Bikes Blues and BBQ, and other stuff.
Yeah, yeah… I know I am supposed to write in this blog space every day, but life is worth living when you get to experience it. Sometimes writing about what I did just takes the fun out of it. I mean, what's fun about writing a lengthy article that takes forever to proofread?
Yeah, your right. It is kind of fun to write these things. Kinda.
Kelli and I went to BB&BBQ on Dickson street a while back. I found it to just be a craft fair for bikers. Kind of a snooze for me. If I was still riding, it might have a little more appeal, but I quit riding over ten years ago. I wasn’t that big a fan of the culture then and now that it has nothing to do with me, even less.
Yeah, yeah… I know I am supposed to write in this blog space every day, but life is worth living when you get to experience it. Sometimes writing about what I did just takes the fun out of it. I mean, what's fun about writing a lengthy article that takes forever to proofread?
Yeah, your right. It is kind of fun to write these things. Kinda.
Kelli and I went to BB&BBQ on Dickson street a while back. I found it to just be a craft fair for bikers. Kind of a snooze for me. If I was still riding, it might have a little more appeal, but I quit riding over ten years ago. I wasn’t that big a fan of the culture then and now that it has nothing to do with me, even less.
The crowd was thick but not as thick as it was in the past. Maybe the biker culture has dwindled, or perhaps it is just too expensive, either way, it isn’t as popular as it once was.
There is always something to be said about the vanishing lines that are created from miles of motorcycles. Mostly just because of the oddity of it all. And then there are the people. The mandatory biker wannabees walking the streets, trying hard to escape real life. The young folks who want to be badasses and work very hard to convey that they are mean dudes and gals. Never really convinced me.
What I did notice this year, and last, was the increasingly larger and larger numbers of actual bikers at this rally. You know, the ones portrayed in movies and the like. Trust me when I say this, they are dangerous folks that you don’t want to be associated with on a daily basis. I have nothing against them. They are free to live their lives as they see fit. But the wannabes and the pretend badasses really don’t understand the biker culture that gets people killed. These guys are smart and very cognizant of what they do and how they do it. In fact, between my friend who grew up surrounded by bikers and myself, the stories we have will shock anyone who hasn’t tasted the culture.
And of course, you have the bible folks who carry the cross. I am not sure if this Roman Soldier was one of them, but I bet he is.
Oh, and I found this impressive piece of graffiti. No, I didn’t do it. LOL
That was all fine and dandy, but I am always looking for a story. My Mother and Father lent me some fodder for my muse and didn’t even know it.
After the “rally,” Kelli and I stopped by their house.
This birdbath, with its discolorations and reflections, reminds me of the old stories we had to read in High School English. You know, the ones with sirens and mermaids. The ones that gave birth to one of my favorite moves, Oh Brother Where Art Thou”.
On the hunt for a great Landscape
The end of a day; the sun making its nightly exit known to all. Its colors are the last grasp with the exclamation that it will return. It's rays folding through the trees, over the fields and bringing the depth of what is real to a warm and loving close.
I suppose I could say I am feeling better. The last piece of the puzzle to making me whole again is my voice. I am still just as hoarse and raspy as I was almost two weeks ago. Good news for anyone that thinks I am too loud (which is many more people than you may think) but bad news for me, as I cannot do some of my work yet. If you are an avid listener to my podcast, you would not be remiss to think that I may have just given it all up. Trust me, I haven't. I will be back to podcasting just as soon as my voice can handle it.
Since I was feeling ninety percent myself again, I was able to get out and take some photos. Because I haven't been shooting much, I decided to take some images of the Fayetteville Farmers Market. We got lucky and were able to get a great parking spot near the Fayetteville square (usually we have to walk four blocks) making it much more palatable for my weakened constitution. With just a few steps, we were smack dab in the crowd.
Typically, there isn't much more than the run of the mill Farmer's market stuff by the time we arrive (usually late because, you know, sleep). But to my pleasant surprise, we found ourselves face to face with a brass band. They were fair, not great, but good enough for a farmers market. I enjoyed the throwback tunes and the novelty of it all. Although I wasn't prepared to do so, I thought I would grab some video. After all, that is kinda what I do for a living.
After returning home and doing my thing with the photographs and the video footage. I mentioned to my friend that I was still trying to figure out precisely what kind of pictures people may want to purchase. He joined me in my office, and while contemplating his thoughts, we came across an interesting pic of a Golden Retriever. He sat up and exclaimed that it would be the perfect one to sell. I wasn't (and frankly, still not) convinced that anyone would want to purchase such a photo. It isn't their dog, so why would anyone want the face of a stranger adorning their walls, was my reply. He insisted and called in his girlfriend to confirm his epiphany. They were so adamant about it that I figured "why not."
What do you think? Is it something that would sell?
The next day, I still felt well and decided that it might be a great time to do a little more. I called up my friends and proposed that all four of us have a picnic somewhere, but we just weren't sure about the place where we would end up. It was suggested that we should visit a couple of swimming holes that my friend visited the weekend prior. Sounded interesting to me, Kelli didn't want to go (there was more TV to watch, after all) but we coaxed her into it.
