NC Trip: Day 1.

I didn't expect it to take me this long to post photos! I am ashamed.

On the bright side, I've been kinda busy at the 'business' blog (check out the link, righthand column), redecorating and rearranging things. And I've been learning studio photography and how to shoot people. :) (With my camera) I've also been to the Chinese Lantern Festival at the botanical garden. So there is plenty to post in the coming days and weeks. Hope you enjoy!

Okay. Day 1.

I made it to Asheville in 8 hours and 45 minutes. I am awesome. I managed to sleep a bit before packing up the car and heading out by 1 am. So with no pit stops for sleep - yay! - and two stops for gas (boooo), I showed that stretch of highway who's boss.

We had quite a first day (we being my photog friend Jennie and her husband Randall. I know. I'm always the third wheel). We went to: Looking Glass Falls, Graveyard Fields, the Richland Balsam area, and stopped at a multitude of overlooks all along the way.

I had uber-prepared, as I think I've mentioned here on the blog, by purchasing two more ND filters, both a +4. So stacking them along with the +2 I already had, meant that I could finally, really get those waterfall shots. It also meant that I came to understand the limitations of my camera better, and while I love my entry-level DSLR, I am no longer an entry-level player.

So here's Looking Glass:



Yellowstone Prong along the hike to Graveyard Fields:



A zoom shot of the lower portion of the lower falls (more on why in a sec):



And a portrait-style orientation of the lower falls:



Notice. The people. They were everywhere. In the water, on the rocks, at the top of the falls, at the bottom, crawling up, crawling down...it made me wish I'd packed something other than my camera. Now, the weather was great, and it was a cloudy day for about half of it so prime time for people to get and enjoy their beautiful state. But all the same...I guess I just never though of waterfalls as places to go frolicking in a bathing suit. I thought you were supposed to stand in awe of nature, and get a few great shots. (And believe me, the crowds were worse at Looking Glass)

So there are a few folks in the photo above - but at least they're wearing nice colors. ;-)

A few pretty shots, from the Graveyard trail and from an overlook:







Funnily enough, though I'd gone on this trip with one singular goal besides re-connecting with my friend, that being to capture some great sunsets, I didn't take into account the perfection of the clouds until we were up in the Richland Balsam area.

It was stormy looking...



Then the light began to break through...



And then the heavens opened up.



A great final image for a great first day.

St. Francis Xavier's.

St. Francis Xavier's College Church sits on the campus of St. Louis University (SLU to us natives) near the downtown area. I'd never been in it before, mostly because I'm not Jesuit and I did not attend SLU. But, suffice it to say, I loved it - I love cathedrals in general.

They were built during a time when the large majority of people in western Europe were part of the peasantry, and lived awful, miserable lives only elevated by the belief that their agonies would be rewarded in heaven. Cathedrals are massive, echoey, and some of them almost unnecessarily tall - but they were made so in order to reflect the infinitude of God and His mercy. When people went to mass in the cathedrals, they were in awe of God.

The architecture reflects one of the things we want most from God - order from chaos. The staggering symmetry of the interior designs pleases the human eye in ways almost nothing else can; the perfectly identical Corinthian columns suggest purpose and knowing. The craftsmanship of the stained glass windows and, high above opposite the altar, the Rose window, prove that skill and patient effort are beautiful things. And the intricate detail in the ornate ceilings, the painterly depictions of the life of Christ, the bronze-cast Pieta just off the rectory - all of it comes together in a dazzle of art, meaning, love, and endless worship that, I believe, are the perfect setting for escaping the world, escaping one's pains, and just being reminded that there is something bigger, and powerful, and masterful over it all.

In a way cathedrals mimic those parts of nature that have the same effect. To stand before Yosemite Falls, the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, Iguazu Falls, the Nile, Kilimanjaro - you get a sense of your place in the world. You are small, the world is big. But the bigness feels right. The awe it inspires means something. It feels right to feel small against the vastness. It's okay. It is the order of things.



St. Francis Xavier's was built in the 19th century in the Gothic style. I assume that the Gothic is responsible for the arches that seem to flow backward in waves. I do believe I like this style the best. In it, the beauty of symmetry is most apparent.



When I took photos inside the Cathedral Basilica (decorated entirely with mosaic tiles), I needed a tripod. While at St. Francis Xavier's, I did not have my tripod and was on a serious time crunch. Yet, quite mysteriously, I did not need my tripod. The light was a bit low as usual, and yet my photos suffered no camera shake and therefore no blur. I got the photos I wanted in one try. What's more, typically when you photograph stained glass windows, the light shining through is so intense that the camera can only expose for it, leaving the surrounding areas dark if not black. And yet, everything was fine.





