Greenway sections still closed, but...

...an alternative path through the woods let people access some parts of the grounds.  Ziva kept an eye on some boys playing in one of "her" puddles.

We took a look, from a safe distance, at some of the heavy work going on.

The closure kept us from covering any meaningful distance, but I didn't want it to stop me from at least one stab at a nature photo, so I found a spot along the river.

I like to shoot into the light (contrejour sounds fancier), though having the sun in the picture can be a problem unless there are some handy tree branches to mute things a little.  It's not the Grand Canyon or El Capitan, but working on mundane local surroundings like this is something I find rewarding.

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Pouring Rain, Photo Fun

This morning I was obliged to walk/run Ziva in rather heavy rain.  Unlike some dogs I could name, she is not the least bit dissuaded by precipitation, or even thunder.  She loves to run through water channels, such as the rush down the street along the gutter on the way to a storm sewer opening at the bottom of a hill.  And if there are piles of wet leaves along the way, so much the better!

Well, after an hour or so of that, I thought I owed it to myself to go out into the rain again with a weather resistant camera.  I had spotted some interesting possibilities along our neighborhood creek.  This is where I say "kids, don't try this at home!"  To put it seriously, if you want to keep your expensive camera gear working, and shoot in heavy rain, you should consider putting a plastic bag around the camera body, with just the hood of the lens poking out of a hole sealed around it.  There are also specially made rain covers for cameras that you can purchase.  Digital cameras are, in large part, computers.  Any water that gets into electronics can cause trouble.  Salt water is especially evil - corrosive! - but that's a discussion for another day.  If you get a little rain on the outside of your camera, just be careful to wipe it off when you get indoors.

All of that notwithstanding, I wasn't worried about the camera and lens I was carrying*, because they are very substantially moisture sealed.  I was careful to keep rain from landing on the front surface of the lens (lens hoods do more than keep stray bright light from hitting the lens), and just went out and shot.  The results were worth it, to me, and it gave me some more experience to call upon if I'm at some gorgeous scenic site on a rainy day.  Here are eight examples.  I began with small things.

Here's a stage-setting view of the creek, running high.

Next are some shots of the white water action.

Note how a high shutter speed freezes the water in the foreground, where it is in focus.

A slow shutter speed perhaps gives a better sense of the many directions of flow.

Finally, a close view of leaves that were collecting and dripping rain. You can see a scattering spray behind them as rain hit a bark projection.  The tree was purplish in the bluish overcast light, and I emphasized the color by increasing the saturation, as if I were shooting the old Fuji Velvia slide film from days of yore.

[Canon 1DX, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS II]

When my brief excursion was done, the inside of my weather resistant jacket was wet, and my Tilley hat was soaked through.  However, the innards of the camera seem unaffected.  Well, to be fair, the soak-through of my clothing was a result of my hour out with Ziva as well as twenty minutes with the camera!

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Dull Light

Tuesday morning was drizzly and the light was dull, nor was there anything interesting like fog when Ziva and I did our jaunt along Crabtree Creek.  Nonetheless, when we got to the bridge over the river, I decided to grab a few pics to compare to how different it was when I got the "Slanting Light" photo posted here.

The overall look is drab, but the wetness did bring out some of the left over autumn colors.  At any rate, just to demonstrate how the light can make (or break) a photo:

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Slanting light

On the Greenway over Crabtree Creek yesterday, slanting sunlight made this scene interesting.

[iPhone 5s]

At a stopping point, Ziva's activity resulted in a certain slant to this photo.  I'm careful to level the horizons of my landscape images, but there's no law that says everything has to be shot that way.  My own rule of thumb is that camera tilt usually works best if it is sufficient to be obviously intentional.  Of course, even that "rule" is violable.  I wouldn't say I'm "all thumbs", but I sometimes wish that I had two thumbs on one hand for better operation of the iPhone!  It can be a struggle when the other hand is on a leash that is under constantly changing tension.

[iPhone 5s]

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By the Huron River

Here are seven iPhone shots from a walk along the Huron River, October 12.

From inside the shady canopy of a hemlock:

This stump put me in mind of a miniature city.

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Yates Mill Pond Autumn

At the start of a late Saturday afternoon outing to Yates Mill with a few members of the Carolinas Nature Photography Association, I was a little disappointed to find the type of clear blue sky that millions of people like, a sign of "perfect weather".  From a photographic standpoint (and also just personal preference), I've always enjoyed cloudy weather.  It can provide flattering light for portrait subjects, intriguing light on landscapes and cityscapes, and interesting shapes if sky occupies a significant portion of an image.

