The opening reception for the exhibit is October 6th from 7-9pm and features delicious hors d’oeuvres, fantastic photography and a nail-biting awards presentation. (OK, maybe not quite nail-biting excitement, but the competition is fierce!)

This year there were over 480 images submitted, and the judge, Fay Gold, selected 101 for the exhibit. I had three images juried in; “Hurricane Carnival Ride“, “International Harvester Hood Ornament” (pictured at left) and “Glowing River.” Each of my images are matted with double-white mats and framed in black. My framed images are all available for purchase at $195 each.

If you are in the area, stop by the RVAC and take in some beautiful photography!

The totem pole was in the back of the 2500 building and could be viewed from multi-level dining area and outdoor patio. The pole was pretty tall, I suspect 35-40 feet. A couple of trees were downed in order to allow the large machine access to the pole. All in all, it took about four hours, two engineers and three tree lumberjacks to remove the totem pole and rest it on the back of a truck. The totem pole will undergo some restoration before it is placed in the museum. You can view the complete series of events through 53 photographs on this site.

You can view other images from the Atlanta Athletic Club on my Flickr site as well. My panorama shot of the 18th Hole and Lake just out from the clubhouse is also available on this website, 2nd row, last image.

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One of my favorite images from 2010 was selected for the 15th Annual Expressions of Light Exhibit sponsored by Roswell Photographic Society (RPS). The exhibit, located at the Roswell Visual Arts Center (in Roswell Park) opens Friday. RPS will host the opening reception and awards ceremony Friday evening from 7-9pm. Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be will great food and over 70 framed images to enjoy.

Maple  Bokeh is an image that I captured while driving across north Georgia one Saturday in November with my RPS friend Carl Fredrickson. We stopped in Blairsville at a small cemetery alongside the road where three brilliant maples were flashing their vibrant red and orange colors.

The image highlights the detail of a few leaves, their dull golden backsides with deep red veins starkly contrasted against the creamy bokeh-blurred leaves in the background. This was captured using a Nikon 50mm 1.8D lens.

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin

I attended a conference last week in Las Vegas for work. (You know, the job that pays the bills!)  With the recent purchase of my iPhone, I now Tweet more often because I’m no longer limited to my time in front of a desktop PC.

Last week’s conference provided me with one of the first opportunities to Tweet at an event “live”. Of course it wasn’t just quotes from the speakers but also photos of the speakers (Imagine that!).

I strategically sat near the front for a good view of the stage. This allowed me to capture great photos of the speakers while leaning my iPhone against the table for maximum stability (I had to zoom for all the photos). Dr. Flint McGlaughlin spoke on Monday afternoon and he was one of the keynote speakers for this Marketing Sherpa event. I tweeted a couple photos of him speaking to share with those who were following #SherpaEmail hash tag.

Just about the time Dr. McGlaughlin finished I received a Tweet from his team requesting to use one of my photos for their blog post about his just-completed presentation. Wow! That was cool!

I agreed and the photo was placed at the top of the post!

Caney's Chicken Barn

On the drive home from work this past Friday, I turned onto Caney Road, rounded the first curve and I realized that my barn was gone.  I gasped as I looked at the vacant spot where it once stood. No, I don’t own a barn, but it felt like it was mine as I have captured it many times with my camera over the years.

I have know that its demise was imminent for quite some time but my heart sank nonetheless. A couple of  years ago Forsyth County purchased the land for green space and the old chicken barn would be a casualty of the re-purposed land.  In fact, as best as I can recall, the barn hadn’t been used since we moved into our nearby home in early 2001.

The barn provided for several good images over the years and I grew fond of it because I admired its quiet, almost forgotten beauty nearly every time I drove by.  I have aptly named it “Caney’s Chicken Barn” as it sits along Caney Road and I’m pretty sure it was used for chickens over the years based on its shape and size.  It enjoyed how the metal roof would be crinkled by heavy winds and the owner would somehow bend them back down within a few days. The pasture land around the barn would grow thick and green and then it would turn golden as the grass matured. The farmer would cut the grass, bale it up and it would start another cycle.

Progress is fine and I understand why it needed to go. It had certainly begun falling in on itself this past year from neglect. Both ends of the roof had fallen considerably the last time I photographed the barn the day after Christmas 2010 when it was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow.

Old barn you will be missed, but not forgotten. Enjoy!

