JIm Carawan
I am a long time resident of Eastern North Carolina and currently live in New Bern. I enjoy taking photographs of landscapes, nature and cityscapes. Most of my photography takes place close to home but I enjoy the outdoor photography wherever I go. I also have an interest in macro photo, which springs mainly from the time I spend in my back yard looking for interesting things to take photos of.
Please contact me with questions or comments at JimCarawan@aol.com Updated September 10 |
A few New shots
This was a 32 second exposure taken around 6am during the last full moon. I was using a wide angle lens at 18mm and f22. Being a morning shooter at this time of year means more dark and a chance to play with city lights and long exposures.
Another bokeh shot
When I found this spider and noticed there was significant Bokeh created by the light through the leaves in the background I ran off and found one of my wifes 'butterfly' shapes she had cut for me as a second aperture. The Bokeh will take on the shape of the second aperture. I'm not sure whether to call this one "Spider Dreams" or "Haunted Spider".
Experimenting with Background Bokeh
I have a wonderful (predigital) photographer's handbook writen by John Hedgecoe and I have yet to find the word "Bokeh" in it. Still, it addresses the subject of focus in detail and offers a load of tips and ideas on how to create effects so I've been experimenting. Of course just because you can do something interesting in the background doesn't mean you want it overwhelming the subject. I'll work on that part once I've done experimenting.
shrimp fleet was a Huge Opportunity
We don't get many trawlers anchored off union point park so I was really excited at the opportunity to photograph them. This particular shot was 1/8th second f 5.6 ISO 200.
Re-tern to the scene
I'm getting more of the shots I like. Some would be perfect if the focus was sharper or the framing was not off, but that's the challenge isn't it? This photo was taken with an exposure of 1/800 and f/7.1 at ISO 200.
Other new pictures this month
Newer pictures from the past few weeks.
One good tern
One of my current goals is to get some primo shots of the Terns diving for fish over at Lawson's Creek Park. The problems are, my autofocus won't track fast enough so all focusing is manual and they go from hovering to dive extremely fast.
This is one of my best shots so far. The exposure is 1/2000 at f/5.6 at my maximum lens of 250 mm.
Long Legged Fly-ing
There are 3000 species of Long Legged Flys. The ones in my back yard have a tendancy to "jump" when the flash goes off. They move so fast the first three times I took photos of one all I had to show for it was an empty leaf. The depth of field is very shallow at this range. I don't have a Macro lens so I'm using my 55-250 mm with three extenders totaling 65mm. I'm at the full 250mm end of my lens. Exposure was 1/200 (max I can use with my in camera flash) at f/13. Getting the Fly in focus while flying was a combination of luck and guess work. I knew it would jump. A lot of test shots gave me an idea of its range and directional habits. I pulled my focus shallow compared to where the fly was sitting on the leaf and shifted my framing to the right. The fly was sitting on the leaf when I pressed the shutter button. I was lucky, of a dozen or so shots I've got three or four that I'm really happy with.
I was looking for some information about Macro lenses the other day and ran across a photoblog in which a particular exchange caught my attention. A question was asked about why the photos on Professional Photographers blogs appear to be so consintently better than those posted by Amatures. The answer was enlightenly simple... Professional Photographers don't post bad photos.
                                                                  I'm not a morning person. I don't wake up with a smile on my face and a song in my heart anxious to see what wonders the new day will bring. I wake up solemn and slow. Thought is merely a silent recitation of the routine necessary to get
me from bed to driveway without locking myself out of the house or forgetting to load my SD card in the camera. The sixteen ounces of coffee I slosh down before walking out the kitchen door may increase my alertness but does nothing to alter my mood. I take photos in the morning because it's quiet and because I like the quality of the light, or the quality of its absence. As I wander, camera in hand, before the sun peeks over the horizon, eventually someone passing by says "Looks like its going to be a good one." The first time anyone ever said this to me, a long long time ago in Vermont, my immediate response was "Any sunrise you're around to see is a good one." They had a look on their face like I'd dumped snow down their pants. Since that time, in deference to the people who wake up with a smile on their face and a song in their heart, I simply smile and say "Yep, it sure does." |
