Bowling Green at Night

Not a lot for this weekend. Friday night I had an hour I had to kill in town. I haven't tried any hand held night shots, so I hit the square.  In general, they turned out much better than I anticipated.  I kept an eye on the exposure, letting some of the shots blowout the brightest highlights. I thought those would be the best, but the shots with no blown (or barely) highlights were better. Here are a few, all at 6400 ISO.

I caught the sunrise at barren river both Saturday and Sunday morning but there were absolutely no clouds in the sky and the shots were uninteresting (that is putting it kindly). Win some, lose a lot.

Taking Out the Trash!

It's overcast and a lower layer of clouds are moving relatively quickly. I hadn't planned on going out with the camera this morning but I have been wanting to catch some cloud movement. I am trying to do a few long exposures with the 10stop ND filter. I did get a few that illustrate the effect I am going for, but they are not very dramatic. I am posting one of those. Oh well, I'll try again.

Finally, sadly, I got a good view of where our trash goes.  It makes you understand why there is an island of plastic in the Pacific twice the size of Texas.  I don't normally want to take or post this type of picture, but I thought it was relevant. The location is Trammel Creek in Romanza Johnson Park. Click the 'Read More' link below for this entire post including this sad photo.

This was just a scene I saw as I was driving to Trammel Creek.
Barns off of Scottsville Rd, Bowling Green Ky

Trying to catch moving clouds. 30 Second Exposure.
Romanza Johnson Park, Alvaton Ky
Not great, but it's a start.


 We had a lot of rain yesterday and last night, which washed a large amount of plastic and other trash into the river system.

Scroll way down for that trash shot.



Keep scrolling!






Keep going!






Almost there.












Now for your viewing pleasure....


On it's way to the Ocean. We are doing our part!
Trammel Creek, Romanza Johnson Park, Alvaton Ky

Mooning From My Backyard

I don't shoot the sky much from my yard, as my neighbors have security lights and the yard is not as dark as I would like. The moon looked nice though, so I fired off a few shots. Major cropping going on here.

'Fall Happens' or 'Trail Kill'

I thought this might be the best weekend of the year to grab some color around these parts. Went to Shanty Hollow Lake Saturday. Got there around 5:30pm, the sun was going down. Took a few shots, will come back tomorrow. Sunday I went up to Mammoth Cave again. Took quite a few photos - not much worth keeping. I did keep one of a hornet's nest. Bumped into one of the guys in the 'SunnySixteen' BG photography club at the pond. Nice guy.

Decided to get to Shanty Hollow early and go back to the waterfall. No keepers of the waterfall. The mushroom shot is really close to the falls. Busted my rear end on a slick rock - ouch. Luckily, I have some padding back there, no damage to me or the equipment - fall happens. I did also break a small log I was sitting on while setting up the camera, got a little wet, knocked the tripod (and camera) over. The camera landed on a pile of leaves. Klutz. (Lucky Klutz)


Sloan's Pond (Yep, again.) - Mammoth Cave National Park, Ky
This hornet's nest is right on the edge of the pond.

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Shanty Hollow Lake - Warren County, Ky (all shots below)
A polarizer filter was used on all Shanty Hollow shots except the mushroom, hence the almost-too-blue sky and water.




He almost became 'boot kill', or would it be 'trail kill'? Anyway, I almost squashed him. He was right there at the waterfall.

The crack is around six to eight feet deep. Maybe next time, my waterfall pictures will make the cut. It was downstream from here a bit that I got wet. My depth of field needs to be deeper, the top of the shot is soft.




The sun is going down.




The sun is down.

'I-crop-a-lot' or 'Psuedo-Alone'

Garden of the Gods, Shawnee National Forrest, Southern Ilinois

Met an elementary school classmate and her husband at Garden of the Gods. They live an hour or two north of GOG. Rainy most of the day. The rain did clear out for a few hours around noon, fortunately that was when we were to meet. We stayed there on the Observation Trail for a few hours, then went to find something to eat. The sky was clearing out again as it was starting to get dark. I was still in the area, so I went back for some night shots. Nothing too daring, as it was getting pretty dark.
It was actually a little spooky out there in the dark. As the 15 minute exposure was happening, I made the trip back to the trail several times. Then, on the way back to the camera, I had to re-find it, while trying not to shine a light at the camera. I think it was maybe four crack jumps to get out there. The camera actually takes a second shot of the same duration with the shutter closed to subtract out some of the noise. I decided to let that happen on the way home in the truck. I hadn't planned on staying that late, so with a 3.5 hour drive home time, it was getting late for an old fella who likes to get up early.

I wasn't stupid enough to follow it into a pond or anything but on the way there, my gps took me through 4 or 5 miles of gravel roads! Nice scenery though. On the way home I refused to turn onto the gravel road, so it re-calculated a friendlier route.


