Balcony Lessons

Posted by dkrashb on June 20, 2013

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During the Riverbend Fireworks, I had the interesting experience of meeting a young woman who was using her new Canon Rebel (not sure which one) for what was nearly the first time. She had apparently bought it from eBay, played with it briefly, and then set it aside until the night of the Riverbend Fireworks.

She asked me a few questions about what settings to use and I’m afraid I might have overwhelmed her with information. I was reminded of the conversations I had about 9 years ago when my own adventure with photography started with a good friend a colleague who was usually patient and willing to share information.

But I had the realization as to how quickly it becomes difficult to answer a simple question when the person asking it has no knowledge of the basics of photography. I also had the realization of how much I’ve learned.

I did my best to explain to her how she might select an appropriate aperture and what an ISO setting is and why a slower shutter speed might be beneficial. I also explained why turning off her flash might be a good way to prevent wasting her battery since it wasn’t going to help. I’m not sure I did a food job of containing myself or the information. After all, I think she was looking for a more definitive answer like, “when you’re shooting fireworks, use f/11.” I haven’t found the equivalent to the bright sun rule of “Sunny 16” for fireworks, but then, given the number of times the Sunny 16 rule hasn’t worked for me, I’m not sure it’s realistic to call it a rule.

In any case, I realized that I really need to find a venue to teach photography. I enjoyed that little 10 minutes of playing teacher more than I expected.
I am a big fan of learning by teaching–there is nothing that pushes me more to really work at something than when I know I’m going to have to teach it. I love the feeling of having something to pass on to someone else. Whether it’s work related, tricks on photographing fireworks, bird facts, or even something completely outside my normal areas of interest, nothing make me feel more alive than the feeling that I have something to share.

Dogs and Fireworks

Posted by dkrashb on June 19, 2013

Dogs are frequently afraid of fireworks. I would venture to guys that dogs fall into two categories: Those who are completely oblivious and those who think the world is coming to an end. Tisen does not like fireworks. Nor does Twiggy, who is visiting with us again while her mom and dad are on vacation.

Tisen seems somewhat embarrassed about his fear of fireworks. Like he knows he’s supposed to be a big tough boy and not be afraid of loud noises. Instead of whining, howling, or barking, which would only draw attention to his cowardice, he hides. But if you happen to look in on him from time to time, you’ll discover he often has a puzzled look on his face like he can’t understand why his humans are not distraught by all the noise.

I think there is a simple explanation for this disparity in human and dog interpretation of loud noises. I think it’s hearing. While one might speculate that canines have less ability to understand the source of loud noises or to reason as to whether they are in potential danger or not, I really think it comes down to pain. The deep, reverberating booms and high pitched crackles sound so much louder to a dog than to a human, it seems quite possible they are in physical pain.

This being my theory, I was doubly surprised when I spent the entire length of the Riverbend fireworks out on the balcony of the common room (where dogs are not allowed) and Tisen remained parked by the front door waiting for my return instead of hiding under the sofa, desk, or Daddy. Twiggy cuddled with Daddy, leaving Tisen to fend for himself as the stalwart guard patiently awaiting the return of Mommy. I felt pretty guilty when I got home and found him still waiting for me.

I wonder if he is more afraid of losing Mommy than he is of fireworks? This also made me feel more guilty getting on a plane the following morning.

Tisen braving it out at the door

More of the Same

Posted by dkrashb on June 18, 2013

Continuing yesterday’s list of tips on photographing fireworks . . .

Fourth, think carefully about depth of field. If you’re shooting wide and trying to get the landscape into the photo at all, you’ll want to stop down the aperture as much as possible.

Fifth, as a contrary point to the above, be aware that because the fireworks are so bright, you aren’t going to be able to get a single exposure for both the fireworks and the landscape unless the landscape is brightly lit (like the city lights). Some photographers solve this by combining two photos manually later. Be aware the HDR settings will not be very helpful (although may be interesting) because of the motion of the fireworks. To combine the two manual exposures, you would need to be able to layer them together in an application like Photoshop.

