Great day for flying a kite!

Posted by Paul on November 12, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .


This weekend, I took a quick trip down to Charleston with my friend James. Sometimes, I miss Charleston, especially the beach. Though I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not a beach fan, I do miss the beach in the winter and late fall when the population has fallen drastically and the breeze is cool, rather than warm and humid.

James and I spent most of the day Saturday in downtown, walking, looking around, and finally stopping for dinner at Hyman’s, a well known eating establishment with some fantastic food. The restaurant’s walls are adorned with the photos and autographs of the numerous stars who have graced the establishment. Each table has a label or two, what famous person sat there. James and I sat at the table where Aretha Franklin, as well as Steve Guttenburg sat. This was James’ first time, but my second. I had the famous Crispy Flounder, again. I love it!

On Sunday, before departing, we spent a little time at the Isle Of Palms beach. It was my favorite place to go after work, while waiting for traffic to subside. As soon as we walked onto the beach, we saw a guy flying a kite with 12 seconds. He would make it do some serious climbs, have it swoop back down towards the ground, perform several loops, as well as various other tricks. Also, he would make it hover above some parents and children, much to the children’s delight. Though we only stayed at the beach for about 30 minutes, I spent most of my time watching him. Certainly, I could have stayed much longer, but we were meeting my friend, Dennis for lunch and had to keep it short.

It was great to return to Charleston and catch up and have a chance to visit IOP again. It was difficult to believe that it had been more than a year since I had been down there! In the end, I got to do my little photo walk. It was a great time. And once again, the Nikon P-510 proved to be an excellent walking around camera. The reach of that zoom is just unparalleled!

First World Problems

Posted by Paul on November 10, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: .

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. ~ G.K. Chesterton

I have to laugh when I encounter a first world problem of my own such as this: 8 empty frames. 100 sheets of paper. Printer full of ink. “I have to decide what to print and put in those frames!” – If that’s not a first world problem, I don’t know what is! I think that I’ll procrastinate, go to Charleston, SC today, spend the night, and take some more photos! :D

I must always remember to be grateful!

That’s not how I remember it

Posted by Paul on November 5, 2012
Posted in: Personal, Photography. Tagged: .

When I think of the end of fall, I seem to always remember what job I had to complete before the snow set in. My father would insist that I rake the leaves in the backyard and bag them for collection. If you had asked me back then, that was an insurmountable task! I mean the WHOLE backyard??? We had a huge maple tree there and, in actuality, the backyard was quite small – as I found out when I became an adult and had a chance to the look at the yard through adult eyes. It was comically small, actually. :D But, as a kid, I could make that an all-day task!

This evening as I was walking, trying to cat those last rays of sunlight, I saw the neighborhood clean up crew getting rid of all the leaves. They would blow it into large piles, then come by with a truck with a large vacuum on it and make quick work of those leaves.

I could have used such help when I was a kid, but then again, I wouldn’t have had the fun of jumping into the pile when I finished raking it.

Fall back

Posted by Paul on November 4, 2012
Posted in: Photography.


Alas, it is that time of year in the northern hemisphere when we “fall back” – Early this morning, we moved our clocks back and hour. It’s light a bit earlier and dark, at what seems like a lot earlier.

This morning I got up, fed Hobbs, and headed over to the UNCC gardens. I’d not been since early summer. Usually there are few nuggets to be had in the garden such as the top photo. This morning, however, I thought that I’d have to leave empty-handed. Nothing caught my interest. There were lots and of leaves scattered about, evidence of the large amounts of wind that we had over the past few days.

This time of year, I think, gets to be challenging for some photographers. It’s the grey time of year. We are well past the verdant greens of spring and summer, past the exuberant colors of fall, heading deep into the quiescence of winter. The time, according to Chinese medicine, etc, for hibernation, healing, slowing down.

During this time, some of us may drop back to doing things left undone in the summer months like printing, or learning more about Lightroom, or perhaps installing and learning Photoshop CS6. I’m sure that there are plenty of items on everyone’s to-do list. However, the winter can be interesting. Living in a part of the country where snow is a rarity, I like the occasional snow day. It’s a great break from the crystal clear, cold, blue skies of the winter.

Once again, looking into the archives, I noticed that most of my photos in December and January are inside shots, long shadows, etc, mixed with a bit of still life and flash photography. I’m sure that it’s no coincidence. :) There are a couple of notable exceptions, winter of 2008 and 2009, I have lots of beach photos – I was living in Charleston, not so much warmer than Charlotte, but the beach is still interesting in the winter, but with less people.

For the Newbies – Risk Taking: Sharing your work

Posted by Paul on November 2, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .


Why is it all blurry?

