I spent the day at the local city park shooting cyclocross. I don’t race cyclocross and never will. My license plate even indicates that I’m a road cyclist. Anyway, I don’t know what the cyclists were complaining about all day – that Belgian wall looks pretty flat to me. Easily rideable.
The Belgian Wall at the Applecross cyclocross race in Winchester is approximately a 45° angle, which is eliminated with this top-down, mapping view.
1. a facial expression of distrust, disdain, or disapproval; also called skunk eye, hairy eyeball
“That cow knows I had a burger for dinner. Why else would he be giving me the stink eye?!“
Word Origin – 1962
I stumbled onto this herd of cattle while I was out surveying the Fall foliage. That’s a stink eye if I’ve ever seen one!
Teaching creative workflows is tough. I’m quickly learning that I really need to back up and start from the beginning.
I took this group of Handley students/faculty through the workflow of capturing an aerial image and editing it with a miniature effect.
So we took a tour of Handley High School today. We, who have a child who is a current senior. We, who have a child who is a recent graduate. We took a tour of Handley today. It was sort of cool. A little weird, but cool.
We’re trying to get our daughter to start referring to the English hallway as the English Channel. We want to see if we can start something. A tradition of sorts. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
One of the really cool “new” hallways on the tour of the school today.
You’re not supposed to walk along the train tracks. I get that but I was scouting out a location for an aerial shoot and a train needed the tracks. I actually heard the gates closing before I heard the train. It was a total Back to the Future moment (you know, at the end of the third one – anyway…). I jumped off the track and launched really quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I thought for a second I was going to hit the train on the way up. It really wasn’t as dangerous as I’m making it out to seem. The train was moving fairly slowly, I wasn’t anywhere near the tracks when the train passed, the aerial cam was well clear by the time the train passed…
…just enjoy the image.
The train tracks that run through the Abram’s Creek Wetlands Preserve.
I read somewhere about someone flying theirs while lying down. It was kinda relaxing. Look at Waldo there just chilling.
It’s a word. Look it up. I did.
Originally opened in 1948 and involved in a recent overhaul and restoration since very early 2009, the Triangle Diner is just sitting there. For the longest time it was an eyesore of a construction zone, which surprises me because it’s extremely visible to the hundreds of thousands of visitors at the annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. It’d be cool if it were to open like their Facebook page has been saying since very early 2010. Can’t wait until it’s back – it’ll make for some great images. And I suppose it’d be a neat place to eat.
The Triangle Diner near Handley High School in Winchester, VA. | Order a print of this image.
Anybody else see the moonrise tonight? I’ve always tried to photograph the moon when it’s just over the horizon and have always missed it by the time I find the right place to set up. I almost missed it again tonight. I got some really decent images of the moon as it was rising in front of Handley High School. I had some fun with this one.
Handley High School’s iconic cupola at night.
Started my next chapter last night teaching Broadcast Video Production in the building I called “home” for seven years. Can you see me? Not a lot of time to get out and shoot today as I pack for California. Hopefully I’ll have some great images to post along the way.
When you can get above all the mess on the ground level, that golden hour is more like a golden hour and 15 minutes. My class ended at 6:30, but I was determined to get the sunset today because I just had a feeling that it was going to be a good one. I think I made a good call.
Order a print of this image.
A little BMX action at the park today. I’d never shot a BMX race before and I haven’t the first clue about the sport, but it’s cool that we have a track here in Winchester.
There will eventually be a BMX category in my galleries.
How is Handley Different? by Dr. V. Doug Joyner
From letter jackets to lunch lines, Handley isn’t outwardly intriguing, nothing differentiates us from any other high school across the nation-but step inside the checkered hallway; have a seat in the auditorium; cheer for the football players at a game and you will find there’s something else that lingers in the hallways. It’s an unfettered force that the community refers to as “Handley Pride”. It’s the one thing that sets us apart from the rest.
It’s embedded into the glistening marble hall, woven into the upholstery of the auditorium, and saturates the Handley Bowl on a sparkling autumn afternoon. The fundamentals associate us with every other school, but pride fractures the concord, and keeps the student reputation from being slandered into uniformity.
As a profile is examined and its features begin to tell a story, the inner thoughts come to the surface. Even though the picture hasn’t told its story with words the wrinkle of a brow and a shy smile tell more eloquently than words the sorrows of the character.
Most important to the piecing together of a person are the eyes. Are they quick and alert? Do they search for something beyond the four walls of the picture?
When a teacher watches many profiles agonize over a test or listens to one lone profile struggling over an oral presentation, they see focus in their student’s eyes. Focus and motive to achieve, to be known, to excel outside of the four walls of a classroom.
As we live our daily lives, our personalities become exposed, and we expose those of others. Each situation, whether within the walls of Handley high or experienced elsewhere, defines us. Our surroundings mold us emotionally- no two of us are the same. We are who we are; our appearance is unique, our mindsets are one of a kind, our experiences differ.
Through our activities, we have revealed ourselves to the school. As the school year has progressed, the definition of our individual profiles has become sharp, and we have placed our profiles along the halls among all other Handley attendees-past, present, and future. Our profiles, representing our lives – stay – waiting to expose our experiences for those who follow.
I disagree on that part about Handley not being outwardly intriguing.
So today I had somebody actually follow the camera to where it landed just to find out more about it. I was just flying over Shenandoah University and demonstrating it for a couple of friends and a guy drives into the lot, runs over and said that he followed it from the main campus because he wanted to know more about it. I gave him my card. Cool.
The almost-complete Health and Life Sciences building on Shenandoah University’s campus in Winchester, VA
An entirely different ballgame flying this thing at night. But still as much fun. I was in such a hurry to get up and start shooting that I forgot to change the settings for a better night-time image. Not too shabby for being shot at ISO 100. The fact that the flag is lit up doesn’t hurt. And, no, the camera isn’t that close to the flag. It’s probably about 30 feet away.
That’s one BIG flag. I’ve been living in my house now for 10+ years and it’s still a little eerie to hear this flag flapping in the wind at night.
Somehow I find myself back at Handley a lot these days. I just like shooting here. And that’s not dirt or dust on the lens – those are the birds that like to attack my craft. I’m very concerned about what’ll happen to the bird if it gets to close. It’s pretty much a flying weed eater.
Aerial images of a golf course – no-brainer.
Rock Harbor Golf Course in Winchester, VA
That’s me on my roof with my son. Turns out there’s no difference in flight distance from my roof compared to the ground. Might as well have launched from the driveway. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
I can do your house, too – just contact me.
I’ve wanted to shoot aerial images of a train. I just think it would be cool, but I just haven’t been in the right place at the right time so far. Today I heard the train, but I was at home when I did. I figured I’d try to catch it. And I did. The image isn’t that impressive, but in capturing this image, I was at the limits of both distances (altitude and distance from transmitter). I have to fly it higher if I want to go further from me to maintain a solid signal between transmitter and receiver. It’s more than a little unnerving when you’ve lost sight of the craft and you’re just about to lose visuals and geo-location in the monitor. It doesn’t look very far on a map, but it’s a good 500-600 meters away from me.
It’s pretty cool that the geo-location of the image includes the altitude – 389.2 feet by the way.
I know that a lot of apps and cameras and software will emulate the Tilt & Shift effect these days – it became really popular really quickly. I experimented with it, but never really got into it because it was hard to get the camera into the right position to accomplish one of the primary requirements of the effect – shoot from an overhead angle. Well, I think I have that covered now. This effect was done entirely in Lightroom, by the way.
Handley High School in miniature.
Cedarmeade Studios 