Raising a family comes with many challenges. One of the greatest is raising siblings to respect each other through childhood, not compete for everything, and show each other charity. In between the challenging moments it is always encouraging to see a moment like this, when there is peace between them. I'm glad I caught it. It is a moment to cherish.
For once the trains are running on time!
-ehw
PS Fujifilm X-E1 with the awesome 23mm 1.4
Brothers at work
A fun part of Old Car City is hearing people point at a car and say, "That is my first car!" I also hear people say, " That car took my family everywhere when I was a child." Since I did not find any International Scouts, Volkswagen Vanagons, or Japanese market mini-vans (the only forgiegn cars are a few Volkswagen Beetles) I had to laugh at the first car that made me think of one from my youth.
When I was five or six I was being a brat while visiting my Babcha and DjaDja (Polish for Grandmother and Grandfather). In particular I was not eating my vegetables. So my DjaDja said, "That's it. Eric Come with me." My Dad's other eight brothers and sisters with the other first wave of grandchildren (My Dad was the second oldest) all said in various ways, " Your in trouble! Going with the Dja to get fixed!"
Well to that level of doom I marched all the way to the attic behind DjaDja. Once in the attic he said something to the effect of "Where did I put those ..." After a few minutes of rummaging he exclaimed that he found them and came over to me holding two plastic cars. One was a red version of the car in the photo. He said that if I behaved and ate my vegetables one of them could come down. Not wanting to pick one, I of course wanted both. I gallantly offered to eat everything on my plate all weekend if I could bring both down. He accepted my offer. DjaDja explained to me that I had to look very dour when I came downstairs so his mean reputation would remain in effect.
So down we went, hiding the cars around the corner from the dining room where they could not be seen by the room full of family. I ate my food all weekend, and raced cars up and down the house to my heart's delight.
Oh well, such are the adventures of Old Car City as you stroll through memory lane.
-ehw
P.S. X-E1 with 60mm Macro. Processed in HDR EfexPro 2
This Long Haired Lady still looks elegant up in Old Car City. I really wish I could see this car in its glory. I love the long lines, the grace it would have sliding through the air, and the roar of the engine. Even today you can clearly see the blue of the sky reflecting in the chrome at this partly bright sunny day in North Georgia.
Working in the cold weather my camera did just fine, and the battery did not crash. What I did find a bit harder was staying comfortable with all the layers of warm clothes I had one...and realizing I forgot my most vital accessory for serious rolling around...my knee pads.
About 16 years ago I fell down a Georgia mountain in the cold of winter while in the Army. I smashed up both of my knees, and they got good infections. Today I still feel the soreness, especially on cold winter days like this one. So forgetting my knee pads really hurt my movement up and down with the tripod.
In order to really work a scene well, a great photographer once told me to get high-low-middle-near-far-get front-back-rear and anything else. You have to experiment. It does not mean you have to click the shutter at each spot, but it does mean you have to observe each spot and think through the opportunities it can offer. As with any skill, experience and creativity will drive the end result far more than the equipment available.
So the moral of the story is, I think I captured a good composition. I still wonder however how much more I could have done if I remembered the knee pads and worked this scene even harder.
-ehw
P.S. Fujifilm X-E1 with 14mm, F/18 on a seven shot jpeg EV Comp setting processed through Nik HDR efex Pro2 and touched off in Aperture
It is that time of year when I need to catch up on things before the crush of school year life hits us with the power of a thunder clap.
So before my lovely big daughter grows out of her 2013 dance costumes I just had to take advantage of it to take her portrait! This time I think she enjoyed it...at least for the first 90 minutes and four costume changes! The last change is the one you see here.
I'll share some more over time, but this one has the emotion in the smile, the sweet innocence of a 12 year old, and the eye contact a daddy longs to get in the lens. It was a wonderful time spent with my daughter. This is an image I will not soon forget.
Now below you will see a photo of the little guy Kevin, he so wanted his photo taken with his dogs, the only dogs he'll ever get in my household. I'm allergic to them, but he is not so far....and he reminds me of that every other day at least. When these guys don't have breakfast with the two of us, one is smelling up my bed. The miricle here is that he looked at the camera! Grin is a little goofy, but everything at six is a little goofy for good reason!
So what do I take away from today? Constant lights are perfect for kids indoors. Set them and work them. I just recommend you get as much power as you can. I need more power from them to make the photos at a faster shutter speed, so I'll save up for a while and see what I can do. I learned a lot, like I will not shoot portraits without my tripod. Too much fun. I also like how my mirrorless camera lets me back off the viewfinder and use the screen. Much easier to keep eye contact with my subjects...and make them laugh!
Ironically the first two shots I am sharing are the only two I shot without my tripod! The top is the Fujifilm X-E1 with 60mm Macro while I stood on a stool. The second it the Pentax K-5 shot head on a few feet back. Both processed simply in Apple's Aperture using some Sara France Presets, and custom contrast curves. I really concentrated while shooting to avoid eye reflections today in the glasses, and I think I did pretty well. In both of these I actually thought through some classic posing rules as I worked the slightly more casual portraits.
I hope you enjoy them! These are two of the five lights in my life! Go capture some images of your blessings today!
-ehw
Planes, trains and automobiles...all can take us places. To these boys the power and majesty of a train is awe inspiring. I can almost hear their questions and dreams over the clickty clack of the track. "Where is the train going? How strong is it? How many cars is it pulling? Could I drive that thing? I'd love to travel the rails and be the engineer!"
