Justin Acuff Photography » Travel

April and May 09 Summed Up

Justin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:25:13 +0000

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I want to get around to posting some other things, but want to finish these summaries up as well. That is why this post will be about April and May.

During the last few days I was in Brazil, I spent in Recife. There is a really old area near Recife called Olinda that I was interested in seeing. This is the Church of Saint Benedict in Olinda. One of the things I really loved about my stay in Brazil was how well the sky polarized when using a circular polarizer. The sun is really high in the sky most of the day, so it is also easier to get a polarized sky.

One of the subjects that is more challenging for me is flowers. It’s mainly because I get the feeling that it has all been done before. So when I do shoot flowers, there are some very specific criteria it has to meet. How are the colors? Is there another interesting subject? Can this make for an interesting composition? Actually, I’ll consider those with most every shot, but it’s more strict with flowers. For this, I headed to the UT Gardens while the tulips where in bloom. I saw the red tulip in a flowerbed of yellow tulips so I had color and an interesting composition.

For the water fountain shot, I knew that I wanted to do some night shoots of it at World’s Fair Park during what is commonly called the blue hour. The blue hour a time after sunset (and before sunrise) where the sky turns into a deep blue. Another interesting thing that I did not know about this fountain, was that at 30 minutes before they turn the fountain off, it runs through a program complete with music.

This shot at Norris Dam was really neat to get. I had heard that TVA was opening the spillways on several of their dams in the system. Having previously photographed sunrises and sunsets at Norris Dam, I knew the sunrise would make for a good shot. The spillway running makes it even better. I used a graduated neutral density filter to hold back the sky allowing it to go into that deep orange and red but not darken the dam.

This photo was taken while I was waiting for the sunrise on the riverwalk. It provided an interesting composition with the placement of the great blue heron and the arches in the bridge. I got some really good sunrise shots, but being a photo-a-day, I knew I could go back and get a sunrise shot another day, this shot I may not be able to get again.

March 09 Summed Up

Justin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:14:40 +0000

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After work I decided I would go walk around downtown Knoxville/Market Sqaure with only a 50mm lens to see what I could capture. I thought this sign was kind of amusing, so I took a photo of it and processed it using another Lomo action I found.

The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in World’s Fair Park is kind of a recent addition. I wanted to go just after sunset, during “the blue hour”. I shot it with a 16mm lens. I love how the colors turned out, but still think this shot would benefit greatly by using the 17mm Tilt-Shift lens.

Sticking with a veterans theme, I decided to shoot the replica of the War Dog Memorial (original in Guam)

One of the things you have to do if you are ever in Natal, Brazil is ride the buggies. The dunes of Natal are simply amazing. In the end, I liked this image the best. It is at a zip line place called Aero Bunda.

Jesse and Juliana’s wedding was a lot of fun… apparently the flower girl thought so too. Too much dancing and too much drink and she was passed out on the floor.

This was taken with my Powershot G9 with my underwater case. I meet up with some friends that were staying at a Pousada. Some of the missionary kids came along as well. It didn’t take many shots to get what I wanted. I prefocused on the area I knew I wanted the capture and anticipated when to shoot, bearing in mind that shutter lag on a P&S is longer than my SLR.

Damascus Caboose

Justin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:47:07 +0000

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I have passed by the Caboose many times as I have biked the Virginia Creeper Trail. The Virginia Creeper trail is a popular bike trail that runs from White Top Mountain down to Damascus, VA and into Abingdon, VA. I was meeting up with some friends over to weekend but since they were coming from Nashville, I arrived a few hours before they did. As usual, I had my camera with me. To kill some time, I decided to walk the town and look for some interesting stuff to photograph. There were a few Churches and some Bed & Breakfasts, but when I think of Damascus, VA, I think of the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper. So I was drawn to the park that hosts this caboose, which is also used as a visitor’s center.

To create this image, I took two exposures (15 seconds and 30 seconds) and merged them to an HDR photo using Photoshop. Flash was not used. Next I used the Photomatix Tone Mapping plug-in to reveal more of the details. Using the quick selection tool I selected everything but the caboose, then switched the selection to the inverse. This helped to lock all modifications to the caboose and not the surrounding areas. I used an edge enhancement to make the caboose stand out more. To give it that final pop, I used the burn and dodge tools to emphasis the lights and shadows.

The final photo is a little different from my normal shots, though I’ll continue to experiment with this method.