A Visit to Carolina Tiger Rescue

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I had the opportunity to visit the Carolina Tiger Rescue on Monday. This organization rescues wildcats (tigers, lions, and such) and provides these animals a home that is safe, respectful, and humane for as long as they live. They take in wildcats from all over the world and try to educate the public about the issues of wildcats in captivity. This is an excellent organization that cares for and feeds these rescued animals without any state or federal funding assistance. In other words, they rely on people like you and me to help them out. If you think this is a worthwhile cause, you may consider giving them a tax-deductible donation (they are a 501(c)3 nonprofit).

The animals at CTR are beautiful, majestic creatures and are very well cared for by a small staff and many volunteers. They conduct periodic public tours (you must per-register and buy your ticket) to educate people about the animals they keep. The tour I went on was approximately 2 hours worth of interesting information and a chance to see these animals much closer than you could at any zoo (sorry, you still can't pet them). If I remember correctly, the tickets are not very expensive and a good portion of those sales goes directly to the Carolina Tiger Rescue. There are some excellent photo opportunities to be had and I have included a few of the pictures I was able to get. (EDIT: From the feedback I received from Amanda at CTR, there is a $1.50 processing fee for purchasing the tickets. The price of a ticket (in-season) listed on their website is $15.50, which includes this fee.)

As a side note, I am still learning photography, so this was a fantastic learning experience for me in that way too. I was trying my best to get pictures without too much fence, but the closer they are to the fence, the harder it seems to do that. And, yes, they do come close (I was about 3-4 feet from most of these animals and their habitats, but behind the people barriers). I also got to try out some panning shots. Unfortunately those didn't work out well for me this time. Oh well. I'll have to try again soon.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Merry Christmas

Well, it's almost time for Christmas! I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday season, whatever you may celebrate. For me, this is a time to slow down and enjoy time with my family. It's not about the gifts, its about enjoying spending time with family and being thankful that I am able to do so. A lot has changed for me in the last year. I was able to get a new job, my wife is no longer working and my daughter is growing like crazy! (she'll be three the day AFTER Christmas!). Anyway, here are a few more Christmas pictures to share. Enjoy and have a safe holiday.

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Happy Horses

I took this picture a while back and came across it again today. It made me laugh. So, I thought I'd share it with you. These are two of my daughter's bouncy horses, called Rody's. She LOVES them and hops all over the house! They were positioned like this by my daughter (she's 3... well almost. Not unitl 12/26!). She has a great sense of humor.

Anyway, these little guys are cute and thought I'd share some fun!

Abstract and Architectural Photography

A couple of my favorite subjects to photograph are architecture and cityscapes. For me, these  are also difficult subjects to photograph and actually make look good. Many of us have been there: you're out and about and come across a spectacular building or an object that just screams at you to take a picture. So, you take that picture and then, when you return home and upload it to your computer it isn't at all what you had in your mind. Many times that is me. As an amateur photographer, I still struggle to get that vision in my head into the frame on my camera. Thankfully, some of the things I envision, I can fix in post. Others, well, let's just say I need to revisit those locations and try again.

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I had the occasion to visit a local museum and captured a few shots. I was hoping to have time to take more, but it wasn't to be. Anyway, I've included two of the shots I took. One is a shot of a large marble wall, the other is a shot (or an attempt) of the interior from the second floor.

For the marble wall, the picture was taken from the second floor using my standard 18-55mm lens. The shot was looking down towards the floor.

The atrium shot was also from the second floor looking towards the observation station in the museum.

I welcome any feedback on ways you feel these shots could be improved. For the marble wall, I was attempting to make it seem somewhat industrial and abstract. For the second, I wanted to show the sweeping curved ceiling. I changed it to black and white so that the focus was not on the brightly colored walls.

Atrium

Christmas is a good time to practice Bokeh

Well, I didn't get to post anything last week. Sorry about that. It's budget season at work and, well, I've been a bit preoccupied with getting that done. Anyway, on to the real stuff here!

I read a post recently on the Digital Photography School blog that inspired me to try some of my own pictures using the Bokeh technique. Generally, Bokeh is achieved using a large aperture and get your main subject in focus. Christmas lights add interest to this technique, especially when used as the backdrop to your subject. Christmas light Bokeh can render some very beautiful shots where your foreground is out of focus, your main subject is in focus (usually) and your background is out of focus with the lights blurring into balls of light. I found this technique to be generally easy to achieve, but somewhat difficult to achieve the true look that I wanted overall. Using the largest aperture available and focusing on the subject a few feet in front of the desired background lighting was the easy part. Framing up my subject in an interesting way was more difficult for me. After many shots and different props, here are some of the shots I came out with. As always, comments are welcome.

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What to Expect

I just wanted to write a quick note as to what to expect from my blog. I intend to blog on a regular basis (weekly) about different photography topics that I find interesting. As you have already seen, some of the topics include things I've learned and hopefully regular critiques of my own work. I do comment on others work, but I keep that to the Google+ Photography Critique Circle (Colby Brown's). You can find information on that in my Google+ profile here. On occasion, I may just happen to do a product review.

I enjoy learning about photography and taking photos. I frequently read other photo blogs, follow many photographers on Twitter and Google+. I look to these places for additional inspiration and hope that others will begin to follow me here and comment to help me improve the blog, as well as my photography.

Thanks again for reading!

