The Shots: Lotus Blossoms

My trip to China was a whirlwind - 9 cities in 10 days. I saw a lot of traffic, airports, train stations and hotel ballrooms.

Artsy Beijing traffic

Actual Beijing traffic.

We did get a rest day in Jinan - conveniently scheduled, given that we arrived to our hotel at 3am - that included a trip to the Jinan springs and Daimen Lake.

It was at the lake that I fell in love with lotus blossoms.

The color, the size, the contrast between the flower and the leaves - it was such a joy to play with various angles, and I even tried the soft focus setting on the Olympus.

Our last city was Shanghai; I was lucky to have an afternoon with myself. I wandered over to People's Park, where I found another lotus pond. 

And now the important question: how do I grow these here in central North Carolina??

New additions - July 2013

Greetings, all.

This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to nine cities around northern/eastern China; it was amazing on so many levels - and a bit exhausting. I did manage to eek out a bit of time with my new camera and got some great shots. You'll find the newest additions in Architecture, Flora, Food, People, and Place.

Lessons from Nature

In the winter, when all the trees are bare, the weather is gray, and the ground crunches underneath your feet, it's hard to remember what all the fuss was about over those warm - even hot! - days in August when all you wanted was a cool breeze. 

I mean, really, what the hell were we thinking?  It's cold out there & by golly, could we get some sunshine?!

But there's a rhythm to it all.  Nature knows what she's doing.  And sometimes we could learn a thing or two from her ways.

I haven't posted in a few weeks.  There are several reasons for this, but I'm going to take a cue from Nature and simply say:

Sometimes we just need to hibernate.

The Collections: New Additions

New shots have been added to Architecture, Flora, Food, Nature, People, and Place.  Please use the links to the right to explore the collections.

The Tips: Perspective

In life as well as in art, perspective is a very valuable thing.

Framing & your zoom lens are two of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for taking great photos.  Sometimes it's best just to try and capture the scene in front of you as is, such as a landscape or a wider architectural shot or a skyline.

Blue Ridge Mountains; near Asheville, NC

Venus flytraps; Chapel Hill, NC

Other times, zooming in can shift the entire dynamic of the photo, where you can make the big seem small, the small seem big, or highlight the details that would otherwise be overlooked.

Riverfront Bench; Elizabeth City, NC

When I was a kid, I used to get a magazine where the back cover was an extremely zoomed photo of something; the puzzle was to guess what it was.  It was usually something innocuous, like a zipper or the wing of a bird, but it was my favorite part.  I'd like to think those puzzles helped lay the groundwork for my photography style, as I get really excited about finding those minor details that pack major visual punch.


Shifting your framing & employing your zoom can help make a good picture a great picture.  You may also need to be a little adventurous with your positioning: could that picture be better if you climbed up/over something or crouched under to peer through something else?  (Of course, be sure that you are always keeping an eye on your own safety, as well as honoring laws & regulations!)  Walk around your subjects if you can; you may find your own photo puzzle.

Flaming Wing; NC Zoo; Asheboro, NC

The Series: Old Well

The Carolina campus is one of my favorite settings.  It is that quintessential college campus that has so many interesting facets to capture and, quite honestly, it's tough to take a bad picture there, even on the rainiest of days.

It's certainly a conundrum, this trying to capture an entire campus in one shot -- how do you do it?  There are those iconic images, those hidden gems, places where historical buildings meet innovative structures.  The student body is so varied; how do you portray that through the lens in a way that doesn't appear staged?  An ideal shot would be a panoramic of the quad with morning light AND students...but some things just don't exist in nature.

Every campus has their one symbol that is instantly identifiable as theirs.  At Iowa, it's the Old Capitol - imagine our horror when it caught on fire in 2001 (at least this was an accident, unlike the Auburn oaks).

At UNC, it's the Old Well.  What once served as the original water source for campus now stands as the gathering point for everyone from visitors to current students to alumni.  It is an image that immediately evokes a sense of this place, arguably more than any other on the Carolina campus.

When the azaleas come into bloom, this space is nothing short of magical, especially when the sky is clear to reveal that perfect Carolina blue canopy overhead.  It is simply Carolina, then, now, and forever.

