I hear a lot about people "needing" to travel to some exotic location to get that killer shot. What photographers need to remember is that the "exotic" location is just someone else's backyard. And some person at that "exotic" location wants to travel to your backyard because to them that's their "exotic" location. So before you pack up all your gear and spend a ridiculous amount of money to travel to that "exotic" location look around your own "exotic" location and try to find what would make someone else take the time to travel there.

    Try to look at your surroundings with a new eye. Look at things in a new and different way. Use your imagination and pretend that this is the first time you've ever been there. Just watch a child's face as they experience something or someplace for the first time and try to find that experience inside you. You will be surprised at the new things and opportunities you will find.

Thanks and Peace

Eric 

These next couple of shots show why it’s a great idea to get up nice and early and do some shooting.

This first shot was taken right at the beginning of my walk and the sun had yet to barely come over the horizon. It was eerily quiet and the fog was clinging to the ground like…well like fog. I just love the trees looming as silhouettes in the background. What sort of scary things might be hiding in that fog?

When shooting ‘fog’ shots I have found that it’s kind of tricky to get the white balance correct. You just have to play with it and keep adjusting till you get it just right. And then you are probably going to have to do some more tweaking in Camera Raw to get it just right. After getting the White Balance right I just increased the blacks a little and added a little edge vignette. 

This next shot was taken a little while longer as the sun had some time to rise above the horizon. I just love the great reflections in the water and the lone three trees stranded by the flooding waters. Missing from the shot is a huge Blue Heron that usually hangs out on this little slip of land. But do to the the extremely high water it was off to an easier fishing hole. Would have made a great addition to the shot. 

I did a little more ‘post’ with this shot. I converted to black and white then did some duo toning to create the antique sepia look then added quite a bit of vignetting to really accentuate the mood of the shot.

Well I really hope you all like the new shots. I know it’s been too long between posts and I’m working on fixing that. Please feel free to leave any comments on the shots. Thank You. Peace

  Hello everybody. This post is a little different than my other posts. This one is my first attempt at shooting and editing video. This was shot here in Raleigh with the Nikon D90. I was really amazed at the quality of the video that comes out of this thing considering it was the first DSLR to shoot video. Truly amazing. I edited the video with Windows Live Movie Maker. The song is "How My Heart Behaves" by Feist.

If you click the video it will take you to the Vidly site where you can watch it in full 720p HD.

Hope you all like it. Peace

These next couple of shots are from a photowalk I took at a local park. This was the first day I felt totally comfortable with the new gear and felt a connection with the camera.

This first boat was just sitting next to the apartment complex by the lake. With some creative "in camera" cropping, I was able to draw all the attention onto the subject and not the big ad on the side of the apartment stating "The Place to be in Raleigh".

I used the 70-300mm VR lens set at 300mm 5.6. This gave me the nice shallow DOF. The image was then edited in Camera Raw. I took away a lot of Clarity to get the milky smooth Bokeh. Then used the Adjustment Brush with a good amount of Clarity and Sharpening to bring out the detail in the "in-focus" area of the shot.

I just really love the fall colors in this shot. Too bad this poor boat is not living up to it's boating potential and is just sitting here falling apart. No more Rowing "Gently Down The Stream" for this guy.

This next  boat  was another of the abandoned  boats adrift on the lake. The writing on the side of the boat really drew me to take this shot. I think the boat used to be just sitting in the woods upside down and someone left a message for the owner to get the boat or they were going lose it. Think it adds a little something to the feel of the shot. Plus I just loved the nice reflection on the lake.

This was also shot with the 70-300mm VR at 300mm at 5.6 again for that nice shallow DOF. While editing this in Camera Raw I tried several different looks and decided on a Duo Tone looks. The fact that you can add this look without converting the photo to BW is just amazing. You still get the hint of the original colors while still getting a nice stylized look. Plus a good bit of Clarity was added to bring out the grittyness of the boat.

Well all, thanks again for stopping by and reading my rants. Please feel free to sign guest book or leave a comment  on any of the photos.

Peace.

Hello all. I have made a huge change in my photography. I've traded all my Canon gear in for all Nikon. After much thought and tons of internet research I settled on the Nikon D90. So far my initial thoughts are very very positive.

In the near future I hope to have some new content posted here done with the new gear.

Anyways just thought I'd drop a line to let everyone know what has been happening on this end. It all looks extrememly good.

Peace