Images from a couple of outings. First are a few from a walk at Jones Bridge one day. Not much going on there; the river was higher than it has been for quite some time, so there were no birds or fowl to be found. But there were some nice reflections in the water, and one good woodland image.
Second is from a trip to Birmingham, AL to see the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. This is the remains of a slag iron furnace that operated in the second half of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. Early on slaves and “leased convicts” were the manpower, but later the workers were paid. Lots to learn at https://www.slossfurnaces.com/
Shots from outings in the first half of the month, after the Old Car City trip. These are in reverse order. I took a walk around Sims Lake Park one morning looking for wood ducks. There was only a lone ring-necked duck and songbirds. I managed to get the duck in great light, and I took a shot of the interesting ripples created by the fountain in the lake. One a different day I took a walk along the greenway. I saw nothing speical, but I did take a couple images using intentional camera movement. And lastly, some of us climbed Yonah Mountaion near Cleveland, GA on a cold, windy, raw morning. The view was good, and I got another ICM shot too.
I went to Old Car City in White, Georgia on my own since the weather was nice and I had the time. I had hoped this would be a camera club event, but the weekend weather recently has been miserable.
The place had deteriorated a lot since I was last there a few years ago. What were interesting old cars are now mostly just rusted hulks. But I did find a few things to shoot.
Got in a couple of outings late in the month. One was a hike along the Appalachian Trail from Woody Gap wet to the top of Ramrock Mountain. This is not a terribly long hike, but the climb up the mountain was more than enough to wear us out.
The second was a very good sunrise on Jan 31. The light wasn’t great until a bit after the actual sunrise. Then the reflections and clouds became very interesting.
On January 16 we had snow, something we get here about three times every two years or so. It was a wet, heavy, sloppy snow. Good for building snowmen but not so good for pictures since it weighed down the branches and clumped up. I much prefer the light, fluffy snows that are common further north. Anyway, I got one shot out the window on the 16th and the others the next day on a walk in a nearby park.
I did not get out much in the first half of the month for a variety of reasons, most of which had to do with weather. But I did get a couple outings. First, a few of us from the camera club went to the Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, GA. This is a new museum, but it is very nice. And then a couple days later, we finally got a sunrise worth watching.
A the Savoy Museum, the setup was nice, but the lighting and car placement presented all sorts of problems finding nice compositions to photograph. The car placement was particularly difficult because you always had other cars or people in the background. The lighting was not overly harsh, but it was enough to create all sorts of problematic reflections. Further, museum rules prohibit tripods or monopods, so it all has to be handheld. That means high ISO and some serious noise in some cases.
The sunrise a couple days later was nice but not great.
I did not get out a lot in the second half of the month, but I did get a few nice results. We drove to Raleigh, NC for Christmas with the family, but aside from one hike with the Sonny Day Hikers, I was not able to find and worthwhile compositions.
These are my favorite shots taken in 2021.
A fabulous sunrise at West Bank Park to start the month. Shot with my hiking lens, the lightweight 18-55 mm lens that came with my D40 years ago. Still does the job.
Then the weather turned to not so good, and the pickin’s were slim. I went to Sims Lake Park a couple times looking for ducks, but none were to be found. I did get some abstracts and other scenery, so it was not a complete loss. Then I got one more colorful sunrise.
The pictures are inn reverse order from when they were taken.
I got up early on a chilly Thankgiving Day to watch the sunrise, something I had not done for three weeks. The light was good until 10 minutes or so before sunrise, so I hustled to another part of the park to see what that looked like. It was good but not great. Then I walked back toward the truck and discovered very nice light coming through the trees and fog as the sun got up a bit higher.