Frost

It has been unseasonably cold here. Its just a detail of some frost moments before it was scraped from my car.

In the Rain

A boy tries to hold an umbrella over the head of a man he is walking with as rain falls on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 in Athens, Ga.

I wish i was paying more attention sometimes. This photo happened behind me, beside me and i didn't see it until it was all the way down the block. I wish i had their faces and them coming towards the camera.

This image of absolute innocence of a child trying to hold the umbrella over the older, father type figure is just amazing IMO.

And they ran it too.

Foggy, Foggy Day

Earlier this week, Athens was covered with some serious fog. So i tried to make some features.

I tried a quick panoramic but you can tell where the lens vignettes.



I tried for a long while to try and silhouette people against the headlights in the fog. It sorta works.



And then it looked like Ireland.



More people crossing the street in the low light.



... and in the middle of all this, I find an alligator with a leaf on its snout in the local zoo.

$200 dollar weather feature.

Noah Welch, 15 leads his sister Hannah, 11, near the falls at Watson Mill State Park on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 in Comer, Ga. Tuesday's high of 82 at Athens-Ben Epps' Airport fell short of the record of 88 in 1974. The warm weather is expected to last until Thursday, which calls for high temeperatures to drop into the 60s with rain.

I went out to photograph a weather feature; its been nice of late with there being 4 seasons in 10 days. I headed out to Watson Mill State Park where there's an old covered bridge and a small waterfall. Hoped there would be some people there.

The last time i went out there it was dry as a bone. This time, quite the opposite. Came home with some nice shots and a handwritten welcome from the Madison County Sheriff's Office. The speed limit changed and i didn't notice until it was too late.

So this photo lead A1 the next day.



Nathan Welch, left, along with his siblings Hannah, center, and Noah, right, play in the water of the South Fork of the Broad River at Watson Mill State Park on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 in Comer, Ga.

Quick Storm Chasing

So I'm back in Athens. The road was long and hard. The hotel room life is not for me, not at 15 days at a stretch. CWS was a lot of fun but its good to be home.

Yesterday I'm just relaxing on a Sunday when i hear about storms in the area. I check the weather radar, grab the camera and tripod and went to the top of the tallest parking garage in town and looked west.

Now Daytime lightning requires a bunch of things. LUCK, good planning, and a ND filter of some sort. Since i don't have a big ND filter, I used a polarizer which is effectively a 2 stop ND filter. Just used a shutter release, tripod, f/22 and aperture priority. I basically just watched where the cells were that the lightning was striking from, put them in the frame, composed a 1/2 decent shot motor drived it on a 4 gig card, hoping that i'd get what i want. Average exposure was about 4 seconds.

IMPORTANT - You need to take personal safety into account. If you can see lightning and hear thunder, there is a chance it can hit you. Especially if you have a giant metal tripod and are the tallest thing around, say on the top of a seven-story tall parking garage. You have to be very aware of what is going on around you and how fast the storm is coming. If the storm has already hit, i recommend the 2nd level from the top of a parking garage. Also you don't get wet that way.

There is a product out there called a lightning trigger which makes catching the pretty lightning much easier. I have seen it in person, used by storm chaser and action news photographer Gene Blevins and i would highly recommend purchasing said tool if you are really into this. (Like I am)

Weather features

Air bubbles are frozen on a leaf.

We've had some crazy weather here in the past week. Lots of rain, dense fog and then some very cold (for Georgia) weather.

So i went out and tried to make a few photos.




Rain explodes like fireworks as they fall against ornamental stone.





(Ed. Note. - I really hate birds. Really. I hate bird pictures. But there was something so Hitchcoch like when i saw this seen, i had to shoot it.)