Hipsta Park

Posted by dkrashb on March 13, 2013

I like the rocks Hipstamata-sized. The first time we saw these rocks, a guy had just fallen off of them and broken his ribs.

Sunday afternoon, looking for something fun to do, we decided on an easy, short walk that Tisen could accompany us on. Pat suggested Signal Point, but I felt the distance we could walk and the view we could see without any physical strain was too limited. The easily accessible overlook is less than 50 yards from the parking lot.

Coming back up the steps from Ochs Overlook toward the New York Peace Monument

Coming back up the steps from Ochs Overlook toward the main loop

I suggested we head up to Point Park instead. Point Park has what is probably a half-mile loop that’s flat and affords views from many directions. Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama are all visible from Point Park. The view of Moccasin Bend is hard to beat. And, there are monuments, canons, and interesting rock formations that would all allow me to continue my Hipstamatic spree.

Pat agreed and we headed up to the mountain. The one disadvantage of Point Park is that they do charge an entry fee. I don’t mind paying the entry fee–I want to support the park–but it does add up throughout the year given the number of times we take visitors up there. When we got there, I stopped in the Visitor’s Center to ask if they have an annual pass. The volunteer on duty didn’t know of anything specific to the park, but told me about the $80 annual pass to all federally managed lands. He told me it included access to Yellowstone and gave me a pamphlet.

Looking down the trail at the museum at Ochs Overlook

While it was tempting to get an annual pass for all federal land, when we started trying to come up with a list of places we would use it in the next year, we couldn’t really think of $80 worth of places we would get to in the next 12 months. We decided to wait and went to the park entrance to pay. When we got there, there was actually a ranger staffing the ticket booth. Usually you pay a machine.

I mentioned to him we’d thought about buying the park pass, but had decided to wait and he informed me that there is a $20 annual pass for just Point Park. He called the Visitor’s Center volunteer for us and sent us back to pick one up. When I got back to the Visitor’s Center, the volunteer was still on the phone with the ranger who was giving him instructions on where to find the pass. We made it through the process, got our shiny new pass and headed back to the entrance.

View of Moccasin Bend from Ochs Overlook

The same ranger was still on duty. When I handed him the new pass he had facilitated, he looked at it, looked back at me, and said, “We don’t take those here.” Gotta love a ranger with a sense of humor!

We took a nice spin around Point Park, walking out to Ochs Overlook at the point and enjoying the spring weather. The bright sunshine created an interesting haze in Hipstamatic.

Mocassin Bend doesn’t actually fit in the iPhone frame from Ochs Overlook. This is the “bend.”

Afterwards, we headed home. After a shower, Pat did a little more work on the computer with assistance from Tisen.

Tisen helping Daddy on the computer

Hipsta-pick

Posted by dkrashb on March 12, 2013

Distant view of the bluff and Hunter’s Museum from the Walnut Street Bridge

Choosing is the hardest thing about digital photography. Because it’s digital, most people take far more images than they would shooting film, me included. The more you take, the harder it is to choose.

Using the iPhone helps–I worry about my battery dying more with the iPhone than with my DSLR (and I usually have a spare battery fully charged in my pocket for the DSLR). Taking a dozen shots of the same subject with my iPhone seems excessive and risky. Had I been shooting with my DSLR, I probably would have shot at least 50.

Taking a dog on a casual shoot also helps limit the excess. When Tisen gets restless, shooting becomes more difficult (because I’m holding his leash while I shoot) and it quickly becomes evident that it’s time to go home.

Hunter’s Museum, switchbacks, and Silhouette People

Sometimes limits on the number of images you can shoot is a good thing (usually about the time you download all of the images to your computer and start going through them). Sometimes it’s a bad thing. Like when you are on your way back from a shoot and the sun does this spectacular burst through the clouds and you stop to shoot it and your battery dies.

Most of the time, I wish I had fewer images to choose from. Sometimes the choice is obvious. Some images just don’t work. But often, there are subtle differences between several shots that make it excruciating to try to choose between them. I often just close my eyes and point.

Hunter Museum and Silo-like thing in foreground

In today’s examples, I had a hard time picking between the image of the Hunter museum that shows the switch-back trail going down the slope in the foreground (one of the things about the riverfront I find amusing) and the image that includes the silo-like structure in the foreground. I particularly like the silhouette people on the overlook at the Hunter Museum in the first example. But the silo-thing is such a part of the landscape, it’s hard to resist.

I wanted to include a shot that shows the historical part of the Hunter Museum as well. Since the word anachronism seems to be among my favorites of late, the museum itself is an example with its modern design surrounding a 19th century mansion. But, I needed to cross the glass bridge to get a good angle of that and I didn’t think Tisen was up to it.

McLellan Island under Veteran’s Bridge and a Surprise Duck Tour boat

The second subject is McLellan Island, split by Veteran’s bridge. The surprise element (surprising to me) is the Duck tour boat (aka, DUKW) that suddenly appeared. Truly, it must be spring!

The one subject I didn’t shoot with Hipstamatic was the sculpture “High Four” with Tisen. I couldn’t quite get far enough away while holding Tisen’s leash to get it framed the way I wanted, but I’m happy I got a shot of the two of them together in any case–Tisen was very cooperative. Next time, I will bring a matching scarf for Tisen.

Tisen being a cooperative model with "High Four"

Tisen, being a cooperative model, smiles with “High Four”

Hipsta-vising Old Haunts

Posted by dkrashb on March 11, 2013

Looking up the slope from the North Shore end of the Walnut Street Bridge

I may be suffering from Hipstamatic addiction. I started thinking about all the riverfront scenery we haven’t been frequenting this winter and how great it would look in the tintype style. So, Tisen and I took a longer walk than we’ve taken in a while and headed over to the Walnut Street bridge. It was the perfect day for it. The warmth and sunshine caused a growth spurt in the tourist population roaming the bridge. Had I not been walking Tisen, I would have blended right in taking pictures with my iPhone.

The Walnut Street Bridge has been a frequent subject for many-a-photographer. I’ve shot it so many times from so many angles, I keep thinking there aren’t any images left to capture. But, I had never shot it with Hipstamatic!

Looking downstream from the North end of the bridge provides a nice view of the Delta Queen

According to Wikipedia, it’s “one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world,” but when I tried to verify this, I quickly found 2 longer pedestrian bridges within the united states and 3 in other countries. So, maybe it’s within the top 10 or so, but I couldn’t find an official list in the amount of time I was willing to spend searching.

According to my GPS, it’s about a half a mile long, which is consistent with Wikipedia’s measurement of 2,376 feet–264 feet shy of a half mile. It’s historical significance is more interesting, but part of it is quite sad. I’ll skip the gory details–those of you who are interested can find more information here.

Lookout Mountain looms in the background behind the Tennessee Aquarium

The happier state of the bridge began when a group of citizens in Chattanooga decided the bridge should be saved when it had been closed and abandoned for so long that it was a dangerous eyesore (this is hear-say information). Now, it’s an awesome walking bridge.

As we made our way gradually across the bridge, greeting the occasional neighbor and exchanging smiles with strangers, Spring suddenly struck me. By this, I mean I was suddenly overcome by that special joy that only happens when you get out in the sunshine on one of the first really warm days that kick off the season and know that winter is almost over. Exhilaration. That’s the word.

Looking through the bridge trusses toward the bluff and the Hunter Museum

One of the unique aspects of the Walnut Street Bridge is the slope. The North Shore end is just above the river while the Downtown end is up on the bluff, so it’s a pretty steep climb.

Tisen definitely felt the climb. He seemed very happy to stop and let me shoot for once. Every time I paused to shoot, he paused to pant, standing perfectly still. I guess this means I can’t blame him for my misfires.

At the risk of falling once more into the “Always Perfect” pitfall of loving my subject so much I think every photo of him is worth sharing, I took this late last night:

Tisen and Daddy napping on the sofa (Daddy with a pillow over his head)

Got Cravens?

Posted by dkrashb on March 8, 2013

One end of Cravens House with a leafless tree against background clouds–can you spot Pat and Tisen?

After our little adventure at the Nature Center (yesterday’s post), we drove up Lookout Mountain a couple of miles to Cravens House, part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

Cravens House is not spectacular from an architectural perspective, but the history of the place, the view, and the fact that it’s a trailhead for many great trails more than make up for the lack of creative design.

We thought it would be a good destination to walk around with Tisen for a half hour or so, expecting to walk through the woods until we tired and then turn around and come back. We were not dressed for serious hiking. I had on my typical casual outfit, including a winter coat perfect for going to a casual dinner. The exception was my hiking boots and rolled up jeans–just in case there was mud. Pat also was dressed in his casual gear meaning a T-shirt, sweatshirt, and corduroy jacket that isn’t exactly warm.

This is only one of many monuments commemorating units who fought in the civil war, many of them from the Union

When we got out of the car, the wind blasted us, immediately making it feel 15 degrees colder than lower down the mountain. Snow flurries started falling from the gray, gray sky. Tisen gave us a look when he hopped out of the van that seemed to say, “Really? We drove all the way up here for this?”

We made our way across the wind-blasted lawn, the only ones out and about at this elevation. We made a circular lap past Cravens House, then past the giant monument in the lawn and over to an odd looking half-modern, half-historical log cabin. We paused behind the cabin, seeking shelter from the wind while Tisen sniffed.

The more historic looking end of the log cabin

Tisen has a funny habit. Well, he has many funny habits. One of them is quite funny to watch, but has been very challenging to catch on camera. He backs up to a bush, hunches up his back like he needs to heed the call of nature, and then sways his rear end back and forth under the tree branches, giving himself a good scratch. He decided the shrubs behind the cabin represented the perfect opportunity for a good scratch.

A little more of Cravens House with a more visible Pat and Tisen

This was about the time a car pulled into the parking lot and a man and a dog got out of it. They’d come for a game of fetch. The man was even less prepared for the cold than we were–he had no jacket at all.

The man didn’t see us until his dog came running over. He apologized profusely, but the dogs greeted each other with proper dog etiquette and hit it off. We asked if it was OK to let Tisen off his leash and soon, the dogs were chasing each other around the yard. It made me sad that we don’t have a yard for Tisen to run around in. He got the most exercise of all of us and completely stopped noticing the cold.

A less happy Tisen won’t hold still for a picture when we took him for a post-romp bath

Huff and Puff

Posted by dkrashb on March 7, 2013

Before the treehouse, another house on stilts provided a nice subject for tintype

Last Saturday, we decided to find something interesting to do that didn’t involve too much physical effort. I suggested we go to the Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center to see the Red Wolves. The Nature Center has one of the few red wolf breeding programs. We have been to the Nature Center a few times, but we’ve never seen the red wolves.

I decided to take my DSLR with the 70-200mm lens, figuring we’d be pretty close to the wolves in their exhibit area, but I might need to zoom in.

The treehouse with its tree coming through the roof

We took Tisen with us, although he’s not allowed in the nature center because it’s a wildlife preserve. We figured we wouldn’t be there very long and he could hang out in the car. Then, we’d take him somewhere he could get out and romp around a bit.

I put my DSLR around my neck, my iPhone in my pocket, and grabbed my wallet when we arrived. We headed into the visitor’s center where we learned it would cost $10 each for our 20 minute visit to see the red wolves. We decided to buy an annual family membership–it was a much better deal.

We headed down the boardwalk towards the Wildlife Wanderland exhibit. Along the way, we discovered a really cool treehouse on stilts in a wetland. Of course, my 70-200mm lens was too tight to get a good shot. So, there I was, standing on the boardwalk with my expensive gear hanging around my neck while I used my iPhone to take Hipstamatic shots of the treehouse. It reminded me of a photo someone shared on Facebook of a professional photographer standing on a sidewalk with 3 cameras, extra lenses, and various other equipment hanging off of him holding up his iPhone to take a picture.

The treehouse at the end of the boardwalk

The treehouse made a good subject for the tintype effect because of its setting. But the contemporary angles of the roof, like the Tennessee Aquarium in earlier posts, create an anachronism in this old-fashioned style.

After exploring the treehouse, we moved on down the boardwalk to the canoe launch. That was truly modern. They have a dock that has a mini-canal in the middle of it to make it easier to get in and out of the canoe. They also have a rack full of canoes–we’ll have to give those a try when the weather gets warmer.

Up close look at the crazy angles of the treehouse–love the diagonal window

Next stop: red wolves. When we got to the junction leading to the Wildlife Wanderland, there was a chain across it with a “closed” sign hanging from it. I guess we’ll have to take advantage of our new membership to see the red wolves–at least we won’t have to pay $20 every time.

When we returned to the car, Tisen was barking. This is rare. Usually he sits in the front seat and looks out the window quietly. I’m not sure what got him barking, but he was happy to see us.

Tisen the cuddly wonder

Getting Hip to Hipstamatic

Posted by dkrashb on March 4, 2013

The aquarium takes on a whole new (old?) look in Hipstamatic

I did some searching on what other people are doing with their iPhones. I’ve been following Davide Capponi’s blog for quite a while now; he demonstrates that it’s possible to create art with the iPhone.

For now, I’m not after art so much as just discovering what’s achievable for people who don’t want to be photographers. I’ll worry about the next level when . . . well, when I’m ready for the next level.

This modern park shot with retro effects seems like an anachronism

I decided to further explore the Hipstamatic app. I found a blog post by photo journalist Antonio Olmos; he shares inspiring street images shot with Hipstamatic in Derry, Northern Ireland.

I learned Hipstamatic creates effects based on three components: the “film” you choose, the “lens” you choose, and the “flash” you choose (if you use flash). Basically, it mimics the effects of retro equipment in software. I also discovered that while it comes with one package of lens, film, and flash choices, you can purchase more for $.99 a pack.

A relatively uninteresting scene takes on a completely different character in tintype

I decided to start by imitating. I purchased the pack that included the lens and film options used by Antonio Olmos (at least, I thought they were the same).

On my next walk with Tisen through our daily haunt, I went armed with the Hipstamatic app set with what I thought was the Helga lens and the c-type Tintype film. Somewhere along the line, I ended up with the D-Type film and some other lens. This may have been because a) I was holding the phone and Tisen’s leash in the same hand, and b) Hipstamatic has a feature that randomly selects settings if you shake the camera.

This sculpture/structure seems like a good fit for the tintype effect

A few words about using Hipstamatic.

First, I left the app on the entire time I was walking and discovered my iPhone 4S battery died after only 30 minutes. This was the shortest period of time my phone ever lasted. I need to upgrade iOS, which might help, but I suggest turning off the screen (by pressing the button on top of the phone until the screen goes dark) when not shooting. On the plus side, Hipstamatic did not lose any of my images when the phone shutdown unexpectedly.

Tisen rolls for the camera

Second, the Hipstamatic mimics medium-format film, which, in a word, is square. Having practiced viewing the world through a rectangle for many years now, I found this disconcerting. For example, I kept looking at the scene and making decisions like, “I think I’ll shoot that vertically so I can get some sky.”

In fact, I turned my phone vertically on several occasions, feeling rather foolish by the third time I made that mistake. I mentally smacked my forehead and said out loud, “Oh yeah, it’s a SQUARE!” Tisen seemed perplexed by my commentary, but he’s pretty used to me talking to myself by now.

Third, some images have vignetting (in this case, dark corners) and some don’t. Sometimes it occurs in the top two corners, sometimes only one. I haven’t quite figured out what causes the variability.

Finally, even Tisen looks nostalgic using this combination of settings in the app. While the effect is fun, the one thing I don’t like about Hipstomatic is you get what you get. You can’t undo the tintype effect and try something else.

I like the tintype effect on the clouds in particular

Finding Flowers

Posted by dkrashb on February 28, 2013

Purple Deadnettle–an early bloomer

Yesterday, while walking Tisen through the park, I noticed things were starting to bloom. Not big things, but tiny little things and, of course, dandelions. Since I haven’t shot outdoors much lately, I thought I’d try seeing how well my image stabilization works on my 100mm macro lens and try hand-holding some macro shots of these blooms.

Since I was hand holding while holding a dog, I decided to forego extension tubes. These cut down the light by a couple of stops when I use all three–less light means slower shutter speeds, which leads to more blur when hand holding.

Bright spots

I am still enamored with dandelions. Their big, bright blooms light up the mostly dead grass like tiny suns. They make a gray day seem cheerful. They also seem to promise spring is right around the corner. I wish they would let the weather service know–they keep talking about 20 degree weather coming our way. I really thought we were past that.

The other things blooming weren’t flowers I knew. I did a little searching online and determined that these are Purple Deadnettle:

Apparently most of the stuff blooming in February is non-native. I guess that’s how it got so widespread–by starting early.

A similar bloom was in another section of the park. I believe this is Henbit Deadnettle:

The last flower in this small collection was a complete mystery to me. From my searching, I believe it is Harbinger-of-Spring, which, happily, is a native wildflower:

I really needed extension tubes and a tripod to get a good shot of this one.

I don’t think Tisen liked any of the flowers. He kept peeing on them. Fortunately, not while I was shooting them. That would have made for an interesting action shot!

Henbit Deadnettle from the side

Tisen seems to think it’s fine for him to stop and sniff whenever and for however long he likes, yet he gets impatient when I stop to shoot. He was particularly unhappy when I spotted the Harbinger-of-Spring and had to back up so I could get a shot. He was very focused on getting to the next good scent.

More purple deadnettle

Once many weeks ago, when Tisen was particularly involved in snorting every last particle of scent off a tree trunk, a man walked by and said, “Catching up on all the good gossip!” That’s the perfect description of what Tisen was doing.

In any case, I found myself struggling against the pull of Tisen against the leash I was holding while shooting. Between Tisen tugging and the wind blowing, I had many a blurry shot. However, I was pretty impressed with the image stabilization. Without it, I doubt I would have gotten any sharp shots at all given that I was shooting at 1/60 sec or slower for all but one of these images.

Clearly, I needed something much faster to catch Tisen while he played with Pink Dog (borrowed from his girlfriend, Twiggy):

Tisen is a blur at 1/50 of a second

Blowing Smoke

Posted by dkrashb on February 22, 2013

The Market Street draw bridge remained down even though the Delta Queen implied she might want to pass

This morning, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful, if cold, day. (“Cold,” of course, is relative. The low was 42 F today. That’s not really cold, is it?) However, the sunny day turned into a gray and then rainy afternoon.

When Tisen and I took our evening walk, it was barely “spitting” (as my relatives used to call it) as we started down our usual route. By the time we made it to the river, it was spitting pretty darn hard. This caused me to rush Tisen through our walk. It didn’t take a lot of coaxing–Tisen is not fond of walking in the rain.

As we double-timed through the park, Tisen suddenly did a reverse maneuver, probably having caught the scent of another dog that he felt compelled to try to out-mark. In the process, he spun me around, causing me to look up in the increasing rain. I saw a surprising site. I saw a huge plume of dark smoke rising over the Market St bridge. My first thought was that a car on the bridge had exploded.

Smoke billows in the wind over the bridge

Perhaps it seems extreme to assume a car had exploded. However, having had the experience of being awakened in the middle of the night by the percussion of an exploding car a few years ago, exploding cars seem more probable to me than they once did.

That was quite a night. I ran outside in my pajamas and tried to get close enough to the burning car to see if anyone was inside who needed to be pulled out. But the fire was burning so hot, I had to step back while I was still many yards away. This turned out to be a good thing because the car kept having more (smaller) explosions as various tanks and tubes reached combustion temperatures.

The big boom was apparently the gas tank exploding. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone inside. It was a car that someone had reported stolen that had been dumped and burned in front of our property (fortunately a wooded side lot and not in front of our house) back in Columbus. We always suspected some kind of insurance fraud, but I have no idea how it turned out.

View through Renaissance Park to the Market St Bridge

In any case, it wasn’t an exploding car today. Rather, it was a rare sight. It was smoke pouring out of the Delta Queen smoke stack from just behind the bridge. While it doesn’t make such a dramatic image against the gray sky, I had to run upstairs and get a shot for posterity’s sake. The Delta Queen was once a glorious river boat, but it’s been a stationary floating hotel for a lot of years now. I’m at a loss to explain why it would have stoked its fires when it never goes anywhere.

Whatever the reason they decided to light the fire in the Delta Queen, I’m glad no cars exploded. That would have been awfully messy up on the bridge.

