China

March 3, 2015

While traveling in China I was lucky enough to have a few days on the weekend to explore Hangzhou and Shanghai. In Hangzhou I read about the famous "West Lake" and decided to hire a tour guide through China Highlights to see some of its famous beauty. Mr. Tony Tong was my guide and he shared some interesting history on the city and took me to several great spots. We started in a few parks along the lake which was a nice "breather" after spending the previous week in congested Shanghai.

Tony shared a popular Chinese saying describing the beauty of the area; "Heaven Above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below." The parks and causeways around the lake certainly provide many opportunities to picture heaven on earth. We made it back to the lake just in time to see the last of the sun as it set across the lake along with a dozen other Chinese photographers.

I was surprised by the many great night photography opportunities in China. It seems everywhere you go the buildings are lit in colorful and constantly changing displays. After the sunset Tony took me to another location on the lake to see the Leifeng Pagoda across the lake which we had climbed earlier that day to get a great view of the lake.

Back in Shanghai I made it out to the Bund on a Friday night to see the city skyline across the Huangpu river. The view was amazing and constantly changing with party boats cruising the river and a light show of different images on the buildings. I made this photo by combining four images together to get my favorite combination of the water, oriental pearl tower, and graphics on the buildings for Valentine's day.

My last morning in China I had a few hours to see the sunrise before heading to the airport to catch my flight home. Unfortunately the sunrise was obscured by clouds but I enjoyed photographing the friendly locals flying kites and practicing Tai Chi along the Bund.

The Long View

January 11, 2015

Recently I've been working with some various "long exposure" techniques at Table Rock State Park using a new neutral density 1000 10 stop filter and the Sony PlayMemories Time-lapse app.

The ND filter only allows 0.1% of the normal amount of light to pass through it! Which allowed me to leave the shutter open for about 10 minutes during the sunrise on Table Rock from Pinnacle Lake to get the image below.

The filter is great for showing the motion of the clouds and giving another option for something to shoot when the light isn't the best.

The Sony PlayMemories Time-Lapse app is another way to capture the passage of time in an image which can be assembled into a movie or stacked into a single image.

However my favorite use for the app is for star trails! I setup the camera in one of my favorite spots and had it take 30 second exposures for over an hour while I watched a show on my iPad and stayed warm in my truck. Then using Photoshop or StarStaX (and lots of patience) merged the images to reveal the path of the stars as they rotated around the North Star.

Waterfalls & Creeks

November 22, 2014

Over the last several weeks I've been chasing the changing colors of the leaves south from Dupont State Forest in North Carolina to Greenville South Carolina. Although I've seemed to be a bit behind the peak, I've managed to get some great photographs of the fall color around a few waterfalls and creeks.

I was definitely late to the party at Hooker Falls in Dupont State Forest but even after the leaves had fallen they made a colorful carpet to accent the banks of the Little River.

The Slickum Creek is one of my favorite secret sources of waterfalls. It is a short walk from the popular Wildcat Falls where a ribbon and a small "falls" sign point into the woods. It wasn't until my fourth time visiting this creek that I finally encountered another person!

Before getting to the "Sweet Thing", just steps off of Hwy 276 are the Last Falls on Slickum Creek where this first photo was taken. The fallen leaves were circulating in a shallow pool just below the falls creating several interesting eddies that are visible in this long exposure.

The Sweet Thing on Slickum waterfall is a pretty stream of water coming over a wide amphitheater of layered rock into a shallow pool. Great for wading and wonderful for photography from many angles.

The Rock Quarry Garden in Greenville is a beautiful hidden park next door to the very popular Cleveland Park downtown. I first saw this while out running 3 years ago and wish I would have explored it sooner. It was a pre-Civil War granite quarry and now is a nicely landscaped park with a very small waterfall.

Finally Google Earth is amazing! While I thought I had pretty well explored my local area, I stumbled across the Anderson Mill on the Tyger river in Spartanburg one evening while browsing the app. During my first "scouting" trip of the spot I was pleasantly surprised with these images of the mill and river, I can't wait to go back!