Sometimes you drive an hour for a shoot. Totally worth it.
Worth It
DJI
My Corner
My little “corner of the world.” Stay safe everybody.
Travel
Apparently this has been the summer of travel and I’ve really got to work on the whole travel photography thing. I tend to overpack for any trip when it comes to my gear. About a third of my carry-on luggage was devoted to the overflow from my gear bag! Anyway, from NYC to LA (yep coast-to-coast) I got some decent images. Maybe it’s time to flip over to the whole mirrorless thing…
Very other-worldly out there in the desert – the heat was making me see things.
Later
One of my workflow tricks as a photographer (now that I kinda know what I’m doing) is to not dive right into my edits right away. I wait a while and edit later. I let some time pass between when I shoot and when I edit. I can’t really articulate why this is, but I just know that if I’m too eager to jump into the edit it’s not as creative as when I wait plus it’s a bonus when I go back through my images and find ones I forgot I shot. Of course, with thos pesky deadlines looming this isn’t always practical.
Order a print of this image. | North River in Bridgewater, VA shot about a month ago.
Differences
Put aside your political views/opinions for about 45 minutes each day. Enjoy the fact that there’s always this to look forward to.
It’s been a while since I shot anything and I know this is a similar composition, but it’s never really the same. | Order a print of this image.
Sneak Preview
Alright folks – set your DVRs and TiVos and whatever else you high-techy techies use. Next Thursday 8-9pm EST – “Saving Place, Saving Grace.” Cedarmeade Studios’ debut on PBS. Well, it’s not MY debut, but it kinda is for my aerials except that I did just win an award for aerial cinematography. Anyway…it’ll be cool to watch it. You can get a sneak preview of it and meet the filmmakers this Saturday (1/7) at The Barns of Rose Hill. I’m going.
Here’s every link I could find about the film:
- Picture Farmer Films (this is the production company)
- Holy Cross Abbey (this is what the film is all about)
- Indiegogo (you can support the film)
- Sneak Preview (another link to get tickets for the sneak preview)
One of the few still images I took while filming near the river. | Order a print of this image or others like it.
Jamestown Island
I’ve found that some of the best sunrises are during the winter months. It’s tough, though, to get motivated to get out of a warm bed and subject myself to frozen hands, but the end result is usually well worth it.
Sunrise over Jamestown Island. | Order a print of this image.
Stubborn
Through some pretty intense back pain I still managed to get out on Saturday to shoot the Battlefield Half Marathon. Although I wasn’t as mobile as I was the previoius two years, I still got some great Fall colors and an awesome sunrise. I suppose I should have taken it easy, but I’m just stubborn that way I guess. After all, I got the shot!
X5 FTW
I was cleared for takeoff this evening. Yep, I filed my first (and second) flight plan. It’s kinda surreal for me that I’ve made it this far. When I got my first aerial camera, it was so new that there weren’t really any regulations for it (which explains all the images in my collection that I can’t really shoot these days). It’s crazy how fast the governemnt moved on this set of regulations. But I’m always about what’s next and that usually spells trouble for me being a gear-head and all. I have to separate myself from the ever-growing community of “dronies” who are basically shooting with the same super-wide-angle-infinity-focus camera that everybody else has. That’s not good enough for me anymore. Not after tonight’s flight.
Can you appreciate what’s slightly different about this aerial image? | Order a print of this image.
Palindrome
Happy Palindrome Day! At least it’s a palindrome if you use the format 6•1•16.
Wish I could find a decent reflection image, but this one’s nice to look at, too.
Absence
Has your heart grown fonder? It seems like it’s getting longer between posts for me. I suppose that means I’m busy these days with my studio work, which is good for me, but I need those days wheere I can just go out and shoot what moves me and just be creative.
One of the few landmarks around Winchester that I haven’t really shot – The Museum of The Shenandoah Valley. | Order a print of this image.
Hmmm…
I Took the opportunity to shoot a little bit while I was at The Handley Library this evening. It’s been a while since I shot there and I’ve been meaning to get back and do it properly.
Things that make you go “hmmm…” | Order a print of this image.
Wedding Selfie
I don’t think I’ve shared this. I remember posting an image of this incident, but never the full video. If you pay close attention at about 45 seconds you can see the quad level out (it’s so very subtle) and that was my fatal mistake because it didn’t clear the hill and I still had legal room to climb. Once the forest starts to appear in the shot it’s not long before it happens, but I end this video before that point. It won’t take much imagination to figure out what happens next. A shout-out to my brother and son for heading off after it. After all that, I still got the shot!
Space Coast
Alright, so here’s the obligatory Spring Break photo…
Order a print of this image.
Folgers
Waking up early is no big thing when you know it’s gonna look like this. It doesn’t matter what brand of coffee you drink, I still think this is the best part of waking up.
Order a print of this image.
NSV
That would be the Northern Shenandoah Valley. I’d love to come up here and shoot aerial during the sunset, but there are too many people and I don’t want to disrupt their experience with the noise. I don’t want to be “that guy.”
Just some much-needed alone time at Bears Den in Bluemont, VA. Awesome place.
I’m Back…
It felt like a surgical scene as I was reassembling the drone last night, but I’m back. It’s back. My nerves are going to really keep me in check for a while after that incident. Perhaps that was a good thing.
I think I’ll need to go through all the settings again. The rebuild must have sent everything back to factory default. I typically shoot at 100 ISO, but this one was shot @ 1600!
Statistic
Let’s lead with this…
Just 8 frames later was how quickly I lost the camera.
I now join the ever-increasing number of UAV pilots who’ve crashed their aircraft. I should make it clear that it was 100% pilot error. Luckily it did NOT involve any other people, buildings, or vehicles (including aircraft). I can tell you that it had everything to do with me being rushed in the moment trying to capture the perfect lighting on an incredibly cinematic scene. And guess what, I got the shot! I suppose that’s the photographer’s mantra (after “ƒ8 and be there”).
Long story short (here goes) reception officially starts at 7pm:
- Took a little longer with the bridal party that I had anticipated (family waiting for pictures at ceremony site). 6:45
- Arrive, sprinting, to waiting family. Have to set up aerial platform fast to capture that fading, but awesome, sunset. 6:50
- Finish setting it up and ready to fly. Guests now waiting for dinner. 6:55
- Line up shot and start flight.
- I continue flight to get more landscape while, at the same time, I begin lining up family shots. 7:05
- Last image I see in the display is tree branches
- Still have formal family photos to get (including me).
- I kinda don’t remember the next hour or two…
My brother and son immediately volunteered to go after it. We all put our heads together (and our smart phones) to determine its last known position and they went after it. It was about a kilometer from its ground station and 30 feet up in the tree! I just didn’t have the altitude to clear the terrain, but it was so close.
Just look at my face – that expression says it all!
This is about 10 minutes after the incident. Yeah, still not at the reception…
Cover
This one has cover photo written all over it. Or I might hang it on the wall. Either way I really like how it turned out.
Travel
So it’s time to start traveling with the aerial rig. I’m starting to think that my galleries are getting a little saturated with Winchester images (makes sense, right?). Anyway, I know this isn’t very far from me, but it’s a start. I recently shot some aerial footage for the town of Front Royal and, as always, I grabbed some stills while I was up there. Gonna see if I can snag a Disney panorama while we’re in Florida this year.
It’s been a while since I’ve “framed” one of my images, but this one fits the bill. My goal is to do this up and down the valley with as many towns as possible…a little local traveling. | Order a print of this image.
Cedarmeade Studios 