Blue sky it was, so, what would I see...
Doing an establishing shot of the focal point of the area, the old Yates Mill, I chose an angle that emphasized the reflected blue in the windows.  I did not want to tilt the camera up to cover the height of the building (my vantage was low on the rocks), so I used a tilt/shift lens, shifting the lens upward. I leveled the camera, but unintentionally pointed it very slightly downward!  I liked the very slight divergence of the vertical lines - it seemed to add to the imposing bulk of the old wooden structure, so I left it that way rather than refining the leveling nearer to exactly accurate.  It's a pretty subtle difference, but if you're tuned into "architectural" verticals you'll see it, and if not, you might feel it.

Moving further away and to a higher vantage point, I used a longer lens to isolate an interesting part of the structure and contrast it with the trees.

For this image, the extreme contrast of sunlight and shade was tricky to tame, but the shadows added to the composition.

As the sun got lower, there was a bit of gold in the light, enhanced by reflection off the wood.  I chose to exaggerate this to contrast it with the blue tones.

There wasn't a lot of fall color in the leaves, but across the pond there was a patch of red standing out from its surroundings.  The shape of a dark branch balanced things, and a long telephoto included just the area I wanted in my composition.

The view across the pond was serene.  Here the angle is such that the sun was blocked by a tree limb in direct view, but shows in the reflection.

I suspect that some gorgeous sunset colors may have been on the way, but I needed to leave to attend a pre-concert reception for a group of patrons, after which I had a difficult concert to perform.

In my last few moments I tried an abstract reflection shot.

And a parting shot across the water when a pedestrian in bright clothing caught my eye.

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Blue water, gold water

This is a small dam spillway, photographed in changing light, with the colors exaggerated ("enhanced" would be an understatement) in post-processing.  Because I felt like it.  :<)

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Day trip to Wilmington, NC

A signature feature of Airlie Gardens, between Wilmington NC and Wrightsville Beach, is the Airlie Oak, which dates to 1545. There are flowers and beauty all around, but this huge Live Oak is such a commanding presence that I had to photograph it, no matter how many others have done the same before me. This was my first chance to see Airlie.

Surrounded by all the healthy plant life, I was attracted to a stark, dead trunk.

The Spanish moss hanging from the Live Oaks makes all kinds of decorative patterns.

This is a section of the underside of tangled roots of a fallen, dead tree.

There are gorgeous sculpted insects throughout the Airlie grounds, often perched in very natural looking poses - though they are considerably larger than real-life varieties!

This view from a small marsh, across manicured grass to Bradley Creek in the background was one of my favorite tableaux of the day, as it seemed, aside from the grass, to have been left alone.

The metal sculptures are sometimes hidden within the plantscape. They are not painted, rather they are anodized and textured, taking on colors when sunlight direction is suitable. Find the (live) lizard:

The lizard may be easy to see in the photo, but it wasn't easy to spot on location. On the other hand, this butterfly was hard to miss.

I should have carried a long "bird lens" with me, but I didn't, so the best I could do with this heron was a sort of environmental portrait.

The Bottle Chapel is a tribute to artist Minnie Evans, designed and built after her death by artist Virginia Wright-Frierson.

The Airlie Butterfly House is a pleasant stop. I did not have a macro lens with me, but caught a few shots with a "plain" 50 mm. Here is one.

A dragonfly sculpture was much easier to approach, and also much larger, allowing detail shots without special equipment.

Leaving Airlie Gardens, we drove into and across Wilmington, and parked a few blocks from the Cape Fear waterfront. From there, we set out on foot again.

The Bellamy Mansion Museum, on Market Street, is an antebellum building that was completed on the eve of the Civil War. It has been largely restored, and exhibits art works of architectural and historical interest. Above its third floor is a rooftop room known as Belvedere. There is indeed a beautiful view in all directions. I'll show just one.

The slave quarters, later servant quarters, were relatively comfortable for their day, though of course compared to the mansion...well, there is no comparison. After emancipation, many of the slaves stayed on as artisans. I can only hope that there was some satisfaction for such skilled workers in the quality of what they were creating. The idea of accepting enslavement of human beings is pretty much beyond my ability to imagine.

Leaving the Bellamy, we headed toward the Cape Fear River. Sometimes, interesting sights show up where you least expect them. Apparently cacti can do very well in a temperate, humid climate. These were in a street corner garden of a residential neighborhood.

Here's a peek at the usually overlooked side of the Cape Fear River Walk, at what is currently its southern end. There are plans to expand it beyond the current mile length.

A few feet away from the scene above:

Sometimes unmaintained buildings have an odd kind of beauty, at least to me.

The USS North Carolina Battleship lies directly across the Cape Fear River from downtown Wilmington, so it is a commonplace sight. However, I had never been in the area at sunset, and decided to see what I could catch from a pier location chosen so that the sun would drop past gun emplacements.

With the light disappearing, we vanished from Wilmington and headed home.

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