Lost Aussie on the loose

Cruising The Mosel River

DH has joined me for a few days here in Germany prior to heading off on a business trip.  To make the most of them we hopped on a tour boat that cruised the Mosel River today, giving us ample time to enjoy the view and see more than we could if just walking or driving the car.

At the height of the Summer I imagine these river boats to be packed to the gills, but this week is just the beginning of "tourist" season and so the adventure ride was relaxing to the max...

... feet up, camera out and a beer not too far away ....

Either side of the river.... the view was pretty amazing!

Water Falling

Today we headed out from Cornelius to the Blue Ridge Mountains to join a Meetup Group to take photos of the waterfalls at DuPont State Forrest.  The 2.5hr drive did not leave me dissapointed and this shot of Hooker Falls is probalby my favourite of the day....

We then hiked for a little while to get to Triple Falls and then onto High Falls where I only shot images from the bottom of the fall, and not the top.  (High Falls is the third image down.)

All in all it was a great day.  The chillier temps (in the 60's) made it perfect for hiking, especially when going uphill and lugging a bunch of camera gear and a tripod.

I'd quite like to repeat the adventure, with a little local knowledge in hand and perhaps a bit more time to contemplate the "shot" with a little less chaos, as it was very busy along the trail today.

None the less, it was fun, nice to meet new people, stretch my camera wings again and get my freckles dusted with sunshine....

Simply Black and White

There's something irresistable about Black and White images, where the distraction of color is removed and you are visually drawn by little more than shape, form and detail and often times the resulting image has way more impact than the colored version might have.

Here's the SOOC pic....

....   and yes, it needed some considerable editing to make it into anything remotely appealing...

... but I did not want to spend ages cutting out the "dude" and whacking him on a faux backdrop, so I used a bunch of Channel manipulations to get where I wanted and where the background was obliterated and my soldier man could stand in all his glory.

I did toss up whether or not to put the cleaned up BW version on another background but in the end decided that I liked the high contrast stand alone portrait look....

What do you think?

A Face of Character

I need to preface my post today by saying that I am appalled at the events that transpired in Boston today and my heart goes out to all who have been affected.  Not nice, not good and you have to wonder how and why people can deliberately set out to cause such devastating harm to each other??

Having said that, it was not deliberately that I chose to work on an image of soldier this evening, just odd how the fingers do the walking and well... it is what it is...

This is a chap that I photographed the first (box unpacking) free weekend I had here in Charlotte, where DH and I came across a Civil War re-enactment on our way to Asheville.  Considering the folk were all dressed up to play, few of them were keen to have their picture taken and this one was only caught courtesy of my long 300mm lens.

When Nature Does It (..and Photoshop does not)

Panos aren't the greatest of images to feature on the blog but there's not really any better way to show eight pelicans captured in full flight as they cross the oyster beds of the Intracoastal Waterways down in Florida.

Initially when I showed DH the picture he thought I had photoshopped the same Pelican flying at different moments ..... not so ....

Whilst out in the boat last week we came across a "flock"? of nesting Pelicans, 20 or so of them and at one point they decided to take flight and this is what my camera saw... or all that I could snap in one frame, at any rate...

Almost like an Eadweard Muybridge time lapse capture....

From the Intracoastal waterways we ventured offshore towards some of the coastal banks and shoals where there were many birds of different varieties all sitting together and enjoying the sunshine...

My guide seemed disappointed that the birds weren't "doing" anything ... but it seemed to me that since it was the breeding season they were all more focussed on communing and having a chat (prior to mating) rather than fishing or frolicking...

I was just happy being out in the sunshine, on the water and getting up close and personal to a bunch of feathered folk that I normall don't get to see...

Portraits or Pontiacs?

I joined in my first Charlotte Meetup today.  It was in a quaint town just north of me called Mooresville where I met about 20 other photographers and we had the opportunity to take some pictures of various "live" models .... couples, kids, babies and the like.

It was great to meet some new people and explore this rather funky town.  I have however discovered that a portrait photography business is definitely not in my future - while I like taking pictures of people for fine art work,  the contrived "glamour" and cutesy stuff leaves me cold.  I could happily do it if there was some personal relationship but to be honest, I was more interested in taking pictures of the hot rods and other fab collectibe cars that were parked down the street.

