photo journal
Eagle Eyed
Bald eagle, Lexington, Kentucky
Bald Eagle, Lake Ellerslie, Lexington, Kentucky
Bald eagle making a dive on a fish
Bald eagle looking to make a dive on some prey
I had a tip a year ago about this eagle hanging out near Jacobson Park, but I never could find it. Herald-Leader photog Charles Bertram told me it was back out there today so I went to see if I could find it. Sure enough – there it was exactly where I was told to look for it a year earlier. Charles had much better luck than I did, though, and had some kick-butt photos of the eagle with a half-eaten gull in its talons. If only he had a website to publish those photos . . . I’d give him a little link-love.
While this isn’t the first photo of an eagle I’ve taken, I’m most excited that this bird is in Lexington! I was born here and never did I think that I would ever see a bald eagle in Fayette County. One man I talked to at the lake said the bird has been there for a couple of weeks and that he doesn’t stay much longer than that.
Shot with a Canon Mark IV and a 600mm f/4 lens.
In the shadows
It’s been about three months since the University of Kentucky’s campus-wide smoking ban went into effect. As I walk across campus most days, I don’t see too many smokers. But recently, I have noticed that a few [stubborn?] students don’t seem to worry too much about the ban and they continue to smoke as they please. While I don’t normally make a point of photographing the smokers (yet), I loved the light and shadows on this guy, especially as he exhaled.
In the snow
Kentucky Winter – Images by David Stephenson
We had another good weekend of snow in Central Kentucky and I had a great time with the fam on a trip to Cumberland Falls. Check out the photo Angie took of me while shooting the sunrise over a lake.
Photo by Angie Stephenson. Shot with her Canon Elph through the car window!!
The light and frozen water was so beautiful that I decided to go back the next day and shoot some more. The frost on the trees was missing as a result of the lack of fog, but the nearly full moon was still quite nice. It’s interesting to compare the two shots taken almost exactly one day apart.
This photo was taken at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday. The sun had not quite risen yet so there was no direct sun hitting the trees or the marina. The foggy morning had crystalized on the trees.
This photo was taken the next morning at 8:05 a.m. Notice how the position of the moon changed in one day. The 20 minute difference between the two photos meant that the sun was up enough to hit the trees and the marina.
KNPA Revival
The Kentucky News Photographers Association finished up its seminar and contest this past weekend. And like most years, I left feeling revived, optimistic, and humbled. This year I was especially pessimistic about the competition and had let myself be affected by the negativity in the industry. No doubt it has been a rough few years for journalists and Kentucky hasn’t been spared. Whenever I spoke with photographers around the state, the talk was almost always negative and filled with stories of what the news industry has done to hasten their own demise. There is no journalist in this state who felt secure this year and I’m confident it has had an impact on the way we do our jobs. I had assumed that the low moral coupled with the lack of picture-taking passion would translate into a poor showing come contest time. I’ve never been happier to be so wrong.
See for yourself the fantastic photos taken by the professionals and students of Kentucky during 2009 on the knpa.org website. The photos taken by Kentucky’s talented photographers were perhaps some of the best I’ve seen in many years. Congratulations to all the well-deserved winners selected by an equally talented set of judges including Gary Cosby, Jr., Rob Carr, and Jahi Chikwendiu. Charles Bertram is THE MAN and no one will ever convince me otherwise.
And now having had my yearly revival, complete with Brother Jahi’s passionate delivery and philosophical message, I’m going to do my best to stay positive while I work towards the yearly goals I set for myself.
Herald-Leader's Charles Bertram accepts one of his awards from Amy Wallot. Among his awards included the POY and runner-up Sports POY.
WKU student POY Scott McIntyre accepts an award from Amy Wallot.
Finally, some snow around here
It is the first week of January and we finally had our first decent snowfall in Central Kentucky. January 1st also marked the first day I was eligible to freelance for the Herald-Leader. So while I was looking for some “horses in snow” photos to help build up my almost non-existent stock files, I ran across this camel in a pasture in Midway. For years when I was a staffer at the HL, I tried to get a photo of this camel in the snow (and so did Charles Bertram – we often joked about how difficult it was to nail). That camel has been there for years, but when it snowed, it was never where we could see it.
