BEST SEAT IN,..ER OUT OF THE HOUSE?

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS, Canon 50mm f/1.8II, ISO 100, 3 Exposure HDR at f/2.8

  I have been very unhappy with the fact that the National Weather Service has been saying we are going to get 4-5" of snow this weekend and we haven't seen anything but some flurries.  Really been itching to take some snowy landscape pics, just haven't been anywhere near snow to get them.
  I've also been frustrated with the fact that I just haven't been able to get a photo that I have been happy with in a week or so. That's why my previous post, CASEY IN THE CLOUDS, was a shot from last May.
  On my way home from taking my son to basketball practice today, I drove by an abandoned house that I have noticed before, but haven't really been attracted to it to photograph.  Today was different in that I noticed an old recliner and couch sitting next to each other in the yard. In an earlier post just after Christmas, HAVE A SEAT, I posted a similar scene only it was in the living room of an abandoned house.  This furniture was out in the yard!
  You can see that there is other garbage out in the yard like a vacuum and a lamp.  They were closer to the house entry than the furniture.  It almost looks like whoever did this was dragging the furniture out and just left a wake of other garbage behind it as they went along.
  Whatever the reason, I think it created an interesting scene.

CASEY IN THE CLOUDS

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS, Tamron 28-80 lens @ 54mm, ISO 200, f/14, 1 sec.

  I was having trouble finding anything that I have taken lately as post worthy so I did what several of my photog friends have been doing, looked back in my archive.  Low and behold, I found what I probably thought as one of my favorite images.
  This image was taken back in May shortly after the purchase of my new DSLR. The family made a jaunt to Bald River Falls and played around in the water on a steamy Friday evening.
  When the light was getting scarce, my wife wanted me to take some pictures in black and white with the kids standing on this rock out in the stream underneath the falls and the bridge.  I have stated before, my wife is a huge deal to my photography and she hit the nail on the head with these.    With there being so little light underneath the bridge I had to have the kids stay perfectly still for these shots in order to have a long shutter speed to get enough light.  They were real troopers and did a great job.  The long shutter really had a great effect on the water as well giving it a cloud-like shape. 
  The black and white pulled neat details out of the water even though it was blurred by the long shutter.
  This is my son Casey in the photo and his pose is very similar to his normal attitude, which is what I love about this shot compared to the other kids' poses.  He kind of exudes an "I don't really care" pose which is so Casey.

SCHOOL'S OUT

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, ISO 100, 3 exposure HDR at f/8.0

  About a mile down the road from my house is Hiwassee College. This small community college is one of the oldest colleges in the state, if not THE oldest.

  Over the past few years the school has been struggling to keep it's accreditation's.  The last couple of years, though, has seen them gain back their accreditation's as well as offer 4 year programs and degrees. Maybe this will aid in bringing money to the school so it can be spent on the infrastructure.

  Hiwassee was established in 1849 and when you walk around the campus, you would swear that with the exception of the chapel, the buildings that are there have been standing it's entire existence. Most older college campuses have a true old, nostalgic feel to their campuses but Hiwassee takes it to the extreme.

  Monday morning after I shot the windmill from my previous post WINDMILL MORNING my travels landed me at Hiwasse to explore the college.
  The first parking lot that you come to is across from the the Rudy Youell Recreation Center and adjacent to Brunner Hall. Brunner Hall was erected in 19156 and at one time was a dorm. One of the oldest buildings on campus it was probably the first dorm built at Hiwassee.  It was renovated back in 1957 and again in 1978 and could house 84 students. I wasn't able to get inside the building because it is boarded up and chain locked from being condemned only 33 years after it's last renovation.
  I really thought it was neat how the ivy crawled up the side of the front wall and has totally mangled the building's name plate.
  Hopefully, the future will see me pull some strings and try to get inside the building for some urbex photography.  Until then I will just have to be satisfied with the dilapidated outside of the building and wonder what time has done to the inside.

