Edwards FreeLance Photography

Merritt Island, National Seashore Florida Space Coast

Every time I head south to the east coast of Florida, I try to make a run over to Merritt Island and the National Seashore. Established in 1963 as an overlay of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals.

Taking stroll

Many recreational opportunities are offered at the Refuge. Bird and wildlife observation, a wildlife drive, manatee observation deck, fishing and hunting opportunities, and boating and paddling are examples of available activities. The Visitor Information Center located 4 miles east of Titusville, Florida, is a great place to start your visit.

Low Tide at Merritt Island

 

National Seashore

 

Blooming Flower

Springtime in the South

It's springtime across the South and the sudden rise in near record setting temperatures, has caused a eruption of brilliant colors as flowers and trees begin to come to life. Gone are the dreary days of winter, daylight savings time has kicked in and it's time to dust off the camera and get out to capture the beauty that nature sprouts during this time of year.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be visiting several of the South's most favorite and unique floral and botanical gardens, sharing those visits with you as we explore how best to capture the images nature provides. So let's get started. Make sure you've got your tripod, off camera flash and if you've got allergies, your favorite med.

Our first stop is Jasmine Hill Garden and Outdoor Museum, just south of Wetumpka, Alabama about a mile off highway 231, brings a little bit of Greece to the South. The main pathway is awash in pink and purple azaleas and Dogwood trees. As you meander throughout the garden, you'll come across various statues of Greek goddesses, wrestlers and urns covered with ivy.

The middle of this unique garden opens up to pavilion, complete with pillars of concrete and should you get a little tired while perusing the area you'll find plenty of benches to rest your feet or better yet take a moment to celebrate as Barbara and Polly were doing.

Now let's talk a little about photographing in the various conditions that will occur. Trees and shrubs will cast shadows where you not might want them to appear. You can counteract these shadows by using a flash. Use off camera flash when you can, as the pop up flash can and will cause hots spots. The add-on flash will give you the ability to bounce or redirect the light providing better results.

Everyone loves close-ups of flowers. You'll need to get up close and personal to get these shots. A tripod is a necessity here and I like to use a remote control trigger, that way you can reduce camera vibration, creating a sharper image. As you compose the shot, remember your DOF, do your want a blurring effect or do you want everything in focus.

As always, the rule of thirds is important, what are you trying to draw the eye to? Everything does not have to be centered, in fact some of the most interesting images are a little off kilter.

For more images of Jasmine Hill Garden and Outdoor Museum>

Have fun, watch out for ever lurking bumble bee, and happy photography.

The Smoky Mountain Pilgrimage

The definition of a pilgrimage according to Encarta is “a journey to a place with special significance”. Well if there were ever such an event this time of year, it would be the annual trek to the Smoky Mountains that tens of thousands of people make to view the autumn foliage spectacular that occurs every fall in the Tennessee and North Carolina Mountains.

When the conditions have been right, the trees begin evolve into a crescendo of brilliant reds, bright orange and golden yellow reaching their peak in mid-October. The caravans of cars, motorhomes and motorcycles begin the winding drive up the Great Smoky Mountain Parkway towards Gatlinburg from the south or to Cherokee coming from the North. Nearly every spot where a vehicle can pull off fills with folks wanting to capture the moment. During prime time, it can take hours to drive this 40 some odd mile parkway and should any wildlife appear, all bets are off and the traffic comes to a complete stop.

Clingmans Dome (6,643 ft.), Tennessee’s highest point, can provide spectacular views at sunrise and sunset and on clear days the view can cover over a 100 miles.

Be sure to save some time to take to the loop drive at Cades Cove or take one of the numerous hikes along the parkway. You’ll find some very interesting and beautiful views.

 



Not to outdone, the Blue Ridge Parkway also gets more than its fair share of onlookers. Its winding road, meanders for 469 miles from North Carolina to the Virginia’s.

So take your time and enjoy the ride. This years event has come and gone, start planning next years visit to the Smoky Mountain area to take in the fall foliage

For more images from this years Autumn spectacular

Murray 

 

Bad Time for Photography

Gotcha didn’t I – Betcha you thought this was going to be a post about the hard times in the wonderful world of photography. Nope, it’s about when are the best times during the day to grab your camera, head outdoors and capture those wonderful images that can take your breath away.

I can’t tell you the number of times while traveling across the area visiting National or State Parks that I’ll see folks lined up at high noon just snapping away. Well that’s just fine it you simply want to take some pictures, but not it if you plan to turn that image into a print worth hanging on your wall.

