Water Drop Photography

I recently tried doing some water drop photography. It’s been fun, tedious and more challenging than I originally expected. Still a work in progress. I used the Pluto trigger and valve. Additionally, I used up to four flashes, food coloring and colored gels.

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Gary Stiles.

An Abstract Point of View

Graffiti Wall shot with 24mm tilt-shift lens

I'm getting settled into our new home near Charlotte, NC and learning the area. The move has been long, difficult, and, at times, very exhausting.  I've started to explore a few of the numerous camera clubs in the Charlotte area and I'm hoping to become a regular member of at least a couple of them.  The first club I visited, the Ballantyne Photography Club, has a monthly morning coffee meeting...how could this not be a good thing!? They are a great group of folks and I've enjoyed the few meetings that I've attended, so far.  I recently went on a photo shoot with a few folks from the Ballantyne Photography Club to a artsy part of town called NoDA, short for North of Davidson. The idea for this outing was to shoot abstract images.

I saw a large mural where part of it had this scene with the yellow stripe in the road and I decided to make a couple of images from it.

I shot this image with a 24mm tilt-shift lens. My intent was to alter the plane of focus to blur the top and bottom and to hopefully draw your attention along the yellow line.

Then I moved in closer and tried an abstract of the blue beams at the top of the image. I like the pattern of the beams and the detail of the brick wall.

This mural covered the entire wall of a building. There was so much detail and so many people doing different things. The piano player in the image caught my eye so I switched to my 105mm macro lens to move in close enough for the detail of the hand on the keys.

As I walked along the street, I noticed that some of the benches at the bus stops were covered in mosaic tile. This is from one of those benches. It's also a close up macro shot of just a portion of the whole bench.

The streets of NoDA had many older brick buildings with various murals and other forms of art on the walls, doors, etc. There were numerous photo worthy subjects but limited time. I enjoyed my first trip to NoDA and I'm sure that I'll be spending more time in this part of town.

As always, if you have any comments or questions, i'd love to hear from you!

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Gary Stiles.

This Ol' Fire Truck

Can you hear the engine, can you hear the bell as this ol' fire truck goes roaring down the hill?

I recently came across this photo of a 1930’s Ford Fire Truck that I shot when I was at Old Car City a couple of years ago. I really didn’t care for this photo but I decided to spend some time on a lazy Saturday morning and see if I could make something out of it.

My idea was to create a shot that looked like it was taken at night with the headlights on. I hadn’t done anything like this in Photoshop before but in the end I was pleased with the result. Thanks go out to Pete for some photoshop inspiration! :)

The original photo is below. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Gary Stiles.

Livingston's Exchange

Livingston's Exchange was first opened in 1853 as a first-class "gentleman's saloon." Today, after changing hands many times over the years, it is known as The Genoa Bar, Nevada's Oldest Thirst Parlor!

I was driving through the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains recently and decided to stop by and check out this historic establishment.  Back in the era of "the old west" the saloon was a focal point in town where people gathered, for various reasons. I was surprised how small it was inside but given the era it was built I really shouldn’t have been. I chatted briefly with the bartender and she welcomed me to take any photos I wanted.

I read a little about the establishment’s history and found it to be pretty interesting. Apparently, several movies have been filmed here including westerns with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Also, over the years numerous musicians have stopped by including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash, just to name a few.

I asked what their normal clientele is like today and the bartender said, “You never know who’s going to come in. We get our fair share of farmers, cowboys, tourists, and a few wackos!”

I’m sure the bartender categorized me as one of the latter two on her list, but I’m not sure which!

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Gary Stiles.

The Ghost Ship of Mono Lake

I was at Mono Lake recently and stayed until after twilight so I could try some light painting. I used a small spot light to “light paint” the Ghost Ship otherwise at this time of night the Ghost Ship would have been very dark.

If you don’t know, Mono Lake is one of the oldest lakes in North America. It’s estimated to be at least 760,000 years old. No fish can live in the alkaline waters of Mono Lake however; the lake does support millions of brine shrimp and migratory birds.

The Ghost Ship is actually a tufa formation which is a limestone that forms in alkaline lakes. I think Mono Lake is a pretty interesting place to visit. It kind of feels like you're on a different planet.

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Gary Stiles.

On The Road Again

A couple of years ago, I was in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California near Mammoth Lakes. As I was driving along highway 395, I saw this image in the rear view mirror so I quickly pulled over, got out of the car, stood in the middle of the road, and shot this photo. I live in a large metropolitan area and am used to constant heavy traffic so it really gets my attention to be in an area where I'm the only car on the road.  It's comforting to know that there are still places in this country where I can go and get away from everything.

This week I'm heading back to the Smoky Mountains for a few days. I know I won't be the only car on the road but it'll definitely be nice to get away from the traffic madness I deal with every day.  While in the Smokies, I'll be looking for a good location to do some night Milky Way photography.  If anyone knows of any good locations that would have an old building, barn, church, etc. that I can use in the foreground, please leave a comment and let me know.

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Gary Stiles.

Motorin' Along

During my recent trip to Las Vegas I ventured out to a photographer’s paradise called Nelson. This year I experimented with some light painting, something I’ve been wanting to try but hadn’t done yet.

I wandered into one of several old barns and saw these old motors and decided to set up for a shot. For those who don’t know, the term “light painting” refers to painting with light. In this case, a small LED flashlight. I’m shooting at night here, so the barn is completely dark until I add light with the flashlight. So, it’s kind of a creative painting type of effort as opposed to blasting light everywhere like what you’d get if you used regular flash or strobes.  The camera is on a tripod and I'm using a long exposure, this was approximately 20 seconds. The long exposure gives you time to run around with your flash light while counting off the seconds in your head. Then you make mental adjustments for the light and do it again, and again, and again. I spent a couple hours playing in the dark and could have stayed all night. Each shot ends up being different which is part of the fun, at least it was for me.

 

 

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Gary Stiles.