BACK TO WORK

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS, Tamron 28-80mm lens @ 28mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/125 sec. 

 The only bad thing about vacations is that they eventually end. It was only a 4 day weekend but for the first time ever it felt like an entire week. Very relaxing!
  But Tuesday brought an end to both mine and my kids' time off and I was back to work and they were back to school.
  There is one great thing about going back to work. My place of business is on Tellico Lake and the sun rises on the opposite side of the lake from us.  In between is the Smoky Mountains so we have some picturesque sunrises.  This morning was no exception.
  This morning I tootled into the parking lot at roughly 7:30am and the cloud formations were nothing short of incredible.  I had to unpack very quickly before the light dissipated so no filters, no remote switch. Just enough time to mount to the tripod and go.
  Mid way through taking shots I did have enough time to exchange the 50mm lens for the 28-80mm. It was well worth it to get more of the sky into the shot. Would have loved to set the ND8 neutral density filter and polarizer on it to pull some more blue out of the clouds and possibly blur the clouds a little. Considering the pressing circumstances, I think this shot turned out well.
  I think I just squeaked into the building at 8:00. But the results were worth it.

WINDMILL MORNING

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS, Tamron 28-80 lens @ 28mm, ISO 100, f/8.0 1/4 sec. 

  Usual Monday mornings are spent getting kids ready for school and getting myself off to work. With New Year's Day being on a Saturday this year, I got this morning off. So I used the available time to try and find some places to shoot. Turns out, I only had to go around the corner.
  The windmill in the picture is another one of those landmarks that I pass by every day. And every day I say, I am going to take some photos of that windmill, but never do. Well, this morning I stayed true to my word.
  This reminds me of the American Plains like that of Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. Really something you don't see much of anymore, but still a great American symbol.
  Would've liked to have had some clouds behind it, but there wasn't a one of them in site.  The large tree on the left, the windmill, and the branch that creeps in from the right all seem to form a bracket around a lone star that was still hanging around just before sunrise.
  Tried to do some HDR processing on the photo but everything that I liked turned out with a halo around the trees and windmill.  When I looked back at the raw images, the silhouette against the purple/blue sky stood out more so I went with the original image.
  If you look real close in the bottom right corner you can see the Veteran's Memorial American Flag flying that is in downtown Madisonville.

DISAPPEARING WINDOWS

  Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS, Tamron 28-80 lens @ 28mm, ISO 100, 3 exposure HDR @ f/11

  Don't know how this one will go over technically, but standing in the road in the rain presented enough degree of difficulty made this photo worth posting for me.
  After spending a frustrating 2 hours cleaning the sensor of my camera, I felt I deserved the opportunity to go out take some pictures. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did all she could to keep me from it. It had rained all night here in East Tennessee and continued through most of the day. I had to go to Wal-Mart to get some groceries and on my back home I passed by this old brick building for about the millionth time in 3 years. This is first time it jumped out at me and said "Take my picture!"
  The building being built on a hill just lends itself to being photographed. The long lines created by the sidewalk take you from the foreground to the background and the windows starting just above the pavement on the foreground end absolutely disappear as you get to the far end of the block.
  Even though the rain was a nuisance, it actually was the reason I was out. I wanted to get that reflection off the rain soaked pavement. It also kind of gave the red brick a shine that it wouldn't have had any other time.
  The only thing I don't like about the shot is the power pole on the corner. I tried my best to work around it, but there was no way of eliminating it from the shot.
  First post of 2011 has to had to have water in it, somehow.