Having said that, I did get some nice pictures of the models that were there and maybe it had more to do with struggling for a shot with 20 other lenses pointed at the model and no real opportunity to connect .... ???

Today though, the cars and ICECREAM won out.... big time!!

 

(By the way if you ordered prints for Nancy's Fundraiser, they have all been mailed and should reach you shortly.  Thank you so much!!!)

Shades of Spring

It might not have been the sunniest of days today, but a balmy 68F made cruising around Uptown Charlotte a pleasant adventure.  We'd gone to visit the Light Factory - a contemporary museum of Photography and Film.  I'm not sure what everyone else was doing today but there was no-one in the Museum at all and the attendant had to go and turn on the lights in the galleries just for us.  It was rather like having a private tour and kind of neat.

I hope you had sunny Sunday and if Easter is your thing, then here's hoping that you had a lovely one with significant helpings of chocolate egg!!

The trees are all wearing their spring blooms here abouts... lots of pink and white eye candy....

To Charlotte, NC and back

I've spent the last few days in Charlotte, NC, revisting old haunts and taking the camera to new places that have sprouted up since last I lived here, particularly in Uptown Charlotte.

New eye, new camera and new interest, and there was lots of camera fodder to be found.  Just a shame I forgot my card reader and camera cables, so was not able to post pics while I was there...

The architecture there is really quite phenomenal, lots of cool sculptures to photograph and as it looks like this will be my home again in the not too distant future, I already have in my mind a photo walk tour that could prove to be quite fun.

The main aim of this trip was to house hunt (as renters for a change).  I want a little more flexibility and time to figure out what will work best before jumping in at the deep end and buying a property that is not necessarily in the right place.

We may have lucked out today, but time will tell.  Renting there is a dog eat dog business, hot market and slim pickings to choose from....so fingers crossed that our application on the house of choice goes well.

Finally made it back home to Long Island to be greeted by 22 inches of snow.   I'm sure there are a few landscaping disasters lurking under the fluffy white stuff, but until I can fire up the snow blower and clear out tomorrow, it remains a lovely and pristine vista of chilly white ......

En Pointe - Some Ballet Delight

I had the pleasure of shooting pictures with model Viktoria today, some 1000 of them in fact.  But since this is the last day of time to be spent with #2 son, post processing has taken rather a back seat this evening in favour of long chats and delivery of the last of the maternal sermons for a while.

Viktoria was great though.  Bendy, supple and just a delight to work with.  She is also noted for her 'contortionist' abilities.  So I have shots of her in all sorts of incredible poses, upside down, wrapped around herself.. pseudo flying through the air...amazing really.

Unfortunately my days of doing ballet splitz are long gone.  90 degrees I can still manage but 180 is about 20 degrees short and looks kind of weird, and let's face it, who needs to hover 3" above the floor for anything much at my age!!

And as I type this, snow is falling.  So plans to visit Arthur Kill early tomorrow might need some revision.

Four Freedoms Park at Roosevelt Island, NYC

Today dawned chilly but sunny (for the first time in ages), so we hopped in the go-go mobile and headed for points west, specifically Roosevelt Island, to check out the  Four Freedoms scuplture park.

What a visual feast!  Poised at the southern most tip of Roosevelt Island the park, designed by Louis I Kahn, is simply perfection embodied in terms of symmetry and simplicity, with perspective and architectural lines that draw the eye in every direction, particularly if you have your camera in hand.

Although it was bright and sun shinny, I'd packed my tripod and ND filters in the hopes of snapping a few long exposure shots and was not disappointed.  There was plenty of wind to puff the few clouds along and 16 stops of ND did a good job of toning down all the bright lights....

Long exposure photography is not necessarily a favourite amongst chilly by standers as each capture can take 3 to 8 minutes and in my experience, the hangers on have less patience than the photographer... nevertheless I did manage about 5 decent shots before every one else's patience wore through.

Here's a few that I have worked on tonight.....the blog format does not really do them much justice as each image is around 20 inches wide....but you get the idea!!

and just in case you have no idea what the "Four Freedoms" are or what the park is a tribute to, I've posted and excerpt of Roosevelt's address for you.... courtesy of this website.

 

The "Four Freedoms"
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address to Congress January 6, 1941

 In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

And what can you really say, but Amen to all that!!!!

Tomorrow I'll post some shots of the island and surrounds that I snapped using my fabbo new Fisheye!