My Afternoon With the Bladen Guards
A few days ago I was called in to work for the newspaper on short notice. When I arrived I noticed some very interesting assignments on the board including one covering a Civil War demonstration involving the 18th NC, Bladen Guards (originally from Bladen County NC). I love to attend these things and was excited to see that one was being held on this particular day. I spent some time getting my shots for the story and also some extras, shown here. Enjoy!
Upon arriving, I immediately noticed this militia man sitting along by the fire scrolling around on his Blackberry. I overheard him mutter something like, “the daggum Facebook app never works. My brother told me Grant issued his boys iPhones. All Lee gave us are these darned Blackberry Bolds.” Morale seemed low, so I continued on. As I walked, I could hear his buddies giving him a hard time, shouting, “He caught you! The camera guy caught you!”
I caught this nice little moment in which Brian Lee played with his daughter in between demonstrations. I loved the way the low, warm sun back lit the entire scene with a warm glow.
A few moments later, Lee directed his troops to fall in and load their muskets. I always enjoy shooting (or trying to shoot) these types of demonstrations. You only really get one try to get the shot and I am always trying to time it correctly. I was a little late on this one, but I do really like the way that you can see some fragments of debris from the barrels of the guns flying through the air ahead of the smoke. Once again, the lighting was amazing. So warm.
Immediately following the gun demonstration, there was a brief moment that the smoke from the soldier’s muskets hung in the air and the low light peeking through the trees cast really neat blueish rays through it. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions to shoot in! What a fantastic way to spend an hour of my afternoon.
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I Love This City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I’m going back to Pittsburgh for today’s photo. I don’t know what more to say than, ‘I love this city.’ It’s so strange to me that in the 24 years that I lived there, I spent very little time exploring the city. Now that I’ve moved over 500 miles away, I find myself wishing that I had. Every time I visit home I make sure to take at least one photowalk around the city. This image was shot on one such walk. The Roberto Clemente Bridge is in the foreground and behind it, PNC Park. Perfect.
The Shot: Three exposures, hand held. Tonemapped in Photomatix and finished in Photoshop using Nik Color Efex and Viveza plug-ins.
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Autumn Sunset | New Bern, NC
A few days ago, I witnessed a blazing sunset with amazing light. As I find myself doing so often, I wheeled around and shot with the sun to my back. I love the light that a good sunset casts opposite it’s decent. This image was shot behind the North Carolina History Center on the waterfront. The concrete jetties back there make very interesting leading lines and I really enjoy shooting in these boardwalk areas.
The shot: This image is made up of a tonemapped (3 exposure) layer as well as masked layers of the middle and under exposed brackets. Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-105 lens, tripod mounted, remote fired. Tonemapped in Photomatix and finished in Photoshop CS4 with several masked layers and a touch of Nik Color Efex Pro for contrast and a finishing ‘Glamour Glow.’
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Getting Caught Up
Wow, I feel like I’ve been on vacation or something. The past two weeks have been ‘different’ to say the least. I recently started working a few days a week at a local newspaper and that’s kept me pretty busy of late. As my readers know, editorial photography isn’t what I typically do. However, shooting speakers, sporting events and breaking news has really helped revive a lot of things that I have kind of pushed to the side, photography-wise. I’m relearning things that I have unintentionally pushed to the side while doing my HDR photography, and that’s a great thing.
Two weekends ago, I traveled up to Corolla, NC on the Outer Banks to do seven family photo sessions. I had a great time and came out with some great shots. Again, portraiture is not something that I do all that often, but it was great and I hope to get into it a little more. I have a few sessions booked in the near future and I can’t wait to get them planned.
Thanks to all of this, the only photos you’ve seen over the past two weeks were from the archives and from those family sessions in Corolla. Today I’m sharing the last image from those family portraits. I edited this with some texture and my logo as a watermark with the intention as adding this to my promotional material. I think that’s a good way to close out this project- putting my stamp on the last photo edit to kind of signal completion.
I’m looking forward to getting out and shooting some fresh material in the coming days, keep an eye out!
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The In-Between Shot | Corolla, NC
As I continue editing the many shots that I have on file from this weekend’s Outer Banks sessions, I keep find myself being drawn to these candid ‘in-between’ shots. Sometimes the best portraits don’t come when families are posed and looking at the lens. A lot of times it happens in between set ups or after the shoot is over all together. I wish my camera could be invisible, because when people don’t know it’s there they are suddenly relaxed and give you glimpses of the ‘real’ them.
The Shot: Nikon D90, 70-300 Nikkor VR. 70mm, ISO-200, f/4.5, 1/2500. Processed in Adobe Lightroom 3.
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