Sixth, fireworks move. To get long, bright streaks of light in the sky, you need a fairly long shutter speed. This helps with the fourth tip–you get more depth of field as a bonus. I’m pretty happy with the size, shape, length of the streaks I get at about .4 seconds. However, there are some types of fireworks that look better with longer exposures. The only downside of exposing longer is that you get more smoke showing up in the process.

Seventh, I once missed about ½ of a fireworks show trying this trick, but maybe it will work better for you. Supposedly, you can put your camera on bulb and use a piece of paper or your hand to cover the lens in between the rockets being fired. Then, you can get multiple fireworks into one shot. This might have worked last night when I was in very close proximity to the launch point. However, from a further distance, I just got very dull looking fireworks that were often barely visible.

Shooting Fireworks

Posted by dkrashb on June 17, 2013

Well, there comes a time when we are all caught off guard by ill preparation. I can list a long number of excuses as to how this happened, starting with working way too many hours for my day job, but the truth of the matter is that I didn’t give getting my blog posts ready ahead of time top priority and, therefore, it didn’t happen.

So, I am about 45 minutes away from leaving for the airport. I’m headed overseas on a business trip where my internet access may be limited and my time most certainly will be. And, I have only photos of fireworks ready to post.

So what’s a daily blogger to do?

Well, I’ve decided to do some really short posts on the theme of “fireworks.” We’ll see if I manage to get a post a day up!

For today’s fireworks-themed post, let’s talk about some things I’ve learned about shooting fireworks.

First, if you’re going to be really close to the fireworks (in this case, we were within a .10 of a mile as the crow flies from where they were being fired), put your widest lens on your camera. Since most of us now have cameras with 20+ megapixels, cropping to get tight photos is an option and there is a bigger problem with fitting all the action in the frame.

Second, if you know which way the wind is blowing, find a spot upwind. This will help reduce the amount of smoke in your images. Unfortunately, that was not a possibility for me, so I do have a lot of smoke in my images. I managed to do some adjusting to reduce it’s appearance, but it’s still annoyingly visible.

Third, your cameras metering is useless while you’re shooting. It will jump all over the place as the fireworks create large amounts of light and then fade. By the time you adjust exposure, it will be too late. Remain calm. Check your photos on your LCD early even if it means missing a shot of the next one going off. It’s better to miss one or two getting your exposure set right than to get home and find that every shot you took was completely blown out or too dark.

Fire over Water

Posted by dkrashb on June 16, 2013

The last big performance of Riverbend winds down as the crowd grows in anticipation of the fireworks

If every fireworks display were the likes of the Riverbend Fireworks, I think there wouldn’t be a shortage of explosives worldwide. That could be a good thing–fireworks are probably among the more peaceful things we do with explosives. Although I suppose there are a lot of people who would disagree that that’s the best use of explosives–a few of my friends are extremely grateful for the explosives used in their airbags, for example.

Regardless, fireworks always feel nostalgic to me. I don’t know why–fireworks displays are so much more sophisticated and reliable than they ever were when I was a kid. I think I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old when I started anticipating the success or failure of the 4th of July Fireworks based on the weather. Rain the week before the big display was a disaster. Perhaps “the fireworks got wet” was really just a euphemism adults used to explain away all the “duds” that would fail to go off with little more than a “ffftttzzz” and maybe a spark. But the children in my neighborhood grew up terrifies of rain right before fireworks because we were sure there would be lots of duds.

I remember fireworks taking an hour or more from start to finish. I remember being blown away by the finale when a dozen or more fireworks blossomed in the sky simultaneously. I remember the show leading up to the finale consisting pretty much of one, maybe two, fireworks going off at the same time or in close sequence. I remember lots of time between fireworks when the sky was simply empty. I remember the first time I ever saw a fireworks display that had been timed and choreographed with music. It was in the 1980’s. They played Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” as part of the montage. I can’t remember being to a fireworks display set to music without hearing Lee ever since. In fact, I heard it again tonight. That guy must make millions just on fireworks background music.

