Flowers Get Their Dew

Hoping to catch some fresh dew on flowers, I headed over to the Rose Garden to capture a some images. Here are a few of the ones I liked.

I switched my lens to manual focus and set it for macro mode. Using a monopod to anchor and steady the camera and I shot most of these at around 300mm / F 8.0.

Happy 4th of July... from the road side!

Here are a few images from yesterday's fourth of July celebration.

Since there was so much traffic, we ended up finding the first empty parking spot available and made a mad dash to setup the camera and tripod just in time for the fireworks to start!

I started shooting with a 50mm to get some relatively close shots of each firework as it exploded, as shown in the next two images.



I then switched a wide-angle lens to record more of the surroundings as shown in the next set of images.


I set the shutter speed to the 'bulb' setting operated it manually to record a few 'bursts' in each shot. These fairly long exposure times resulted in creative rendering of the car headlights as they passed on the road. This was a welcomed bonus.

What a great time. It was fast, nonstop action that ended as abruptly as it started!

That was fun.

Don't Just Stand There... Move! Find A Sweet Spot

For me, there's more to sports photography than grabbing a camera, putting on a long lens and then firing a million and one shots! But, I guess one can get at one or two good ones that way. But that does not work for me.

Like any other type of photography, one should to take the time to find a location that increases the odds of getting those memorable shots; those images that are different from the "run of the mill" ones.

I captured these images during a road race in Greensboro, North Carolina and their impact is partly due to some work in Photoshop but mostly because of a few steps I took before shooting:

1. Setup a short distance from the side of the road.

2. Knelt down so that I was no more than two feet above the ground.

3. Positioned half-way down the straight-away from the nearest corner or just around a bend and close to the finish line

4. Waited for the "right" time to shoot (i.e. until all riders came out of the shade, etc. )


That's it. While photography is clearly subject to personal taste, we might agree that the images that have the greatest impact on us are usually those that show things in a different light... from a different angle or perspective. Let's take the time to scout out those uncommon spots that show the common activities in an uncommon way!

So, don't just stand there: go find a good spot, change your level and start shooting!

Share with us. What are your favorite spots to shoot from?