Personal Photo Critique

You've heard them all: everyone's a critic, you're always harder on yourself, etc. Mostly true, I believe. But you have to start somewhere, and where better to start than being a critic of your own art? So, one of the things I will do from time to time, is post a personal critique of some of my work here. I invite anyone else to post their (constructive) critiques (NOTE: I will delete any comments that are just plain rude and derogatory. This is not a forum for such).

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My "Follow the Pathway" picture was taken recently during one of my lunchtime walks. I wanted to convey a feeling that this path could take you away anywhere, and also capture the different colors and textures that I imagined and saw in person.

This is my post-processed image. I enhanced the sky a bit because the clouds were blown out (I could have probably made that better by utilizing Graduated Neutral Density filter. However, I don't own one yet). I also did some additional saturation to the grass. Some have said that the sky especially doesn't look real. To an extent, I must agree. I think that If I were to go back and re-edit, I would tone down the blue a little. I would still want to make sure the clouds were visible, as that was one of the main reasons for taking the picture.

As I look at it now, I think I would want to edit out the dead foliage a bit in the foreground, as they are a bit distracting. If I were to retake the photo, I might change the composition some to remove the trees in the upper right-hand corner. I could also accomplish that somewhat with a crop I suppose, but I wanted to preserve the bridge. I believe the bridge plays an important part of the picture as a whole.

Another change I would probably make would be to get down even lower to the ground. I did kneel down for this picture, but once I got home and looked at it again, I thought to myself, "I wonder if this could have been better if I had gotten down further onto the ground." Perspective is everything!

Overall, I like the general concept of this photo, but would certainly change the composition a bit.

What do you think? I welcome your comments and suggestions. I enjoy learning how to make my photography better.

Finding inspiration

As I've been learning how to use the features and functions of my camera, I've been trying to find my inspiration of what to photograph. Some days it just hasn't been in me to go search out different things to take pictures of. Other days, I can't wait to get out there. Much of it is dependent upon what else I've got going on in my life. That being said, I do try to find a way to take pictures of some sort every day. I don't always succeed. When I do go out and shoot, often I go out with only the sole purpose of using the camera. No subject or destination in mind.

So, when I'm doing this, where do I find my inspiration? Lots of places, actually. I spend a lot of time reading other photography blogs, like those of Chase Jarvis, Zack Arias, Catherine Hall and Scott Bourne, to name just a few. I also get a lot of inspiration from 500px. These photographers, as well as those on 500px, provide me with a variety of different subjects, themes and ideas that often make me think, "Can I make pictures like that too?" Not that I want to duplicate their pictures, but how can I capture the same mood, ambiance or lighting?

Some days my inspiration is simply my 3 (almost) year old daughter. Just watching the delight she gets from such simple things and how she looks at the world just amaze me. Thinking about how I can capture how she see's the world inspires me to try different angles or even camera settings. As an adult, it's hard to get into the mind and point-of-view of a child.

Other days my inspiration comes from the day itself. If it's a beautiful cool day, especially in the fall, it's very easy to see very picturesque scenes (in my head). Capturing those is proving to be a much more elusive feat than I ever dreamed. But, I'd much rather be outside in that weather and failing at capturing a good image than being stuck inside doing most anything.

So, what gives you inspiration? What do you do on those days you just can seem to find inspiration?

What I learned from my last photo shoot

Last weekend I ventured out to do a photo shoot with my family at a local park. I had a full battery, blank memory cards, 2 lenses and a tripod. Pretty much anything you would want or need, right? Well, almost. Being an amateur photographer and still mostly learning what the heck I'm doing, I don't have some of the bits and pieces that could possibly make my life easier and perhaps help me capture better pictures. But, being on a limited budget, what I listed above is pretty much what I've got, so I try to make what I have work for me.

LESSON LEARNED: Check your settings or switch to a programmed mode if you let someone else take pictures with your camera.

One of the things I've been doing with my camera is forcing myself to learn how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together. How? I've only been shooting on Manual mode. That works well for me in most cases. Last weekend wasn't the case. As we were walking into the park, a few very nice people noticed that we were dressed similarly (in orange for Halloween, you know). One of them asked if we would like for her to take our picture. Without much hesitation, we said okay and let her click off a few shots. Only one problem. I hadn't had time to check the exposure. I didn't realize that until AFTER they left. 6 shots over exposed.

LESSON LEARNED: Make sure your focus points are set right for the shots you are trying to take.

My Nikon has multiple focal points. Usually a good thing right? Well, it is, IF you remember to change the focus mode from a single point (center weight) to multiple or 3-D. I didn't realize (again) that I had been taking all of my portrait pictures with a center weighted focus. As such, some of the pictures I took were not focused on the areas I had intended. Several of my shots, especially those with 2 people are in focus for one person and out of focus on the other.

LESSON LEARNED: Find something to bounce light from.

Lighting. It's possibly one of the most crucial things needed for taking good portraits. Overall, I think I did a decent job of lighting my subjects. Not bad for the on camera flash (again, limited budget. No external flash, no light reflectors). But, they could have been better. A little reflection of light in some of the areas would have been great. At this particular park, there is a trail around the lake. Lots of wooded areas with small gaps for sunlight to break through. Perfect for the use of reflectors. Oh well.

So, these are some of the things I learned during my first "real" photo shoot. I used these pictures for sending to family and friends as our family Halloween and fall pictures. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. And I learned a lot along the way.