Polarizer filter on all but the night shots.


'Pseudo-Alone': I cropped a few people out on the very left edge. I-crop-a-lot. No, that was not a typo.
















5 Minute Exposure


15 Minute Exposure

'Grabbing Lunch' or 'Not Enough Glass!'

Sloan's Pond - Mammoth Cave National Park, Ky. Yeh, yeh, I know, I have been up here a lot. I am still playing around with the new lens. Better to figure it out here, as there is a nice handicapped track around the pond with two 'decks' or 'mini-piers'. The heron that dines here was on the prowl. I watched him for a while, set the camera on him. He was much closer than he normally is. Anyway, I had taken my eyes off him for a while, and when I looked back, his head was coming out of the water with a fish. The camera was still ready (on a tripod), so I started firing. The 40D fires at 6 frames per second, so I had plenty to choose from. I really don't have enough glass to get to him, but with some cropping, you can at least see the fish. This was with the Canon 100-400 lens.


Not enough glass!! All that money (to me anyway), and still not enough glass!!!

Neutral Density Creek Wading

Alavton KY - Low water ford across Trammel Creek.
I bought an ND1000 neutral density filter (10 stop) (this is an expensive hobby). After a few disappointing outings shooting traffic and a fountain downtown, I decided try moving water. These are right as the sun was up a bit and still nicely orange. I think I started around 8am CST. The exposure times were from 8 to 20 seconds.

Weekend of 08/29/09

This was right off the new gravel trail they built from Park City to the visitors center. It was a little windy so it was tough to keep focus. I shot several of this and other flowers, but this was the only real keeper.


Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
Nice.

Spider vs Bee! Film at 11!

Again, I tend to like star trail shots. I shined the flashlight for a portion of the exposure on the nearby foleage.


Sloan's Pond - Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
I like star trails, even short ones.

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Freeman Lake, Elizabethtown KY (all below)






Spider vs Bee!
Actually the bee was right up against the spider several times. I suppose the spider knows how to pick his battles.
I didn't hang around long enough to see what the spider had for dinner.
I noticed the spider, as I saw the flower move. Hey, flowers don't move (very fast anyway).




Oh, there is no film. There never was any film. It was a scam. Get over it.

Caught in the Headlamps!

Sloan's Pond (Again!) - Mammoth Cave National Park, Ky
Very Very Nice!


Glen Lily Bridge, Bowling Green Ky - 120 second exposure
I think this location has potential. I will go back when it is not quite as dark, so that the background is not overpowered by the headlights. Maybe with pleasing cloud cover. I went late mainly because I was setup on Price Chapel Rd bridge. I figured there would not be much traffic that time of night.


Garvin Bridge, Bowling Green Ky - 30 Second Exposure
The colors were wild on this shot. I corrected to make the lights on the bridge look like I thought they should. That gave the light from the street lamp that eerie green color. I will go back sometime and shoot this from a lower prospective - maybe have the camera level with the guard rails, then another with the camera six inches to one foot above the bridge.

Frog Gigging

Mammoth cave again. I plan on letting it get dark and try a few star trail shots. I suppose I have never hung around a pond as the sun goes down, but it was interesting. As the sun went down the bats came out in force. Bats galore, but only for about 10 minutes, then they were gone. Then an hour or so later, the full moon started showing over the tree line and the frogs started croaking. Definitely linked to the moon.


Sloan's Pond - Mammoth Cave National Park, Ky


My version of 'Frog Gigging'
Illuminated with an LED flashlight - it took four shots to get a keeper.
I kept on blowing out the frog's underside. Once I didn't blow that out, I white balanced on the frog's underside later in post as the LEDs were not very white.
15 Second Exposure


The Big Dipper - 10 minute exposure

'Wet Belly' or 'Stop, Drop, and (almost) Roll'

Got out early to try to catch the sun rising over the lake in the park. The park is closed. Head over to the other side of town to the river. Barely make it in time. Need something to make the shot interesting. Weeds look nice, so I did the fire drill: Stop, Drop, and Roll. Actually no roll, just stop and drop and a little wallowing for position.

Wound up with a wet belly for this, not sure if it was worth it!


Bowling Green Ky - Just across the walking bridge.

The following shots are with the new lens. I had some dissappointing results with it the first time out, so I was glad to get some results.
Sloan's Pond - Mammoth Cave National Park Ky






This had lots of 'not-attractive-stuff', fortunately it was 'croppable'.


The dragonflies are out, and seem surprisingly easy to shoot. Right place, right time I think. These are cropped heavily, as I was not all that close. Interestingly, the dragonfly would take off, buzz around a bit, then land back in the exact spot over and over again. If I did not get him the first time, I just had to wait for the next landing.



'Googly Eyes'