Edwards FreeLance Photography

2012 Trail of Tears – Remembrance Ride

Every year on the third Saturday of September, thousands of avid motorcycle riders ascend of the city of Chattanooga Tennessee for the annual ride to pay respects to the Indian nation.

Excerpt from the official TOT website:

"This ride is not about which trail we ride, or the remembrance of one particular group of people that traveled the Trail of Tears. It is about the remembrance of the plight of the Native American people ripped from their homes, their lands and forced to endure the terrible hardship placed upon them when forced to a new land, forced to a land full of uncertainty, unknowing, and a feeling that their aggressors may again change their mind and force another removal, or worse annihilation."

The ride starts off in downtown Chattanooga Tennessee, follows the trail taken by the Native Americans, around Lookout Mountain to Monteagle, TN. The route transverses some of the most scenic routes in Tennessee, as it meanders throughout the area before a the convoy takes a short break in Fayetteville,  then heads off towards Florence, AL where for most, the rides wraps up. For others, it's an overnight stay before pulling out for Wewoka, Ok

Mustang Sally

The Trail of Tears Kickoff Party was held the Friday night at Thunder Creek Harley Davidson on Lee Highway, where the riders from across the region were entertained several bands highlighted by Mustang Sally out of Nashville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For many, the Trail of Tears Remembrance Ride is an annual event, where they can share, renew and form new relationships with their fellow riders.

Thunder Creek Harley Davidson Event

 



Preparing to Bless the Riders



Trial of Tears Remembrance Ride

Slide show of the Chattanooga Events: 

 

Mark your calendar for next year's event.

Gone Fising?

I like most travel photographers,  I enjoy getting out and driving around in search of interesting items to photograph. On a recent weekend drive along some backroads near the Alabama and Mississippi stateline I came across an abandoned derelict hotel or something along those lines anyway.

Finding something like that is not really uncommon, but what I found interesting was that someone had spray painted No Fishing on one of the buildings. Well, this got my curiosty peaked because there was no sign of anywhere that someone could actually do a little fishing, no pond, no lake, no nothing.

No Fishing

After a closer inspection of this building I did find a pipe with water flowing into the area that at one time was a office of some sort.

Water Filled

So I guess if you're really determined to do a little fishing then anyplace that has water is a go place to sink a line.

Abandoned Complex

Have a little fun and get out over the weekend and see what you can uncover.

Year in Perspective

Well, another year of photography has come and gone and for the most part, 2011 was not to bad of year. Nothing much to write home about though. I traveled some 75,000 miles across these United States, mainly as usual throughout the Southern region, yet I did manage to take a few trips out west, Arizona and Texas, with a personal trip to the Rocky Mountains just to breathe in some fresh air and get renewed a little.

Every year brings us new challenges in this wonderful profession of photography, myself included. I spent a good portion of 2011 recovering from re-constructive shoulder surgery. Guess lugging around camera gear for 20 years or so, finally took its toll on this rapidly aging old body of mine and having the “Big C” scare midway through the year, makes a person take a little time to put things in perspective every once and while.

What's really important? Why am I doing what I do? Can I make a better living doing something else? As it says in an old Who song, “Why should I care”?

Only you can answer those questions although, every once in while you've got to take stock in what you do and provide some honest answers to yourself. I was forced to do that this year, maybe you were also. After having only partial use of one arm for the good portion of 2011, then facing a scare with mortality, makes a person sit back and go - Maybe I should just be a greeter for one of those big discount centers?

After all, I wouldn’t have to get up crack of dawn to capture a shot of the sun as it began to rise on the horizon. I betcha being a security guard would be interesting, walking around shaking door knobs to be sure they were locked - BTW, I mean no disrespect for anyone working in this profession.

But then, I might not have time to be able to hike a trail to watch the water flow over a cliff creating a beautiful waterfall or trounce through the snow to see ice forming on a backwoods mountain stream.

If money was ever the main reason, then I would have thrown in the towel years ago. Unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult to make a decent living as a photographer alone. Especially as a freelancer, budgets continue to get crunched and the bidding for projects has become almost unbearable with the number of folks willing to almost give there time and effort away. I guess it's a sign of the times, something is better than nothing.

But then I think, what other profession gives you flexibility and freedom to be who you are. To see the good and bad in people, nature and life as a whole and to have the ability to express your emotions and share with others with those visions that only happen once in a lifetime.

The viewfinder of the camera can be a powerful tool and used properly can inspire and bring forth emotions, like no other media available, it's your creativity and vision that brings it to life.

Its time to say goodbye to 2011 and welcome in 2012, here’s hoping you have great year in photography and assuming the Mayan’s are wrong about the destruction of world on December 21st, then we’ll met back here again next year!

Murray

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

Tornado Damage Boone's Chapel Alabama

 

As the sun rose, the devastation became apparent in the small community of Boone’s Chapel in central Alabama. Friday evening at around 11:30pm an estimated EF3 tornado, according to the director of the Alabama National Weather Service, slammed into this small rural community.

The Boone’s Chapel Baptist Church was ripped apart as winds in excess of 140mph, destroying the sanctuary, yet amazing leaving many of the church’s pews in place. Church members gathered together on this bright sunny Saturday morning to begin the cleanup and to gather in prayer for those spared by the storm.

Many stated that they had gone to bed prior to the storms arrival, as an earlier tornado warning for the same area had expired. Joy Simpson a church member stated “We thought the worse was over”,  a few minutes later the tornado touched down.

Two mobile homes in the community were completely destroyed, leading to the death of three members of the Hollon family, father Willard Hollon and his two children. The Hollon’s mobile home had been lifted from its foundation, the twisted metal frame from the body of the mobile home was found near the parking area of church.

Governor Robert Bentley arrived at 12:15pm to inspect and speak to the members of the community stating that he had instructed the EMA office to do whatever it took to assist in their cleanup efforts.

The total loss of life due to the severe weather outbreak on Friday evening led the death of seven individuals.

For more images from Boone's Chapel

Stock Artist Alliance Shuts Down

Such a shame that a voice for the photographers working in the business of providing stock images is closing.Sadly as a former member, the differenting opinions and the dramatic change in the business over the years has finally taken it's toll. The SAA attempted to be a voice to address the concerns faced by those of us who attempt to make a living providing stock images.

 

From the Bristish Journal of Photography:

In an open letter to the photographic community, five of  Stock Artist Alliance's former directors state that "the last few years have seen dramatic and wrenching changes in the stock photography industry. Photographers' and agencies' traditional business models are under tremendous competitive pressures."

To read the complete article: