'Fast Moving Clouds' or 'Cloudy Cemeteries'

I went out this morning to feed the dogs, and the clouds were really low and whipping by. I grabbed the camera, tripod, and the 10x ND filter and walked over to the nearby cemetery. I think for the speed of the clouds, 30 seconds was a little long, but with the nd filter and it being morning, I needed the 30 seconds. I should have tried just stopping down to f22 to see what I could get.

Nothing spectacular, but it was fun. These are 30 second shots with the 10 stop neutral density filter. I was too lazy to compose with the filter off, then put it on, so it was pretty much work in the dark (I could see a little), fire, look at the results. (The 10x ND filter is similar to looking through a welding mask.)

The cross shots are in the St Anthony Cemetery in Grayson County Ky that evening. The clouds were still moving fairly fast, but it was getting dark and I did not use the nd filter. These exposure times were from 6 to 10 seconds. These could have used more time.

Note that the evening shots are before the morning shots.

St Anthony Cemetary Peonia Ky

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Bowling Green Ky

Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

I was not far from White Mills Ky thanksgiving day. That night, I buzzed on over to White Mills for some night shots.

The rock shot is from a creek not far from the house (warren co).

I went back to White Mills Saturday night, since the Thursday shots turned out fairly well. It was clear and I went for a star trail shot this time. Some day, I'm going to fire off a several hour shot.


180 Second, f/4, ISO400

The white curved pvc pipes provide the structure for christmas lights that haven't been lit yet. I'll probably go back one night with the christmas lights on. Maybe some of the light will reflect off the falls.

60 Second, f/4, ISO400

A creek bottom in Warren Co.


White Mills again, not cloudy this time.

15 Minute, f/8 ISO100

Foggy River, Again.

Still trying to get a good sunrise over the bridge. Not this time, lots of fog from the river. The sunrise shots were not great, and didn't make the cut.

The woods are along the greenways trail just past the bridge.





Along the Greenways trail, just past the bridge.

Leonid Meteor Shower 2009 - Or Not!

Nothing here. It was rainy and overcast. I had hoped to go out to Shanty Hollow and setup the camera for a long exposure shot over the lake (which should be roughly the right direction for the best view). It is supposed to be pretty good this year. On the bright side, I didn't have to get up at 1am this morning. Maybe next year.

My Day Shots Suck!

Did not get much during the day Saturday, but I managed to salvage a few morning shots by converting them to black and white. I have both the black and white and color versions of one of the shots. These are all on Barren river in Bowling Green. Grabbed some decent night shots Saturday night. Got there a little later than I had planned, wanted more with blue sky. The morning shots are hand held, the evening shots are tripod mounted. (The first two are the morning shots.)

Went back Sunday around 4pm, walked over to the rapids. Two of those are at the bottom of the post.

This location is only 10 minutes from the house, and relatively easy to shoot. I am figuring out what works and what doesn't. Yep, I will probably shoot this area until everyone is sick of it, much like I have with the pond in Mammoth Cave.

The weather was nice all weekend. Sunday night, I had to pull off a sweat shirt and go around in a tee shirt - in November. There was little or no wind.






















The look of the water in the bottom two was by accident. The camera was mounted on a tripod, as low as I could get it. I had the camera strap looped on a tree limb just in case. I was using live view to frame the shots, but I really could not see what was going on. I guess I hear 'angle finder' in the future. The exposure time was 1/4 second on both of these water shots. I was surprised that you can see individual streaks and drops whizzing by. I had one that was 1/3 second and I like the water even better, but the framing was not good. I will be playing around down there, so we'll see. (I'll probably fall in as this is on the rock pile). There is a gob of gunk on the limb from where the water was high, but what are you going to do.

I will be scoping out more moving water to play around with, and or, fall in the creek with. I have played around a bit with moving water, just never hit that 'sweet spot' of 1/4 second before, and did not know you could get those results.

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