Storm Update

Here a team from Lexington SC is working on electrical and finishing drywall.

Hi, Folks! It has been a crazy past several weeks, and while I have had the chance to shoot and write a bit, I didn't have a chance to bring both together on this blog.

As many of you know, our area was hit by severe storms on April 27. According to the National Weather Service, six confirmed tornadoes touched down in DeKalb County on that day and 33 lives were lost. Hundreds of homes were destroyed.

This is one of the portable showers at our church.

Much of our lives since April 27 has revolved around relief efforts to help our communities recover from the storms. Our church is hosting teams from all across the country who are taking vacation time to visit our area to help with the relief effort. Working with our denomination's Mission to North America organization, I am serving as the initial contact for groups who come to our area and my wife, Trisha, is coordinating the work once the teams get here.

To date, we have hosted teams from Delaware, Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Florida, and a couple of full-time RVers whose home is wherever they park their motor home. It has been great to meet these good people who donate their time and expertise to help their fellow man. There is still much work to do and we will be here working and hosting teams as long as there is work to do and volunteers keep coming.

We have made some new friends and renewed some old friendships. For example, we went to Iowa for flood relief in 2008 and met two couples from Delaware. After the tornadoes hit here, these great folks called and let us know that they would be here to work for three weeks. And work they did!

A partial completed Shed For Hope stands among the rubble.

The work has been anything from debris clean up, chainsaw work, house repairs, helping to build houses, and building Sheds for Hope. Sheds for Hope is a project started on the Gulf Coast after Katrina where storage sheds are provided at no cost to those who have lost so much in storms. The sheds provide storage room for those who are living in temporary housing, like FEMA trailers. An 8' x 12' wooden shed costs about $600 and takes 2-3 days to build. While it would be more efficient to prefab these buildings off site, part of the value of working in the storm area for 2-3 days is the contact with the families and their neighbors while the shed is built.

As a rural community, our area has not received a lot of press coverage. Even so, I am heartened by the outpouring of support that we have received by our sister churches across the U.S. The children in Vacation Bible school at Perry Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Perry Georgia raised more than $1,200 to support our Sheds for Hope project. Thanks to these children, two families now have a building to store their belongings.


Enough for now. My next installment will actually be about photography and the most manual of lighting situations: natural light. We will start there and move into reflectors and modifiers, hot lights, and flash. All the best...Mike

Published Photos

I recently had a couple of photos published in a trade journal along with an article that I co-wrote with my boss. I'll spare you the details of the article, but wanted to share the photos that the editors chose to use in the article.

The first photo was featured as a full-page spread opposite the title page. It is not terribly exciting, but tells the story of collaboration in using technology that we were trying to get across. Yes, I had to give Apple a little free advertising (like they need it).

The second photo was shown in a smaller format on a later page in the article. Due to the nature of the journal and since I was writing the article I didn't get paid to provide these photos. However, I did get some valuable experience working with the editor and layout person and have a couple more photo credits that I did not have before.

To view the photos in the context of the article, click here.

As this project is about experience and learning, I count this as another experience under my belt. Maybe the next one will be a cover for Vogue...or not. Either way, it was a good learning experience.

All the best...Mike

More Snow Pics

During our recent snow event (which is pretty rare for us) I took several photos but just realized that I had not posted very many of them. This is one that I took in our front yard. I was trying to capture the starkness of the tree and its shadow against a clear blue sky. As you can see, our dog had created a trail around the left of the tree. Kind of adds an interesting element to it, I think.

Our college was closed all week due to this snow so I had lots of time to take photos. I'll continue to post more from time to time.

Seeing this reminds me how ready I am for summer. I'll be heading out to Jacksonville, Florida for a very quick business trip tomorrow. The trip is so quick that I won't have much of a chance to take any photos. Almost considering not taking a DLSR, but that would just feel wrong. So I'll have it with me and just see what I can find to shoot.

All the best...Mike

Fun with a Lensbaby Composer

A few weeks ago we visited our son who is in college. On the way home we saw an old cemetery and stopped to take a look. I originally planned to use my 35 mm f2.8 Nikkor but I experienced a glitch (aka user error) with it and switched to a Lensbaby Composer. Here is one of the shots that I took of an old iron gate. The fence and gate was really cool with a great patina.

Hope you enjoy! Mike

Creative Ways to Play with Light: Snow Day Edition

My recent blog posts have revolved around a theme of playing...goofing off with light to see what kind of results I could get. When we had some snow a few weeks ago I had a good opportunity to do just that. We received about 6 inches of snow that Sunday night and by Friday afternoon at sunset, the icicles were starting to slide off the metal roof of our house. This provided a good opportunity to see if I could get the light of the sunset to illuminate the icicles. The result is what you see here. Auto focus was going nuts trying to lock on the semi-transparent icicles, so I had to manually focus this one.

Here is a wider view showing how the sheet of ice-encrusted snow was sliding off the roof. It was fun to experiment with light to see what I could do with it.

Hope you enjoy! Mike

Measure Twice. Cut Once.

I enjoy woodworking. While I don't often get out to the shop and build things, I do enjoy it and should do it more often. However, there are always reasons not to get out to the shop: Too hot; too cold; don't have time; don't know what to build; don't have time to finish a project...

Today I decided to go out and start a project. As I walked down to the shop I began to think about the similarities between woodworking and photography. Here are my thoughts:

• The right equipment makes all the difference. The project I am building has three main parts. The first of the three required me to cut a gap (or dado) about two inches wide and two inches deep in eight places. A daunting task if you don't have the right tools. However, with a table saw and dado blade, the work is simple, clean, relatively quick, and safe. Does that apply to photography? I think so. While you can improvise with many items, some items are necessary to do a good job. I don't want to make this about equipment, but the right tool does make a difference. 
• A plan is vitally important. While I didn't draw a written plan for the project I started today I did have a mental image of what each component would look like. As you compose a photograph, you should also have a plan. What story are you trying to tell through the photo? Are there distractions (power lines, garbage, etc.) that you need to remove from the photo through removal or changing perspectives? How is the lighting? Are you shooting for motion blur or freezing action? You may consider these questions and more as you set up for your shot. 

There is an old adage in woodworking that says, "measure twice; cut once". As photographers, we probably did that when we were shooting film, due to the cost of film and processing. However, when we shoot digital, we sometimes tend to just click the shutter until we get a good shot. I admit that was my strategy a couple of years ago. Now, however, I am trying to "measure twice" and think before I shoot.

ISO 250, f5.6 1/500 sec.

Since this is a photo blog I suppose I should post a photo. This was taken in August during a trip to Lake Guntersville for a family gathering. These ducks were at the edge of the water doing "duck stuff" and I was walking around doing "photo stuff". I really didn't do anything in post except for RAW conversion and a little sharpening on export.

ISO 250, f5.6, 1/60 sec.

The second shot is the son of one of my nephews. It was shot at the same family gathering under a picnic pavilion. As you can tell he had played hard, but I think this shot fits him well. This is shot using available light. Cropped just a little on the right side and I applied a Seim Preset: Angel Kisses B&W in Lightroom. 

Thanks for reading. By the way, I should note that this blog received a nice comment on David Ziser's blog a few months ago. I was flying to New York City when it was published and didn't see it until much later. (That just goes to prove that you should never miss a day of Digital Pro Talk). As Mr. Ziser is one of the inspirations for this blog, I appreciate his kind words and am honored that he would take the time to view my work. A link to the story is here. Digital Pro Talk June 11, 2010

All the best...
Mike