1.29.2011

In case of fire, pull pin and uh...umm.....nevermind, run!

I have had the flu the past several days but just HAD to get out this morning.  Mother Nature is teasing us with an almost early Spring like weekend.  The skies are blue, critters are scurrying about, and people are out enjoying the break between snowy, icky weather patterns.  I went down the banks of the lake and the first shot I got was of that fire extinguisher buried in the floatsam that is exposed each winter when the TVA draws down the water of the lake systems.  

Self portrait - dayum I'm a tall feller.

Noisy little bird, a kingfisher I think.

Rocky shoreline exposed.

Things That Caught My Eye

Alexis and I went for a stroll in Maryville this morning. I didn't really get any great shots but I saw some interesting things.

Like, okay, like I wasn't going to anyway. You're all like bossy and stuff.

Note found outside of the courthouse. Things like this fascinate me. I wonder who Fernandez is, why they were at the courthouse, etc.

NOT an exit.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fightin! Not only is in kung fu, it is STREET kung fu...


I'm really lichen this picture.


Sir Bedevere: No, no. What else floats in water?
Peasant 1: Bread.
Peasant 2: Apples.
Peasant 3: Very small rocks.
Peasant 1: Cider.
Peasant 2: Gravy.
Peasant 3: Cherries.
Peasant 1: Mud.
Peasant 2: Churches.
Peasant 3: Lead! Lead!
King Arthur: A Duck.
Sir Bedevere: ...Exactly. So, logically...
Peasant 1: If she weighed the same as a duck... she's made of wood.
Sir Bedevere: And therefore...
Peasant 2: ...A witch!

Saturday Morning Shooting

It has been forever since I went out JUST to take pictures. I left the house at 6:15 this morning with my gear bag and found out a few things:

1. 28 degrees Fahrenheit might be warmer than most Saturdays have been recently but it's still damn cold.
2. My shooting is way out of practice
3. I really need to practice shooting with my zoom lenses again.
4. In general, I really have to watch my shutter speed and focal length and use my tripod more. Using the 50mm at home under lights has gotten me too confident in handheld shots when I got back outside using a zoom lens.
   
5. I still love photography and need to get back to it outside of the kitchen.

Water Hazard
Yellow golf ball frozen in the shore of Lake Loudon. I like the shot but should have used the 50mm/1.8f lens.

Martian Landscape
Actually is the exposed and frozen clay shoreline.

I loved the color in this shot, the sun was just peaking over my shoulder. I HATE the focus. I had been shooting manual focus before this shot and wonder if I thought I had switched back to auto. I don't know but this could have been a great shot.


High and Dry
I like the stratified layers of color in this shot, but it's a bit washed out in the lightest layer.



Lost Summer

This stump of a post embedded in concrete caught my eye because of how the water erosion has etched the natural rings of the wood out. I should have used the tripod more to get cleaner shots.

Dang, I have long legs at 7 in the morning!

The ONLY shot I took all morning that I really liked. At least it's the only one that didn't make me think I should have done something differently.
As disappointed as I was in the pictures, I feel like I learned a lot, or more to the point, "re-learned" a great deal.

Upside Down From There

Make a hole with a gun perpendicular

To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It's like a whirlpool and it never ends

"Ana Ng"
by They Might Be Giants

Saturday Sunrise

After thoroughly enjoying a migraine and staying in bed most of the day yesterday, I woke up wide awake at 5am this morning. So I decided to get out and take some photographs.

Taken from Rocky Pointe before dawn. I took about 25 shots just like this, all full of color just dripping out of the sky.
I saw so many things looking at this tree. An alligator's mouth, maybe a sideways capital A, and many more images came to mind.
Taken from the public boat ramp near Concorde.
Little Orphan Annie was right....the sun DID come out tomorrow.
While the sun rose on one side, this was the view behind me, a full moon still hung with care in the sky.
It's been a great day so far and it's only 8am.

Accidental Turns

On our way back from our weekend jaunt to Louisville last weekend, we got off on a side road that turned out not to be the road I wanted.

My poor GPS system was confused. The route guidance was literally drawing circles on the display. The system's voice guidance, normally full of confidence as she announces directions and commands, was reduced to soft sobs of desperation.

I didn't care. We were heading in the general direction that we needed and seemed to be paralleling the interstate. Along the curvy, winding road, we found these two long forgotten work horses. I felt sad for them. I wonder if they once help build the nearby Interstate back in the 1960's.

Leftovers

Some left overs from last Sunday's drive.

Railroad Depot

Part of our Sunday morning drive took us through the sprawling metropolis of Greenback, TN (pop. 954) where I took this shot of what looked like an old railroad depot.
No color has been added to this at all. I just used selective color by putting a color copy of the picture over a black and white copy. Then I erased the color around the building for the monochrome effect, except on the building.

Anyway, a quick Google check confirmed that indeed this was formerly a railroad depot opened by L & N in 1914. This little town was not much more than a crossroads, I'm drawn to places like this for some reason. And buildings or structures like this fascinate me, because they were obviously once something very special to someone.

LAND SHARK !!!!!!

This isn't a photographic piece of art but damn it was funny. We found this mailbox when we diverted off of a country road because we saw a public boat ramp sign (water = scenic views) on our Sunday photo safari. If I remember right, this was off of State Road 333 near Friendsville, TN.

Bridge Out Ahead

Here's a shot from our photo safari on Sunday. This is off of a section of Hwy 129, called The Dragon, which is one of the world's most famous motorcycle ride routes thanks to it's 318 twisting, curving, and banking turns in 11 miles through the Smoky Mountain foothills.

This shot just shows the set up of the old bridge pilings, just to show how beautiful the area is.
But this is the shot I loved because of the composition. I tried it in black and white but you lost a lot that way.

Sunday Morning Drive

We were childless this morning so Alexis and I left the house at 7am to go on a photo safari. We ended up driving 100+ miles to the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Unfortunately, the 1,000 percent humidity was oppressive and the ozone impenetrable, so mountain shots were out due to the haze. Even with UV or polarizing filters, it is still to hazy to get a clean shot.
But I didn't let the weather conditions ruin my photo safari. I took just over 100 shots of other things as we meandered through country back roads (right at a photo per mile). I got some real "keepers" today and I'll post some of them over the next few days.

Here's one taken at one of the first stops we made. Alexis noticed this old softball sitting at the base of a lake side tree. To me, this instantly began the storytelling in my head.
I couldn't help but notice the ANCIENT pop top tab (what are those, 30 years old now?) next to it, so I thought this would look great as a black and white.
Which version do you prefer?

Update: Alexis read this post and pointed out that she liked THIS one better. Only a slightly different take, but still, which one do you like better, color or b&w?

Saturday Morning Drive

Gone but probably not forgotten... (Mascot, TN)A different burnt out home. (Powell, TN)"A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track...an inch between wreck and smooth rolling prosperity." Henry Ward Beecher

And thus spake the lord...I mean, it was foggy out.