I’ve stated before and will state again – in most cases taking photographs between the hours of 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM will for the most part, create images with washed out colors, poor shadow effects, and in general not really good photographs. Let’s be clear, we are talking about nature and landscapes – if you are taking news worthy images or covering an event, it is what it is; you’ve got to get the shot. Just make sure the exposure is correct.

There are a few other exceptions; I enjoy shooting when storms are forming or when the skies are overcast. You can get some exciting and dramatic effects shooting under these situations.

For the most part, the best time to capture those impressive shots are – now this is based on your dedication to getting “The Shot” – shortly after sunrise, so you must have scoped out your shot, gotten to the location set up and be ready to go before the sun ever begins to creep into the eastern sky.

Now don’t fret, if you are not an early bird and just can’t seem to bring yourself to roll out of bed and the break of dawn, wait for the early evening light. Just realize that the lighting and shadow effects will be quite different taking the same shot at the exact same location. Plan for that, it might not be what you were hoping or expected.

I suggest you use a tripod when taking these shots, hand holding will cause shake, in fact if your camera permits, lock the mirror up. Most people will tend to use a high ISO (400+) setting, fight the urge; this will create an image with more noise than one shot at a lower ISO, for landscapes I very seldom use an ISO higher than 240.  If you don’t have a remote trigger, set the shutter timer on your camera to a couple of seconds once again this will reduce camera movement.

For you brave souls, take the camera off automatic and experiment with shutter speeds and aperture settings. You may be surprised at what YOU can create instead of letting the camera make all the decisions for you.

Remember photography is a frame of mind – visualize the end results before you ever take the shot!

Have fun out there.

Murray

It's in the Lighting - Road Trip Day Two

It's in the Lighting - Day Two Road Trip

Well, day two started as day one ended, raining. Though it messed the start of my day, the bright side is the area needs rain badly, so I'll suffer through a little inconvenience. My plans had been to be in Vicksburg, hoping to catch the sun as it rose over the Mississippi River bridge, get some shots in the historic area and to just roam around little for potential other subject matter. Not to be, the morning is shot, might as well head for my next destination, Canton Texas. Maybe I can catch something of interest as the sun as it sets in the west.

This brings up another topic. I've been asked on a many of occasions, why not just shoot all day long, what's so important about getting up at sunrise or waiting until the sun sets. Simply put, its all about the lighting the sun creates during two times of the day - the first couple of hours at sunrise and the last hour or so at sunset. Most of us call this the "Golden Hours", when the shadows begin to dance, the colors begin to change and "The Shot" in landscape and nature photography normally occurs. Any other time of day the sunlight is just to harsh. Spend the rest of the day sightseeing or scoping out locations that might be of interest when to light gets right.

Canton Texas, home of Trade Days, with the typical small town square surrounded by locally owned restaurants and shops. And just outside town, rolling farm land with pastures filled with cattle, horses and barns.

It's getting late in the day, the sun is beginning to go down and then there it is, a half fallen tree with spindly limbs and behind it, the sun is a fireball of brilliant orange. I stop and quickly mount the camera to the tripod and wait. Just as the sun starts to hit the top of the distant tree line, I push the wireless shutter release.

Day 2 covers some 450 miles and a handful of shots. Think I'm going to take it easy on Wednesday morning and wait for the afternoon sun again.

Time to Pack -a Week on the Road

Well, it's time to stop procrastinating and get packed for week. First what's to take in the camera bag. Here's the list of equipment that I normally carry along on most road trips.

2 Nikon D300 camera bodies.
3 lenses a Nikon 60mm F1:2.8, Sigma 28mm F1.8 in the bag and a Nikon VR80-400mm packed in it's carrying case, just on the premise that I'm going to need to get up close and personal with something along the way.
A 1.5 multiplier
8 Memory modules varying in size from 2GB to 8GB.
4 Nikon Batteries.
Various filters for the each lens.
Cleaning kit.
Battery charger.
A wireless shutter release.
And a few other little odds and ends.

There's a Manfrotto lightweight tripod along with a monopod with interchangeable heads packed in the back of my 2 1/2 year old H3 with 112,000 miles. Along with a DC to AC inverter. A small tent in case I want decide to rough it a little, a pair of binoculars along so I can scope out the area and of course cooler full of water and snacks to carry me over from each destination.

