Lucky shots

Signing off for now

2009-07-05T19:42:00.002-04:00

I've been neglecting this blog more and more lately. As a result, for now, I am transitioning to just posting new images on my FLICKR page. That's actually been the trend for a while now, though I always intended to get the images up here as well. Going forward, when I have time for photography, I plan to just post over there. Thank you for the comments over the past few years.

Shenandoah National Park

2009-06-20T23:36:00.003-04:00

From a hike in Shenandoah National Park, about 75 miles west of Washington, DC.

More from Duke Gardens

2009-06-17T16:46:00.005-04:00

I went back to Duke Gardens today for another hour of photography. I think these were probably the best shots of the day.

Lotus at Duke Gardens

2009-06-16T22:55:00.002-04:00

I celebrated the successful completion of my board examinations today by heading over to Duke Gardens for about an hour of photography. Shooting this lotus was a treat. Larger versions are available on my FLICKR site.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

2009-05-18T21:33:00.002-04:00

View from an overlook in Great Smoky Mountain National Park in western North Carolina. This picture was taken a few miles below Klingman's Dome. We had just enough time to drive in and out of the park, so photography took a low priority.

Mountain stream along NC 276

2009-05-18T20:49:00.006-04:00

A mountain stream along scenic NC Highway 276, not far from Brevard.

The image is best viewed on my FLICKR page, where you can see a larger version.

As a final note, I'm realizing that my color balance looks very different on Steph's laptop versus my own. I hope that the images are appearing as intended when others view this site, but I can't be sure.

Triple Falls

2009-05-18T20:46:00.002-04:00

Though probably not one of the best subjects for photography, Triple Falls (half of which is shown here) is certainly one of the two or three most impressive waterfalls in North Carolina. It's tough to settle on an exposure that works for both the powerful fall itself as well as the spill way in the foreground. The solution is probably a technique called high dynamic range processing, but that's not yet part of my repertoire.

Orchid, alternative view

2009-05-18T20:35:00.000-04:00

Another view of our orchid.

Orchid

2009-05-13T14:50:00.004-04:00

The orchid from our mantle. Taken mid-afternoon when I really should've been studying.

As always, a larger version is available on my FLICKR page.

Riley in black and white

2009-05-10T07:39:00.003-04:00

Pictures of Riley helping us plant a tree

Yates Mill Pond

2009-05-09T16:21:00.005-04:00

I spent an hour this morning taking pictures at Yates' Mill Pond in Raleigh. The light was fairly harsh on the mill itself, so I tried to salvage the trip with some images of the water coming over the old dam. The third shot should've been the best, but I overexposed it, causing the water to get bleached out. As it is, I prefer the second shot, and a larger size of it is available on my FLICKR page.

24 hours in the mountains

2009-04-26T00:30:00.009-04:00

Steph and I spent Saturday in the NC mountains, and I took advantage of the chance to take a few shots. The images above are from the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville, Whitewater Falls near the South Carolina border, and the Blue Ridge Parkway near below Grandfather Mountain. A larger version of the first image is now up on my FLICKR page. I think it's best viewed large.

Irises at Raulston Arboretum

2009-04-19T16:57:00.005-04:00

On Sunday morning, Stephanie and I went to a plant sale at J.C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. I couldn't skip the chance to take a few pictures of the brilliant irises in bloom. I expect to get larger versions of these up on my FLICKR site later this week.

Barn on Old US Highway 1

2009-04-19T15:42:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, my Saturday bike ride took me south into Wake and Chatham Counties, just beyond the reach of the inevitable march of development spreading out from Cary, NC. Between old farms and views of Jordan Lake, it's a pretty wonderful area (at least for now). I'd noticed this barn on a ride perhaps two weeks ago, and when I saw it again yesterday, I decided that I needed to get back to take a picture.

The main virtue of this shot is that it reflects exactly what you see as you come down Old US Highway 1 towards Bonsal. With the winter wheat in the foreground and this nicely maintained barn in the distance, it's a nice view. Today, we had overcast skies, but when low rays of morning light are illuminating the barn, it can be really pretty.

Steph and I stopped along the road to take this shot, before heading to a plant sale at J.C. Raulston Arboretum. I'll post a few shots from there later this week.

Nice primer on shooting waterfalls

2009-04-15T22:12:00.003-04:00

Came across a decent article earlier today. It's got several basic but important points to consider when shooting waterfalls.

Caterpillar Reprocessed

2009-04-15T16:28:00.002-04:00

I reworked the processing on my favorite shot from yesterday. With a little extra "light", I think it's a much better image now.

Caterpillar on a lily

2009-04-14T17:09:00.006-04:00

Today, I had fun spending about 45 minutes taking some shots of this caterpillar on an Easter lily in our backyard. The first two of these may eventually make their way to FLICKR, depending on whether I still like them a day or two from now. The second one is probably better at this size, but blown up a bit more, the first one really shines. The third shot was taken without a tripod, and isn't sharp enough to be much bigger than this.

Spring Flowers

2009-04-10T10:50:00.004-04:00

Today, I took a few hours on a day off to take pictures of flowers on the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina. These were the best shots of the morning. I'll probably put them onto my FLICKR page soon.

Kudzu shed

2009-04-08T17:26:00.005-04:00

A shed about 3 miles from our house.

Easter Lilies

2009-04-03T16:48:00.006-04:00

As always, you can find larger versions of these files on my FLICKR site.

Spring Pine

2009-03-27T16:33:00.002-04:00

If you had to pick one thing that defines one's visual experience of central North Carolina, it might be the pine. From the scrub pines that congest every new growth forest to the giant tall pines in old cities and towns, you will find plenty of green needles in this state. So, feeling a little burnt out this afternoon but frustrated by a late NC spring that hasn't given me much to photograph, I took this shot earlier maybe 100 yards from our place.

Daffodils at Duke Gardens

2009-03-22T15:45:00.006-04:00

Today marked the last day of a one week vacation, during which I had hoped to take a lot of photographs. In the end, I was far less prolific than I'd hoped. However, this morning, we did get over to Duke Gardens for about an hour. These daffodil images were probably the days best images.

Larger versions of these images will soon be posted on my flickr page, which increasingly I am using as my primary site for posting photographs.

Barn at sunset

2009-03-17T21:52:00.002-04:00

It's a been a good long while since I got out to shoot. For the past few days, I've been visiting my parents in central Illinois, the land of much better sunsets than we get in North Carolina. I took this shot just outside of Macomb, IL on the way home from a visit to see my grandparents.

All in the eye of the beholder

2009-03-12T16:56:00.002-04:00

I recently entered four of my pictures from my trip this summer to India for consideration into an international photo exhibit. Two of them were selected, which doesn't mean much as the flyer advertising the exhibit promised that they would try to include at least one image from each submitter.

What's intersting to me is that the two images that got selected were not the two I expected. Here are the shots that got in:

And here are the shots that got rejected:

Originally, I just submitted the latter two (which got rejected), and I only submitted the first two (which got accepted) as an afterthought. In terms of image quality, I'd rate the images on opposite ends of the spectrum. The image of the doors is probably the best or second best image (although not a great fit for the theme of the exhibit), but I've never thought much of the image of the young girl. On the other hand, I really like both images that got rejected.

It's a common theme for me with pictuers I take. Other people often prefer images that I don't.

Finally, to digress, it's a very late Spring in North Carolina this year, which has delayed my anticipated return to picture taking. Hopefully I'll be able to get something posted in the next week.

Time for photography on the horizon

2009-03-01T23:13:00.003-05:00

It's been seven very hectic weeks here, as evidenced by the unusual quiet on this blog. However, a much needed lull is in sight, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get some decent images taken, beginning next weekend. Stay tuned...

