|
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Our snows are mostly the dry variety. There's a weather effect caused by the west facing slope of the Appalachians. As a weather front is compressed on the ridge of the North Carolina and Tennessee state line, any moisture, regardless of how little, is condensed and driven by the wind as a dry, powdery snow. At 2,900 feet above sea level, we are high enough to benefit from this effect. The higher the elevation, the deeper the snows. Weather forecasting for the mountains seems to be a challenge. The forecasts one hears through the local media seem to be fairly generalized for the "higher elevations." We've found the Internet weather forecasts offered by Appalachian State University professor Ray Russell at www.raysweather.com to be better guidance than the general east Tennessee forecast. Check it out! Wednesday, December 17, 2003
I've been thinking this year about all the emphasis on decorating for Christmas and whether or not the truth of Christmas has been obscured by the lights, the trees, the ornaments, and so on. But something hit me in a new way this season that hasn't occurred to me before. We are celebrating Christ's birth! And we do it in a big way because this is the biggest and best news humanity ever received (and ever will)! Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, came into the world with the single purpose to redeem fallen man to God! This truly is a thing to celebrate. I decorated this year with a new zeal and enthusiasm. We even put up some outdoor lights for the first time ever. Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Hindsight tells me it would have been better to hire a professional photographer to take this picture, but I was determined to use the borrowed D100 and do this ourselves. I reasoned that we could set the camera up on the tripod, preset the camera settings and focus, and have a trusty friend snap the pictures. When the time came, however, we weren't able to line up such a friend. So, ingenuity prevailed. We took two sets of photos, one set taken by me (I'm the one on the left), and one set taken by Doug (standing on the right). In Photoshop, I combined the two sets to create a complete family portrait. My technical feeling about the result is that we should've been turned a little bit more towards the sun. Alternately, fill-in flash would have been nice, but I didn't have a flash compatible with the D100. Finally, as my wife pointed out, we should have arranged ourselves so she wasn't dwarfed. Yet, we'll treasure this picture for many years to come. I've just noticed were all leaning to the right. I'll fix that before I have prints made! (Family note: look for copies of this print at Christmastime.) Monday, December 15, 2003
My brother, Doug Job, is the pastor of Union Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Watkinsville, Georgia (he is seated in front of the fence on the right hand side of the photo above). The photo is a digital panorama taken in seven overlapping segments by Doug, who made two passes of the crowd in approximately two minutes, providing ample digital fodder for Photoshop.
By the way, Doug and his associate, Diane (seated in front of the fence on the right side), were cut into the panorama after the fact. They were too busy taking the original photos of the congregation to be in the panorama themselves. The finished print will measure 30 inches across by 6 inches high. Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Here's another Canon A40 (a meager two megapixel digital camera) composite (taken on December 10, 2003). I simply took five hand-held vertical shots of the rainbow and used Panavue ImageAssembler to combine the images. Sometimes I use Panavue's tool when I'm in a hurry. Generally it does a good job with the initial fit; then I'll use Photoshop to clean up mismatches. Thursday, October 16, 2003
I continue to be amazed at how quickly babies learn. In just nine short months, they can learn to say family member names, crawl, have specific interests, pull up and climb, drink, eat, smile, and give baby hugs, to name a few. And they're already opinionated about many things. We can tell things about our baby's personality already. I think she takes after my wife and is "Mommy's Girl". God made each of us unique. Not one of us is like another. In fact, nothing that God makes is alike. Each maple tree is different from every other maple tree. The mountains, the seas, and the plains all have their variety and individual beauty. My bet is that one day we'll learn that no two protons, neutrons or electrons are even alike. We're not much like our Creator. In the industrial age we perfected mass production so we could make thousands or millions of the same things. With conformity and fads, we try to make ourselves like each other. But that's not God's plan or intention. Each person was made to be different. Be the person God made you to be (and not anyone else!)
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
I love the future of photography. The power and alternatives for photographers have grown tremendously through the digital realm. Digital cameras provide instant feedback on exposure and composition, enabling photographers to almost always get their shots. Being able to view the last shots taken, review exposure information, and see a representative histogram can tremendously benefit photographers.
I shot the barn picture above last weekend at the Dave Miller Homestead in Roan Mountain State Park with the D100. The full-sized example is roughly 3000x2000 pixels in size. I did slightly alter the image in PhotoShop (curve adjustments and removing an unsightly trash can). And the ever-challenging, dark, window light shot of my wiggly four year old would probably have been a waste of time (for me, at least) with my film camera. Yet with digital, I got this effect after four frames, just as her attention span expired. (Shot at 1/50 second, f4.2 at 85mm). Is there a D100 in my future? Maybe, but I'm wondering what Nikon's D2x camera, still in the rumor stage, will have to offer. I'd love to work with a camera with higher resolution than the D100. So, until then, I'll continue pushing the lowly Canon A40 to it's limit. Stay tuned.
Visit Archive for Summer 2003 |
It
started snowing sometime Thursday morning. Now, by Saturday afternoon, the
powder measures 12 inches deep! Not a bad way to end autumn, which largely
had unseasonably warm temperatures.
For the third
year in a row, this Nativity scene has appeared in the Roan Mountain area.
I don't know who maintains it, but I truly appreciate their effort. It
reminds me of the humble, simple, and uneventful entry into the world made by
our Savior, King, and Lord Jesus Christ!
At Thanksgiving, our family had the rare opportunity to
create a family portrait. With family in Indiana, Georgia, North
Carolina, and Tennessee, it's just hard to get everyone home for the holidays.
The
work of skewing, rotating, curve adjusting and blending rendered the above
panorama for his congregation. I had at least two images of each person in
the photo, so sometimes I was able to "cut and paste" (and blend) better
headshots of some individuals. Unlike the rainbow photo below, I used
Photoshop 7 entirely for this project.
I had to share another Nikon D100 family picture. This photo of
our youngest daughter shows her delight with the outdoors. She really loves
it outside. If she gets upset, I take her for a walk around
the yard to calm her down. 
Thanks to my friend Preston Wolfe, I had the opportunity to borrow a
I
can't look at my beloved Nikon F90x the same again. Why film?
Somebody help me here. Film means chemical development, potential
scratches and degradation, waiting for results, and likely, digitization in
order to be useful with today's printing methods. While the resolving
capabilities of digital cameras lag behind film, there are high end DSLRs like
the Canon 1Ds or the Kodak DCS 14n that may beat the detail captured in film.
