Point and Pray Photography

A Blanket of Gold

I wish I had the talent to capture the full experience of standing in God's Acre in Old Salem, the sunlight warming our skin, the breeze kissing our cheeks as it rustled through the Ginko tree, freeing its golden leaves to softly, gently fall to earth ... creating a blanket of gold for those at their eternal rest.

This photograph is as close as I could get.

Shot with Nikon D200 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 1/500s at f/5.6 and ISO 200 at 55mm. Vignette & edge burn applied in Photoshop during post-processing.
 

Peaceful, Golden Rest

I shot this photograph at God's Acre, the cemetery in Old Salem. I was utterly enchanted by the peaceful beauty of this place. The sunshine filtering through the branches of this Ginko tree, setting its leaves alight, took my breath away.

Shot with Nikon D200 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 1/500s at f/8 and ISO 200 at 18mm.
 

Autumn in the (Historic) East

This shot from Old Salem, NC was an experiment in framing. I'm reading The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman, and his discussion of proportions and purposeful position of the horizon line was fresh on my mind that morning.

Plus, a big pile of leaves always makes me grin like a little kid.

Shot with Nikon D200 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 1/125s at f/5.6 and ISO 200 at 55mm.
 

December Rose

 

We have these scraggly little rose bushes right outside our front door.  I plan to dig them up and replace them this spring.  But on the 1st of December, I walked outside to discover a bright little spot of color; entirely unexpected.  Shot with Nikon D200 at 55mm, 1/60s at f/5.6.

The smell of the holidays

Last weekend in Arkansas, as I played in my in-laws' backyard with Eddie, I reveled in the smell of pine.  (He, of course, reveled in the piles of pine needles, but that's another story altogether.)  That particular scent, combined with the way the air smells when it's crisp and clean and almost cold enough to see your breath, but not quite ... to me, that's one of the smells of the holidays.  Perhaps I'm particularly nostalgic right now, but I cannot wait for them to arrive.

Shot with my Nikon D200 at 90mm, f/4.6, using my SB800 wirelessly for directional lighting.  November 2, 2008.

A Creep of Color

I learned something extremely cool today: I can fire my Speedlight (SB800) remotely from my camera.   With just a couple quick menu settings on the flash and the camera, suddenly I can position the flash anywhere I want for directional light and it automatically fires when I fire off a shot.

Best of all, I didn't have to buy anything new to be able to do this - I just had to RTFM.  You know ... read the frickin' manual.  I've started working my way through the Digital Photography 2 book from Scott Kelby, and the first chapter is all about using your flash.  The first thing he tell you is to get the flash off the camera, and imagine my surprise when I found precise instructions on how to operate it wirelessly with exactly the equipment I have!

So I went out into the yard and started playing.  The trees in Arkansas (where we were spending the weekend) were awash with color, and I was thrilled to get directional light without having to rely on the position of the sun.  Shot with Nikon D200 at 55mm, f/4.0, SB800 flash operating wirelessly.

Fuzzy Flora

I found this flowering tree in the Leo Mol sculpture garden in Winnipeg.  I have no idea what it is, but its fuzzy, soft blossoms fascinated me - especially in the waning evening light.  Shot with my Elph in macro mode.

Canadian Crabapples

While wandering across one of the fields in Assiniboine Park, I walked beneath a tree and looked up - to discover it was covered with tiny bulbous fruits.  At first, I thought they were cherries ... but as I looked closer, I began to suspect they might be crabapples.  They look a lot like the ones we had in our yard each autumn when I was a kid in Virginia.  I put my Elph on macro mode and focused it on the fruit hanging directly over my head.  Slight edge burn applied in Photoshop.

The advent of autumn

Autumn comes slowly to Dallas, and is replaced quickly by our bleak, grey version of winter.  At the park this weekend, I could see the leaves just beginning to turn, and it made me nostalgic for the crispy, crunchy autumn days I enjoyed in Northern Virginia as a kid.  This little leaf, caught in the spotlight of the sun as it filtered down through the branches above, captured my attention. It made for an interesting photo.  Shot with Nikon D200 at 200mm, aperture mode, f/5.7, October 18, 2008.

Through the garden gate

I went through this silly phase of being obsessed with shooting flowers.  Not that I particularly like flowers, but they were interesting photo subjects.  One of the houses in our neighborhood had a beautiful bed of pansies and I couldn't resist taking a few shots.  Something I learned very quickly was that photos of flowers are pretty, but photos of a specific flower - in other words, a photo with a specific subject, rather than just a scatter shot like this one - are much more interesting.  April 2008.