From the Picture Album- Another look at the Yate's Pond Mill

2009-01-11T09:55:00.002-05:00

Last month, I posted a black and white image of Raleigh's Yates Pond Mill, a beautiful structured restored by North Carolina State University and maintained by the Wake County park service. Right now, I'm buried by the beginning of yet another semester, so I've not had a chance to get out to take pictures. In the interest of keeping this blog from getting stale, here's my second favorite image from the day at the mill.

Introducing My Flickr Album

2009-01-04T23:58:00.002-05:00

One of this blog's visitors, a friend and fellow photographer, has been bugging me to get a Flickr page for a while now, presumably so that the many flaws in my 360-pixels-across images can finally be revealed (just kidding, Barrett). I've long posted 550ish x 400ish images on my website but the resolution still has been lacking- not to mention that I don't update it too often.

So... I am going to begin posting some shots at my newly revealed flickr page. For now, it's just five of my better images. I'll try to get a few more of my favorites posted this week. After that, I'll update it with new shots that I am especially pleased with, and I'll make links from here to there.

Cheers.

Coming Christmas 2009

2009-01-04T11:21:00.001-05:00

Stephanie and I haven't sent out Christmas cards in probably six years, but in about 340 days or so from now, I think we're going to do so. Why? Truth be told, I don't know. Yestrday morning, as I was taking the pine needle pictures Stephanie recommended, she came over and said, "There's also a really nice holly tree on the bike path. I think it would make a nice Christmas card." And so, I finished up shooting pine needles and started taking pictures for the 2009 Montgomery family Christmas card. Here's what you can expect in your mailboxes (or at least your inboxes) next December.

Land of the Long Leaf Pine

2009-01-03T14:07:00.004-05:00

This morning, Steph took our dog for his morning walk before I'd awaken. When she got back, she woke me, saying "I think I have a good idea for a picture." There aren't many wives so on board with their husband's photography hobby that they're coming up with ideas for shots while the lazy bum sleeps, but what can I say, I'm a lucky guy.

I hopped out of bed in my pajamas and made my way to the pine trees shown below. Steph was rightfully impressed with the beads of water on the end of their long needles. I was excited because North Carolina calls itself "the Land of the Long Leaf Pine", and I've been wanting to take up that theme for a while now.

I don't think that I nailed either shot, but I'm also not discouraged with either. Technically, it's a tough photograph to take, as the many beads of water are inevitably in different focal planes. Even so, it was a fun exercise.

Sunflowers

2009-01-02T15:11:00.007-05:00

Today, I found more cheap flowers. This time at the our local grocery store. It goes without saying, but I love photographing flowers... especially in the snow-less North Carolina winter, which doesn't offer a whole lot of compelling subjects. For three or four bucks, you can pick up something that will entertain you for the better part of a morning.

The technical details of these images are pretty similar to those for yesterday's daisies. Small aperture openings to maximize depth of field, 28-105 lens, manual focus, etc. However, it was a cloudy day in North Carolina, so I had to supplement the natural lighting coming through our kitchen windows by keeping the room lights on.

This first shot is standard fare for me. Basically, I'm just offsetting the flower to the 1/3 mark on either side of a horizontal image. I've used this formula for several other shots, such as this yellow flower at Raulston Arboretum or even this Stokes' Aster. (As an aside, I'd just comment that I really don't like that yellow flower, but it tends to be one of my most popular pictures). As with all of my images, I did sharpen this image, but otherwise, the only manipulation is some light cropping to get it to 11x14 scale.

For the second shot, I pulled out a kitchen spray bottle and gave the sunflowers a light mist. Then, I took basically the same shot as above, only this time, I cropped liberally, keeping the image at a 5x7 scale. I think the composition here is interesting and looks a bit like a sunrise.

Sadly, I'm headed back to reality on Monday, so my opportunities for photography are about to become a whole lot less frequent. I'll try to pick up some more flowers on MLK weekend, and then, the North Carolina spring should arrive 2 or 3 weeks after that. My big project for the spring will be revisiting Chapel Hill's Old Well to try to capture some nice images with better equipment. But those flowers won't come until later in the spring, so that endeavor will have to wait until March. Cheers.

Daisies (Updated)

2009-01-01T18:34:00.018-05:00

For my first shots of the new year, I bought six daisies from a local market. I then spent about an hour in our kitchen taking pictures, using natural lighting coming through the blinds. For all of these images, I've used a borrowed Canon 28-105 mm lens, shooting perhaps 12 inches from the flower and maxing out the zoom.

The key to this first shot is the depth of field. I shot the image at F14, and it really paid off, as I was able to capture a lot of detail in the flowers. I've cropped this picture to 11x14 format for printing purposes. I actually shot this image on the horizontal but rotated it in Photoshop onto the vertical (feel free to turn your monitor to see how it changes the image). Originally, I was partial to the latter, as I've been told by Jack Graham that vertical images outsell horizontals about 5 to 1.

However, it's always important to take some time away from an image before settling on what to do with it. 24 hours removed from taking the shot, I decided that this really is the best version of the image.

For the third image, I tried to take a more complete look at the flower, although this composition doesn't get the entire bloom (just to keep things interesting). A more liberal cropping of this shot serves as the new banner for the site.

I've decided to go black and white with this last image, though the color version is perhaps equally interesting (and can be seen here by those who dislike black-and-white). The aperture was a bit more open here (F11), which I think gives the petals a soft quality. However, I tried to keep the sepals (the part on the back of the petals that would be green if this were in color) pretty sharp.

Iowa Barns

2008-12-28T19:17:00.002-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Today, I joined my father-in-law and my sister-in-law's husband for a few hours photographing barns near Dubuque, Iowa. I didn't get any great images but I did have a great time.

In my opinion, the best of these images is the first, and really, it should've been an excellent shot. I think I did a nice job of framing the image. Unfortunately, I did a terrible job focusing it. As I've mentioned here before, I am a big believer in manual focusing- this time, it burnt me. I really don't know what happened.

I've got another week off here, and then, my life is going to get especially busy. I'm hopeful that I'll get at least one more chance to get out for photography in the next week and at least occasionally after that.

Eagle on the Mississippi River Bluff

2008-12-26T19:45:00.007-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Today, I spent an hour or so on the banks of the Mississippi River with Stephanie and her dad. The weather warmed to a balmy 37 degrees, which gave us a chance to enjoy the outdoors before a heavy early afternoon fog settled in.

We pulled out our Canons and tried to take some shots of the many eagles taking advantage of a rare break in the ice just below the lock in Dubuque. Overall, my efforts were a monumental failure- even maxing out the zoom on my borrowed 100-300mm lens left me not nearly as tight on the eagles as I wanted to be. As a result, this image is heavily cropped, which cost me a lot of sharpness. Those who have their browsers set to a large view format may be fairly disappointed with this image- the resolution just isn't there to get any bigger than about 4x6.

Yates Mill

2008-12-25T13:48:00.002-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This images come from Yates Mill, just outside of Raleigh. It's a subject worthy of a photographer's attention. I actually think that there are a number of good shots for the taking on the premises. Unfortunately, I didn't nail any of them on my visit, but I got enough of a taste to want to try my luck again sometime soon.

Puffin

2008-12-24T01:26:00.001-05:00

Images Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

For the last two pictures from the zoo trip, we leave the mammals and make our way to the Horned Puffin, Fratercula corinculata.

I alays enjoy the puffins at the zoo. Unfortunately, they are in an indoor facility on a light cycle coordinated with the Arctic Circle or somewhere thereabouts. As a result, in addition to the normal challenge of shooting through fiberglass, I had to deal with really low light. To take these images, I maxed out my sensor sensitivity, setting the ISO to 1600. Then, I opened up my aperture as far as it would go, and I went with the longest shutter exposure (1/100 sec) I could without getting movement in the image. Even then, I needed to add some light in Photoshop.

