A few weeks ago, I did a portrait session @ this cotton field near Elsanor, AL. Everyone seemed to have a great time and I believe the portraits turned out well. While we were waiting on the sun to do something interesting, I snapped this photo of the cotton field landscape.
(Click through for full crop)
On Thanksgiving, this year, after eating too much food, I accompanied my wife's family to the park just to the east side of the "Flora-Bama' Point bridge for a sunset portrait session. It was a very productive portrait session, I think everyone walked away with a couple of favorite shots.
Having multiple cameras sure comes in handy when shooting portraits of 10 people and racing the sun on its descent below the horizon. I handed off two mirrorless cameras and I shot with my DSLR and a Film camera. Looking through the results, each camera had some great shots.
On the.. long.. long.. walk back to the car I stopped and snapped this shot, handheld with that Panosonic micro 4:3rds camera. I thought it was a compelling result, though smugmug crops this preview, strangely.
I hope your Turkey Day festivities were enjoyable.
When it comes to photo-gathering around retail locations, I have this rule. I try to be a patron of the location.
This sometimes leads to some new and interesting experiences, which is the whole point to my photography: gathering experiences.
Driving back to the boat after meeting a developer friend for lunch, this VW caught my attention. I had my little micro four thirds camera in the car, so I stopped to get the photo. Now, the quandry. I'd never actually been in a head shop before. At least, not as an adult. (I think dad or mom may have taken me to one when I was a kid but that's another story.)
This VW sits nestled between a law office and this Hippy Store. I like Hippies more than lawyers, so I went it.
Turns out it wasn't a head shop but a cute little hippie boutique.
..of course.. everyone inside was very friendly and helpful. I considered this may be a good time to do some alternative shopping so I looked around, settled on a hacky sack for my son and a necklace for my daughter.
This leads me to reflect on the startling presence of multiple, differing "life views" that I exhibit.
I go so very far left on some things and so very far right on others... I like guns and wanted to be a marine, yet I like hippie culture. How is that possible?
I don't know but the hippie in me says I shouldn't care and the professional is telling me to get back to work..
So, enjoy the fun image and your Black Friday. Be safe and consider shopping .. alternatively..
Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!
Sure, it is a cliche but, what are you thankful for this year?
I'm just really super-thankful for my little family. My awesome, beautiful, patient wife and fun and loving kids. They really especially helped keep me glued together through a tough year with the loss of mom and dad and other things.
I'm also, really thankful for a patient employer who gave me the space I needed to get that stuff handled and for friends who have supported us.
I'm thankful to God for his constant blessing, provision and tolerance.
Fairhope Municipal Pier in Fairhope, Alabama. What an epic pier and neat little town. The City Pier's marina has some of the lowest marina fees I've found. Though, you wouldn't want to live aboard as the waves can get active despite the little sea wall.
The thing I love about Fairhope Pier is that it is the most active photography location I've ever seen. Everytime you go, you'll find professional and hobbyist photographers milling about taking pictures of this and that. (even in this shot) For good reason, too! The rose garden and fountain. The pier and surrounding beaches. The adjacent park, smaller piers and duck pond. Really, this place is scenic heaven.
The thing I really love about this pier. It is very seasonal. In about two months it will be bone-chilling cold here and no one will show up but hard core fishermen, morning runners and ME with a camera in tow.
There are two bluffs overlooking the pier. (North and South)
Where I took this picture, a group of family or friends, sat in the grass. A decent wine, some dixie cups, prepped to watch the sunset. It struck me they really had a better grasp on the importance of living than most...
Maybe one day, Dina & I and our young adult children can meet up for a similar outing. Something to look forward to!
One sunset, walking around Fort Morgan, I captured this of one of the cannons near the Postern. It's a pretty major gun and the resonating thought that stuck with me was: "This gun was used against fellow countrymen."
A chilling thought.
I wonder what a civil war would look like in America today. Would the borders be geographic? Probably not.
Social, political, racial or religious? Maybe. Borders based on economic classification. More likely.
I've been thinking alot about vacations again. I often get into this viscious cycle where I feel a little stressed and overworked, that maybe a vacation will help. But, they are always so expensive, so I end up taking on extra work to help with the cost. The extra work causes stress, which makes me think about vacations..
Funny how that works, isn't it? :)
This is a shot from the Caribbean Beach Resort @ Walt Disney World in Florida. Despite the tone of this post, I really like this resort. I've stayed there 4 or 5 times along with some other Disney resorts as well. I've liked them all, actually...
I do this really unhealthy mental exercise when planning vacations and I'm curious if anyone else does this. When booking a hotel, I tend to over-idealize what I'm going to get. To the point that the hotel or vacation could never live up to the expectation.
Example.