At the January Photo Review for RPS, Mark Alberhasky a Nikon-sponsored photographer, selected my Sunrise Pier image for Fourth Place in the Digital Category. Each month, RPS holds a photo review where a photo-professional is brought in to critique all submissions and then select First through Fourth and Honorable Mention awards.  The theme in January was Open (Vintage) which means that any photo taken by the individual in their lifetime was eligible for submission.  As I recall, there were over 40 images submitted in the digital category that evening.

Sunrise Pier was captured back in early December on a trip to Amelia Island Florida. Two co-workers and I arose early one morning to drive a couple of miles to the pier and begin to shoot the pier and its surrounding area while the sun arose.  This was one of my last shots of the morning and I had placed the camera low-to-ground (on a tripod) and the waves were actually washing over the tripod legs. This allowed the camera to capture the interesting bubbles in the foreground and through a long exposure create some softer texture and colors mid way through the image. The silhouetted pier against the vibrant colors of the horizons really cap off this image.

What does “juried” mean? A juried show is where photographs are submitted for entry and a judge(s) selects the photographs that will make up the show. This year there were more than 320 entries and 85 were selected for the show. Two of my entries were selected for the show:

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Sunrise on the Highlands (click photo to enlarge) was shot this past June at the Atlanta Athletic Club, in Johns Creek, Georgia. My employer sponsored a day at the club and I took advantage of the beautiful scenery on the golf course prior to the shot gun start.

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Sunlit Trees, Smith Plantation (click photo to enlarge) was shot this past April at the historic Smith Plantation in Roswell, Georgia. I used an “impressionistic photo painting” technique where I moved the camera while taking the photo. The movement of the camera caused the colors of the sunlit trees to streak, similar to an artist’s brush strokes. If you squint, you can see the tree trunks and the green foliage in the branches as well as on the ground.

Part of a Team

There was a team of about ten photographers shooting the event so I was not alone (thank goodness!). While most of the other photographers were down at the stage or shooting in the staging area/green room, my goal was to capture the event more from the participant perspective. Many of my shots are taken from a seat or from within the crowd. I did take advantage of my access pass and went down to the stage on a couple of occasions.

Event Shooting

Shooting an environment like Catalyst can be challenging. Most of the time I was shooting at ISO 3200 as my preferred lens (Nikon 18-200mm VR) is a 4-5.6 lens, which is not very fast. I did pull out my trusty 50mm 1.8D lens a few times when I was next to the stage which allowed me to drop the ISO down to 1600.

Over the past year, shooting events like Catalyst and North Point Community Church, I have learned to ‘dial-down’ the exposure on my camera. Basically, the camera is seeing all this black in the background and attempts to compensate for that by increasing the exposure. The results are speakers/musicians that are over-exposed. Therefore, I typically ‘dial-down’ my exposure 1 or 2 stops when shooting events.

Noise

While there was a lot of great music, the noise that I encountered was the type you find on digital images. Because of the high ISO, there is going to be noise. Fortunately, the Nikon D90 is pretty good at 3200 and so when I process the photos in Adobe Lightroom 3, I slide the Luminance slider to 20 which removes most of the noise.

Views

Catalyst will be using some of my photos over the next few months on their website and in their emails. I have also been able to share my photos on Flickr and Twitter which has helped gain more than 6,500 ‘views’ of my Flickr Catalyst photos (you can also view them on this site’s Catalyst 2010 gallery). In addition Brad Lomenick, President of Catalyst, even Tweeted my “Human Cannon” photo which has garnered more than 600 individual views.

Last year, about twenty miles east of Ellijay, we crept along Highway 52 as the rural highway and its non-traffic light intersections were not made for the onslaught of thousands of vehicles. Lesson learned.

This year I’m happy to report that the drive was uneventful and we had no difficulty parking at either location. Our first stop was at Hillcrest Orchards, the first orchard you encounter driving west from Dawsonville. Last year we stopped at this orchard on the way back and discovered their delicious, warm, made-to-order, hot apple donuts. Simply delicious. We returned for the same this year and browsed through their mini-market with fresh apples, cider, baked goods, honey, sweet potatoes, etc. Hillcrest appears to be the largest and busiest of the several orchards along the way, but we have not stopped at any others to do a fair comparison.

We walked through a number of shops in downtown Ellijay and had lunch at Wolf Creek Canyon BBQ Company. The shops are well-stocked and offer a typical variety of new, ‘antiques’, home decor, and country fare. While we missed out on the additional craft and food booths at the fair grounds, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive . Check out the festival, you won’t be disappointed!