The final result are probably better technical feats than artistic ones, but I think both are okay shot anyway.

Chimp

2008-12-22T22:37:00.003-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

The subject here is a 33-year old male chimpanzee. He was sitting perhaps four feet from me, on the opposite side of a clear fiberglass wall. I took several shots of him. Unfortunately, most have a distracting reflection that distracts quite a bit from the shot. As for this particular picture, if I had the chance to retake the image, I might frame it slightly differently, but overall, I like the shot. It's probably my favorite picture from the zoo trip.

Gorilla

2008-12-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This is a second of the three gorillas at the North Carolina Zoo. Unlike the male in the previous post, she and the other female were especially cooperative subjects. I think I took around 30 shots of them altogether, and I am decently satisfied with many of them.

In terms of the mechanics of the image, again, it was taken through fiberglass. I should credit a borrowed lens from my cousin for this and all of the other images posted. The lens that came with my camera is a great option for a lot of pictures, but the 100-300mm from John gave me some options that I wouldn't have had without it.

As for the decision to go black and white with this image, more than anything, it's because of the leaf that she's holding. I think it looks better in grayscale.

Silverback

2008-12-20T22:02:00.003-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This image will be the first of three pictures I'll post from the primate exhibits at the NC Zoo. This massive male silverback was a tough subject. The picture was taken through fiberglass, and to the most part, he spent his time with his back to me. Of the six pictures I'll post from our zoo trip, this one is my least favorite.

Arctic Fox

2008-12-19T22:03:00.005-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

With the fall semester some 24 hours in my rearview mirror, today I had the chance to spend some quality time with the new camera. Steph and I took a day trip to the NC Zoo. It was a beautiful 70 degree day in the Carolinas, and the animals were the most active we'd ever seen them. I took about 200 pictures, of which only six made the cut for posting on this blog. If you're keeping score at home, that puts my success rate- even with a nice, new camera- at 3%.

This first subject is the Arctic Fox. Truth be told, I made some mistakes in this image. The depth of field is too narrow, meaning that the fur beginning at about the ears isn't focused. I realized my error early in the sequence of shots and changed the aperture for better focusing. However, the fox never gave me such a nice look at its eyes again. Hence, I'm left to compromise based on the pictures I got. Even if this picture is a bit technically flawed, the subject was too good not to post if.

Credit goes to my mom, visiting from Illinois, for the matting on this image. She chose a variation on my normal black and white scheme, stealing this slate gray tone from some pixels on the log in the image.

What's in a Name?

2008-12-14T00:01:00.006-05:00

On his recent visit to this blog, Jack Graham commented that a name change might be in order.

"Lucky Shots" implies a shotgun approach to photography. Point the camera enough places and snap enough shots and, by chance, eventually something good has to come from it. It's akin to the old adage about enough monkeys with enough typewriters eventually being able to reproduce all the works of Shakespeare. In fact, when I first started taking pictures, my strategy wasn't all that different from that. I'd take 100 shots to get 1 or 2 okay images.

Part of that was just the equipment. My first real foray into photography came on a trip to Colorado in 2005. I took hundreds of shots on an old Olympus digital with somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 megapixels of resolution. It was a point-and-shoot in every way, which lends itself to a 1-in-100 type of strategy.

Later that year, my family (parents, in-laws, and wife) bought me a transitional camera, a Kodak P712 that gave me all sorts of new capabilities and really changed the way I took pictures. The P712 let me do things that the Olympus didn't.

Then, last Spring, I got my hands on my father-in-law's Canon Rebel XTi, and my wife sent me to a photography workshop to learn how to use it. With that, photography went from being a hobby to a passion, and my shots stopped being "lucky" and started being thoughtful and planned and, on occasion, even artistic. That's not to say that they are great images, but the process is definitely different.

The change didn't go unnoticed, and recently, my family bought me another new camera, the first DSLR of my own. Soon, I hope to start posting images taken with this treasured addition to my camera bag, and with it's help, I hope that my pictures will become less-and-less "lucky" and more-and-more "earned."

Jack Graham on getting sharp images

2008-12-01T12:55:00.004-05:00

Jack Graham, the photographer who taught the course I took last summer, just posted an exceptional article on shooting sharp images. Definitely worth checking out. (I was relieved that no pictures of me and my tripod appeared in his tripod critique!)

Defining the subject

2008-11-29T22:21:00.001-05:00

Since I don't have as much time as I'd like to get out to take pictures these days, I thought I'd add a semi-regular feature on good photography advice I've picked up in the last few years.

The first tip I'll offer is probably the most important. It comes to me from David Middleton by way of Jack Graham, who taught the photography workshop I did last summer. Middleton says "A bad photograph is a a paragraph, a good photograph is a sentence, and a great photograph is a phrase."

When I go back and look at the pictures I took when I first started, they are all paragraphs. I'd see something I liked here, but then, I'd also try to incorporate this other thing over here and maybe something else over there. The problem? There's no clear subject in that type of photography, and good photography almost always has a defined subject.

Orange Lilly- Updated

2008-11-26T14:49:00.004-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Here's the latest addition to my collection. I bought this lilly today to be the centerpiece at our Thanksgiving meal, and then, I took it out to the backyard for some modeling before its big day.

(I changed the posted picture to a different shot with the stamen in better focus. This one is processed with Photoshop.)

Website Update

2008-11-22T19:18:00.001-05:00

I've updated the photography page on our personal website. Now, all of my favorite images are together in one easy to browse location.

Mill on the Eno River

2008-11-05T00:29:00.001-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

My cousin John moved to Durham about 3 months ago. He's a really talented photographer, who has a portfolio worth dreaming about. He really likes taking shots of old mills, and fortunate for him, North Carolina has a lot of mills. Until he got here, I wasn't big on photographing structures. I've taken a few shots of light houses and things like that, but mills honestly weren't on my radar. Well, he's got me hooked. This mill is at a city park on the north side of Durham. There are a number of 1900-era structures on the site, but for my money, this still-functional mill is the crown jewel of them all.

My afternoon at the Eno

2008-11-04T07:27:00.002-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Eno River State Park is the type of place that is beautiful but not photographable... at least for me. It's the nicest park within 75 miles of our place. There are rapids, rocky cliffs, suspension bridges, and more, but I've been disappointed with almost every picture I've ever taken there. Until yesterday. From November 15 to September 15, I tend to think that reflections are tempting but often disappointing subjects. However, the reflection of peak foliage on glass water is really lovely. Fall colors make photography so much easier. Throw on your circular polarizer, find some pretty trees and a little water, and boom, you've got a shot that an amateur like me can be happy with.

Completing the seasons

2008-11-03T17:57:00.004-05:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

It's been a crazy few weeks, and even though I have a very long to-do list, I decided to take this afternoon off to take a few pictures. I hit three really nice local spots for taking pictures- UNC's campus, Eno River State Park, and Durham's West Point on the Eno Park. I got one decent image from each location, starting with this shot of UNC's Old Well. Visitors to "Lucky Shots" are no stranger to this Chapel Hill landmark. It's a great subject in Spring, but this year, I've tried to capture it at some atypical times of year.

Fall colors are about to peak in the North Carolina Piedmont, and I had hight hopes that this tree would be a golden yellow when I showed up today after my Pulmonology Final Exam. Unfortunately, it was a little rustier than I wanted, but it still a shot I've never taken before.

Tomorrow, I'll post a picture from Eno River State Park.

Light and shadows

2008-10-27T14:18:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

One last shot from the trip to the mountains a few weeks ago. The leaf is really a fantastic subject (the veins, in particular). I just wasn't there at the right time of day. The shadows are obviously painfully harsh, and there was really no way around overexposing parts of the image. No doubt, this isn't the type of picture you put near the front of your portfolio. It's a C image at best.