I will not usually repost a photo, but I think that this one deserves to be reposted because there is a story with it. :) Most of you who blog and share your work already know this – Any time that you share your work, there is a chance that someone will not like it, or perhaps they will not understand it. Here’s what happened to me the other day:

As I was cruising through the archives, I came upon a photo of my friend’s daughter having a good time on the swing. I remember taking this photo and what I was trying to do was to get her in focus and the background as a blur, but as it turned out, that didn’t happen; however, I still really liked this, played with it a bit, and posted it the other day to the blog. In the meantime, I sent him a copy of it saying: James, here’s a picture of your daughter that I thought that you might like. I got no reply. We both work for the same company, so I chatted with him on IM and asked if he got the photo. The conversation was something like this:


Paul: Hey, James. Did you get the photo that I sent you of your daughter?
James: Yes.
Paul: I thought it was pretty cool. Did you like it?
James: It was blurry
Paul: That was the intent – to show motion – you know, artsy.
James: I would have considered it artsy if the background was blurry and my daughter was in focus.
Paul: To each his own – feel free to delete it, if you wish.
James: No. I’ll keep it since it is a photo of my daughter. I didn’t mean to offend you.
Paul: No offense taken. Everything is not for everyone.

Truthfully, I was not offended in the least. James is a very good friend of mine and we’ve had similar discussions before. He’s very literal in what he likes. He’s not going to like much that is abstract or needs much thinking/feeling beyond what is apparent. I’ve joked with him about being so literal, but that’s just the way he is.

Know that any time that you put your stuff on display, there are going to be some who love it, some who hate it, some who just don’t get it. This is fine. Just as long as you keep doing what you want like to do. Of course, if you are working for a client, you have to go with what they like – they are paying you, after all. Criticism certainly won’t kill you, and some of it might actually help.

There’s nothing new here, actually, just sharing. No matter how long you’ve been doing photography, you can bet that somewhere there is someone that just doesn’t get it or like it – it may even be a close friend, maybe even a spouse. I’m sure some of my fellow bloggers have stories to share! :D

Lastly, if you’ve been visiting and haven’t commented – if you have something to say, please do!

Gone missing

Posted by Paul on November 1, 2012
Posted in: Personal. Tagged: .


I went out photographing this evening and this thought popped up, so I thought that I’d write about it:

When I was married, before I left in the morning to go shoot, I’d leave a note indicating where I was headed. Almost 100% of the time, I was back before anyone woke up to see the note, but thought that it was a nice idea to leave it, just in case anyone was wondering my whereabouts; though it was pretty easy to guess what I was doing, they would have no idea of where I was doing it.

The kids are grown now, I’m single, and no one needs to know my location, nor depends on me daily, save for Hobbs. Many months ago, a friend of mine named Jenny said: I wonder long it would take people to notice that I had died if I stopped showing up to class or kayaking? First, a small profile of Jenny. She’s very much a loner and would think nothing of it to plan a kayak trip, solo for 200 – 300 miles, maybe more. She said she doesn’t call many people, people don’t visit her, and she doesn’t visit much. We both agreed, it would probably be a long time before someone decided to go looking for her.

I’m not that much of a loner. I would imagine that within about 2 days, people would start to look. I communicate with people at work, daily. I talk to my friend, James every day. I talk to my girlfriend, Debra, every day. But, just like mentioned above, they’d know that I was missing, but not have a clue as to where to look, other than the house. If I wasn’t there ???

I’m sure that it would be an easy matter to find me as I wouldn’t be far from my car – I’m not exactly an X-treme hiker. I don’t stray far from my car and once the public park starts to close, one would become suspicious of the car that is still there and perhaps the manhunt would be on, or perhaps the park ranger would have the car towed and head on to the house for dinner :D

Anyway, it was just a thought that popped up. It won’t stop me from going out and taking pictures, though. Do you let someone know where you’re going? If you’re single, would anyone know where to look?

Happy Number 13, Hobbs

Posted by Paul on October 31, 2012
Posted in: Personal.


Monitoring for squirrels, rabbits, birds, whatever – age 5

The photo to the right is one of the earliest digital pictures that I have of Mr. Hobbs. This was taken when he had just turned 4. I’m sure that I have earlier pictures, but I’d have to ‘search’ the photo archives manually. :D As you can see, he’s checking out the snowman, getting ready to place his seal of approval upon it as soon as Tony turns his back. LOL

Of course, as with any other Miniature Schnauzer, he was full of energy, always ready to go and play, no matter who, no matter where. I remember that he used to chase Tony around the couch in the living room. Tony would run around, Hobbs would simply jump over, as it was shorter. Any time that I’d let him out into the backyard, he’d be on a squirrel hunt, or chasing a rabbit. He was probably 0-500, but he never gave up hope to catch one of those varmints!

As time went on, he maintained his same level of energy, though he’d sometimes go around the couch in later years, rather than jump over. As some of you may recall, during 2010 and 2011, we’d go on daily 4 mile walks, which is when he got his celebrity status.

Now, 13 years-old, diabetic, mostly blind, and hard of hearing, it’s all about sleeping, eating, and short walks. He still likes to go for rides, but doesn’t jump up into the seat anymore, instead waiting patiently for give him a boost up into the seat. The springs just don’t work like they used to. Also, he’s not so prone to ‘regulating’, or trying to control everyone within sight – what limited sight he has.

However, even at his advanced age, he’s still in good spirits and a good companion who seems to have sudden bursts of energy when it’s feeding time! Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday, old man!