Mountains to Sea Photography Workshop

This weekend, I participated in a winter photography workshop with a handful of other photographers. We were up early, out late, and working our butts off to get some unique shots that we could work with. It snowed for the majority of the time which made the whole experience that much more fun.

We visited a lot of different locations and hiked to almost all of them. The first place we went to was Price Lake in Blowing Rock, NC on Friday. Arriving at the parking area at around 5:30 pm, we hiked for about 15 minutes (very short hike) and shot the sunset across the frozen lake at roughly 6:15 pm. It was a gorgeous scene and one that I wasn't very prepared for - I had forgotten my tripod at the house. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good shots from that day but I had loads of fun.

Saturday, we woke up at 3:45 am to leave the hotel at 4:15 am in order to get to Roan Mountain by sunrise. The roads were so frozen that we couldn't go to Roan Mountain, however we did go to the Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway. That hike was intense. Since the Parkway was closed, the group had to hike down the road (which was covered in a foot of snow the whole way up) and got to where we needed to be in 45 minutes. Let me remind you, it was PITCH black and colder than I've felt in a while. We got some good, but mostly colorless photos up there and hiked back down to get some breakfast at around 11:00 am. After breakfast, we went to a place which didn't have a specific name but had huge rolling hills with an enormous oak tree in the middle - it was also covered in more than a foot of snow, 2.5 feet in some places!

Today (Sunday) I woke up at 4:30 am to go catch the sunrise atop Beacon Heights. It was an unimaginably breathtaking scene (covered in snow again) and was a short quarter-mile, straight uphill hike.

I learned a lot from that trip - lots of technical things - but most importantly for me, I realized that it's okay to take photographs that aren't portfolio-quality and to take my time. I have a new-found motivation to do photography as much as I can and I can thank Tommy White and Alistair Nicol for that.

I'll be posting more from Friday night (I'll share a couple, even if they aren't GREAT) and from Saturday morning tomorrow!

I Know Where I'm Going Abroad!

I am going to Switzerland! I will be staying in the German speaking part of the country and I'm so excited! Switzerland is in the middle of the alps and there is just so many great things about their culture. For one, they are a totally neutral country with only three wars in the history of their country. They are the richest country in the world with a median income of 94,000 USD. They also have the one of the lowest unemployment rates at a peak of 4.4% in 2009 (it has dropped since then). On top of all of that, they are the largest chocolate consumers in the world. This is going to be an amazing exchange. Thank you so much to all of the Rotary people and my friends and family for supporting me.

Anyways, here are two photos that I took tonight with Gram at Warren Wilson College. The first one is one at sunset at an old barn with a lonely donkey. The second one is one of the stars on a semi-cloudy night. I thought the second one looked very moody (credit to Gram) and dark and creepy (which I like and seems to be a pattern in some of my photos).

Sunrise at Beaver Lake

Last weekend, Gram and I went to Beaver Lake at 7:00am to photograph/draw the sunrise. I took a lot of photos, but this was the only one that turned out acceptably. I have recently been thinking about my photos, not the composition, but just the quality in general. I feel that I jumped into the world of DSLRs a little to quickly and forgot to get the basics completely down. I know how to use aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings, but I don't fully understand them or what the can really do for my photos if I get it down and use it to it's highest potential. I decided to do some research and I'm spending time learning the basics again. I've discovered subtle things that impact photos greatly. I knew that a lower aperture (higher f/stop) would create greater depth of field and a slower shutter speed requirement, but I never used it according to the scene. For example, when shooting stars, you don't need a great depth of field because to the human eye, it's all so far away that it seems two dimensional anyways. If I was shooting something like my last picture (the Cathedral), I would want a greater depth of field to really capture all of the details in the photo to make it feel like you're there. There are lots of other examples but I don't want to bog you down. Here is a photo that I took before fully understanding the basics. It's a pretty basic photo.

The Basilica Cathedral

On Wednesday, Sam and I went downtown again to walk around. We were looking for something to do when we passed the Roman Catholic Basilica near the US Cellular Center in downtown Asheville. I had never been inside before so I suggested we take a peek! As we opened the door, we were flooded by warm lights and silence. A little less than half of the seats were filled. We quietly sat down and just listened and observed. All of the structures inside of the cathedral were perfectly symmetrical and it looked like it would make for a wonderful photo. Roughly ten minutes into the service (mass), I pulled out my camera and walked toward the back of the room. As I placed the view finder against my eye, a man taps me on the shoulder and politely requests that I postpone my photography until after mass is over. Understanding his wishes, Sam and I exit the building and continue walking around. We loiter around the fountain area downtown and then head over to Dobra Tea and get a snack. This took about an hour and a half due to the abnormally long wait for our food and tea. Afterwards, we are heading home and so we stop by the church again to see if the service had ended yet. Fortunately, it was, and so Sam looked around while I shot some photos and then we left.
In the photo below, Sam is sitting on the left.

Downtown with the Step Bro

Today, Sam and I went downtown for around three hours, photographing and just walking around. I expected to get a lot of cityscapes, and other urban shots... however, Sam proved to be a worthy subject and I based many of my photos off of him! In the first two photos, Sam and I are at an abandoned building near Church Street. The next is just a cityscape of downtown Asheville during sunset, and the last two are photos of Sam that I took with a macro lens, external speed flash, and a portable softbox.

Recently, I have become interested in photographing extreme sports, and just any sort of outdoor adventures... specifically rock climbing and bouldering. If anyone knows of any opportunities, please send me an email at jacob.diehn.photographer@gmail.com! Thanks so much!

Christmas is in the Air!

Tonight we finally put ornaments on our Christmas tree! I always love Christmas, not because of the gifts (while yes that is awesome), but it just feels cool and relaxing. There always seems to be a warm atmosphere and the lights are the perfect shade of orange/white and it feels very comfortable. Even if you aren't Christian, I'm not, I think that you should still celebrate it! Call it something else! It is a nice time to spend time with family and think about and reflect upon the happy times and good feelings inside of you. I just hope it snows! It just doesn't seem right without at least a couple of days of snow... huddled inside the warm house drinking whatever hot beverage one might prefer.

Here, I have two photos. The first one is an ornament that kind of shows how even though some people aren't here with us right now (Sam will be soon!), that we still think about you guys all of the time. Lindsay is probably digesting some sort of strange animal's body part in the Czech Republic... but Merry Christmas to you and Merry Christmas to you, Sam.

The second photo is just a generic looking Christmas photo that I thought looked neat.

Night Sky on the Parkway

This isn't the sharpest photo but it certainly is beautiful. I took this at f4 with a 30 second exposure and 200 ISO. I like this one because if you look close enough, you can see small star trails due to the extensive exposure time. Technology has really been able to show us things that us humans can't see with our bare eyes, such as the nebula on the right hand side of the photo, and the faint appearance of a part of the milky way galaxy in the center. You can also see that I picked up a shooting star near the bottom of the photo just above the trees. I was trying to get as far away from light pollution as I could so that I could get a clear night sky, but in this photo, the light pollution in the lower right corner gives the picture better, more complex coloring. My dad drove me up to the parkway, and while we were up there (two weekends ago), it was 12 degrees! Being outside of the car for only a minute froze our ears off!