That said, I still think it has some redeeming characteristics. I like to work a shot- it's a lot of fun to go some place ordinary and to try to find a shot that is a jaw dropper. This isn't a jaw dropper, but I do think it's a nice example of how you can find an interesting shot if you look hard enough.

Vet School Calendar Contest

2008-10-25T19:08:00.003-04:00

Last week, my dad asked me what ever happened with the vet school calendar submissions. Here's an update. Last year, I got 2 of 3 images I submitted into the calendar. This year, I only got 1 of 4, which must mean that I am regressing as a photographer!!!

The shot that got in was the shot I considered most likely to get in- "Aslan's Portrait", a picture I took at the North Carolina zoo in August.

A second shot, "Pasture Princess", was an "honorable mention" selection, which basically just means it didn't get in.

Hopefully, I'll take some shots this next year that I can submit. However, I don't do much animal photography. As a result, I'm thinking that I'll focus my efforts instead on trying to get something into my favorite magazine, Our State North Carolina. I'm 0 for 1 on past submissions there, but I just recently submitted my second shot, and I'll submit some more for their annual reader's photo contest.

Reflections on Sunday morning

2008-10-21T00:00:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

There are a lot elements that I like in this picture. I like the fall colors, I like the reflection, and I really like the fly fisherman near the middle of the image. There are always things that I see in an image and wish I'd done differently. For instance here, I wish I could walk on water so that I had been about half as far from the fisherman, and then he is also a little out of focus. It's fine for this size of an image, but I'd want to use a different version of the shot for anything larger. But really, altogether, I think it turned out nicely. If you'd like to see a larger version, here's something a little bigger.

We really lucked out with the pictures at this location. I think I took 40 pictures of this fisherman. When we pulled out our gear, he was actually fishing further downstream, behind us here, at a location that wasn't particularly scenic. However, as we were setting up, he walked right into this scene, and I couldn't be happier that he did so.

This concludes the photo journal from the fall colors trip. My father-in-law's camera is back in Iowa (thanks Dave!), I don't have a lot of time for photography, and post-fall colors, NC is marginal for photography anyway. That all adds up to this site probably being slow until at least Thanksgiving.

Graveyard Fields

2008-10-20T00:30:00.004-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took this picture at Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a few miles south of Mt. Pisgah, which is itself maybe 20 miles south of Asheville, NC.

I've been to the NC mountains four times for fall colors. This year and 2006 were the two best years I've seen. In 2006, basically all of the deciduous trees in the mountains changed to golden yellows and oranges all at once, regardless of elevation. It made for absolutely stunning vistas. This year, the color is a bit more spotty, but there are more deep reds than I've ever seen before. This shot came from the most striking location we saw all weekend.

Tomorrow, I'll post my last shot from the fall colors photography trip.

Brilliant Reds

2008-10-19T00:11:00.007-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

The reds were particularly impressive in the mountains this year, and these trees were the reddest of the reds we saw. We encountered them along NC Hwy. 215, just a few miles south of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We parked at a safe spot along the road and then walked back down the mountain side to take this shot. Heavy brush along the roadside meant that only a narrow window was open to capture these trees on the mountainside on the opposite side of the valley.

The key to this shot- and in my mind, the key to most shots- is the circular polarizer. It makes colors pop. Never leave home without one!

I don't think that this is a great shot photographically speaking, but I think it's nice from the perspective that you can really see just how nice the reds were this year. To that end, I've posted another version that is a little bit more artistic, as it has a more defined subject, but doesn't do quite as good of a job of showing what the mountains of southwest NC looked like this year.

There is a sad side to this picture- I inadvertently changed my ISO setting prior to taking the pictures at this location. Instead of shooting ISO 100, I shot ISO 800. It added some grain to my image, and consequently, I won't be able to blow this picture up much higher than 5x7.

Devil's Courthouse

2008-10-18T19:44:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took this picture on the Blue Ridge Parkway, south of Asheville, NC at a popular mountaintop called Devil's Courthouse. If you ever get a chance to drive the parkway, this stop at milepost 422.4 is a must. The hike to the top is a bit strenuous (i.e. it's straight up), but at the top, you can see four states (NC, SC, Tennessee, and Georgia).

As for the picture, I'm pleased with it. The dead trees and yellow leaves make for nice foreground, and a stone face always gives a mountaintop character.

One last comment- historically, I've uploaded my files for this blog to my personal web space and then linked to the images. For technical reasons, right now I'm uploading them straight to blogger. I feel like it's creating some issues with my images (i.e. the colors are more dramatic when I view the images in GIMP or Adobe than at this site). I'll try to get it worked out in the next few days.

Another shot from Looking Glass Falls

2008-10-17T22:00:00.001-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I had planned to post just the last three waterfall shots from last weekend. However, after revisiting my images, I like this version of Looking Glass Falls as well.

Blueridge Parkway fall colors coming next week.

Looking Glass Falls (updated)

2008-10-15T08:07:00.005-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Looking Glass Falls was the one waterfall we visisted last weekend that I had actually been to before. I've actually been there several times. In fact, when we were there in May 2007 with our friends Natalie and Bernardo, I took a shot from this very location, sans the fall color.

One comment about the manipulation of this image- as happy as I am with GIMP, this is one place where I miss Photoshop. I haven't figured out yet how to lighten up harsh shadows in GIMP, something that is pretty easy in Photoshop. The log in the foreground here has some really nice character, but you lose it in the shadows.

This picture concludes the waterfall portion of this slideshow of pictures I took last weekend. Up next will be fall colors from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

(Those who don't like the placement of the tree in this image, might prefer an alternative framing. The major problem here is that the focus isn't quite right, meaning that I could never blow this picture up as big as the on posted.)

Middle Falls

2008-10-14T09:42:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took this picture in Dupont State Forest, near the North Carolina and South Carolina state line. Incidentally, Dupont State Forest is often the site of the national trail marathon championships, but that's a subject for another hobby.

Middle Falls is one third of Triple Falls. Along with Linville Falls near Boone, I think that Triple Falls is the nicest waterfall in North Carolina. The movie Last of the Mohicans was shot in this area, and the landscape really is lovely.

This shot's greatest shortcoming is the white sky. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to wait for a clearing, but certainly, it's the kind of flaw that separates an okay shot from a better shot.

Preview of coming attractions

2008-10-13T18:14:00.008-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Here's one of the shots I took this weekend on my cousin and my fall colors/NC waterfalls photography road trip. When we stopped to take this shot, we thought we were photographing Catawba Falls, but in fact, we were photographing a pair of falls downstream of the named cascade. Nevertheless, it's an interesting location. The upper right of this picture is actually an old dam. The water escapes through a hole in the upper left.

A quick comment on the photo. I no longer have access to Photoshop. However, my father-in-law has introduced me to a free program called GIMP that is absolutely fantastic. It has most of the capabilities of Photoshop, and for those that it lacks, I just use the Adobe Elements program that came with my PC. I'm very happy with the result, shown here.

Finally, I'd simply remark that this is the first waterfall I have photographed since my class in Oregon. I was very happy with the pictures I took out there, but I worried that my success was largely a function of having an instructor over my shoulder. Hence, I like this picture for a lot of reasons but one is that it reassures me that I did take home some helpful lessons from the class (not just nice photographs).

Pictures coming soon!!!

2008-10-13T11:15:00.009-04:00

In August, my cousin moved to Durham from the Pacific Northwest. Unlike me, he's a legitimate photographer, who has shown in galleries in the Tacoma area. This weekend, we went to the NC mountains for a weekend of shooting waterfalls and fall colors. He took this shot of me, when I was shooting what we thought was Catawba Falls, but actually proved to be just a little waterfall downstream of it.

