An Interesting Pair
I went down to Glenn Hilton Park for a couple hours this afternoon with the camera. The scenery there hasn't changed much lately, but I have noticed quite a few young wood ducks along the banks. I haven't seen any mature males, but I hope I will one day soon. They are quite photogenic. The park is also overrun with people during the summer months when the weather is nice. I felt lucky to even get in the park this afternoon. Usually a police officer is parked at the entrance turning people away because the parking lot is full.
As I was coming out of the boardwalk area, I noticed these two ducks sitting on a log, so I found a good spot and photographed them for a while. I didn't really get anything I was very happy with from the shoot, but I definitely enjoyed the time I spent doing it...
The Varsity
One of the highlights of my recent trip to Atlanta was a lunch stop at The Varsity. It has been a very long time since I have eaten here, but they still serve the same fare consisting of hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, onion rings, fried pies, shakes, and a few other odds and ends. The most interesting part of it is that they have been going strong since 1928. If you are ever passing through Atlanta on I-85, I hope you get the chance to stop in and give them a try. They are right at Georgia Tech, so keep your eyes open!
Georgia Aquarium with the SX20IS
My short trip to Atlanta was a blast. We had a good time and visited some interesting places. We went to the Federal Reserve Bank, CNN, Chick-Fil-A Headquarters, World of Coke, and the Georgia Aquarium. One of my personal experiments on this trip was to give a workout to my new small camera, the Canon SX20 IS. I wanted to put it through its paces as a point and shoot camera, so that's exactly what I did. I put the camera in fully automatic mode and left it there all weekend. I didn't touch a single setting on the camera. As I was scrolling through my photos from the trip, I didn't find any that had any problems at all until I got to my images from the aquarium where it was pretty dark for everything I shot. Shooting in the dark with telephoto lenses usually creates a really tough situation with camera shake, but this camera performed as well as I could have asked for. The image stabilization worked beautifully and I came home with a ton of great images from the visit to the Georgia Aquarium. HERE are a few samples of those if you want to take a glance...
I'm really happy with this camera. I bought it because I wanted a small camera that had a good zoom, and at 20x, this one works well. I still have my Canon G9, but the SX20 IS is going to become my front-runner camera for non-sports photography now...
Some More Snow
It's been snowing here all afternoon, but the temperatures are still above freezing, so not much of it is sticking to the ground. The birds, however, are fighting for position on the feeders. This usually provides for some entertainment as they push each other around for a chance to get some of my sunflower seed.
I shot this photo with my new Canon SX20IS digital camera. I have been really happy with the results from this camera so far. I'm taking it to Atlanta with me this weekend instead of the big camera bag, so it should get a nice workout... I bought this camera as a companion to and possibly a replacement for my Canon G9. The G9 is a fantastic camera, but it only has 3x zoom. The SX20IS has 20x optical zoom...
Raptors
I had an interesting assignment this afternoon. I went to Geitner Park to photograph the release of a rehabilitated bald eagle. This event was held by the Carolina Raptor Center and the Catawba Science Center. I didn't catch any really great photos of the bald eagle though. It was a rather quick process. The eagle was wrapped up. When it was unwrapped, it was released very quickly. The vantage point I chose for the eagle release turned out to be a poor one, so I don't have any great photos of that, but I turned in what I had and decided to shoot some 'portraits' for myself of the other birds they had on display at the event. The above bird is a red-tailed hawk that is a permanent resident of the Carolina Raptor Center, and the photo below is a barred owl from the same source.
Predator
I went down to Glenn Hilton Park late this afternoon looking for some feature art for the newspaper. I didn't find anything worth shooting for that, but I noticed this green-backed heron stalking its dinner along the lake shore, so I followed him for a bit. When I first spotted him, he was hiding in a brushy area and I never could get a good fix on him with the camera, but my patience paid off. After waiting and watching for about 30 minutes, he began to move around a little. This bird was stalking dragon flies and small fish along the lake shore. I knew these guys fed on fish but I had never known one to eat insects, but I watched him grab one and crunch it down like a cheap bag of chips. This particular photo doesn't really demonstrate this bird's stature very well. You can't tell by looking here, but he can extend his neck 6-8 inches. It gives him the ability to strike like a snake almost...
Turn One
I was sent to the Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night to photograph the 2nd Annual Dwight Huffman Memorial Race. The event schedule was way off track for some reason, and the first of the three racing events didn't start until 8:30pm and I was expecting the main event (2nd race of the 3-race schedule) to start by 8:30. I was rather bored, because I arrived at the track early to shoot a feature photo I needed for another assignment. By the time the event I needed to cover started, it was almost 10pm. As expected, that event ran long also. When you put 40 cars on a .36 mile oval, mayhem usually follows, and Saturday night was no exception. Regardless of the length of the event, I needed photos that highlighted the winner of the race, which I knew was going to push the newspaper's deadline. I shot a few photos of drivers who were leading the race up until midnight when my editor called and told me to come on back with what I had. During my down time in this race, I decided to play around a little with some hand-held long exposure zooms and came up with a couple images I liked...
At the Lake
I went out with one of the reporters just before lunch today in search of people doing what they do on the Fourth of July. One of our stops was the Wittenberg boat landing on Lake Hickory to talk to and photographs some people heading out for a day on the lake. I noticed a mama duck on the edge of the boat ramp with some ducklings close by so I snapped a couple photos. I may go back sometime around the first of the week and try to shoot some more of these...
In the Detail…
I had a chance to go back to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina over the weekend. For those of you who know me, you know I love photographing trains and all things railroad related. I love photographing the detail on these old steam locomotives. I really think I could spend a week in this place and not get bored with my camera. The problem I have is mainly that I haven't taken a day to go down here by myself and really study the opportunities. I would love to put together a large series of photos of this type. This particular image really takes me back to my roots in photography. I have always been a fan of the detail. It may sound strange, but when I look at any given scene, I'm very quick to determine specific elements that make the scene intriguing to me. When I discover those specifics, I tend to focus on them rather than the scene as a whole. The art really is in the detail. Form and function... there is much to see...
Outer Banks – Day Three
On Wednesday morning, we got up and drove down to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse for a few photo opportunities...
After our visit to the lighthouse, we caught the ferry over to Ocracoke Island... We stopped for lunch at Howard's Pub & Raw Bar (see my other blog entry) and then drove on down into Ocracoke Village...
We made a stop at the Ocracoke Lighthouse for some more photos...
After spending a few hours on Ocracoke, we hopped the ferry back to Hatteras and stopped along the way to spend a little time on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore... This was my first real trip to the Outer Banks. After visiting this place, I will probably never visit other beaches in North Carolina again unless I have some specific reason to do so... This place is beautiful...