Things I don’t remember from the suburban fireworks display my family attended every 4th of July, sharing a blanket in the grass of a local park, include adult men without shirts on, extraordinary traffic jams, closed roads, cops with lights flashing everywhere, people packed like sardines into all available open spaces and fighting over the high spots.

Of course, the suburb that sponsored the fireworks from my childhood has all of 10,000 people living in it. While Chattanooga may not be a big city, it’s nearly 20 times the size of that. So I guess it’s unfair to compare the sweet innocence of the suburb I grew up in to the issues that arise when you take a very large number of people and put them in a very small space.

The fireworks have been over for at least 45 minute now. But sirens keep going by outside. Hopefully it will settle down soon.

Bending

Posted by dkrashb on June 15, 2013

The Walnut Street Bridge takes a wild turn

I have discovered a whole new way to have fun with my iPhone camera. Yes, more panoramics! But in this case, instead of creating a really big view of a vast landscape, I’m making a U-shape! I know, I am easily amused.

But how much fun is it to stand on the Walnut Street Bridge and take a panoramic shot that starts by looking up the bridge, then pans across the scene of Riverbend and ends looking down the bridge?

I clarifies the concept of putting a 3-dimensional landscape into 2 dimensions in a brand new way. I am starting to think of other possible uses for the panoramic capability. I will cover 240 degrees. That means I can’t quite create a circle. But horseshoe shapes? The bridge is pretty close to a horseshoe.

Bending the bridge around the Carousel in Coolidge Park

Before I get carried away on the possibilities, let me just mention that we are rapidly approaching the close of this year’s Riverbend Festival. Riverbend is a pretty big deal that takes over the river front across the river. They close the main street that runs along the river, float in a big stage, and book many bands. Lynrd Skynrd played last night. That was a bit of a shock–I thought most of the band died in a plane many years ago? I guess you can still be a band even if you’ve replaced most of the original members.

In any case, Riverbend attracts a large crowd. Supposedly, over 600,000 people descend upon Chattanooga over the course of the 2 week music festival. To put that in perspective, there are about 170,000 people in Chattanooga proper. Believe it or not, that makes Chattanooga the 4th largest city in Tennessee, and only a about 10,000 people behind Knoxville, the largest city in East Tennessee. Only Nashville and Memphis are larger.

A panoramic that stops short of making a bend

By the time you add 600,000 people to Chattanooga, that’s enough to bump the population up to the largest city in Tennessee. Of course, they’re not all here at once. But, the extra crowd may explain the extra people hanging out in the park looking like perhaps they are camping out there. It’s hard for me to believe there are enough hotel rooms in town to house even 300,000 extra people. The building we live in has suddenly filled with extra people we don’t recognize and cars in parking spots that are normally empty.

We’ve learned that locals are not fond of Riverbend. I think people camping in the park do not help the locals lack of enthusiasm. But it’s likely the fight for parking is the bigger issue. People park anywhere they can. It’s pretty rare to find free parking anywhere in the vicinity of downtown. During Riverbend, unless you have a reserved spot, you’re pretty much out of luck.

However people feel about Riverbend, the fireworks display at the end of the festival is a big deal. We’ll see if it’s as impressive as last year tomorrow night.

Tisen cuddling with daddy

Storms

Posted by dkrashb on June 14, 2013

Tisen posing on the top of the sledding hill with the bridge over the wetland in the background

Although we seem to have largely skipped right over spring, we didn’t skip over the storms. I’m not sure if we’re still having spring storms or if we’ve moved into summer ones, but we’ve had some doozies lately.

Now days, Tisen usually sleeps through storms–provided they’re not too loud. Before we moved, the rain would hit the roof and echo through the metal sheeting, creating a drumming sound so loud that if it was raining really hard, I had trouble hearing if I was on a conference call. That is one of the perks of our new location–unless there is thunder and lightening, the rain can only be heard hitting the windows.