I turned this photo over to the HL as my first photo as a freelancer and they used it lead on the front page. I got a few kind phone calls and emails from friends who said they were glad to see me back in the paper again. Frankly, I was too.
As a freelancer, I’m also trying to maximize the earnings potential of every assignment or photo, so I generally send a selection of photos to ZUMA press. They apparently liked the camel photo well enough to include it in their Pictures of the Day website.
On Saturday, the fam and I went back to Natural Bridge to shoot the formation in the snow. It was basically a repeat of a shot I did in the fall. I’m trying to shoot some stock not only for myself, but for a project that Tim Broekema is working on for the University of Kentucky hospital called Celebrate Kentucky. I re-shot a pano with my iPhone from under the bridge and stitched it with AutoStitch app. You can see the comparison of fall and winter here.
Natural Bridge + iPhone + AutoStitch = Wow
Updated with a new pano from January 8, 2010:
That AutoStitch iPhone app never ceases to amaze me. I took a trip to Natural Bridge State Resort Park Sunday afternoon hoping to catch some of the fall color before it was too late (me and a few hundred other folks apparently had the same idea – I’ve never had to wait in line to get up the Sky Lift before). While under the arch, I thought I’d give the ol’ cell phone/panorama thing a try.
Thirty-two iPhone photos stitched together in AutoStitch in a matter of minutes produced the image above. It’s like magic to me.
Santa Train: This time in video
This is the 67th year that the Santa Train has ridden a 110-mile route through Appalachian towns in eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia handing out toys and gifts to thousands of rural families before culminating in a parade in Kingsport, Tennessee. The Santa Train was originally created as a means for the Kingsport and tri-state businesses to thank their customers who came in from out of town to shop and has become a family tradition experienced through generations.
Last year was my first time covering the Santa Train, and the finished product was an audio slide show. I was so struck by the event that I vowed to go back and cover it again only this time with video. It’s an interesting comparison, really: Both had audio, but one had moving images and the other did not. I’m still not sure which one I like better, although I’m leaning toward the still version.
Anyway, enjoy the ride and Merry Christmas!
Commonwealth Stadium pano during UT game
I had the good fortune of scoring some tickets for the Tennessee/Kentucky game Saturday night. I was hoping to witness a bit of history that night, but alas, UK couldn’t break UT’s 645-game winning streak. During a time out, though, when the folks in front of me had a moment to sit, I grabbed a few iPhone photos and stitched them together on the phone with the AutoStitch app.
University of Kentucky Student Smoke-Out
About a hundred UK students gathered for a few hours on campus to protest the campus-wide tobacco ban which took effect today. You can read more about it and see how the Kernel photogs shot it.
Random fall
Just a random fall photo from the walk home from work. Normally, I have zero appreciation for fire hydrants, but . . .
The Siders-Kalkhofer Wedding
Here are a few of my favorites from Emily and Alex’s wedding I shot with Jonathan Palmer a few weeks ago.
Natural Bridge showing its fall color
Had a pretty awesome Sunday afternoon at Natural Bridge. The colors were better than I had expected, but still a bit muted. To see an iPhone pano stitch of Natural Bridge click here.
Cigar shop
While visiting Austin, I saw this gentleman rolling cigars in a storefront. Thought I’d give it a go with the iPhone pano. This photo is 18 photos total. Below is a series with the QuadCam iPhone app.
Kilted at the alter
I thought I’d share some of the photos from the wedding of Allison Houlihan and Andrew Turner I shot with Jonathan Palmer a couple of weeks ago. I felt right at home amongst all those kilts (Andrew and his family hail from Scotland).
The Simple Life
The fam took a short trip to Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky yesterday. It’s always a beautiful place, but the dark, gray day wasn’t particularly inspiring me to shoot. So, out pops the iPhone to play around a bit. I imagine I looked kinda odd with a 2700-dollar 5D Mark II hanging on my shoulder yet walking around shooting all my photos with my cell phone. Apply the Camera Bag app Magazine filter and voila – instant gratification.