THE NEW YEAR

 

  On the first day of 2011, I am really looking forward to what photography will bring for me in the new year. I can't really look ahead without visiting what has happened in the past 12 months to set the foundation for next 12.
  As far back as my teenage years I have always been into photography. The coincidence of my old Canon T50 getting damaged and the introduction of digital photography kind of put a damper on that interest. I still loved it, just didn't have the money to invest in new equipment so the interest kind of subsided. Over the past 9-10 years I have been keeping up with the progress of DSLR's and just longing to buy one but not able to afford one.
 January of 2010 brought my the change to re-ignite my photography obsession. My wife, Melissa, had normally been laid off in the summer months because she drove a school bus for living. This year, however, after a year of schooling she got hired full time as at EMT and would not be laid off summers any more. This meant that the money I made umpiring high school softball could be used as extra and not as bill money.
  When April came around I purchased my DSLR, a Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS.
  The obsession was reborn!
  My lunch hours at my job were spent checking out photography web sites trying to pick up any tips and instruction I could find. Every available free moment was used to either take pictures or learn how to do it better. I spend a lot of my time on Outdoor Photographer Magazine and following incredible photographers like Ian Plant, Jay Goodrich and many others and learning from them sharing their insight to their craft.
  My obsession hit in the spring and due to this I learned that my favorite thing to point my camera at was moving water and waterfalls in particular. The area of the county I live in lent to this love of water. East Tennessee and Western North Carolina have hundreds of waterfalls and streams to photograph.  The photo in this post is of Bald River Falls in the Cherokee National Forest that I have visited no less than 5 times since the purchase of my camera and will continue to visit more and more as I get better at the craft.
  One of the additional fuels to the fire was my brother Jim's paralleled obsession. Check out his work HERE.  He has become an incredible photographer with an expertise in HDR.  I bounced ideas and asked him for opinions on everything from the purchase of my camera, to composition, and even still bother him with the occasional HDR processing.  Sharing this interest has made communicating with him much more frequent than we had before. Being able to share photography with him has made it that much more enjoyable.
  The last couple of months of the year have really brought a huge change to my photography. Jim introduced me to Oscar Navarro from Venezuela on Facebook. Another talented photographer and terribly great guy. The both of them talked me into joining Twitter because of the photography contacts and resources on it. OH MY GOSH! There are so may incredible photographers tweeting. I have met so many great people on twitter that there is no way of naming them all and every one of them fantastic photog's.  I find myself talking on twitter more than Facebook nowadays.
  Through Twitter, the new year will see me collaborate on some grunge photography with Chris Nitz, Rob Hanson, Jesse Pafundi, and Jim.  I am very excited about this collaboration with these guys. They are all great photographers and I am humbled to be included with them.
  Some of the things ahead for Denham Photography in 2011.
  My photos are on sale at All Artists Home. This is exciting even though I have yet to make my first sale. Hopefully, this will blossom in the new year.
  January sees me travel to San Antonio, TX for my real job, Design Engineer for Yamaha Sport Boats. I'm excited about shooting the Riverwalk, the Missions, and downtown San Antonio in the 5 days I will be there.
  Springtime presents the opportunity to take what I have learned from the latter part of the year and apply it to the streams and waterfalls of the area. Can't wait for green foliage and full streams.
  The spring also starts softball umpiring for me. I can take the money I earn and apply it to building my photography resources. New lenses, software, and gadgets are on the wish list.
  My son is a sophomore in high school and I have spent a ton of time shooting his basketball team. Love sports photography and the new equipment I have on the wish list will hopefully add to the quality of those basketball shots when he becomes a junior and gets more playing time.  My daughter's cheerleading is another avenue of sports photography that I look forward to every year.
  Can't wait to see what happens this year!
  Can't go without thanking and acknowledging my wife and kids. They tolerate me without complaining too much. They can't possibly fathom what they mean to me. I give a lot of credit in photography to my wife. She prods me to take certain shots and styles. Tells me her honest opinion of the shots I take. All this in addition to being an incredible wife and mother. I don't know what I would do without her.
  I met a lot of great people in 2010 in addition to the already great people I already know and love. To all of you I say thank you for your support, opinions, tips, and friendship. I hope 2011 will be safe and prosperous for all of you.
  Sorry I got a bit wordy. HAPPY NEW YEAR!