Love. I love love. And who doesn’t? Photographing these two was a breeze. They were a joy to work with. Greg and Jessica are just two good looking and fun young people! We took the easy route and just putzed around Tanglewood and found many little spots for photos.
Hold Me~
We visited the Arboretum, where the ceremony is planned. Nice spot!
Lovin' it!
And what says “we’re in Love” better than this?
Oh...so~
Overall, had a blast and we enjoyed ourselves~
cheers, tw
Washington D.C. August 2009. Despite our lack of nursing work of late we were able to pull off the D.C. trip we had planned due to one crucial factor: We had a place to stay for free! My good friends Kristin and Andy had headed up to the Cape for a bit of R&R and left us the keys to their palace in Arlington. Arlington as most know cozies up to the Potomac river right across from D.C.
View from the Palace Deck
We took off day one, walked to the nearest Metro and railed into D.C., got off at Smithsonian Station and began our walking journey from there. I was surprised that it wasn’t very crowded. August surely bring crowds, and later in the day crowds did descend. But there were lots of Museums that were walk-in, step right up, with no lines. You just had to look for them, they weren’t on the main Mall and thoroughfare that everyone thinks of and all the tours tout.
Smithsonian Morning
Admittedly, after about four hours of walking, my legs were killing me. There’s always something about walking in D.C. that will wear your legs out. I always blamed it on the 12 feet of granite or concrete underneath it all, but who knows, it’ll wear the most avid hikers feet or legs out.
Good news though. We got smart and brought our bicycles this trip. And took the time to drive in late and take a very scenic and lovely evening in around the Mall and memorials. Taking in the sites by bicycle is a must. We rode and played in around and through for four good hours with nary an issue and were not even close to being tired. So huge difference!
Night with Lincoln
Amazed at how far one can frame photographs from. In this shot below, The Capitol building shows through the flags at the Washington Monument. One full mile between the two.
Congress in Night Session
Another amazing thing to me was the amount of folks both out, and out with cameras late a night. Most were just putzing around having a nice leisurely evening of it, and it was very endearing to see. We stayed out until past midnight, and there were folks still there.
Cheers,
Wow! My first photography class met yesterday and I think it went well.
While it is true I had only two takers, I was very pleased with these two. Both had great camera gear to begin with, which was a surprise and not a requirement. And Both were eager to get down to business right away, which made good use of our time.
We jumped right into Gimp working at first separately on individual computers and then together over the Desktop I had brought. Looking at some of the terrific photos they shared with me of theirs, I’d venture to say that we found some new tools to push their creativity further.
Taking a Better Photo. I definitely see a need for this class. And I see a need to turn this class into perhaps several phased classes. And not for the reasons one might at first suspect. Both of my participants were taking good photos, but our latest technology cameras were just too full of options, so we took the time to get them up to speed in using the manual settings for shooting with and without flash. And from judging their in-class accomplishments, they got it!
Manual mode. use ISO to drive shutter speed, Shutter Speed chosen based on scene, and aperture to guide Depth of field. Add fill flash as desired.
Simple sounding, but often not truly intuitive.
We had fun and I thank them wholeheartedly for taking part!
fun class!
Yes, yes! I am teaching several classes at the Yadkin Arts Council beginning in August. Please look the class information over and just send me an e-mail or call me to sign up~
Cheers, tom
Class 1: Working in the GIMP. Saturday August 1 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
GIMP is a photo editing program much like Adobe Photo-shop, except it is free and available to anyone.
The class will cover the basics of GIMP and a hands on display and computer will be available to work from. Bring a laptop if you have one and download and work on your own right in class.
We will cover,
Layers: making cool- to creepy photos
Masks: colorizing a select item in a photo
Healing: Safest Plastic Surgeon on the Planet!
textures and layers
colorization
Each participant will receive a free data CD with the GIMP exe. file loaded on it to download at home.
Class price is $40 per person with a limit of ten participants.
Class 2: Taking a better photo ( a look into the Junk Files!); Saturday August 1pm to 3pm
Junk
Bring your camera, your manual if you have it and your ideas and questions!
Class cost $40 per person, Limit 10
Class 3: Waterscapes; taking those dreamy/smoky waterfall photos we all like. Saturday August 8th 6 am
water
I will have both FX and DX lenses available for use on Nikon equipment. I will also have ND filters and tripods there to use as well.