 

 

 

The Shot: Mantis Dance

It's about the little things.

While tending to my basil a few weeks ago, I came across a tiny praying mantis -- just a baby, but already in full attack mode, hunting for insects.  How it got all the way up to my deck, I haven't a clue.  I grabbed the camera and began to snap, adjusting my own distance to allow my macro setting to work best.

Incidentally, always wear a wrist strap or neck strap or some other means of attaching your camera to your body.  A multi-story drop is not ideal for your equipment.

As it turns out, basil is not only tasty, it's beautiful to photograph.  And it apparently provides a good starter home for one of my favorite insects.

Trying to move the pot to get a better angle only startled it -- even in a controlled environment, you can't control everything. 

It stuck around for a couple of weeks, growing a bit.  I haven't see it for awhile now; at first, I thought it was just hiding in the ever bushier leaves, but by now, I'm pretty sure it's gone off in search of better hunting grounds. 

The Collections: New Additions

New shots from a recent trip to Washington DC have been added to Architecture, Fauna, Flora, Food, People, and Place.  Please use the links to the right to peruse at your leisure.

The Shot: Spring Blooms at Sunset

While spending time in Asheville a few weeks ago, I took advantage of a free evening to go explore the Grove Park Inn (lover of F. Scott Fitzgerald that I am, the pilgrimage seemed necessary).  Visitors and guests of the resort mingle throughout its historic grounds, which look out over Sunset Mountain and the Blue Ridge of the Appalachians.  I had plenty of time to linger, wander, roam, and wait for the sunset.

As I meandered down towards the golf course from the inn, I came upon a tree just beginning to bloom.  The sun was starting its descent and shone through the still-visible branches towards me.

Most people will avoid looking directly into the sun -- and that's good advice for the most part (shadows, solar eclipses, glare) -- but you have to know when to buck tradition and stare it down.  This was one of those times.  

Adjusting my exposure setting as low as I could to compensate for the direct lighting, I tried to capture what I was seeing there on the hillside.

Sometimes you get really lucky - this is perhaps one of my favorite shots ever:

The Collections: New Additions

New shots have been added to Architecture, Flora, Nature, People, and Place.  Please use the links to the right to explore the collections.

The Sites: North Carolina Arboretum

Much like a swamp park, I find it hard to turn down a visit to a botanical garden.  

These are great locations to familiarize yourself with the flora of the area.  Some, like the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, are designed to capture the various ecosystems of an entire state.  Others will focus on the flora of their local area.  Still others will focus on a particular type of flowers, such as the rose gardens of Vander Veer Botanical Park in Davenport, Iowa.

On my second trip to Asheville, I found myself with time to visit the North Carolina Arboretum.  These gardens contain both cultivated and natural landscapes, with particular emphasis on the flora of the southern Appalachian mountains, and with educational programming for young and old alike.  The blooms were transitioning from summer to fall, so this made for an interesting blend of subjects.

The summer blooms included a batch of sunflowers.  These are flowers that are almost impossible to photograph poorly: the contrast of their colors, the sharp definition of their petals, and their size make for easy composition.  These flowers are ubiquitously splashed across linens, ceramics, paintings, just about anything and everything.  They are an image that is so familiar to us that in some way, they may be that prototypical image that first comes to mind when someone says "flower."

Given their plentiful presence, it would seem difficult to capture a new perspective on that quintessential flower, but as I strolled among the flowerbeds, I found one just beginning to open.  The petals were still delicately tucked into one another, as if hesitant to unfurl so late in the season:

The Sites: Western North Carolina

Rivers aren't the only thing I've had to redefine in North Carolina.

As you can imagine, the swamps of Florida and the wide flood plains of the Midwest never afforded me much exposure to mountains - anything over 20ft tall qualified in my book.  A few trips to Colorado during college took me from one extreme to the other, with 14,000 foot peaks soaring overhead with the same frequency as creeks flowed through my neighborhood.  

The Rockies are relatively younger mountains; they are still jagged, tall, and only just now beginning to show the wear and tear of erosion.  The Appalachians, on the other hand, are the veterans of geologic time.  Their tops are more rounded, their waterfalls more deeply carved, and their history more steeped in legend. 