Every cathedral's altar is different, and you can spend a lot of time studying all the elements one is composed of. I personally loved the blue color scheme dominating the cathedral's main space (the nave and crossing), and you'll notice the rich dark blue stained glass behind the grand sculpture in this next photo.



In music history in college, whilst learning about chant and thus some of the history of the Church and cathedrals, Dr. Koegel specifically pointed out the Rose window of cathedral architecture. Ever since then I have loved seeking it out specifically, as it seems so pointedly special. It can be difficult to get a good shot, since they are always high up and sometimes set back a ways so that you end up getting as much balcony ledge as window. But yesterday, it went well.







I especially love how the high blue windows colored the light coming in, as above; I specifically allowed the light into the picture because it created a sort of ethereal, holy effect.

And, once more with feeling -





It is not easy deciding on a landscape or portrait view of the nave because it is at once both gradly wide and tall. I'm sure someone out there has found a way to put a series of photos together to make one full view - but you're not going to see that kind of technique out of me any time soon. ;-)

One thing that really amazes me about the last photo of the nave is that not only was it my final shot inside and I was being hurried out the door (had a bus to catch), not only is it still sharp with absolutely no blur, but it honestly looks like an HDR rendering. It looks as though I took three or four shots at different exposure values and blended them. There's that softness that often comes with certain kinds of HDR, and a magical sort of coloring too.

How to explain it?

I leave that up to you.

Caddo Lake...for real.

Well, I'm back home from east Texas.

I went for my job - but it didn't really feel like work. It was kind of an impromptu trip; the boss and I left on the train Thursday night and I just got home about three hours ago. You may recall that I went to Texas last March, and visited Caddo Lake State Park at Big Cypress Bayou. I was only able to stand at the water's edge that time; a steamboat tour is available in the spring, summer and fall, but I just couldn't get myself up early enough to go. I wasn't going to let that happen this time!

Of course the steamboat tour wasn't available now, as it's winter, so I found another tour run by a Caddo Lake native named John Winn. He gives several different kinds of tours, including a photography tour, so I booked one for myself for Saturday morning. There are lots of photos to show, but you'll have to endure my narrative too (as always). =)

I scheduled the tour for 7 a.m., since that was the earliest I could trust myself waking up for, and because there's that time of the morning right when the sun rises over the trees that the light is the most magical. John uses a Go Devil boat, which is shaped kind of like a canoe and powered by a motor, allowing us to wend through the thickets of cypress trees in a way regular boats (including that steamboat) can't.

Before the sun appeared, and because it's winter, everything was pretty monochromatic at first. No green leaves or blooms. John, being a photographer himself, mentioned that it's a good opportunity to use black-and-white photography, and I agreed. So this first set you'll see are my b&w conversions (and one experiment with a film filter), which definitely bettered the early photos.









If you're unfamiliar with bayous, they're filled with cypress trees that grow out of the water; John said there was one cypress that they'd calculated to be five hundred years old, with a thirty-foot wide base.



The stringy, curly stuff hanging from the branches is called Spanish moss. These trees lend very, very well to the often spooky atmosphere of the bayou (typically attributed to Louisiana; Caddo Lake actually crosses the border into Louisiana), and John offers a night tour for spotting gators and other wildlife, the air filled with the bellowing of frogs. I soooo want to do that.

Because of the way cameras expose for direct sunlight, I was able to get some shots that darkened the trees and water and gave a more evening time, 'spooky' feel.











As the sun continued to rise, rays shone on the trees and water, and the experience really began. You'll notice a variety of color tones; a lot of that has to do with how I composed the position of the sun in the photos. I also experimented a bit with color balance in post-processing, because in wintertime the bayou is almost like a blank slate; you can project many different qualities onto the grayish-brown trees and moss.

















I tinkered with white balance a bit too; in the following photo I used 'warm,' and while it was generally too much, I did like how this came out:



And I tried b&w on a brighter shot of a long stand of trees, and actually really like the result:



All in all, a great way to spend two hours (and eighty bucks...thanks Dad!). I absolutely plan on going back in late spring or summer to take advantage of the greenery and blooms at sunset, and I hope I can drag Sara with me... ;-)

Gray days.

This week I've decided to take some photos round the place with only my 50mm lens in black and white. It's a cool lens because the depth of field is so easy to manipulate, and there's a softness to the results you can't get with other lenses. Plus, coupling it with the black and white you automatically get that journalistic, documentarian style that, let's be honest, is pretty easy, as long as you get a little creative with the composition.

So, here is the first aggregation of photos from the first half of the week. Enjoy!