Things to bring:
1. Camera; fresh battery and storage card, also download cable and tripod if you have one.
2. Rain gear, unless we encounter a deluge, all systems are go!
3. Rain gear for your camera. Water kills most cameras!
4. Hiking shoes. Plan on your feet getting wet. so get some cheapy water shoes from Wal-Mart if you don’t have any.
5. Bring socks/shoes and dry clothes in case it does rain..when we return to the cars, that’ll make you feel all nice and dry!
6. Lunch /brunch will be provided: Smoked Salmon, Organic Cheese, Apple slices. YUM!
7. Bring water: bring 1.5L-2L
8. Bring a compact pack to wear down the trail. Use bungees to strap your tripod on if needed
9. Please contact me with any concerns regarding this trip before departure.
10. I am a Registered Nurse, so I can handle medical emergencies. If you have a medical condition that requires medication; Such as diabetes/insulin, Cardiac conditions, and Seizure disorder, please give me a heads up.
Having a camera that the shutter speed is adjustable down to multi-seconds is necessary to achieve results. A digital SLR is the preferred camera, but many “point & shoots” also are capable of delivering. My cameras can be used to learn the techniques, as others without an adjustable camera are welcome to attend as well. We will have a Laptop with us to look at results as we go!
Expect to be gone about 6.5 hours give or take.
Class Cost is $150 per person, limit 8
For Inquires contact:
tom wise
336-201-7931
tom wise
My Blog: www.tomwise1.wordpress.com
My Pro Site: www.tomwisephotos.com
At last! We finally made it back to our favorite place of retreat. Lake Sinclair has about anything we would want, or perhaps anyone would want. A lake, which means lots of water!
And quietude! We managed to watch a movie while there and it only took us four days to finish it~Hard to believe but I didn’t even go swimming this visit~
We got lucky. I had eagle on the brain before we left and sure enough we got several opportunities to photograph one particular Bald Eagle. He was a bit scruffy looking, and really didn’t want his photo taken, so we were forced to hunt find and shoot without much latitude.
George the Eagle
George
We have a regular community of Martins that live at the Lake with us. They provided us with perfect, contented entertainment from Sun-up to Sunset.
perched
If ya get lucky sometimes you can catch one of the little fellas cruising along at less than sonic speeds~
cool guy~
Breakfast Hunter
Invariably we always seem to get too close due to the short range lenses we own. So they go squawking off…sounding rather, um…annoyed.
And yet another~
Blue
I think our most fun find came with the plethora of adolescents we encountered. They were indeed everywhere and very young and small too. And the did the funniest things and ignored us, which was nice and smart of them!
A good scratch!
yo!
Goat island beach fishing party
Cheers, tom
OKAY. I know this isn’t hiking, but how do I resist putting up a few photos of this mornings household activity? No resistence here.
After having an uninvited guest in the house for about two weeks, I finally went and got a live trap. Ruby, my cat is an outside dweller, so she doesn’t get the opportunity to peruse the menu from inside the house….the result of both are the subject of this posting, please do enjoy~
a wee bit nervous
Say good morning before introducing yourself~
Good Morning!
And we can play even if your not too into it~
You come down here right now!
Okay then, you asked for it!
This is not my fault!
And see?
Told ya!
Being helpful amidst our game!
Ruby, is my Name!~
Thanks for Looking!
Happy Saturday~
tom
We were a day later than anticipated and didn’t make the jaunt down to the bottom of the falls. But we did finally make it to where we know we have to turn and begin the trek into the woods. Every topo map we looked at shows the same low lying features beginning there. In fact, only one and that was the USGS topo from 1967 shows that there is any water to be found at that spot. I suspect it’ll be another two weeks before we venture into the woods and attempt to locate the bottom of the water fall.
And I predict we will find it cascades for at least two hundred yards before finally presenting itself as the water falling from the top!
I could little resist this wonderful photo. Every time we are in the woods around 6 pm, I announce it is feeding time. Which to me means we may see more critters. We caught this Mom and fawn after we were in the car on our return trip home. She was standing right beside the road taking care of junior and feeding herself.
Mom and fawn
later~
