Photography Print Competition Results

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Great Smoky Mountains Photography Summit last year and made many dear friends. So it wasn’t a difficult choice to go again this year. It is held in nearby Townsend, Tennessee. The summit gathers together some of the best nature and wildlife photographers and instructors in the country. There are five days of shooting, instruction, critique, camaraderie, and a print competition.

Due to travel time constraints, I didn’t enter the print competition last year. This year I entered all six categories: macro; mobile photography; black and white; Great Smoky Mountains National Park; landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes; flora and fauna. Below were my choices for 16” x 20” prints.

Photo of the Week - Sunset at Home (and Photo App Recommendation)

Knoxville, Tennessee

As much as I enjoy my Fuji and Nikon camera systems, I also appreciate the simple convenience of capturing scenes with my iPhone, such as this lovely sunset. No traveling was involved for this capture. I took it less than 10 feet from my front door! I am constantly amazed at how easy it is to take beautiful pictures from a mobile phone these days. Built-in cameras keep getting better and better!

Google's Nik Collection

One of my all-time favorite plug-in programs for Photoshop – Google’s Nik Collection - is now a free download! For many years now, I use at least one component of the Nik Collection in my standard editing workflow. My personal favorites are Color Efex, Silver Efex, and Viveza. Numerous YouTube videos provide instructions, and there is not a steep learning curve in using these editing tools.

Below are the system requirements.

Go HERE to find out more information and get the download.

Photo of the Week - Bull Moose in an Autumn Field

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Moose are the largest animal in the deer family and the tallest mammal in North America. A male stands about six feet tall at the shoulder and weighs between 1200 to 1600 pounds. Our photo tour group watched this impressive fellow from the safety of our vehicle. He ambled around in tall grasses and periodically checked out us while he grazed. I love how the seasonal colors surround him, complimenting the tone of his fur.

I frequently use high continuous shooting (burst mode) for wildlife subjects. With a digital camera, I don't have to be stingy with exposures. I also take plenty of digital cards on my trips. Once I get back home and download the images, I review series of shots and look for the ones with the best subject poses.

Free Photo Editing Program

For those of you who don’t follow me on my new Facebook page, HERE is a link to a free photo editing program: ON1 Effects 10. I use the complete ON1 Photo 10 software package, and I love how easy it is to further enhance my images. This free program is a slimmed-down version. I don’t know how much longer it will be made available, so grab it while you can!

Ask Donna - Thoughts Behind a Photo Composition

Are you ready for the first “Ask Donna” post? Let jump right in!

Cheryl made the following comment on the last Photo of the Week post:

I have been taking note of your compositions, what you include in your shots, and what the eye is drawn to, the balance. Perhaps this is something you could talk about in an "Ask Donna" post? How do you choose the elements to include in a photo?

Thank you for that great suggestion! Below is the image for your reference, as I go through and give you a peek into what rolls around my wee noggin before clicking the shutter button. This is an interesting composition. It is a careful study of contrasts. I was mentally repeating the word “contrast” as I walked the scene, sizing it up, and figuring out where to set my tripod down and how to frame with a zoom lens.

Photo of the Week - View from Jackson Point Overlook

Signal Mountain, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

During the spring photo tour of the Tetons, I was able to visit many places for the first time. The guide certainly knew various nooks and crannies of the park that get overlooked by traditional visitors.

One of the opportunities for a photo shoot was at the very peak of Signal Mountain. After a short road trip up the mountain, there is a small overlook at the top. The area can be a little bit crowded when several photographers nestle in with their tripods. Extra time and patience are required to get various compositional setups. I did a lot of bracketing here because of a dark foreground and light background.

For this particular image, I combined a set of five different exposures to create an HDR (high dynamic range) image. The purpose of creating an HDR image is to merge the light and dark areas, making the best of all of the exposures. I used a new program, called Aurora HDR Pro. It will take a while for me to understand the program’s full capabilities, but that is the fun of it all. With digital photography, I am always learning new things!

Photo of the Week - Meigs Falls During an Autumn Rain

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

This 30-foot waterfall is conveniently located along the Little River Road between Cades Cove and the Sugarlands Visitor Center. No hiking is required! There is a convenient pull-off area, and the waterfall is visible from the side of the road. (Please click the image to see it bigger.)

Shooting in the rain is a challenge. It’s messy too. But when you are on trip with a limited period of time, you frequently have to take your shots when you can. You simply don’t have the luxury of waiting out the weather conditions.

Future Blog Direction

Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee

No worries, folks. I intend to continue posting on this blog, though I am battle weary from life’s turbulence of the past two and a half years. My heart remains broken and I expect that it always will be. But I am moving forward and exploring new directions. This blog has evolved to be less about “cottage days” and more about “journeys.” And a strong photographic emphasis has emerged.

I hope you will continue to visit and admire my photos. Please don’t ever feel any pressure to comment. Simply pop in and receive a little visual love, my gift to you. The goal is to post on a weekly basis. If time is short and/or my mood is down, you can expect fewer words to accompany the photos.

Photo of the Week - Teton Range Panorama

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

This panorama was “stitched” together in Photoshop using five individual images. Software makes it especially easy these days to create panoramas, and it is downright magical that our smartphones can even create them on the fly. Be sure to click on the image to see it bigger!