I'm having some technical issues that will prevent me from posting pictures for a few days, but they should be coming later this week or early next week. I am cautiously optimistic that I managed to take some pretty decent shots, so make sure to check back in for updates.

Postcards, etc.

2008-09-09T20:53:00.002-04:00

I haven't had time to take any pictures lately, but I did recently receive an order of postcards featuring several of my favorite pictures. I'm ordering through Walmart, which does a surprisingly nice job with photo products. If all goes well, I'm going to start making greeting cards from my pictures as well. So, consider this fair warning- you know what to expect your next anniversary, birthday, etc. card to look like.

Bugle in the garden

2008-08-13T21:11:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

For my final shot from our trip to the zoo, I switch from the animal to the plant kingdom. Several of these flowers were growing near the entrance to the zoological park, and on our way out, Stephanie was nice enough to let me play around with photographing them for about 10 minutes. I am a big fan of a flower with an intricate stamen. It's always a focusing challenge, especially without a tripod, as was the case with this shot.

Another big cat

2008-08-13T10:35:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Here's another picture from our visit to the zoo, this one of an American bobcat. I took the picture through fiberglass, which makes for some odd reflections (note the double branch in the upper left). It's just average, but with classes starting, I'm not likely to get much time to photograph, so I can't be too picky.

Aslan's Portrait

2008-08-12T17:12:00.006-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

It's not often that I really like a picture that I take. I have almost 5000 images on my computer and backup hard drive, and of those, there may be 50 that I would call good and probably no more than 10 that I am really quite happy with. Having just taken this picture a few hours ago, I'm not ready to put it in that top tier. My opinions on pictures tend to mature with time, and already, I can tell you that this shot has some technical issues (for instance, it's not sharp at all).

All of that said, I really like this photograph. I took it at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, as Stephanie and I spent our last day together before classes start. The lions are always most active just after the gates open, so we always make sure to leave our place early enough to be some of the first visitors to view their exhibit. This morning, the male was kind enough to look right at us for about 20 seconds while standing in the shade and out of the spotty light found in most of the exhibit at 9 AM (ideally, portraits are front lit, but I'll take shadowless shade over spotty light any day of the week). I had just enough time to get two shots of him staring right into my camera. The first was underexposed, but this, the second shot, was exactly what I wanted.

And that's why I'm really happy with the image. Some will criticize it as a boring, bullseyed portrait, but that's what I wanted- a picture of a lion staring right at me. There are some imperfections due to the limitations of what I had to work with (low light meant ISO setting that added some grain, no tripod cost some sharpness, etc.), but even so, this is the rare shot where I couldn't be much happier with the shot I took, all things considered.

Princess of the Pasture

2008-08-12T16:02:00.003-04:00

This is the fourth shot that I plan to submit for the Vet School photo contest. I took it at about 12,000 feet, on a mountainside above the small city of Keylong in northern India. Two young brothers- neither probably older than 10 or 11- were leading this and several other cows high into the mountains for a day of grazing

Indian cows are simply beautiful animals. Their eyes, in particular, are striking. I can't help but think that we might similarly revere our cattle if they looked like the Indian variety.

A word on cropping here. This shot has only minimal cropping- the original shot was 4x6 format, and I've cropped here to 5x7. Otherwise, it's unchanged. Deciding how to crop was tricky. I cut off the cow's feet in the original photo. Some photographers would be troubled by that decision. Personally, I thought that the striking part of the animal was what I've shown here, and I thought a broader perspective de-emphasized what I hoped to emphasize. I also considered cropping the legs out entirely, but I really like the line marking the midline, projecting down the neck from the blue and yellow yarn towards the sternum. Compromises yet again.

Professional Pachyderm

2008-08-12T06:44:00.005-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This is the third of the four images I'm planning to submit for the NC State Vet School photo contest. I took it in Manali, a small city in northern India that the British called a "hill station", to denote it as a starting point for expeditions into the higher peaks of the greater and trans Himalayas.

Artistically, I am really quite happy with this shot. I like the subject, I like the framing (probably as good as one can hope to get on a crowded city street), and I love the young boy peering down at me from high on the elephant's back. Technically, on the other hand, the picture has some issues... most of which speak to the difficulty in capturing a moment on film. Take a closer look, and the young boy as well as the driver are not sharply in focus. Additionally, at larger magnifications, it becomes clear that the elephant was flapping its ear, leaving the top blurred.

How could I have avoided those problems? Well, the people aren't sharp because my aperture was too open. The ear is blurred because the shutter speed wasn't fast enough. My shutter speed was a rather pedestrian 1/50 sec. By cranking my ISO up from 100, even if only to 160 (the upper limit of what my camera can handle without getting grainy), I could've cut out some of the movement.

I guess that these technical issues speak to the importance of anticipating a shot. I didn't know that this shot was going to be there until an instant before I took the picture. On that timeline, you can't set the camera after you see the shot- you have to see the shot before it's there. I didn't, so I'm left with the shot I took, which has its strengths despite its flaws.

Carolina Crab

2008-08-11T08:01:00.002-04:00

Here's one more shot from our week on the North Carolina coast.

Readers may recall that last year I submitted a few shots for an animal photo contest at the NC State Vet School. This is one of four shots that I plan to submit this year. Another is a hound photo I posted several months ago, and the other two, I'll post later this week.

Ready to Bloom

2008-08-11T07:58:00.000-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This is another flower shot that I took last week in Salvo. I actually took about two dozen shots of these flowers, but most were open blooms. Unfortunately, with the wind, I was stuck with an aperture setting that just wouldn't give me the depth of field I needed to get the long stamen in focus.

At the end of my time in the field, it occurred to me that these younger blooms were the ideal subjects, given the conditions. I do like the subject, but the one real flaw in the image is the background, which is a little too busy. I knew it was going to be a problem, so I grabbed a shingle that I found on the side of the road, and tried to use it to give me a solid background. It was a tricky maneuver, but my camera's 2-second shutter delay gave me just enough time to hit the trigger, get the shingle in place, and then hope that the wind didn't pick up in the interim. Unfortunately, when I got back to my computer, I realized that I'd put the shingle too close to the plant, and rather than getting the dark, blurry background I wanted, I had a picture of a plant that looked like it had a shingle behind it. So... I'm left with a busy natural background instead.

Outer Banks Wild Flowers

2008-08-10T15:15:00.005-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

North Carolina's Outer Banks are a treasure unknown to most Americans. While some of our neighbors to the south have beaches more familiar to Tom in Topeka, I wouldn't trade our state's coastline for any in the continental U.S.

We spent the last several days with good friends in one of North Carolina's really wonderful beach towns- Salvo. A lovely place to spend a week anyway, the border islands were made even more beautiful than usual this week by blooming wildflowers along the pristine beaches of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

With sailing, swimming, biking, running, and so many other things on the agenda, I didn't spend a lot of time taking pictures this week. However, one morning, I did sneak away for about an hour to snap some shots of a field of wildflowers still wet from overnight thunderstorms. Strong winds off the sound made my work a bit challenging. I needed high ISO settings and wide open apertures to get the shutter speeds necessary to handle dancing flowers. The resulting short depths of field left me with a lot of blurry images, but a few shots had some redeeming qualities, including this one.

Hatteras Light

2008-08-10T14:43:00.006-04:00

Hatteras Light is the tallest lighthouse in the United States and the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. As one of North Carolina's most recognizable images, it's also probably been photographed more than any other structure in the state. With over-photographed subjects, it's always tough to take a picture that isn't just a ho-hum image that every local has already seen a hundred times.