Yesterday I talked about reflecting back in time, and coming into the present in prayer. Those reflections provide us the necessary torque to pull the burdens of our lives forward on the track God intended. Within those boundaries, we actually get freed to obtain the greatest rewards life can offer.
To us life is one linear motion, but to the maker of all things time has no linear boundaries. It is limitless, without boundaries, and makes sense all at once.
Just like the boys, that mystery makes me say, "Where is God's train going? How strong is it? How many cars is he pulling? Would he let me drive that thing? I'd love to travel the rails and be his engineer on the way to the kingdom!"
-ehw
PS Mr K5 working his magic...F5, 1/5000 @ ISO 1600 -3ev
Took a walk through Scenic Roswell, Georgia today with my wife and stopped by a very interesting store called Bilthouse. It was very well designed, well from a photographers frame of mind. The light was fantastic in there as well...
One of the displays held watches and trinkets galore. So while my wife bought a gift for her parents (babysitting at home and giving us some date time), I just had to start photographing these little trinkets until I got one I liked!
Downtown Roswell is like this, lots of fancy little boutique stores. So over time don't be surprised if you see some more captures downtown!
-ehw
It is that time of year to enjoy the wonders of dance in my house!
My daughter's dance company just put on their annual production, and it was quite nice. Since our family moved last year before her recital in Virginia, its been two years since I was able to see her really perform. One trick she learned this year from her teachers was to have confidence and smile while dancing. It really made her start to glow up on stage, and display the fun she has performing.
I learned a lot this year while shooting dance. After shooting several years at my daughter's old studio I discovered the different challenges that come from choreography styles. In the old studio I could easily predict when a worthy frame was coming because I knew the style. They also used a smaller stage, so formations were tighter. Here the stage is larger, and the staff uses it. So it looks just as nice, but as a photographer I needed more zoom than I had to get the proper elements for a good frame. If you are going to shoot dance I will always recommend you attend a rehearsal or multiple shows before you have to get the captures you want to keep. This way you can know your subject, lighting and the choreographers style before the big dance. It just makes your subject and you look so much better in the end product.
That brings me to another point, lens choices for a concert or dance. I recently sold my 50-135 f2.8 zoom. On a crop it is a 75-203 zoom with a depth of field around 4-5.6. For this show it would be perfect. Since I had not replaced it yet, I was stuck with my excellent 60-250 F4, a 16-50 F2.8 and a set of primes. The F4 would not give me enough light to capture at the proper speed to blend motion and frozen faces I like. The 16-50 would not get me close enough this year. Some of my best photos in previous years came from my 50-135 and my 43...one was not there and the other would not get me close enough this year because of my location choice. So I shot with....a 100mm F2.8 macro! Great lens, but I was really out of my mind shooting dance with it.
A few more lessons to post this week...
-ehw
Easter is not a static event. One must cover the sport as well as you do the church events!
Tracking motion is hard. I need more practice. The basics are to set the shutter speed lower than freezing the major motion. In this case I went down to 1/80 of a second.
You then have to track the subject, and capture the part you want to see in focus because it is moving inside that focus plane.
With the number of kids floating around here you'd think I'd be in better practice!
-ehw
Hey Hey!
My friend Bill Fortney just published one of my HDR photos to illustrate how you can use various types of tripods to get "surprising" shots.
To check it out please go here! http://billfortney.com/?p=7863
In this photo I wanted to try and see what motion would look like in an HDR photo. In my first attempt the exposures were way to long, and the trains actually disappeared. So unlike my other HDR where I kept the ISO down at 80, these are way up at 1600.
And in my final photo of the day I wanted you to see what it looks like when a group photo is requested...and you get a lonely tripod field of dreams...
If you get a chance do attend a His Light Workshop! It is so much more than the photos!
-ehw
A lovely day to shoot in Northern Georgia..Day Two of His Light's Old Car City HDR Workshop.
Check out www.billfortney.com to see what it is all about...It is heaven sent for photos and the soul.
More later..in class now!
-ehw
Heading back into the evening class...put wanted to post something from this morning. Six miles of trails and seventy years of cars to photograph! I only covered two small yards so far, and they are full of fun shapes and images just crying to be photographed. I am of course the only Pentax shooter here! So my stuff does not get borrowed much for some reason.
Getting ready for critiques tonight and learning from what I've done and failed to do...
More tomorrow!
-ehw
Driving to work today I swung by the airfield to see Memphis Belle on her annual visit to Atlanta.
She will fly over my office a few times during her visit, and the roar is tremendous. I cannot image the site of a 1,000 plane raid, with hundreds of fighters darting around guarding the flock.
This aircraft was also the first plastic model I ever built, with my Dad after my first communion. It hung over my bed for years with doors open suspended by fishing line.
I'll post a few variations of the photo to show the effects of creating a black and white from this image...but today I just wanted to imagine walking out to the flight line on a cold English morning and getting ready to risk my life fighting for freedom in the skies of Europe.
-ehw
You need to keep your smarts up when you want the trains to run on time!
This is what you get when you want to make sure you don't cut through the wires with busy trains running over them.
Kalen wanted a few photos for his grand parents, and of course I wanted one to see if I could make something interesting out of a simple floorplan shot.
This was my fun shot...for the geeks I desaturated most color except for yellow and red. Then I threw a Kodachrome filter on it in Perfect Effects...and the camera was a simple Olympus ZX-1 point and shoot.
-ehw