Driving west on I-40 through North Carolina, you don't have much sense of your increasing elevation until you reach Burke County.  As you crest over a particular hill just west of Morganton, the Appalachians explode in undulating ridges toward the horizon.  It took my breath away the first time I made the trip; it did the same thing last fall when I returned; it will do it once again when I head back west this weekend.

Bunker Hill Covered Bridge; Hickory, NC

My first trip west was several years after moving here; it was a quick overnight business trip to Asheville - just enough to whet the appetite with a morning hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  My second trip started in Mooresville, from which I worked my way west through Hickory and Morganton before reaching Asheville once again. 

This time, I was able to spend more time in Asheville, exploring the downtown and the botanical gardens.  With such a rich culture of art, food, natural wonders, and history, this is a city which warrants an extended stay if you can do so.  

Pack Place; Asheville, NC

Crocus, NC Botanical Garden; Asheville, NC

Sunflower, NC Botanical Garden; Asheville, NC

North of Asheville, the Blue Ridge Parkway parallels I-40 for about 20 miles before turning further north towards Boone at NC-80 near Marion.  As the Parkway winds through the mountains, overlooks offer views of stunning landscapes, while the flora along the roadside offers refuge for comparatively smaller wonders:

Turkey Vultures over Licklog Ridge; Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

Monarch Butterflies; Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

Summit of Mt. Mitchell; Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

 Before reaching the turnoff for Marion, you reach the road to Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River.  Here, you can look out across the vista, with guides pointing you towards Grandfather Mountain and Boone, visible from the summit.  

 Western North Carolina is vast and varied - I still haven't made it to Boone or to Transylvania County, where waterfalls dance down the from the peaks.  Linville Gorge - often referred to as the Grand Canyon of North Carolina - is one of only two wilderness gorges in the southern US.  The Appalachian Trail winds along the border with Tennessee.  Wildlife large and small make their home here.  Clearly, I have my work cut out for me.

The Collections: New Additions

New pieces have been added to Nature, Flora, Fauna, and People.  Please use the links to the right to explore the collections.

The Sites: Madrid

When I finally made the switch from film to digital, I had a great opportunity to test it out on the road: two weeks in Madrid.  Although I was there for business, my colleagues and I managed to squeeze out some time for sight-seeing in the evenings and over the weekend.  


On one of our first evenings, we ventured to Plaza Mayor after dinner.  It was late (late by American standards, anyway) and it was raining, so we had the imposing space mostly to ourselves.  Light bounced across the wet cobblestones, giving the space an almost ethereal quality. 




The shops lining the first floor of the arcades were mostly closed, though one remained open, its walls lined with pictures of bull fighters, with more than a few heads of the unlucky creatures keeping watch over the patrons.


That weekend, I returned to Plaza Mayor during the day.  It was bright, warm, and sunny; the quiet square had transformed into a throng of tour groups bumping against each other in their respective attempts to navigate the space. 

By the time the weekend arrived, a colleague and I were in desperate need of a natural escape from the city landscape.  We made our way to Retiro Park, where she jogged along the trails while I meandered through the garden paths.  The park's variety of horticulture was massive, including a Victorian sculpture garden, and the waterfowl that settled along the backs of the ponds and streams were just as mixed. 

Madrid boasts several museums that house some of the world's most renowned collections and works of art.  The Prado and the Reina Sofia top the list and one could easily spend an entire trip browsing their galleries. 

But the food. Oh, the food.  From seafood to pork to cheese to more types of sausage than I'd ever seen, the food is what I remember most from this trip.  Competing gazpachos, suckling pig, Galatian seafood, paella, and tapas graced our tables with flavor combinations I could only hope to replicate in my own kitchen.  I like to debate the question of "cow or pig" with friends; for me, it depends on where I am, but in Spain, it is the pig that reins supreme.

This was my first time in the country and I was hooked: the food, the architecture, the people, and the culture had the same allure I felt when I traveled to Russia for the first time.  I could easily spend weeks and months here, traveling to the various regions to experience their cultures, languages, and cuisines - and, of course, attempting to capture it through my lens.