Photography – Page 47 – Random Connections

A Trip to Madison

February 26, 2012 Tom 4 Comments

Saturday morning we wanted to get out of the house for a bit. So, we had a big breakfast, loaded everyone into the car, and headed west.

Laura’s mother had never seen Clemson, so that was going to be one of our stops. I also had a potential ghost town I wanted to check out. Laura’s desires were simple – she wanted a hamburger somewhere. The only problem was that we had a time limit. Laura and I had to be back for a dinner party that evening.

We pretty much stuck to our plan. We drove straight to Clemson and drove around the campus. We also drove through the state botanical garden. There didn’t appear to be much in bloom, so we didn’t stop and get out.

After touring Clemson, we headed south on Highway 76 until we got to the Old Stone Church. Last time I was here there was a maintenance man on duty and he let me into the church. No such luck this time. The place was locked up and I could only take photos from the outside.

Sacred Music for a Sacred Space

February 20, 2012 Tom No Comments

Music, Photography

Sunday afternoon the Greenville Chorale Chamber Ensemble presented its annual concert at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The concert was entitled “Sacred Music for a Sacred Space” and featured sacred music by contemporary composers. The pairing of music with venue was well-planned, and somewhat modeled the liturgy that might be followed in a traditional service.

Saturday morning we had our dress rehearsal in the cathedral, and I brought along my camera to get a few shots of the interior. I started with exterior shots…

…then moved to the interior to photograph the stunning mosaics above the altar.

Pixlr Photo Editing

February 16, 2012 Tom No Comments

Internet, Photography

I had tried Pixlr a long time ago, but had completely forgotten about it until my friend and fellow instructional tech geek Tony Thompson posted something about it on his blog last month. With Picnic being assimilated by Google and with Aviary acting a bit weird, I was hoping another option for online photo editing would come along, and Pixlr seems to be the best option right now.

Pixlr comes in several flavors. There is the full-fledge photo editor, but there are also several quick tools for adding preset effects. There is Pixlr Express for quick touch-ups and Pixlr-o-Matic for effects such as vintage photos, etc. Android and iOS apps are available for these last two services. There is also Pixlr imm.io, an image sharing service and Pixlr Grabber, a screen capture plugin for Firefox and Chrome.

Header Images

January 26, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Photography

I’m still playing around with this new admin interface for WordPress, and so far I like it. I’ve found a few things missing from the old site, though. Any non-Flickr image from one of my old galleries seems to be gone. I think I could retrieve them, if need be, but this includes all images … Read More “Header Images” »

McCormick County Photo Trek

January 17, 2012 Tom 14 Comments

Family, History and Genealogy, Photography

Houston and I had a day off in common, so it was time for one of our mid-winter photo treks. I really like exploring the area south of Abbeville, McCormick, and Edgefield. That part of the state is rather remote and rich in history, including our family history. Even though we’ve been down that way several times, I never seem to cover all of it, so it was ripe as another target.

Our exploration group was larger than usual. In addition to the two of us, Houston’s wife, Lynda, was coming along, as was our sister Glynda. The plan was to meet Houston and Lynda Sunday morning in the parking lot of Calhoun Falls Pentecostal Holiness Church. From there we would head south and see what we would find. Our route would take us past paddling venues, ghost towns, fire towers, and several important genealogy spots. It had the makings of a perfect day.

RandomConnections Calendar 2012

December 31, 2011 Tom 1 Comment

Photography

Each year I do a calendar from some of my photos for my family. I use Qoop to create my photos because (A) they do a pretty good job and (B) they are a bit cheaper than some of the alternatives. What they lack, though, is a good space for text, so the photos have no descriptions. Therefore, I’ve started putting the descriptions here each year.

Cover – Looking Glass Falls

This is a photo of Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah National Forest north of Brevard, North Carolina. Normally, there are tons of people here, and it’s hard to get a shot. We were there on a spring morning in the middle of the week, so it wasn’t very crowded.

The photo was taken with a longer exposure time to give the falls that silky look, then processed in Photoshop with the ReDynamix plug-in to bring out the details.

Florida Christmas 2011

December 27, 2011January 25, 2020 Tom 1 Comment

Family, Paddling, Photography, Travel

Another Christmas has come and gone, and again this year we’ve spent it in Florida with Laura’s sister, Amy. It’s been a busy week, with boat trips, paddling trips, and explorations of the area. Normally I would have done several posts, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. So I’ve combined a few items in one long post. Here are a few highlights and photos…

Beaches

We took a couple of trips to the beach. First was a trip up to Avalon Beach on North Hutchinson Island after a shopping trip to Vero Beach. The wind was whipping, and the waves were higher than usual. We didn’t stay long at the little park, but just parked so that Laura’s mom could look out over the ocean and we could walk on the beach.

Read More “Florida Christmas 2011” »

Winter Solstice Sunrise Paddle

December 22, 2011 Tom No Comments

Paddling, Photography, Travel

Last night was the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice occurred at about 12:30 am. That meant sunrise would also be the latest of the year, and I could paddle out to enjoy it without having to get up too early. It also helped that both my kayak and body of water on which I’d be paddling were only about 100 ft away from my bed.

…but backing up a bit…

We arrived at Amy’s house in Fort Pierce earlier this week. In addition to luggage, my electronic gizmos, and Christmas presents, we had strapped the tandem kayak to the top of the car. While the weather down here is spectacular – hovering in the 80s during the day – paddling conditions have not been ideal. It’s been breezy and very choppy out on the Indian River.

I tried a couple of solo trips. On one a large sea turtle came up next to me and kept me company for awhile.

Black Friday Paddling at Low Falls Landing

November 26, 2011 Tom No Comments

Paddling, Photography

I really despise the term “Black Friday” in reference to the day after Thanksgiving. The thought of battling crowds just to save a few bucks seems silly to me, so I like just about ANYTHING other than shopping. A paddling trip seemed in order, so Alan agreed to meet me at Low Falls Landing on Lake Marion. So, while others were getting up at 4:30 to head to Walmart, I was getting up at the same time for the 3 hour drive down to Calhoun County.

When I arrived at Low Falls I found a parking lot just about as crowded as one at any mall. Every boat trailer place was taken, and boat trailers lined the approach road to the landing. I managed to find a “car only” slot. The boat ramps themselves were in constant motion with duck hunters arriving from their daybreak hunt, and fishermen heading out for the day.

Alan arrived shortly and was able to find another car only space. We unloaded the boats and opted to launch from a beach area next to the boat ramps, rather than try to compete with the boat traffic.

Paddling to Cockspur Lighthouse with LCU

November 14, 2011 Tom 2 Comments

Paddling, Photography

The past several weeks have been quite stressful. I needed some time on the water, and was thankful that my friends at Lowcountry Unfiltered were willing to provide that distraction. For our Second Saturday paddling trip this month we would be heading down to Savannah, Georgia to paddle out to the Cockspur Island Lighthouse and out to Fort Pulaski.

I was really looking forward to the trip, and gave careful thought as to which boat to take. Since it was open water, and possibly choppy, I knew it would either be my 14.5 Tsunami, or the Dirigo 120. This was to be a relatively short paddle, so either would work. I knew getting out at the lighthouse would be a challenge, so a more open cockpit would be better. I also wanted easy access to cameras,etc., so the Dirigo won out over the Tsunami. I had it loaded up Thursday evening in anticipation.