Bluegrass in the Park
Today's adventure was a local event called "Bluegrass in the Park" held at the Henry Fork River Park in Hickory, North Carolina. I had never been to this park before, but after going there today, I plan to visit it more frequently. It's one of those places that I can go on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon with my laptop when I have a ton of studying to do. Anyway... This event was interesting in its setup. There was a main band at the event called KUDZU, and they played a while and then allowed people who had shown up with their instruments to play a while as well. All of the musicians who played in front of the crowd were excellent.
Thunderstorm
I had a baseball game assignment tonight at the Hickory American Legion Fairgrounds. The game was stopped in the fourth inning for lightning, and I had all the photos I needed, so I headed back to the newspaper office. I ran into a nasty storm on my way back. When I got back to the office, I shot this video clip. Be sure to catch the last 20 seconds or so :)
Time Lapse Car Wash
I decided to play around with the time lapse photography function of the Canon PowerShot G9 camera this afternoon. I needed to wash my car, so I figured that would be an interesting test of the capabilities of the system. I set the camera on my tripod and configured the time lapse system to make a photo once per second. The camera performs this task and builds an AVI video file that plays back at 15 frames per second. This video clip of less than 90 seconds shows about 18.5 minutes of activity. The G9's time lapse system can also be configured to shoot an image once every two seconds as well. When the G9 records time lapse video, it does not record sound. After I created this clip with the camera, I produced it with Cyberlink's PowerDirector v7 to add the title frames and the music soundtrack. I think this feature is quite entertaining and I'll probably look for some additional subject material that would make for interesting time lapse studies...
Swingin’ Under the Stars
Rick Cline is a local musician who spends countless hours putting together various music events in our area. This latest even was truly phenomenal. "Swingin' Under the Stars" was held on Union Square in downtown Hickory, North Carolina this evening. The band performed Glen Miller classics while people in the audience danced swing. I consider myself lucky to have had this assignment from my local newspaper for this evening. I shot this brief video clip and quite a few still photos that will be used for a photo page later this week.
Hickory Crawdads Fireworks
I went to the Hickory Crawdads baseball game last night at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina with my video camera. I decided to try to video tape the fireworks display following the game. My little video camera (Canon ZR800) has a fireworks mode, so I decided to give it a try. The video quality from this camera is excellent, even though they look rather rough on YouTube because of their system's internal compression and conversion routines. I'll be back at Hickory Crawdads tonight, tomorrow, and hopefully on Monday as well...
Fountain of Rings
Another stop on the trip to Georgia was in Atlanta. This short video clip shows some people messing around in the Fountain of Rings in Centennial Olympic Park.
I'm beginning to find more interest in video. I did not take a still camera with me on this excursion, and I'm glad I decided to shoot video instead. People watching with a video camera definitely adds some extra elements to the experience, but there are no great 'stills' to be printed either...
This could possibly be my last excursion from my local area before this time next year when I graduate from Radiography school. I'm not sure if time or funds will permit another adventure. When I graduate and complete my registry exams, I'm planning to take a trip to Niagara Falls that will include plenty of stops along the way up and on the way back.
Kangaroos in Georgia
Who would have thought that the world's largest kangaroo preserve outside of Australia is in Dawsonville, Georgia? Me either... Just outside of Dawsonville, you will find the Kangaroo Conservation Center. This site is home to over 300 kangaroos, as well as an interesting collection of Australian wildlife. The Kangaroo Conservation Center is also successful at breeding most of the species they have on hand. I didn't shoot a lot of photos on this trip, but I did shoot plenty of video :)
National Anthem Tryouts
The Hickory Crawdads held some try-outs for National Anthem singers for the upcoming baseball season as part of National Goof Off Day at the park this afternoon.... Below is some video from that event...
Pan Jive
I went to the Olde Hickory Tap Room this evening to photograph "Pan Jive" performing their steel drum sounds for the Sunday evening dinner crowd. Shooting in poor light is always a challenge, so I try to take advantage of blur when I can in these situations. The space is also tight in this local restaurant, so I can't get more than a few feet away from the action for photos. I also shot a video clip of Pan Jive performing one of their original tunes...
In the Park…
I made another visit to Glenn Hilton Park this afternoon while taking a break from studying. I have been trying to get a few decent bird photos lately of birds that visit my feeders and birds in the local area. It's easy to attract birds for close photography at this park just by taking a handful of sunflower seed and placing it along the walkway hand rails. I was about 10' or so away from this Tufted Titmouse when he came down to check out the buffet I had left on the rail. I also shot a brief video while I was wandering around...
CLICK HERE to watch the video...