I'm digging around on Disney's site and see a resort like the Caribbean Beach Resort. They classify it as "moderate". My brain somehow interprets moderate as "way better than value." I see 3 or 4 stars as the hotel rating in my head, so I envision this private bungaloo on a lush Caribbean-themed landscape along with all of the amenities, excursions and peaceful relaxation of a corona commercial.
What you get instead is typical "holiday inn" architecture with some creative stucko work, nice colors on a very well maintained ground. Sure, it is nice but you still hear families outside your window, occassional neighbors nocturnal activities and groundsworkers wielding trimmers entirely too early in the morning.
Relaxation? Yeah right. Bill, you have two kids, dummy. The only time you'll get to sit down is on the hot, cramped bus from the park to the hotel. Hammock in front of the lake with a lager in your hand? Sure thing, boss, while the kids try to drown an endangered duck in that pond. Not going to happen, Captain Dreamsickle.
The fun the kids have, though... and the genuine laughter and smiles.. That's the stuff. The brochure couldn't oversell the effect this place has on kids and next time I go, that will be the real reason: To see these two have a blast. (again)
So, anyway.. I sit here thinking about my next vacation. I know it won't be Disney and it won't be until 2012. Jena's mentioned Hawaii -- where I've always wanted to go but then I have to wonder.. Will the extra programming work stress really justify the experience of taking a TWO and SIX year old to the islands?
I'm thinking something a little closer and less magical. Maybe we'll check out the zoo.
Happy Friday Friends,
Bill Dodd
(no ducks were harmed in the making of this post)
I've opened this photo from my 14k photo 2011 photo library with intent to process and share probably over 10 times. Do you ever do that? Refuse to give up on something trivial? I mean, there are 13,999 other photos I could spend my time on that might turn out decent but I end up back at this one.. :)
I guess maybe that's a sign of my OCD.
I'm still not sure on how I feel about it but I feel good enough to share to get your thoughts on it.. The ground-cover in the woods in this part of the Southeast US is always so heavily thicketed with underbrush that it makes for "busy" photos.
I think the vignetting and softening around the edges maybe downplays that somewhat. I really enjoy walking through trails like this, where the trees create a canopy over the ground. It makes for magical shadows and light play.
Happy Humpday
Farmers have turned to these Corn Mazes as an alternative form of revenue for their crops. This particular shot was taken at Barnhill Farms. This year, this particular corn maze was the victim of some mean-spirited idiots driving through their property with four wheelers, messing up the intricate pattern cut into the maze.
Some people...
For the uninitiated it goes something like this.. A farmer plants a super dense plot of "feed corn". When the plants are a foot or so high, the farmer contracts with a service to come out with a GPS-enabled bush-hog (mower) to cut an intricate fall-themed pattern into the crop. The patterns are usually scarecrows, pumpkins, ghosts or Barney. Anything scary.
The farmer then maintains the maze with a normal mower. As the unmowed portion of the crop grows, viola! -- you have a maze through the corn.
The farmers then charge admission and setup other games, hayrides and ag-friendly activities while thousands of families starved for something to do, bring their kids out for some hee-haw style good ol' fashion country fun.
Ya know, as I write this it occurs to me that I wouldn't qualify as the publicist for these things because I haven't made it sound fun. It is, really. Honest!
:)
Please forgive the pun. I've been thinking alot of late of the balance between two of the prevailing philosophies of social network shared photography-types. One school of thought is that you gain followers by frequent, interesting posts rounded out with a recognizable brand, possibly a home blog for easy search and reference.
I've done this; or at least tried to.
I believe on Flickr that I have about 20 people who check my stuff once a month. On twitter, G+, Facebook, the numbers and interaction really aren't there as well. I'm pretty sure my wife doesn't even know this domain name. This is after a couple years of photo-a-day following this school of thought, often at the expense of quality.
Onto the other prevailing school of thought...
The other day, I was reading other comments from one of my favorite photographers' daily post where people were asking approximately how long he took processing and massaging photos for public consumption.
That particular guy is a bad reference, since he's a super-human photographer with exceptional skills all around. He processed several photos in a sitting and staggered the results for later posts to his blog. (AND can keep amazing quality)
Another photographer that I really respect is Eden Brackstone. http://edenbrackstone.com
Eden's contribution to the comment stream was that instead of doing a few photos a day, he would often work on one photo for multiple days, leaving and coming back to it.
That attention to detail really shows in HIS contributions as well.
That is another school of thought. Take your time, do good work, post something meaningful and don't dilute your "stream" with crap.
This got me thinking. My prevailing philosophy for life has always been to keep my own pace regardless of others. That puts me faster than some, slower than others, better than some but worse than others. Yet, keeps me happy.
The result of allowing an arbitrary deadline, like a Daily post requirement, dictate when you are going to post a photo really does dilute the experience doesn't it? Moving forward I've decided to apply my philosophy in life in my approach to photography sharing. I'm going to take the time so that I'm satisfied with the result of a post instead of pushing to "get something out."
