigan, I took several evening, much to the chagrin of the family, to take a few photos.

One thing for certain about Lake Michigan is the ever changing weather. One morning, there were six to eight foot waves and frost on the ground. But by sunset, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I'm envious of the photographers who have an opportunity to shoot these majestic emblems of a bygone past.

One of these days, I'm going to get back to Michigan and make a point of shooting more of these lighthouses. For now, I've got a few more shots of these sentinels from yesterday.

iPhonography

In case you haven’t seen the latest Apple commercial—and Apple is pretty renown for commercials—the computer and phone giant claims, “everyday, more photos are taken with an iPhone than with any other camera.” That’s not hard to believe. Counting all six generations, there are somewhere near 200 million iPhones on the street worldwide. Unlike DSLRs and point-and-shoot cameras, we always seem to have our phones with us. That convenience has equated to billions of photos.

Search for “photography” in the iTunes app store and you will get over 8,500 results. “Cameras” will find 4,700 hits and there are over 1,200 “photo editing” apps. But amongst the Apple hype and the iPhones held aloft at every event and landmark, how many compelling artistic images are taken on phones?

Recently, I attended a conference at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Jekyll Island and the club and mansions now making up the hotel were once an enclave for the richest families in America—Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Morgans, and Pulitzers among them—once made this their private retreat. In fact, the members of the club accounted for one sixth of the U.S.’s total wealth by World War II.

But despite the beauty and history here, I was without a camera. Except for my iPhone 5. Sometimes, you just get tired lugging around a thirty pound camera bag. So for three days, I set out to determine if I could take great photos, images becoming of a professional photographer, with an 8 MP iPhone camera. I’ve included a few samples.

I’m convinced that iPhones, and phone cameras in general, have reached a point where snapshots can transcend to art. Obviously, many photogs agree. Adhering to the same rules of composition, exposure, and light are really no different. Controlling shutter speed seems impossible until you realize—well, there’s an app for that.

I must admit that a couple of my images were tweaked a bit using East Coast Pixel’s Photo Toaster.  I’m a big fan of this app. From subtle sharpening or exposure adjustments to radical photo manipulations, this app has a lot to offer.

Flowers

So here are some gratuitus, gaudy flower photos. I'm not sure why. As I've shared so many times before, I don't really even like flower photos. And I'm not even a huge fan of hydrangeas. They are strange, almost prehistoric looking plants with big mop-like flowers. In the winter, they are brown, shriveled skeletons, as bleak as the gutter in a Dicken's novel. But come spring, they seem to bust out in poisonous green folaige and hundreds of buds. Apparently some varieties contain cyanide, making them slightly toxic if eaten. So naturally, they are smoked as an intoxicant in some cultures. I havent' tried smoking them or eating them as a fresh salad, but since I now have a yard with several varieties, I've subjected them to the Nikon. Enjoy.