Normally, I would be carrying along a laptop for file transfers, but since this a self assignment, there's no urgent need to send the images to a client so that's one less item to lug around. I do carry, what has quickly become one of favorites items, a IPAD.

The IPAD allows me do a quick review of the images and is loaded down with applications that allow me to hook up to my system back at home base, transfer images up into the Cloud for backup and my favorite, a mobile property and model release application. I no longer have the need to carry paper pocket releases and folks seems to think it's cool to sign their names on the IPAD.

It's been rather hot and humid down here in the south, so I'll be packing plenty of comfortable cool clothes, a couple of hats, hiking boots and hiking tennis shoes. Rain gear is always a must, especially since I do, on occasion like to chase a few storms.

So there you have it, we're packed up and ready to head out. This road trip will cover some 1600 miles, with several planned stops along the way, not including any unexpected side trips.

Elmore and Tallapoosa Tornado Damage

The tornado outbreak that hit Alabama on April 27^th will go down in history as the most deadly and destructive day that most have seen or will see in their lifetime. Although the tornadoes that hit Elmore and Tallapoosa counties did not cause the massive loss of life and near complete annihilation of neighborhoods and communities, ten people lost their lives and much destruction did occur.

The tornado that hit the area began to wrap up near the Wetumpka, Alabama airport and by the time it touched down just north of the Santuck area, it was already creating a debris ball on radar.

 
The destruction began at a local garden center and trapped members of the Sides family as their mobile home was destroyed.

 
It then traveled into the Eclectic area, slammed into a mobile home community where several people unfortunately lost their lives. It wasn't finished yet; the path took it towards the Lake Martin area where numerous homes and businesses were destroyed. The smell of pine sap filled the air after the storm snapped and twisted pine trees at the Maxwell/Gunter campground.

 
When it touched down just south of Dadeville, Alabama the homes of the Cain's was severely damaged, while his neighbor's home was completely flattened. B.J. Harper just stared at his project car "This is the worse day of my life, my grandfather's home is destroyed, my project car has been demolished and I can't find my dog!" as the emotions began flow.

 
Patricia Harper's home had the roof lifted off the frame as sixteen people crammed into their home to ride out the storm. Ms. Harper stated that the she covered her 72 year old bedridden father with her body and prayed.

At one time during the evening nearly every major road in the area was impassable due to the fallen trees and power lines that covered the roads.

 Elmore Tallapoosa Tornado Images

News From the World of Photography

Macro Photography from Tamron

John Neel captures everything from bugs to barns with his 60mm, 90mm, and 180mm lenses. When he was a kid, John Neel looked forward to the creatures that his biology teacher dad would bring home — even the tarantulas. “I would have loved to have had a macro lens when I was young,” he laughs. “I didn’t get into photography, however, until I was older.”  For full Article.

 

Abolish Automatic Settings

If you look at the top of your SLR camera, you’ll probably find a little round dial, which has a whole load of different settings on them. Some of them are automatic settings (like the green square), some of them are ‘creative automatic’ settings (like the little runner), and others are the modes that let you do the heavy lifting yourself (P, Tv, Av and M). For Full Article

 

March activities at Merritt Island wildlife refuge

Bird-watching and photography will be highlighted in a series of workshops and field trips at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in March. The refuge is a sprawling complex of natural areas and wildlife habitats in Volusia and Brevard counties on land that is part of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center. It covers 140,000 acres and features more than 1,500 species of plants and animals, as well as many opportunities for fishing and wildlife observation. For Full Article

 

Digital photography club offers Tri-City contest

The Tri-City Digital Photography Club is offering a photo contest for amateur and professional photographers, with the winners to be shown from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 30 at the Richland Public Library. For For Article

 

Southern Waterfalls

The South is best known for SEC football, sweet tea and NASCAR, not for scenic waterfalls. But to the surprise of many, if you know where to go, don't mind taking a little hike and taking the time to get off the beaten path, you might be presently surprised.

Throughout the region; Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and yes, even down in the state of Florida you will find scenic waterfalls. They aren't the tall majestic waterfalls that you will find out the western United States, but can be just as breathe taking and worth then time and effort to locate.

Southern Waterfalls - Images by Murray Edwards

 

 

The Blue Ridge Mountains

One of my favorite locations to drive and photograph is along the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Beautful sunsets and waterfalls are there for the viewing.

 

 

 

Stock Images of North Carolina - Images by Murray Edwards