At the end of the day, if that means I don't get a billion Google+ followers or Flickr visits, who cares? I'm happy to have made some new friends thus far and in the end, I do this for me, not the social networking mob.
I'd decided in the spring that I should take the time to setup a photo blog. My programmer personality wants to spend 6 months hand-coding an amazing publishing platform for photo sharing and stories. The photographer personality thinks that is stupid and just wants to get a "presence" out there.
So, here we are.
I don't want to call this a photo-a-day site because I promise there will be days when I have nothing worthwhile to share. I also know that my full time jobs will squeeze me at times limiting my ability to post. But, I also posted more than 365 photos last year, so… who knows what will happen?
With that out of the way -- Welcome to my photo-every-so often blog. :)
I wanted to start the official site launch off with this shot because it is accompanied with a screen recording that I made during a one-on-one training session I did with a client while editing the photo.
Wishing you a great week and fantastic winter..
Bill Dodd
www.graffitivisuals.com
As a photographer, there is this "dream shot" that I've hoped for some time to capture.
(and this isn't it)
A few years ago, I didn't carry my camera (to the annoyance of my family) everywhere, like I do now. Too bad. That's when I missed "the dream shot."
It all started on this weekend where my wife & kids went with her mom to visit her sister a few hundred miles away. For whatever work-related reason, I stayed behind. This left me with the increasingly rare opportunity to have a weekend alone to do whatever came to me. I packed up some provisions in my backpack and launched my jet ski from Pirates Cove, (in Alabama on Arnica Bay) and rode to the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola for an overnight solitary camping excursion in the back country areas near the abandoned Ft. McCree.
I spent the night in peace and witnessed the most amazing "moonrise."
The light playing off the waves, the moon somewhat tinted by atmospheric hues while the light danced around this unspoiled beach area. It was the most amazing and transformative sight and I didn't have a camera to capture the many nuances.
In my mind's eye it is something like the fantasy beach in the movie, Contact.
Since that time, a few years ago, I've dreamt of getting back out there, this time with a tripod and DSLR. Admittedly, when I signed the paperwork on my 33 year old 29" sailboat, the thought danced in the back of my mind that this would be a considerably safer transport medium for my DSLR than that old Sea Doo..
(that wasn't the ONLY reason I went with the Sailboat, though..) :)
Our family plans for Veteran's Day was to embark about lunchtime and sail to the general vicinity of Ft. McCree to watch the final Blue Angels show of the season from the water the next day. I hoped to squeeze in that "Dream shot" of the full moon peaking up off the horizon on the Gulf on a cool winter night.
It wasn't meant to be.
It was cold, choppy, we didn't get off work until an hour before Sundown, the kids, wind & universe did not cooperate in a manner consistent with traveling this relatively small distance by sail. We did have a pretty good time staying in a Bay, streaming Netflix movies for the kids and freezing our butts off. Ah, roughing it :)
The next day the wind was perfect but my wife had committed us to a kid's Birthday party on Saturday. I knew I could sail there in a few hours but getting back, into the headwind in time to honor that obligation would have been dodgy, at best.
Trey Ratcliff, in a recent Google Hangout, said jokingly that children's birthday parties should be illegal. I happen to agree with that sentiment now.
I stood on the bow of the boat in choppy waters and 20 km winds and snapped this very high ISO, somewhat motion blurry handheld of the moonlight playing on the water. And.. of course.. I've doctored it considerably in such a way that it isn't even a true capture anymore. More of a franken-image from multiple shots.. I can't get the moon right but I figured I'd share this as a 60% approximation of what I'll hopefully one day get to capture!
But, this is all I have until the opportunity presents itself again to capture that moonlight beach shot :)
Do you ever do this? Piece together an aspirational shot that looks ahead to one you plan to capture for real, in the future? What about your dream photo capture, have one in mind?
Step into my Delorean, throw some PBR into Mr. Fusion and travel back with me to May 30, 2010.
Sharing a (sort of) failure with you:
The thing about photo walks is, they often open my eyes to things I don't always observe or haven't been "aware" enough to appreciate. Be it wildlife, vistas, nature at large.
This was one of my favorite shots from earlier in the year, recently reprocessed to clean up some jankiness.
After a rough day at work where technology smited me, I grabbed the camera and headed down Ft. Morgan Peninsula for a good afternoon of photography. Hoping to have more productive afternoons like this again very soon...
Hope you enjoy as much as I do!
Ya know, I had planned this post for today but couldn't have planned the story to go along with it. So, I try to post things on Flickr and G+ and a Blog frequently. I don't want to say Daily because if I don't have something worthwhile to show, I'd prefer to not dilute the stream.
