The Great Smokey Mountain National Park

We took our family vacation a little later than normal this year and decided to head up to the Smokey Mountains for a little RR and leaf peeping. I will be putting several blog posts up relating to the trip and photographic possibilities I discovered while hear in the Smokey's for a couple of weeks.

This image was taken from the parking lot at Clingman's Dome shortly after sunrise. As you can see the trees were in peak color. This image struck me as two photos, it looks like the bottom mountain range could be one photo and the upper blue range another. It is however one image. Well, I have to get back to the family and continue the vacation.

Regards,

Thomas Even
www.tomeven.pbase.com

Shooting Star Essay Puplished on Beautiful-Landscape.com

On August 19th of this year I posted a photograph of a Shooting Star over Lafayette, LA. Well, Alain Briot has published my essay describing the image and thoughts on "luck" on his web site, www.Beauliful-Landscape.com.

Alain is one of the most successful landscape photographers in the US, I was fortunate to be able to attend his Navajo Lands Workshop Last October.

Please check out the essay here on Alan's Site.



Thomas Even
www.pbase.com/tomeven

The Dynamic Landscape - Jekyll Island

Jekyll Island is located on the southern side of Georgia's coast. I spent a couple of days on the Island in March on a family vacation to Florida. The Island offers unique photographic opportunities due to the graveyard of oak trees on the beaches. Over time these trees have died and become "driftwood" stranded in the sands. The beach on the northeast side of the island is aptly named "Driftwood Beach". The location offers interesting and dynamic compositions with the organic shapes and silhouettes offered by these foreground elements.

For sunrise images the eastern coast offers compositions with the rising sun silhouetting the driftwood against the sea and sky. There are infinite compositions available with driftwood of all shapes and sizes to choose from.

In the first image I framed a large tree against the rising sun creating a very graphic image. I chose to convert the image to monochrome to eliminate the distraction of color and allow the eye to focus on form and shape.

The second image was an attempt to capture the graphic random shape of a snag on the beach with the smooth silk motion of the water. I made several attempts with this concept and this one was the most successful.

Thanks to Craig Tanner of the Radiant Vista for the Critique of this image. Click on the video below to view the critique (the video aspect ratio is compressed, but you get the idea.

The Ordinary

I grabbed this shot out of the window of my car last Saturday morning. I was driving home with my camera on the front seat and pulled into a parking lot and this window shutter grabbed my attention. At the time I really couldn't say what caused me to take the shot, but I have decided that when a subject grabs my attention to go ahead and take it and think about why later.

As I was reviewing the images, this one struck me as a rather ordinary subject. There is nothing striking or exciting about the image, yet I enjoy looking at it. There is a play of light and Shadow with interesting lines and texture that seems to keep my eye moving. One of the ways I judge images is by the time I spend looking at them and whether I am drawn in. This is a subjective and personal criteria, but that is what it is about for me. There is something powerful about viewing the ordinary with different eyes. Stop every once and a while and look at the ordinary in terms of shape, texture, pattern and tone.

Until next time,

Thomas Even
www.pbase.com/tomeven

What is Beauty?

What is beauty? Is it defined by a majority view or aesthetic? Is it defined by the individual viewer's eye?

There is no question that there is a majority aesthetic, we see examples in popular magazines of landscapes and people that are "beautiful". Think about cultures around the world or throughout time, this majority aesthetic changes depending on cultural influences. If you have taken an art history class, you see how trends in culture and art shift and flow over time.

Television and photography has an inherent ability to shrink the world. When more and more people are influenced and told what beauty is and how it is suppose to look the majority aesthetic grows.

Anyway, I am blabbing about this because I find that people who are creative often march to a more unique tune when it come to what they like. I think the actual creative process releases our minds or spirits to think more independently and find a more internal gauge for beauty than simply the television. It is a process of growth and maturity.

Does this mean that you have to disagree with the majority opinion of beauty to be "mature"? Absolutely not! Just as foodies will find their "taste" (no pun intended), if you enjoy art or photography take the time and look inside for your own visual taste.

Develop your visual "taste".

Thomas Even
www.pbase.com/tomeven

Light and Pattern

I finally scoped the cash together to purchase a new Canon 300 mm f/4L IS lens a couple of weeks ago. This is my first IS lens and I must say the IS (Image Stabilization) feature is impressive. For those of you who may not be familiar with image stabilization, the lens has a gyro and moving lens elements that compensate and dampen the normal camera movement while hand holding. This allows photos at slower shutter speeds.

So anyway I went to my favorite local landscape location yesterday to try out the lens at dawn. On the way home I kept the camera and lens on the passenger seat and looked for interesting compositions with the morning light. The image to the left is a bank under construction, I stopped, of course, and took several compositions isolating sections of the building focusing on the complex patterns created by the layers of vertical and horizontal lines. This particular shot has 5 construction workers (there is one in the bottom left corner looking at the others). I think the graphic complexity along with the human element is what intrigues me with the image.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Please let me know what you think in the comments.

Go and set your alarm clock.

Tom Even
www.pbase.com/tomeven

When the Saints Go Marching In....

Panorama Stitch of Superdome re-opened 9-25-06
Saints 23 - Falcons 3

What a game! We were fortunate to be able to attend the re-opening of the superdome after 13 months of closure. The Dome looked great with the upgrades and repairs complete. As for the Saints, they did not disappoint nearly stuffing those dirty birds all the way back to Atlanta. I couldn't help but take a few peeps at the sidelines in between plays with those beautiful LENSES staring at the field.