I spotted the location for this shot when we were on the Hatteras Light viewing platform with some friends earlier this week. When we got back down all 240 steps, I worked my way through some brush (and caught some poison ivy in the process) to the spot, only to find that I didn't have an unencumbered view of the lighthouse. I considered moving closer to exaggerate the distance between the two dead trees in the image, but then, I lost the perspective on the stump in the front and center of the frame. Inevitably, like most photography for those of us who don't get hours to scout out locations, this shot became about compromises. I think I succeeded in finding an unusual perspective on a familiar subject, even if it is a bit flawed photographically.

Bonus Shot: Man in Manali

2008-07-31T08:45:00.002-04:00

Thank you to everyone who voted in the best shot of the India trip poll. The three images receiving votes were the three shots I would've called my favorite.

I hadn't planned to post any more shots from the trip, but this one isn't a bad shot, and I haven't had time yet to get out to shoot since returning to the U.S. Additionally, I'm out of town all next week, so this could be the only shot that gets posted for a while.

Last shot from India: Home in Tingriti

2008-07-28T00:18:00.002-04:00

This home, fairly extravagant by Himalayan standards, was on the road that I ran and hiked on each morning from our Tingriti camp. On this day, I had actually hiked here in hopes of catching morning light on the town, which is behind me in this picture. Unfortunately, the light didn't cooperate. It was too cloudy to get the picture that I wanted, and having already hiked 35 minutes up the road, I decided to try to salvage the trip by finding something else to shoot. Mostly I just post it because I haven't posted any pictures of homes, here or on my other blog. This one has no shock value, since it was probably the nicest home I saw in India, which is probably best.

This will be the last picture I'll post from the trip. As I said before I began the blog slideshow, I'm not in love with the collection as a whole, but there were a few solid shots amongst the 10-12 I've posted. I've posted a poll question asking you to identify your favorite shot from the trip. I'll be interested in your feedback.

Lahauli Children

2008-07-27T06:38:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Two for the price of one today. Like many of the pictures I've posted, this picture was taken in Tingriti, as the village's children waited for a lunch provided by our clinic. I believe that she is the granddaughter of the women featured in the first picture I posted from the trip.

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Although the shadows on this image are harsh and the background lighting distracting, I still like it. These two sisters, who lived in a tarp covered hut just above our campground in Sissu, were wonderful subjects.

Photographing people always feels like something of an invasion. I took one more shot of these sisters in better light but cut off the older girl's left foot in the image. Otherwise, it would have been a great picture. Perhaps I should've attempted a third shot, but I felt like I'd already taken more shots than I had the right to take. Take more and it would approach gawking.

Tomorrow, I'll post the last picture from the trip.

Land of the Clouds

2008-07-26T07:43:00.001-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

For my final mountain photograph from the Himalayas, I'll post this shot taken in Tingriti. Like the picture I posted yesterday, this one has grown on me since I got home. It's a fairly simple shot taken at sunrise.

Imposing peaks

2008-07-25T07:52:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Almost a week ago, I said that I wouldn't be posting any more images of actual mountains, but it seems like any photographable worth the price of his memory cards should be able to take a few decent mountain shots in the Himalayas. As a result, I've gone back and picked the best of the mediocre. This was the view upstream from our campground in Sissu. If I had been really committed to getting a great shot, I would've hiked 2 miles upstream one morning to get an unencumbered view of the rocky peak, but I never made it a priority.

Even so, I think that this shot gives a fairly accurate pictures of what things are like the valleys of Lahaul- massive mountains rising up from the narrow valley floor with even larger mountains behind them.

Waterfall rainbow

2008-07-24T06:14:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took these pictures from our campsite in the Himalayan village of Sissu. The stunning waterfall was situated just across a roaring mountain river from our campground. I woke each morning and took pictures of the waterfall, and around 6:30 each day, the sun would hit the mist and form a rainbow.

It's hard to get a sense of scale in a picture like this, but I'd estimate the waterfall as a 200-foot sheer drop. We hiked to the base of it our first evening in camp.

Lush Middle Himalayan Ridge

2008-07-23T03:12:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

As much as I loved the middle Himalayas, I only took a single picture there that I'm willing to post on this blog. Being on the wet side of the mountains, this range gets a lot of rain- hence, the lush green ferns in this picture. Unfortunately, that means a lot of cloudy skies, especially in monsoon season. Typically, the mountain tops were hidden in the clouds, and as a result, my pictures there were pretty disappointing.

This shot, however, I like. I'd been wanting to take a picture of a soft ridgeline that curves out of one's field of view, with sky overhead. The ferns and tree provided very good subjects to feature, and the break in the clouds was critical.

The sunlight makes for some harsh shadows, but my options were limited. I took this picture in the middle of a nine hour hike, and I didn't have time to hang out in hope of catching better light. And even if I had, the odds of keeping any blue sky in the background would've been slim to none.

Fence in Tingriti

2008-07-22T06:39:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

While stone walls are common throughout the Himalayas, barbed wire fences are relatively rare. This fence marked the boundary of the government-built but vacant hospital in Tingriti, and I suspect the choice of material represents the preference of the downstate government rather than local custom.

In any case, I like the image. There are nice leading lines, and I like using short depths of field on repetitive structures like this one. In that regard, it's a bit like the picture I took of steps in Portland. On the other hand, the fatal flaw of this shot is that I cut off the post that is the subject of the picture.

Himalayan Cactus

2008-07-21T05:50:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Our arrival in Sissu happened to coincide with the blooming of the Himalayan summer cactus. One morning, I spent 45 minutes photographing these impressive flowers. The plant itself is actually kind of strangly and not particularly attractive, but up close the blooms are quite beautiful.

Taking the shot was difficult because there is so much that has to be kept in focus here. A long depth of field (i.e. small aperture) is a must, because an out of focus spike really detracts from the image. Unfortunately, the single greatest limitation of my camera is that it's smallest aperture setting is F8, which normally would be only medium depth of field.

The one real unfortunate thing about taking a picture of cactus is that you tend to be in the desert. I'd prefer something other than the bland grayish background, but these things grow in sand, and the flower faces up. Hence, you've got to shoot from above onto the sand. There's no good way around it without throwing something in as false background, which perhaps I should've considered.

Doors in Tingriti

2008-07-20T06:16:00.004-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took this shot in the remote village of Tingriti. It has been certified as Stephanie's favorite shot of the trip.

Often, especially when I'm rushed, I get stuck with the picture that I took rather than the picture that I wanted. By that, I mean that I see something when I look at the subject, and then the challenge is to set the exposure appropriately, frame it the right way, wait for the right light, etc. Here, I'm pretty happy with the technical aspects of the shot. I like the lighting, I like the framing, and because the subject is mostly gray, metering was easy and the exposure was exactly what I wanted.

Himalayan Sunrise

2008-07-19T00:06:00.004-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

In a series of photos taken during a visit to the Himalayas, one expects to see a lot of pictures of mountains. After all, it's the world's grandest range.

But in fact, this may be the only landscape photo I'll post on this blog. My attempts to take pictures from our campsites and clinic locations proved largely frustrating. I may change my mind a few weeks from now, but as of today, this is the only picture I like where the mountains are featured prominently. Even then, the real subject here is the sky.

I took the shot just after 5:00 AM at our campsite in Tingriti. I purposefully underexposed the shot both to make the morning sky dark blue and to give the silhouette appearance to the mountains. The effect that exposure had on the clouds was really unintended, but I think it makes the shot.

Elder woman in Tingriti

2008-07-18T18:31:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

In the many entries from my medical expedition to India on my other blog, I've mentioned that I wasn't thrilled with the opportunities I got for photography on the trip. I simply didn't get the chance to devote the time necessary to take thoughtful images. That said, I'm not too proud to post the best shots I did take, even if they aren't as good as I hoped they'd be. This may be my favorite image from the trip. I took this picture at Tingriti, a very remote village in the Himalayas. This woman and a child who I presume was her grand daughter were among my favorite subjects during the trip. I captured this shot just after a meal that our organization provided to the villagers.

