Category: Photography

Any Ideas?

There is no challenge in making flower pictures and they are quick to produce (not good since they don’t keep me busy).  As one photographer indicated to me when I asked him what he photographed, he said NOT flowers.  I also don’t like photographing flowers except for the fact that they are available and that I can manipulate them somewhat.  I don’t mind making them occasionally as filler material for my blog; but, I would rather have a longer term, themed project to work on. Something that is more purposeful and meaningful.

Do any of my viewers have any ideas as to what would make a good photo project for me?  Some of my limitations are:  I can’t show identifiable pictures of residents of Homewood, and I don’t want to travel far.  I would also like a project to be suitable for possibly printing in a zine or photo book.

Saturday Morning Walk

Don’t forget to click on any image and then cycle through them all in the larger galley view.

Just a few images as I used my Pentax prime 35mm macro lens.  It is a prefect lens for these kinds of images. Note that I used an aperture of 5.6 for all of these. That seems to give me just barely enough DoF.

Other Photographers at Homewood

 We have a display cabinet on the second floor next to the library where various residents have displayed their collections, etc.  This month it contains printed pictures taken by Jean Shoemaker.  I encourage residents to go by the cabinet and take a look, they are worth it.

I know we have some other residents who have been photographers in the past, and some are still taking pictures, but I haven’t seen their work other than for a few images in the Plum Line.  Maybe Jean’s pictures will encourage others to display their pictures.

I have my blog for displaying my pictures and I also take pictures for publication in the Plum Line.  I also have two books with pictures of Homewood folks in the library.  There is also at least one other book in the library which contains pictures made by residents involved in activities from past years.

Homewood can show pictures of residents involved in activities, etc. for internal uses; but, for privacy reasons I don’t show pictures of residents on my website.  My website has viewers worldwide and there are a growing number of countries and states (including Pennsylvania) which have restrictions on certain images which contain private visual information.

Rocks & Roots & Water at Blackwater Falls State Park

Blackwater Falls has lots of rocks and roots and water.  They get a lot of rain throughout the year, when it isn’t snowing, and that keeps everything green and growing.  That is why it is my favorite State Park in West Virginia.

Sorry for you color lovers (you don’t need to comment), but I used these images to work on my monochrome processing.  There are times when I feel like only making monochrome images since I like them and I do not like the bright garish color flower images that some others prefer.

Boggy at Blackwater Falls

After the May snow and a thunderstorm, any land that was moderately level had lots of standing water at Blackwater Falls State Park or anywhere in the Canaan Valley.  It would be very difficult to hike across the area.  Even most of the trails were very muddy with sections of standing water.

Olson Tower

The tower was originally built in 1922 by the State of West Virginia on Backbone Mountain at an elevation of 3736 feet.  It was the first fire tower in the state.  The tower in Tucker County is accessible by a narrow single lane road with lots of potholes.  After you get to the end of the road you can climb the 133 steps up to just underneath the cabin.  My brother climbed it but due to the visibility, etc. I didn’t go up since I didn’t expect to get any meaningful pictures.