"It droned on and on and on.."
Having a mini-copter hovering overhead - with a camera pointing down - seems to be the new way to picture a scene.
I've had a varied and long career in photography but have not bought a drone copter . Yet,
Saturday was the 9th annual
Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk, and 20 members of my photo group in Charleston, S.Car., were among more than 1,100 participating cities all around the world
.
We always submit a group photo, and this year - for the first time - member Joseph Nienstedt brought his new drone and did a smooth flyover to take an aerial view of us standing before a local landmark in the "Holy City," so named because the view from offshore showed many, many steeples.
This fountain is shaped like a Pineapple, the symbol of hospitality, and is one of two beautiful fountains at our Waterfront Park, which overlooks Charleston harbor.
I grew up hearing that this is where the Ashley River and the Cooper River come together to form the Atlantic Ocean.
Made sense to me as a kid growing up downtown in an historic city.
As Leader of the group, I am able to submit one picture into competition with more than 1,100 of my peers.
I entered a view of a fountain's rushing water caught with a fast shutter speed as it streams past a church steeple in the background.
Two years ago, one of our members placed in the Top Ten and received about $650 in prizes.
Yes, he owns the drone and he used it to create a
clever video and submitted it. Hope Joseph wins again!
After the photo walk, we had lunch at Tommy Condon's and repeated something we have done each year - place all the cameras on the table.
What an impressive pile of money!
Of course, with ALL the cameras on display, we had to use our Smart phones to grab the moment.
(Click on the photos and links for more details.)
We also took a "traditional" ground level
group shot.
That's Doug DeLong hustling into the frame.
His camera had only a 2-second timer setting before the shutter snapped.
Yes, he made it into the picture!
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Labels: 1100 cities around the world., Doug DeLong, Kelby 2016 World Wide Photo Walk, Pineapple fountain, Smartphone cameras, Tommy Condon's, waterfront Park
Shopping At A Chain Store..
It's "officially" FALL and Saturday underlined that fact.
My
photography group participated in the 4th annual World Wide Photo Walk in the evening and the weather was fantastic!
About 30 of us gathered by the impressive fountain at
Waterfront Park at 6pm.
Most were lugging large SLR cameras, a variety of lenses and tripods.
We all wore red and white stick-on badges.
When we all clustered together, passers-by would look around and ask
"what's going on? What's the event?"As darkness fell, one of the photographers stopped on the way to the Battery and aimed her camera at a brightly lighted dining room scene near Rainbow Row.
The barn-like doors were thrown open wide and she liked the set table with people preparing to enjoy a meal. Candles flickered.
A voice boomed
"PLEASE! This is a private residence and we do NOT appreciate you taking pictures!"She shared the story and, as we all passed back by and saw the open door, frankly we too thought it was a new small restaurant. Oh well.
I call this
"Sycamores At Sunset."If you know for sure these are not Sycamores, please let me know and I can change the title.
All trees should have little signs that identify them. And adding the Latin
genus would be nice too.
Here's a scene from the foot of
Broad Street. Fortunately there is a raised landing up above the very narrow sidewalk at the
Old Exchange Building.
Do you remember when there was a costumed Revolutionary War person standing up there greeting the passing cars and tourists?
Saturday night there were a dozen people with cameras and tripods taking long time exposures.
Waving and wearing red and white badges.
(Details can be seen by clicking on the photos. See if you can spot where I did some
Photoshop work.) Thanks for joining our evening walk. Please join us again.
Labels: chain store, Old Exchange Building, PhotoShop, Rainbow Row homes, SLRs, Sycamore trees, waterfront Park
Hey...slow down. R-E-A-L-L-Y slow.
It's the Holiday Season and it's rush..rush..rush!
Slow it down.
Set your camera on a tripod and shoot a sloooooow loooong exposure.
Try 15 seconds. It's relaxing.
Things will look differently. I promise.
You'll see images your eye can't see.
Instead of freezing a moment, you prolong it.
Water droplets continue to merge and that splash looks featherly. Really.
Even traffic looks better.
There's movement.
Colors start to flow.
See. It's soothing.
(A good place to capture this is at the entrance to a city parking garage. See, I even have some cobblestones in the foreground.)
During a
NIGHT PHOTO WALK, I was shooting the other fountain at Waterfront Park and I glanced up and saw my shadow.
Self portrait of
Man-In-A-Hat-With-Tripod.
Winter hasn't even officially started yet and I'm already projecting 6 more weeks of cold.
Yikes. And Brrrrr.
(Enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. I was surrounded by tripods and 9 DSLRs but my Canon S90 held its own. Hadn't carried a tripod in years. Thanks for stopping to look.)
Labels: 15-second exposure, Canon, DSLRs, Fantasy Cruise ship, flowing car lights, Night Photo Walk, Nikon, Pineapple fountain, self-portrait, tripods, waterfront Park
Early, early Saturday morning......
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Now I know. There is NO lifeguard in the morning at Waterfront Park.
Probably not later in the day either.
Come to think of it, have I EVER seen a lifeguard at a fountain?
My
Photography Group decided it wanted to do a photo walkabout and voted on this park.
Some wanted to capture a great sunrise. The sun was due up at 7:22am so we started arriving before dawn.
I had my usual hang-on-my-belt small Canon digital camera. I was in the minority.
Their lens shades were bigger than my camera.
It was foggy when we arrived and eerie. Pre-dawn downtown.
All that was lacking was a deep bass fog horn moaning out in the harbor.
So it got lighter and we could see more in the fog, but there was no glorious sunrise. Dark shapes in the fog were captured. Sleepy gray pigeons huddled next to haughty white seagulls
Bright park lights glowed with a shiny halo. Zoom lenses found flower beds probably overlooked by the average tourists.
Cold water dripped on my neck...
To see some of the pictures taken that morning please go to
http://photo.meetup.com/687 and click on PHOTOS.
(Yes, I DID add some text to the fountain shot. It was early and I thought nobody would notice.)Labels: downtown, fog horn, fountain, glorious sunrise, haughty seagull, lifeguard, no diving, waterfront Park
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