Parting shot

2008-06-25T19:17:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

To commemorate a successful rebooking of my return flight this afternoon, I took a celebratory stroll through Raleigh's Raulston Arboretum and snapped a few shots with my camera (not the fancy, shmancy dSLR I'd been using). I'm pretty happy with this shot mostly because it confirmed to me that I indeed can take a decent picture with my own camera.

See you in a few weeks.

Watermarks go away

2008-06-23T17:51:00.002-04:00

Today, I had the bright idea to spend 15 minutes adding copyright watermarks to all of my posted images. For whatever reason, the images came out in awful shape on the other side. As a result, what was supposed to be a break from packing and studying turned into a major chore (fixing a lot of my images). I haven't had time and probably won't have time to fix most of them here. However, the images on our website all look good again, sans watermark.

Calla lily

2008-06-21T23:25:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This is the last picture I took with my father-in-law's Canon Rebel XTI digital SLR camera, before I sent it back to him. I really enjoyed playing with the camera during the few weeks I had it, and I learned a lot. I thank him for lending it to me.

Not wanting to miss out on a last chance to use such a nice camera, on the last day I had the camera, I decided to spend an hour taking pictures of some calla lilies my mom bought for Stephanie. I took this picture in our office, and my mom was nice enough to hold up a blue pillow behind the lily while I shot, so that I could get a nicely constrasting background (otherwise, the light blue walls in our office came off as almost white).

I spent more time just cropping this image on Photoshop than I've ever spent manipulating an image before. The original shot was fairly uninteresting, but by cropping to zoom in, I think it's added a lot to the shot. The subject is really just the front petal, which I hope leads your eyes down through elegant path. Without cropping, it didn't have nearly the same effect.

While exploring the possibilities with this flower, I also tried spraying it with a $3 spray bottle I purchased from Target. Typically, it's an easy way to add something to a shot, but I actually like the uninterrupted lines of the flower here. On the other hand, I did a better job of lighting the subject in this second version in order to avoid shadows.

This site is likely to go quiet now for more than a month. I leave for India on Thursday and won't be back until the end of July. I hope to have lots of nice pictures when I return. In the meantime, I've updated the photography portion of our webpage, and most of my favorite images are now posted there.

Stokes' Aster

2008-06-20T11:06:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

When I was about 8-years old, my mom enrolled me in an art class. My brother and sister were talented artists from a young age; I was not. Even so, being the sentimental type, my mom has kept every picture I ever drew or painted. Walk through her house, and you'll notice that the best drawing I ever did was my first. The reason for that is pretty straightforward; my art teacher helped me more with that picture than she did with any subsequent work.

Given that history, I was eager to get home from my photography class so that I could try to take some pictures without professional assistance. On Sunday, Steph and I took my parents to the Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, and I took a little time (okay, a lot of time) to shoot flowers. After several 100+ degree days in North Carolina a few weeks ago, many of the flowers on display were looking a little rough, but this native aster was still doing pretty well. I'm actually quite pleased with the shot.

Thank you for voting

2008-06-20T11:04:00.002-04:00

Thank you to everyone who voted in the favorite flower poll. "Tiger lily" and "Columbine" tied with four votes apiece. I was happy to see that "Lupine" also got a late vote, as when I printed these off, it may have printed better than any other flower shot.

Last shot from the workshop: Wild Lupine

2008-06-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This is the last shot I'll post from the photography workshop I attended last week. The subject here is the wildflower known as lupine. I've already posted a few pictures I took of a domesticated variety of lupine. To me, the main virtue of this photograph is that this flower grows in the wild. I feel the same way about all of the wildflower images I've posted- I like all flowers, but I'm partial to those that got here without a hand from us.

Over the next few days, I'll post a few shots that I took after returning from the workshop.

Thank you for voting

2008-06-18T18:08:00.003-04:00

Thank you everyone for voting for your favorite landscape or waterfall picture. "Latourel Falls" got the most votes, followed by "Stream below Bridal Veil Falls." The feedback is really helpful.

Bridges of Multnomah County

2008-06-18T08:02:00.001-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

The stonework on the guardrails and bridges along the scenic Columbia River Gorge drive dates back to the 1920s and is really quite lovely. The masonry is itself impressive, but the mossy growth that lines these old stones is equally beautiful.

As a result, it's unfortunate that my pictures of them were amongst the most disappointing shots I took all week. I really thought that I nailed these shots, and unfortunately, I did not. I think that the pictures I've posted here still convey something of how beautiful the drive through the Gorge is, but as for photographs, they are average at best.

Sunrise in the Columbia River Gorge

2008-06-17T08:09:00.002-04:00

I've already posted my ten favorite shots from the digital photography workshop I recently attended in Oregon. For the next few days, I'll post a few more shots that I consider second-tier images. Then, my last posts before heading to India will be a few shots I've taken since returning home to North Carolina.

I've already shown one shot taken from this lookout along the Columbia River Gorge. The previous shot was taken at sunset. This shot was taken at sunrise, looking east up the valley towards the vista house and the rising sun.

I think that beams of light are interesting, but otherwise, it's a fairly unremarkable shot.

Columbine

2008-06-15T19:54:00.002-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took this shot of the wild flower known as Columbine in a weedy field in the Columbia River Gorge. It was the last picture I took during the morning session of the second day of my digital photography workshop. The afternoon of that second day was scheduled to be an image review session, and for the first day and a half, I'd been pretty intimidated about the critiques my pictures would get. However, when I snapped this shot, I knew that I had at least one picture that wouldn't embarrass me.

These are beautiful flowers. I love the vivid red petals and also the bright yellow stamen. Depending on your browser, the colors may be more faded for you than they are for me. I've tried three different browsers on two different machines, and it seems to vary somewhat. But it's still a lovely flower. I was fortunate to find it. Most specimens are quite a bit more ragged than this one was.

As with the landscape and waterfall shots, I've posted a poll on the right, asking you which flower image from my top 10 you prefer. I'm mostly just interested to see whether others thinks similar to me.

Latourel Falls

2008-06-15T00:05:00.008-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I've already posted one shot of Latourel Falls. To take this shot, I simply got into the stream and pointed the tripod towards the waterfall. If you're wondering, yes, it was cold. These streams are all formed from Mt. Hood snow melt.

I really, really like this shot. It's one of my favorite shots from the workshop. The instructor would regularly tell us, "You are responsible for the entire shot." Perhaps more than any other image, here, I think I managed to make sure that everything in the shot contributed to the picture.

The obvious feature is the waterfall itself. I like how tight it is. The stream is also very nice, and I like how this exposure lets you pick up the rock under the water in the lower left. But what makes this shot special in my opinion are three other features. First, the rocks in the foreground in the lower right. They are the reason I was willing to get into a mountain stream for the shot. Wet rocks look great in shots like these. Second, I love the ferns. The green really pops here. You can thank the polarizer for that (there's no glare from the wet rocks for the same reason). Finally, I love the detail on the rocks in the background. Particularly in the uncompressed, full-sized image (which is about a 30 megabyte file), you can zoom and really appreciate how beautiful those rocks were.

The shot was taken with the aperture set to F14, which gave me the long exposure (0.5 sec) that I needed in order to get the smooth waterfall and silky stream. I metered off of the ferns, and critically, I underexposed by 2/3 of a stop to add detail (and detail is key for this shot).