I almost exclusively use a polarizer filter for mountain scenes to help tone down highlights, define mountain peaks, and enrich color saturation. But polarizers can't be used for a successful panorama, or else one can end up with a funky looking sky. So I did some extra steps in Photoshop and relied upon some plug-in filters to ensure that the foreground details were not dark and the distant mountains and clouds were not washed out.

Photography Tips for Streams/Waterfalls

Remember the glorious waterfall featured in my May 4th post? This view was on the other side of the road bridge. The water may appear to be flowing upward in the image, but the view is actually of the water flowing downstream. This photo serves as an important reminder about turning around to discover another composition. The scene looked so magical that one might suspect a woodland fairy was lurking right behind that tree!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

My dear friend, Ms. Vee (A Haven for Vee), kindly asked me to offer some tips on how to photograph streams and waterfalls, like this example. I am happy to oblige. The April workshop was the first time I have ever tried the technique.

A Personal Photo Challenge - Trees

It’s time for A Personal Photo Challenge! “Trees” is the theme this month.

I was sorely tempted to dust off some images from my archived files for this challenge topic. I have always been fascinated by the shape and majesty of trees, so I could have easily driven myself bonkers by going through several thousand images. And like children, how can you pick which ones you love the most? It is impossible. So I selected a few that I have taken in the past two weeks that feature autumn scenes. (Click on each one to see them bigger.)

Free Photography e-Book (& More)

I follow the delightful blog of professional photographer Bill Fortney. He recently decided to capture his knowledge from a long photography career and develop a series of e-books. Bill’s online store is now open! Through the end of November, he is offering a free download of “The 7 Steps to Taking It to the Next Level.” The details about his new venture and free e-book can be found HERE.

Now I’m going to completely change topics. I would greatly appreciate it if you kept my sweet Mr. Jim in your prayers. His malignant ascites condition has been getting progressively worse for the past couple of weeks. So he moved up the CAT scan schedule and follow-up visit with his oncologist. The scan was last Thursday, and his doctor’s visit is tomorrow morning. I plan to provide you an update later on this week.

A Personal Photo Challenge - Still Life

It’s time for A Personal Photo Challenge! “Still Life” is the theme this month.

I had originally intended to set up still life compositions inside the house and practice some lighting techniques. Instead, I seized the opportunity to capture some still life scenes during our recent visit to the Museum of Appalachia, located in a nearby town.

Creating Animated Gif Files

The post this weekend for A Personal Photo Challenge was a big hit with my blog readers, thanks to a cooperative hummingbird and a couple of adorable rabbits. The rabbit photos sparked some excitement, and I got several inquiries about how to create animated gif files. 

I used Photoshop CC, a program that provides the technical power to line up all the photo frames seamlessly, in addition to animation. But you don’t need Photoshop CC to create animated gif files of your photos. You can use Photoscape, a free photo editor for Windows and Mac computers. (Note: The Mac version is scaled down, unfortunately).

A Personal Photo Challenge - Movement

It’s time for A Personal Photo Challenge! “Movement” is the theme this month.

I managed to take all new photos for this challenge and not dip into my archives. I usually don’t try to capture movement, so it was a bit of a trial to complete the assignment.

Free Photography E-Books

The weather forecast here in east Tennessee is calling for a hot and humid week, with a high percentage of thunderstorms each day. That’s typical for August! We beat the heat by staying inside when it’s too oppressive, and we read a lot of books on our electronic devices (Kindles and iPad).

So I was happy to recently find a generous listing of free photography e-books. There are 46 in all, and the links can be found HERE and HERE. Perhaps you would like to read a few of these e-books too! Many of them are provided as pdf files, so you can easily save them to your computer. Go on and grab them while you can…

A Personal Photo Challenge - Animals

It’s time for A Personal Photo Challenge! “Animals” is the theme this month.

As my long-time blogging friends know, I adore photographing animals. Domesticated and wild animal subjects pose challenges to even the most skilled photographer. Animal movements and expressions are unpredictable and fast. A study of their behavior helps to anticipate poses, and an intimate knowledge of equipment and settings is essential to capture moments that are fleeting. An animal photographer also gets to practice the virtue of patience!

Photographic Mischief

Do you remember that I promised a post about some senior-style havoc that was afoot, thanks to the assistance of some photographic equipment? Well, I’m not going to keep you in suspense any longer. We haven’t created innocent mischief yet during our 2014 summer staycation. However, we hope to get out of our learning mode shortly. 

I can hear your thoughts now. “Gosh, what on earth is she blathering about?” Bear with me.

App Mini-Review: Circular

Now that I have an iPhone to complement my iPad, I have been delving into the world of interesting and fun apps, particularly those related to photography. At first, I limited myself to only those that were free. However, I have loosened up the purse strings lately and allowed myself to periodically buy a few for amusement. Hey, it’s not like we’re talking big bucks here!

One of the apps that has been on my wish list has been Circular. It creates "tiny planets" from landscape photos. I can do this type of conversion with the big Photoshop program. But, it is oh-so-sweet to make the magic happen easily on an app. The app’s cost has been in the neighborhood of $1.99 for a while. But I saw that it was a free download today, so I grabbed it up!