I have been itching to get out and do some serious photography, especially hone up on HDR. So, I checked out a couple of web sites and found that the 12th thu 24 October would be the peak times for good color in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  I arrived in Gatlinburg, TN Sunday evening the 11th. Monday was cloudy turning to rain around noon, Tuesday,wonderful mostly sunny, and Wednesday rain until about one. It rained bucket fulls Thursday as I headed down the mountians toward Birmingham.

The first six are HDR. Hope you enjoy! I did.

Yesterday, I posted a comment on akphotography (Mike) about his HDR shots of Juneau Water Falls. I stated that I was currently trying out the free download and trial of HDR. I also made a stupid statement that I hadn't been anywhere to take some scenic shots. Right ,duh, I live on the Gulf Coast! So, today out I went to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which includes Pensacola Beach on Santa Rosa Island.

You can go to Photomatix and down load a free trial with a tutorial, its free as long as you want, but notice the water marks in my photos. Try it and if you want it click on the icon only $99.00

It's that time of the year again!  July 10-12 was the 2009 Power of Photography Show and contest.  This is a juried show and there were 745 entries juried down to 300 in 8 categories. I entered 6 photos in 5 different categories, but alas only 2 made it through to judging.

Open, Art & Abstract

This also earned a $50 check

People

You can see these photos in an earlier post.

I did'nt make it to Costa Rica or back to Alaska, but I did take 2 weeks and visit my sis in Ohio where I shot some Powwow scenes and then up to Michigan to visit my lady friend Donna and the western shore of Michigan!

The Littliest Dancer

Statue in Meijer Gardens.  See the rain drop on his nose?

Friday - Crawfish Festival

Saturday - Chocolate Festival

Sunday - Car and Bike Show

Oh, forgot the Car and Bike Show was at the beach.

I spent Easter weekend at my high school alumni reunion/banquet. It was cold, cloudy and damp most of time in Oskaloosa, Kansas. But, I did manage to capture a couple of neat pictures.

Saint Louis Gateway Arch

A Kansas Round Barn

You find lots of interesting characters at a Renaissance Faire and most of them don't mind having their picture take, In fact some will pose for you. For the most part it was a cloudy day, then all of a sudden the sun would pop out just as I was ready to shoot. Ergo, lots of white balance changes.

The instrument is a Laouto, therefore my L entry.

Getting these photo's turned out to be quite a challenge! The two day show was held at the equestrian center, so I thought a great place to hone my skills. Saturday was a disaster, shutter speeds wrong, white balance wrong and focus messed up. 

I returned on Sunday determined to get things right. White Balance - The lights are a yellow/orange halagon and as you pan you also pick up ouside light, as the end of the arena is open. I tried custom first, no good because of the outside light, so wound up using tungsten. F-Stop is constently changing as you go from well light to shadow, therefore you lose your focus because of a slower shutter speed and I had also forgotten to set my auto tracking focus.

So, the above pictures were taken with a 400mm zoom, WB tungsten, ISO 800,  F-stop 1/100. and a little tweekining in photo shop with the brightness and contrast

In keeping with an apparent theme:

There's nothing like a Krispy Kreme