We toured some very remote swimming holes just north of Devil's Den State Park. One of them was a little more "known" than we would have liked. It consists of some extremely tall bluff that the more adventurous like to jump from, A rope swing and lots of tadpoles. The sights were charming but I was more interested in watching the drama before me as group after group of novice cliff divers were coaxed by fiendish friends to jump into the cold river waters below. Personally, I agree with the ones unwilling to jump, but hey, life is short.
With the unknown perfect picnicking location looming above our heads, we decided to explore instead of having an old fashioned evening. Personally, I would have preferred a picnic. Things like that lend to serenity and peacefulness rather than rushing around trying to find something interesting to keep our minds occupied. That's one of the reasons I like landscape photography so much, you get to look upon views that the rest of the population generally are too busy to admire. Even more so when you are looking for that perfect landscape. To get it, you must take in all the beauty, not just what's directly in front of you.
Taking a landscape photo is more complicated than one might think. Yes, it is about photographing the thing in front of you, but there is a lot of preparations that go into it. The first and most obvious is the weather. To get that perfect sunset or sunrise, you need more than just a sun half nestled in the horizon. The beauty of the shot is rarely the sun. What makes that shot beautiful is the context.
The end of a day; the sun making its nightly exit known to all. Its colors are the last grasp with the exclamation that it will return. It's rays folding through the trees, over the fields and bringing the depth of what is real to a warm and loving close. Just like that sentence is dramatic and profound (although not my best poetic dissertation) a landscape must evoke feelings that rival, if not overshadow, any book that was ever written or poem that has ever been penned.
Sometimes just the sun can be cool. Reminds me of Miami Vice for some reason. Oh yeah! I had a Trapper Keeper in Jr High with this on it.
Well now, that was a little much, wasn't it? LOL,
To get that perfect landscape, though, you must look at the foreground of the picture as well as the sky. A bright day with a setting sun is nice, but a few clouds would most definitely be an addition that could keep it from being "ho-hum" and turn it into one of the most beloved sights anyone has ever seen.
Wow, What a long weekend!
When we got the the park we looked at the hills, studies the trails and some topographical maps and this thing looked brutal. Maybe not for the guy or gal that walks or runs ten miles a day, but for two guys that spend ninety percent of their time sitting in front of a computer screen, yeah…
Well, It’s been an exciting few days since my last post. I am still playing around with the camera and got to take a few portrait/snapshots with it courtesy of Bedford’s Camera and Video. They put on a photo-walk where they get a model for you to photograph and let you try out new camera gear. The only thing is, they didn’t have anything for my Sony and said that demand has been too high and they keep selling out of stuff. It may sound like an excuse but, in fact, the Sony a7III has actually been a strong leader in photography gear sales for a year or more. The camera did what I expected it to do, and I got sidetracked with messing with the camera instead of taking photographs. Now that I think of it, I should have used my flash and really got some interesting shots. Never-the-less, the shots were, and I got to see what this camera can do in this type of situation. Not too bad.
I did use a mix of lenses though. The deep woods photos were taken with the Tamron 70-300 while the rest were a mix of the Sony 50mm and the Rokinon 35mm Cine-lens.
If you are interested in Modeling, you can volunteer with Bedford’s as well. They are always looking for new faces.
I have been working with my new Sony a7III for a while now, trying to learn its quirks and proclivities. It behaves much different than my old a77, that’s for sure. While I have gotten a few good shots with the camera, I really haven’t found myself in a position to make that one grand photo or video, but I got really damned close on Saturday. My screenwriter and I were going to walk Mount Kessler in Fayetteville Arkansas to see if we might find an elusive view of the city or a spectacular spot that overlooks to the west.
I’m feeling dizzy.
When we got the park, we looked at the hills, studied the trails, and some topographical maps and this thing looked brutal. Maybe not for the guy or gal that walks or runs ten miles a day, but for two guys that spend ninety percent of their time sitting in front of a computer screen, yeah… we weren’t going to do that. I mean, what if we get lost and miss dinner!? We then decided the better thing was to go downtown and enjoy the Fayetteville Spring-fest. Yeah, they have food trucks there, and it’s only about two blocks long. See, now that is much better. While not overly exciting, it was unusual for a dull Saturday afternoon.
Hello, World!
Since it wasn’t that big of a thing, we broke for lunch and headed our separate ways for a while. I had some lunch while my buddy found himself moving some more of his stuff into a new apartment, even though he hasn’t signed a lease yet. They gave him the key, so I guess its not a problem.
This fish is super hungry.
About five o’clock I called him up and told him the sky should be pretty good for a sunset that night. I figured I might as well try to see what I can get. Being that I was being kinda lazy this weekend, I knew exactly where I wanted to go. Lake Fayetteville has a secret place you can go (maybe your not supposed to go?) and get a dead shot of the sunset against the Dam. It’s not hard to get to, but it’s not that easy either. It’s easy enough for even a lazy photog to get to, but I must say, I wasn’t disappointed. I actually thought I wasn’t going to get out of there with anything usable or exciting. But Six Hundred and Forty-Seven Photographs, you are bound to find something.
Ok, yes, I took way too many photos. But in reality, I didn’t. I was planning on making a time lapse out of all the RAW files, so I set it to take a photo every 1 second. I also wanted to see the range and depth of the camera when bracketing (taking multiple images and stacking them in Lightroom/Photoshop to get perfect exposure on every pixel). Between the two, I ended up with 35 gigs of photos and video. Most of which I will never use. If only I could bring myself to delete stuff. I am a terrible Data hoarder.
Sony A7III and Lots and Lots of birds.
One other thing that really makes me happy about the a7III is the amount of detail the stills retain when under exposed. Sony always does a good job at keeping detail in the blacks. Just like a RED camera, the Sony holds up when underexposed but really can’t deal effectively with over-exposure when compared to their counterparts. But really, I shoot dark all the time, it’s my style, so this camera makes my life so much easier in post.
This weekend was busy! My wife wanted to go to the Harry Potter convention here in town, so we had to go to bed early and get up like any other weekday without sleeping in. I know, such a rough life. It was pretty cool, the convention. I like the movies, but I’m not as big into HP as a lot of the folks there. One thing I found really interesting was the Raptors.
Wait, what? It’s a Harry Potter convention…
No! Not those kind of Raptors!
The Raptor Rescue from Conway brought them up because, you know, Hedwig.
Owls are part of the Raptor family of birds, and they are cool. They started off by sitting outside the Town Center, and everyone got a close look at them. My favorite? The Owls, of course.
As a photographer, I am happy with these pictures, but I am even more impressed with the quality of the camera I have. I have a new Sony a7III, and it really makes me not miss my “crop” sensor a77 that I’ve been shooting on for years. I shot all these photos with my Sony 50mm off the shelf Prime lens. Nothing special to it, just a run of the mill lens. But the quality is so good, way better than what I am used to. The Sony a7III is a full frame camera with about 20 stops of exposure built in.
Almost all of these shots on this page are cropped. Not just cropped in, but SUPER cropped. Here is the full photo of the Horned Owl.
Now, Here is just cropping in on the eyes.
It’s not precisely Pixel Peeping, but I am really stoked about the resolution of this camera.
One other thing that really makes me happy about the a7III is the amount of detail the stills retain when underexposed. Sony always does an excellent job of keeping detail in the blacks. Just like a RED camera, the Sony holds up when underexposed but really can’t deal effectively with over-exposure when compared to their counterparts. But really, I shoot dark all the time, it’s my style, so this camera makes my life so much easier in post.
These shots were mostly outside with the bright sky behind the subject. The photos were able to expose well and with very little noise. I was just running and gunning with these shots so let's not judge the shooter, ok?
As shot with no adjustments.
Fully exposed and adjusted. I even brought up the exposure more than I usually would.
In Lightroom, you can get even closer with the RAW photo, and I looked really hard and could not find any noise what-so-ever. Ok, maybe a keener eye might find defects, but they would be hard pressed.
Then we were off to see my father. It was his birthday on Saturday, and they had a little wine.
I noticed a cool looking thing in front of me on the counter. Since I had my camera with me, I couldn’t help myself.
I think this might be a shot I set up later for a product type shot. Better lighting, cleaner glasses, and probably not a wine stain, leaking down the label. But you know, it kinda works.
So, we all went out to eat for his birthday to an ok restaurant in Springdale that is kinda famous. It has been host to three Presidents and the latest season of “True Detective” on HBO, the AQ Chicken House.
Al and Vivian (Mom and Dad)
Kelli in all her Harry Potter stuff
CRAZY Chicken statue in the lobby of AQ Chicken House.
Still using the 50mm for all these shots, I was able to pull the detail out of them without sacrificing image quality even under some of the worst photographic conditions you can think of. Not too shabby.
The next day, it was finally sunny, but it was Sunday and Screenwriting day. Donald and I spent almost ten hours talking over just the opening image of our latest screenplay. UG!
He was running behind so that morning I went out and shot with my Tamron 70-300 zoom I bought for my a77. Fortunately, I thought far enough ahead to purchase the full frame version of the lens, so It works perfectly. The only problem I do have with it is that the lens information doesn’t pass through to the camera. Oh well. I can see the aperture but nothing else.
Since I couldn’t really go for a photo walk or leave the driveway (remember, I was waiting for Donald to show up), I decided to get some photos of the Cardinals and Robins that live in my yard, and of course, they weren’t around, so I had to wait on them too. With my patience rewarded I did get a few shots.
It was such a busy weekend that I had to include everything that went on in one post, I guess. Maybe I am just being a little lazy and not separating it all out into a daily thing, but as you can tell, I am really more interested in the photography of the weekend than I am Harry Potter stuff, but whatever.