But there has been thunder and lightening. In fact, one day earlier this week, a storm broke loose with what seemed like almost constant thunder and lightening. Because I was on a conference call with noise-blocking earbuds in my ears, I really didn’t notice the thunder until Tisen suddenly wiggled his way between my chair and my desk and managed to wind himself around my feet. I couldn’t figure out what had come over him until I took out an ear bud and looked out the window.

Tisen hiding from thunder

I had to attempt to photograph him wound around my legs. However, it was a bit challenging with my iPhone shooting from straight above. When you look at this photo, the thing in the top left is my knee. Directly under Tisen’s nose, if you look carefully, you can see my foot with Tisen’s legs over it. Just below his nose, you can see one wheel of my desk chair. You can also see the various items under my desk like power cords, a printer, and a basket of office supplies, that Tisen wedged himself between in order to have physical contact with my foot.

I don’t know exactly what makes Tisen feel safe when he is in contact with my foot. I’m certain that if I’d been sitting on the sofa he would have been up in my lap trying to press himself against me as if he was trying to get inside my skin. However, he made due with my foot since my lap was wholly unavailable.

Tisen preparing to go out

Tisen has other ways of finding comfort. He doesn’t like to leave without a toy. Sometimes it seems he holds his toy more tightly than others. I’m not always able to figure out what exactly makes him nervous. I know large crowds make him cling to his toy more tightly, even in hot weather. But on the day I took pictures of him with Pink Elephant up on the sledding hill, I’m not sure what inspired him to carry Elephant all the way to the top.

Perhaps indicating confidence, he’s left a trail of toys lately. He dropped Moose one day and Duck the next. Two days later it was Duck again. It’s a good thing our neighbors know whose door to leave stray toys in front of!

Another pose on top of the sledding hill

Escape to the Ridge

Posted by dkrashb on June 13, 2013

The sun creeps low in the sky, beaming through the trees as we hike

I managed to go to Stringer’s Ridge twice in the same week. Not just in the same week, actually. In 2 days. It started on a whim. I can see the Stringer’s Ridge overlook from my office window. I have been watching (through binoculars) the progress on the overlook. One day, I peered through the binoculars long and hard and thought, “I think they’re done!”

That was the day, being one of the 2 work days in a week that we don’t have a prescribed cuisine, I thought, “we should have a picnic dinner at the overlook.” And so it went. We packed up Tisen’s dinner, threw a couple of beverages in a day pack, and headed to the grocery store to pick up sandwiches and cookies.

A coniferous tree glows yellow in the light from the setting sun amongst greener brethren

We drove up to the overlook as the sun worked its way toward the horizon. We managed to eat with a spectacular view followed by a nice walk through the woods as the sun continued to set. We made it back to the car before dark feeling pretty darn good (less the bug bites).

It was so nice to get out on a Monday evening, I thought we might make a habit of it (yet to be seen).

Tisen is a great trail dog–always checking to make sure Mommy is coming if he gets too far ahead

The next day, the cleaning folks were coming and I needed a place to work where it was quiet. The cleaning crew didn’t arrive until nearly lunch. I managed to get me and Tisen out without interrupting the conference call I was on. This is perhaps one of the most amazing things about technology today. I think back to when I started my first job and felt really special because I had a terminal and a phone on my desk. Flex time meant you could set your start time between 7-9AM and leave 8.5-9 hours later, depending on how long you took for lunch.

I cannot imagine what our department head back then (who thought email could only be used to goof off) would think of a work world where you can be in the middle of a meeting, pack up your office and your dog, head down to your car, start up your own wireless network, get back online and fully participate in the call without anyone knowing you just changed location.

Tisen’s wallow

On another whim, once I got setup in the car, I headed back to Stringer’s Ridge. I drove up and parked in a shady spot, sitting in the car until the meeting ended. Then, instead of spending lunch sitting in front of my laptop working, I took Tisen for a walk through the woods. I found it doubly refreshing to get out in the woods in the middle of the day. Tisen, I think, found it rather stifling. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought to bring him water. The first puddle we found on the trail quickly became a mud bath for Tisen who sank into it like a wallowing pig.

