Bamboo Forest

Apologies for the delayed posts, school just began and it sure is a handful. Definitely an upgrade from freshman year. Now, thankfully, I have a long weekend due to "labor day" to go out and photograph. 

Anyways, Gram and I were out on the Warren Wilson campus trying to get some shots of an old torn down house/barn. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any good shots because there wasn't enough contrast between a small, torn down chimney, and the woods behind it. Fortunately, however, on our way back we came upon a small bamboo forest in a neighbor's backyard and it was great contrast, and I didn't have to stop up too high to get the shutter speed fast enough (about an 8 f-stop). This one is an HDR photo also, and the photo below that is a butterfly (obviously) that I took in a field with my telephoto lens (50-200mm), and the bamboo was taken with my ultra-wide angle lens (12-22mm MF). Gram drew also, so go visit her blog at Real Life Journals. 

 

Warren Wilson College and the Silo

Aujourd'hui, Gram et moi as alle a Greenlife a manges dejeuner et parler du francais. Apres ca, nous allons alle Warren Wilson College a photograph. C'est une HDR photo et je pense c'est un du mon mieux.

Guess What The First Picture Is...?

Picture At My Mom's New House!

     My mom just started moving into a new house this week! It's a very nice house with a huge yard and a cool trail that goes down behind the yard. Down that trail are two abandoned tractors that are covered with ivy and bugs and stuff. This picture is an HDR photo of the first tractor. The tractor behind this one wasn't as "photogenic". I was standing on top of the other tractor trying to find a different vantage point to shoot at when I saw a tall exhaust pipe sticking out of the top of it. On top of the pipe there was a bucket looking thing on top of it. I was standing inches from it lifting it up to see if there was anything interesting under it when I thought to myself, "hmm... maybe I shouldn't do that". I just had a gut feeling. So I stepped down off the tractor, pick up a brick, and chuck it at the bucket just to make sure nothing is living under it. Sure enough, a big wasp/hornet nest is brewing underneath and they start swarming around and darting back and forth heading towards me so I bolt through the woods and made it safe and sound back to my front yard. 

New Ultrawide Angle Lens!

Last week I bought myself a Tokina 12-22mm f/4 AF Ultrawide Angle Lens for about $350.00 with the money I got from my internship at Mission Hospital. It is a really hard lens to learn how to use which is why I haven't posted in a while because I wanted to post my next picture as an ultrawide angle picture! It's hard to use because everything in the picture is exaggerated a bunch. The corners of the pictures are pulled out and it is about a 160 degree angle of view. The best pictures are pictures with lines in the framework of the picture like this bridge, or something that you want in the foreground to be exaggerated from the background and seem much bigger than it really is. There aren't many situations where it's a viable lens but it is really fun when you can use it. It won't autofocus because my camera is an older camera without an autofocus motor in it and the lens is newer without an autofocus motor either. The newer lens' have no motors because the newer cameras do. Since my camera is an older version, there isn't an autofocus motor. It works perfectly well with manual focus so I just need to learn how to perfect my usage of that, which shouldn't be too hard. Please excuse my lack of crisp and focused pictures for a few weeks while I get the hang of this new lens!

I took the picture of the bridge and car in the river-arts district in Asheville and the other one at the Battery Park Book Exchange downtown. The Book Exchange one has my grandmother in it, please view her art blog where she posts upwards of everyday at Real Life Journals.

Bee Sting

A couple of days ago, I was walking back from the pool and I got stung by a bee for the first time this summer. It was terrible. I had no shoes on and I was walking through grass and stepped on a flower that must have had a yellow jacket on it or something because when I stepped down it was the worst pain I've felt in a while. The funny thing is, I saw the bee subconsciously before I stepped on it! Right before I stepped on it I knew what was going to happen but it was such a quick thought that I had no time to react before I stepped down. Last July 4th, I stepped on a Black Hornet nest and got stung on my toe by that. My mom put some tobacco on it and it healed instantly. This nasty yellow jacket stung me and the stinging didn't go away until the morning after when it turned white like this flower. I took this the same day as the sting because it reminded me of my white toe.

Sunset in the Marsh

    I'm not completely sure what type of plant this is but it sure looks cool at sunset. The silhouette really creates a dark and soothing feel to the image, where if the plant had been fully shown with plenty of light, it would look dull and boring. I like this one because each spike on the plant is entirely defined and the whole picture has an orange glow to it. I took this one a few minutes before I took the photo of the mallard.