Tisen attempts to smile for the camera

Blind Star

Posted by dkrashb on February 18, 2013

Adjusted with brighter whites

Getting new blinds had an unintended consequence. I walked into the living room and discovered a new star in view. A giant street light across the way suddenly got a new look. Through the sheer fabric of the blind, the light burst into a star pattern.

It’s actually quite dramatic looking in person. However, it presented more of a photographic challenge than I expected. Through the lens, the beams of light spreading from the center light were more muted than with the naked eye. I tried shooting with the inside lights on to see if it helped. It just made the blind more apparent. I tried shooting with longer and shorter exposure times. Nothing seemed to make the light beams stand out the way they do in real life.

I tried many adjustments. Making the light brighter made the blind in the foreground brighter as well. If I were really industrious, I would try using Photoshop Elements to select only the light beams and lighten them individually, but I suspect I would end up with bright spots in the blinds since they stand in front of the beams.

Adjusted slightly darker

It’s somewhat ironic that the object that creates the effect I want to capture is also the object that stands in the way of capturing it.

This is much like life. Take having a job. Having an income is what allows us to do all the things we want to do in life since, let’s face it, it all costs money. But having a job also takes the vast majority of our time, leaving us with portions of weekends and a few weeks vacation in which to jam all of those things we enjoy doing.

Or look at having a home. We want a nice place to live where things are comfortable and maybe even aesthetically pleasing. Yet, having a home takes work that takes time away from enjoying the home as well as more time away from doing things away from home.

There are not too many things in life that aren’t a trade-off. I suppose it’s a reality that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. When we embarked on our little adventure over a year and a half ago, we envisioned having very little in the way of worldly goods. Just enough clothes for me to have something to wear to work events besides a few days worth of casual wear. A handful of dishes–just enough for one meal at a time. Our bikes. Our camping gear. The computer gear I need to work. My camera gear. And the open road.

We thought we were ready to give up on having a home at all. But, here we are, with new blinds, accumulating the trappings that not so long ago we were getting rid of. The truth is, I like the blinds. But, I find myself with mixed feelings. Are they a nice decorative touch or the final sign that we are not going anywhere?

Something Old, Something New

Posted by dkrashb on February 9, 2013

Sunrise behind the Tennessee Aquarium

I decided to try shooting sunrise over the riverfront with a longer lens. I was originally thinking the 100-400mm lens to really zoom in tight and pick up details that I normally don’t get shooting landscape. But, as I selected the lens to put on my camera, I backed off on focal length, afraid I wouldn’t be able to get any of the sky in the frame.

The sky is among my favorite subjects and the thought of not being able to capture it if it did something really cool was unfathomable.

Had I been more awake, I might have put my long lens on my old 40D or on my husband’s Rebel–then I could have had both wide and tight views to choose from. But, I was not that awake and not that ambitious. Plus, sometimes I feel like it’s just a good exercise to see what you can get with what you’ve got instead of trying to have the perfect equipment on hand for every possible scenario. Every once in a while, I get inspired and do something really creative.

However, instead of sticking with my original plan, I hedged my bet and put my 70-200mm lens on my camera instead. I figured this would give me enough range to get some sky and still get details. And, it is a better lens than the 100-400mm.

This was probably not wise. I ended up shooting around 85mm and getting shots that look remarkably like the shots I get from the riverfront walkway in the park below with a wider lens. Except these look flatter.

If you’re not into photography, perhaps I should explain that wide angle lenses distort a scene in such a way that it make things look further apart. Conversely, long lenses make things look closer together. So, the buildings, for example, look like they’re all on the same street even though I only shot at 85mm. Had I been shooting at 16mm, the buildings would look further apart (and they would curve upwards at the outside of the frame due to the distortion created by shooting that wide).

In any case, my lens choice didn’t force me to do anything really interesting or creative. I just ended up with less than exciting landscape shots.

Of course, there is a lesson in this. I think it goes something like this: when you want to try something new, sometimes you have to leave yourself no option but to do something new. Otherwise, you might find that while you told yourself you were doing something new, you really just did the same thing you always do.

When I saw the clouds blowing over the 27 bridge, I immediately went into landscape mode. I zoomed out to 70mm and tried to capture as much of the sky as I could. Next time, I’m taking the 100-400mm. I’m going to try to shoot at 300mm or higher and see what I get.

Clouds over the 27 bridge

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