He made it back just fine, thankfully, just muddy.

I know I posted similar shots yesterday, but the view from the overlook is pretty cool

Half Open?

Posted by dkrashb on June 12, 2013

Downtown looks far away at 28mm

Stringer’s Ridge has had quite a facelift. It appears to be officially half-open, although I can’t tell from the information on the web. It now has official looking metal gates that cross the main trails into the park. One side still has a big orange “park closed” sign. But the other direction has no sign other than “no motorized vehicles.”

There are many mysteries about Stringers Ridge. First, there is the mystery “grand opening” that still does not seem to have happened. When I first heard about Stringers Ridge, I heard the park was going to have a grand opening in October 2012.

Next, I heard it was going to open later that winter. The only sign of progress at the park entrance was a set of new signs telling people the park was under construction and still closed. Next, it was going to open in April. Then it was going to be May. The last post I saw said it would open around Memorial Day.

102mm pulls the Market St and Walnut St bridges into view

The second mystery is what it is that they’re doing that prevents them from opening the park. I confess. I’ve been in the park. I have never seen anyone working in the park. I have, however, encountered both pedestrians and cyclists in the park, which made me think it really was open before they put up signs.

The changes I’ve noticed since last summer have been:

an improvement in the signage–especially trail markers which were numbers on pin tins until recently,
the removal of large piles of garbage that many people must have worked very hard to gather up and haul to a collection point,
the removal of some of the overgrowth,
the removal of some sculptures that I wish they would have left. There was one arrangement of logs that looked like a giant hiker climbing up a hill. I am both befuddled and disappointed that it was removed. It was clever, humorous, and appropriate to the setting,
the addition of a real overlook at the point where some trees were cleared to allow for one of the best views of downtown Chattanooga–if I am disappointed about #4, #5 makes up for it.

118mm makes for a nice view of the aquarium

stillI can understand why they would have wanted the park closed while they were constructing the overlook. What I don’t quite understand is why they seem to be holding the park opening until all the mountain bike trails are completed. At least, I assume that’s what they’re holding for at this point. Why not just mark the trails that are closed as closed and have the grand opening? Parks have trails closed all the time.

Whatever the reason, I’m happy the park is half-open.

The new overlook has two large “boxes” in the middle that make the perfect place for dinner. It’s a really nice overlook. And the view is even better now that the overlook puts you 10 feet out over the edge of the ridge. I can’t wait until the grand opening!

Tisen caught with a mouthful of his dinner on the overlook

To Sunset

Posted by dkrashb on June 11, 2013

The fast-fading glow in the Eastern sky

No energy. That’s me tonight. I’ve barely been able to keep my eyes open since about 8PM. I hope this doesn’t mean I’ve caught something (again). It’s just as likely Tisen is the cause. He is back to scratching all night again. I feel like I did when we last had a puppy–being awakened every hour or so and finally settling down for the best sleep after taking our boy out to go potty in the wee hours of the morning, just before the alarm would go off.

The park fading into shadows

Except there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. We are trying a drug we’ve tried before that helped. We’re trying a new dose because it made him sick the last time we tried it. We’ll see if giving him less helps without the side effects. I feel guilty about this. At some point I wonder how much is about my need to sleep vs ending my dog’s suffering? Should I really be trying to give him a medication that made him sick? And which is worse for him? Scratching and chewing himself until he draws blood or a drug that makes him vomit and have diarrhea? Can’t we have a nice easy route to ending his allergies without side effects?

Only gray is left to the East

In the meantime, I’m nodding off over the keyboard yet again and wanting nothing more than a good night’s sleep tonight. I look at these photos of sunset and think that’s an apt way to describe how I feel at the moment–like the light is fading fast. But, the sun will rise again in the morning and I’ll be blinking, squinting, and, with much resistance, dragging myself back out of bed regardless of how much or how little I sleep.

A bright glow remains in the West

Going to be is far easier. Here’s to sunset!

One final shot of the glowing trail the sun has left behind

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Monthly Archives: June 2013