Photos by Dick
Photographs and commentary by Dick Snoke
Late March 2019
Some of the first new blooms in the yard and a visit to the Tumbling Waters Nature trail west of Elijay, GA.
The flower shots were all done with the macro lens from a distance of a few inches to a foot or so. The waterfall shots were done with the 18-55 mm or 50-30 mm lenses. The ground along the creek was very, very soft, and I could find only one accessible spot firm enough to hold my weight. Perhaps I’ll go back there after we’ve had less rain for a while. I suspect there may be better photo ops with less water flowing.
Old Car City 03/16/2019
A trip with the North Georgia Photography Club. More commentary following the pictures. The pictures are in the order they were taken. There is no significance to that ordering.
This place eccentric, to say the least. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 cars scattered over 30 acres among the trees, remains of buildings, and who knows what all. Along with the cars is a very wide variety of “other stuff”: old toys, farm equipment, motorcycles, buses, travel trailers, old stoves, and on and on. And none of it is for sale, even the parts.
Not being much of a car buff, I don’t find much joy in pictures of whole cars, new or old. I much prefer the closeups of hood ornaments, headlights, etc. I also looked around for whatever else I could find, of which there was plenty.
Technical details are included with each picture. Just click on the i to see it. All these were taken using a Nikon D7500. I started with a f.18 35 mm lens, and I also used a f3.5 85 mm macro lens. I could have one of those on the camera and the other in my jacket pocket, and so I didn’t have to take off the backpack. That made me much more nimble without passing up any shots.
I chose not to use a tripod. I did have both tripods in the truck with me, but elected not to haul one through the tangle of cars. In retrospect, I probably should have put the light tripod on the backpack so it was available in a few of the shots. Could have done a lot lower ISO if I had camera support.
All these pictures were shot in raw format and processed with Affinity Photo. A few required tone mapping, but most have a bit of cropping and minor adjustments to saturation and contrast.
East Pallisades Trail, March 2019
A hike with the Hearthstone Hikers along the Chattahoochee River just northwest of Atlanta. It was cloudy with a few spits of rain, the trail was quite muddy in spots, and we took a couple of wrong turns. But all in all, a good time.
Spring at Gibbs Gardens, March 2019
The first trip of the year to the gardens near Ball Ground, GA. It is a bit late for the daffodil bloom, but there were still enough around to be very pretty. It addition, the cherry trees have begun to bloom and the tulips are up and almost open. Add the Japanese Garden to the mix and you’ve got more than enough to enjoy and photograph. I was sort of hoping for some fungi in the fern dell, but there were none to be found.
South Carolina Beaches, March 2019
We went to Murrells Inlet, on the South Carolina coast south of Myrtle Beach, with three other couples from the North Georgia Photography Club to photograph the birds at Huntington Beach State Park and the statuary at Brookgreen Gardens. The pictures follow, and then I’ve written a more extensive description of the trip. The first set is at the state park, the second at the Huntington’s house, and the third at Brookgreen Gardens. Between picture-taking episodes, we enjoyed good food and drink at local restaurants.
My main objective was to have a good long tryout for a150-600 mm lens. I rented one for this trip. That objective was achieved, and I know I won’t buy such a lens since it is too heavy and would not be used often. However, I will rent one if I go to a place where there is a good chance I’ll use it. Places like Yellowstone or Bosque del Apache for example.
The first morning I arrived at the park when it opened, and hour or so before sunrise. That gave me time to park, get to where I wanted to shoot, and get set up. I set up in/on one of the cupola’s along the causeway between the marshes. Turns out I was there before any birds. The birds only arrived after the sun got up over the trees. But when the birds came, they came in some numbers and variety. Cormorants, a couple varieties of egrets, herons and a couple kinds of sandpipers. More than enough to keep busy.
I started out with the big lens using a tripod, and that turned out to be the wrong thing to do. I was better off handholding and being able to move around much more quickly as the birds moved. So lesson learned. But that big lens is quite heavy, and I could have used a monopod, which is what most of the other folks with camera were doing.
But the lens was wonderful. Very crisp all the way out, reasonably quick to focus and easily zoomed. I did not have many exposure problems. I was using auto-ISO, with +0.7 exposure compensation, an aperture of f/8 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 or faster most of the time. That is my standard setup for birds in flight. We had an overcast sky so the shadows were no problem.
Mid-morning we all left to eat and do other things. I returned to the park late morning to see the house and explore the other parts of the park. After a short trip through the house (not a lot there really), I walked out the path between two pieces of the freshwater marsh. There I found alligators, turtles, gallinules (marsh hens) and ibises. A bunch of egrets were in the trees on the far side of the marsh, and I attempted pictures of them. However, that was too far for even a 600 mm lens. And I left my cap somewhere so I got my first sunburn of the season. 🙂 In addition, I did not have a polarizing filter for the big lens and the sun did make for some tough reflections, particularly off the wet turtle shells.
And then mid-afternoon the rains came. I did gear up and take a few shots of the sandpipers before returning to the hotel to wait out the weather.
The next day we visited Brookgreen Gardens, arriving soon after it opened, and it was a great time. There is so much to see and enjoy. I tried to avoid just pictures of all the sculptures, trying instead to include the rest of the environment. But the sculptures demand attention. You just have to include them.
I knew I wanted pictures of the Live Oak Allees, but the light was a problem initially. The sky was overcast so there was no light beneath the trees. Later in the afternoon the sun did come out and I got much better shots with light coming through the trees.
One issue with a place like this is that many of the sculptures have vegetation around them, and that makes very pretty settings. However, in many cases you end up with a dark sculpture in front of dark green leaves, and that makes it hard to get any contrast between the sculpture and the background. You must move around some to find good angles.
Caney Creek , Feb 24
A foggy morning, but the sun finally broke through for the first time in over a week. By the time I got to the trail, the fog had begun to lift, and so I could not get the really foggy shots I hoped for. But there were some good opportunities anyway.
late Jan – early feb 2019
A variety of pictures taken on the few days we did not have rain and the temperature was warm enough. These are in reverse order of when they were taken, oldest to newest.
The first few are the first daffodil blooms of this year. Then comes a few from the rocks bordering my back porch. I don’t know what they are, but I like them just the same. Next are a few shot along the Iron Hill Trail in Redtop Mountain state park. Last is a very nice sunrise, one of the very few we’ve had this year.
Little Mulberry Park, 1/24
The few that worked out on a hike with the Hearthstone Hikers. We did about 6 miles on the Fence Road side of the park, avoiding Miller Lake.
Lunar Eclipse, 1-20-2019
A full lunar eclipse on a clear night. The past few eclipses have been clouded out.
Little Mulberry Park, 1/16
First hike of the year with the Sonny Day Hikers. Not a long or difficult hike, but we all enjoyed getting outdoors for a change. It was a bright, sunny day so the photo ops were limited.