At the end of our day, we took an hour-long ride on the Dixie Belle paddleboat – something I have never done before. The leaves were only just now starting to turn and the dark overcast skies weren’t helping the color much. I pulled out the 10D I had converted to infrared and shot a few frames as we floated down the river.
After the boat ride, we spotted a nice waterfall only a short walk from the parking lot. The photo below is from 23 iPhone photos and was stitched together in the phone with the AutoStitch app.
My garden faerie
Just having some fun with the Quad Cam App in the back yard. I like how the sequence turns into a panoramic of sorts.
Cutting through the competition
Competition draws crowd to see who is the fastest tobacco cutter
September 3, 2009 – Lancaster, Kentucky, USA. Alvin Stamper, 26, defends his title as the tobacco cutting champion at the Garrard County Tobacco Cutting Competition. At the end of every summer during the tobacco harvest, men gather to compete against each other to see who is the fastest at cutting the crop before it is hung in the barns to cure. From planting to the auction house, tobacco remains one of the most labor intensive crops and the hands and backs of laborers have yet to be replaced by machines.
This video and a complete story with photos is available for licensing.
Shot with the Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105 IS f/4, 70-200 IS f/2.8, 300 f/4. Sony wireless mic and Sennheiser MKE 400. Gitzo 2451 CF tripod with 2180 head.
Back from Picture Kentucky in Hindman
Just wrapped up the four-day Picture Kentucky workshop, held this year in Hindman, Kentucky. I had to sneak out in the early a.m. to get any shooting time in, so a handful of us went to the strip mines to look for elk. They didn’t disappoint!
Facing the rest of their life together
Nothing says “I Love You” like a face-full of wedding cake. Impossible to know who started it – we may have to refer to the slo-mo replay from the video guys.
Congratulations Elizabeth and Donnie!
Tossing the birds
August 14, 2009 – Lancaster, Kentucky, USA. My homing pigeons take flight after being released for a training “toss” 30 miles from their home at sunrise. The birds, which have a natural homing ability, are driven in a car to increasing distances from their loft and released to help build their flight muscles and hone their ability to find their way home during a race. The young bird racing season, which pits birds born during this calendar year, is beginning across the country. Fanciers train their birds in hopes of gaining an edge against their competitors.
I don’t always take pictures as I release the birds, and when I do, I haven’t gotten too many photos that I like. I’m fond of this one, though.
These guys had their first race on Saturday, Aug. 22. You can see some more photos and check the results here.
iShoot goes green
Had a nice road trip with former colleagues Charles Bertram and Amy Wilson the other day. While killing a little time in the car, Amy took out her iPhone and complained about how she couldn’t get her photos to look ‘normal’ anymore. Well, of course since it wasn’t our iPhone that was broken, Charles and I had a thoroughly good time taking some photos that had a cool night-vision look to them.
A green Ale8 bottle gets greener.
The Mountain Parkway - view from the car.
Self-portrait with the green machine
Kernel of light
We had a great time playing with our cell phones during the Kernel retreat held this year at Rough River Dam State Resort Park. Here’s to a great 2009-2010 year at the Kernel.
Bring it.
iPhone App: Luvn that AutoStitch pano
Made with 19 iPhone photos and then used the Autostitch pano app and uploaded to my site with the Wordpress app. I probably shot and stitched this in 5-6 minutes.
The Wordpress app, however, isn’t playing nice with many blogs, including mine, when it comes to displaying full size images. I have to edit the post further in order to get the photos to display full size and centered and to get the text to appear below the photo. Bummer. Hope they fix that soon.
That AutoStitch pano app, on the other hand, ROCKS! It is by far the best iPhone pano app I’ve used. Granted, there are more out there, but these are at the top of the list when searching the app store for “pano”.
Autostitch ($2.00)- Easy interface, uses photos from your photo library, blends exposures, can handle a large number of photos, and the stitching is beautiful and remarkable fast. And, you can work backwards and remove a photo from your stitch easily if you need to take one out.
PanoLab (free, but there is a $2 pro version) – only uses photos from your library, but has a really wonky interface and the stitching is always manual (fun the first time), but if you use more than, like, three photos, it gets a nasty pinch in the middle.
Pano ($3) – Can’t use photos from your photo library (booooo. Deal killer for me. Wish I could get my money back.)