This is the last landscape or waterfall shot from my top 10 of the workshop. I still have one flower picture to post, and then I'll start to post second tier shots. If you don't mind, vote on the poll question to the right, which asks you which landscape or waterfall shot was your favorite. On Monday evening, I'll post the last flower shot and ask a similar question about those.

Mt. Hood

2008-06-14T00:03:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

I took this picture from just above the town of Hood River, OR in a park aptly named Panorama Point. Mt. Hood is a beautiful volcanic mountain, in the same chain with Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. These snow capped peaks are all beautiful. However, I think that the orchards and farms in the foreground of this image are really the key to the picture. I'd love to go back earlier in the Spring some day, as something like 80% of the pears in the U.S. are grown here, and it would be a great shot with the mountain in the background and blooming trees in the foreground.

One of my favorite things about this shot is how it was taken. In an image like this, there's a major obstacle to the picture you want to take- the snowy mountain in the background and the farms in the foreground require completely different exposures. To get around this problem, I used a graduated neural density filter, basically a piece of glass that is dark on top and clear on bottom. That lets me set the exposure for the greenery but not overexpose the mountain. Additionally, I used a small aperture setting (F16) so that I could get focused from foreground to background.

Wild tiger lily

2008-06-13T14:19:00.004-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

We didn't do a lot of shooting on the last day of the workshop, but the two spots we did go were productive. At the first, I took the picture of the stream at Bridal Veil Falls. At the second, I took this shot. The flower here is a wild tiger lily, presumably the wild source of the popular domesticated varieties.

Taking this shot was challenging. It was a windy morning, so we actually clamped the flower to a second tripod to keep it steady. In retrospect, it probably would've made more sense to clamp it onto my $30 tripod, while putting the camera on the $850 Gitzo, but hey, hindsight is 20/20.

I took several pictures of this flower, and although on balance this version is my favorite, I'll eventually post some of the others, which despite their flaws are interesting shots also.

To take this particular picture, I focused on the water droplets on he front petals. I set the aperture to F5.6, and the ISO speed to 800 (since the plant was moving, despite being clamped to the tripod). Together, that gave me a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second, fast enough to deal with at least a little movement. I must have metered off of the green background (I don't actually remember), and then, I underexposed by 2/3 of a stop

Multnomah Falls

2008-06-13T00:03:00.001-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Multnomah Falls is perhaps the most stunning waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge. In the picture shown here, I've actually cut off two-thirds of the upper falls. At my shortest focal length (18 mm), this is as much as I could fit into the image. It's huge.

There are several things to mention about this photograph. First, note the bridge near the top, and for a sense of scale, notice the two people standing on that bridge. The second thing that stands out to me about this picture is the symmetry of the lower falls. Finally, I really like the foreground. Most people leave it out in order to get more of the falls, but I loved the log in the bottom pool, as well as the lush foliage and mossy rock at the very bottom of the picture.

As for the actual taking of the picture, I metered off of the lush green wall beside the lower falls. The aperture setting was F11, which speaks to how much water is coming off this fall. At F11, this isn't even a 1/2 second exposure and yet you still get the silky effect. I didn't underexpose or adjust the ISO setting.

A second look at lupine

2008-06-12T12:16:00.007-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Like the shot I posted two days ago, this is also domesticated lupine from the lavender farm below Mt. Hood, and this is also one of the just 2 shots in my favorite 10 that I may have been able to take before the workshop. Here, I've zoomed in on the top inch or so of the plant. Photographers call shots like this "macro photography" to emphasize that you are zooming in on a small subject. I like macro work, because it challenges you to see things in a way that you don't normally look at them. Typically, we'd look at this entire plant, not the just the top inch of a flower that hasn't finished opening.

I like this shot for several reasons, but one is the background. I think I got the depth of field right where I wanted it here, and it left us with this very interesting purple and green blurred background. The subject is pretty enough, but the background makes the shot.

Technically, I shot this shot (and all shots with green or blues) with a circular polarizer to pop the colors. I zoomed in as much as my biggest lens would allow, set the aperture to F5.6 (to blur the background as much as I could), set the ISO to 400 (because the plant was dancing a little in the wind), and underexposed by 1/3 of a stop. As with the other lupine shot, I used automatic metering, which is really inappropriate here, but to be honest, this was early enough in the workshop that I still wasn't comfortable metering manually.

Stream below Bridal Veil Falls

2008-06-12T01:53:00.006-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

This was one of the last shots I took at the workshop. This stream sits just below Bridal Veil Falls in the Columbia River Gorge (as an aside, I think every mountainous state has a "bridal veil falls", by the way). You can just barely make out the water fall in the background.

The stream is obviously what makes this shot. It's about as beautiful of a stream as one could ever hope to find, and the water moves at a rate nearly perfect for this kind of photography. But beyond the obvious, I think that there are a few other cool features here. I'm a big fan of the mossy rock that is just below the center of the picture, and my instructor really liked the ferns in the lower left. Unfortunately, one of those ferns was moving a little in the water and is blurred, which pretty much ruins this shot for printing, unless I do some more invasive photoshopping.

In terms of the technical stuff, it's automatic metering (a wet, overcast morning let me get away with it), with the aperture set to F13 and the ISO at 200. I underexposed 1/3 of a stop to add detail and shot at the widest angle setting I could with the lenses I had. Most importantly, I shot this shot and pretty much every shot I'll post here with a circular polarizer. It's a must.

Lupine

2008-06-11T12:09:00.005-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Of my ten favorite shots from the workshop, this is one of two that I think I might have been able to take before Sunday. The flower is called lupine, and there are wild varieties blooming right now in Oregon. I'll post a second tier shot featuring the wild lupine eventually. The flowers in this shot are a domesticated variety from a lavender farm just below Mt. Hood. I'll post a number of shots taken at or near that farm. It was about as beautiful of a location as one could imagine.

To me, what makes this shot is the combination of the green foliage and the purple flowers. It's a nice color combination. My instructor thought it was one of my four best shots. I don't really agree, but I think he liked it because it was a different shot than most people take at the farm,

In terms of the technical details, I took this shot on a tripod, with camera on aperture priority. My aperture setting was F9, and the focal length was set to 22mm. I underexposed by a third of a stop to add a little detail, and I increased my ISO setting to 200. I let the camera meter automatically, which was probably a mistake, but I don't think it ruins the shot. In photoshop, I just tried to back off the shadows in the shot (it was a very sunny afternoon), and I sharpened the image just a bit.

Preview

2008-06-11T12:04:00.002-04:00

Over the next week or so, I will post eight more shots from the workshop. Along with the two I've already posted, these are probably my ten favorite shots. Four are closeups; four are waterfalls or landscapes. More or less, I'll post them in the order that I like them, with the best closeup and waterfall/landscape coming last. For a point of reference, the two shots already posted were probably my third and fourth favorite waterfall or landscape images.

The Bridge at Latourel Falls- Photoshop Improved

2008-06-10T21:45:00.005-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

Here's another example of photoshop improvement to a shot. Again, other than the obvious addition of the matting, I've mostly just boosted color and sharpened the image, but those subtle changes, which take about 3 minutes, can improve the shot a lot. Additionally here, I did clone out one dead leaf, and I should probably deal with a few other things, but for my purposes here, it's good enough.

I post both versions of these shots to demonstrate kind of the limits of how much I'm willing to manipulate an image. There's nothing wrong with doing more than this, of course, but it's just not for me. Play with the color balance, sharpen it a little, maybe adjust the shadows and highlights, but mostly, keep the picture I took.

Vista Point- Photoshop Improved

2008-06-10T16:49:00.003-04:00

Copyright Nathan Montgomery, 2008

After two great days of learning a lot about photography, I took the last few hours of the workshop this morning to learn about photoshop. Here are the results of the Vista Point photoshopping. Personally, I think the improvement is considerable.