Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: March 7, 2010
  • Last morning in Elberton … raced a train coming into town, trying to get ahead to shoot it as it crossed a nice bridge. I lost … #
  • RT @DOsports: Syracuse is ranked No. 1 in both polls, first time in the regular season since the 1990 season. #
  • Local tv station's online weather says sunny and 48 on Tuesday. Everyone else says snow and we'll be under a winter weather advisory. Uh … #
  • A little worried about a dentist with this many wires, but they seem nice enough. http://yfrog.com/i3hreqj #
  • Genetic blending at work? http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/post/424136899/via-indigenae #
  • Sorry to report I lost control of my class today-they started dancing to "Thriller" half way through. http://yfrog.com/16izvj #
  • This is just too cool … but what books would I cut for? RT @rands: A shelf cut to house seven specific books: http://j.mp/cQ29gi #
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County Fair

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: March 4, 2010

My fascination with empty places was well sated this past weekend. En route to a return visit to the Georgia Guidestones, I spotted the Elbert 12 County Fair grounds and had to make a stop.

It was a little visual shooting exercise, one I’ll share a bit here. I thought I knew what image I wanted but it wasn’t right – the following images show how I worked my way into a final image.

1. From the parking lot, a good distance out to give a sense of location. I like the abandoned feel, balancing it with a centered composition.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 35 mm f/1.4 L USM, ISO 100, 1/8000, f/2.0

2. Decided to give it more blue sky – it was such a great sky.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 35 mm f/1.4 L USM, ISO 100, 1/8000, f/2.0

3. The broken pavement was saying … something. I don’t know what, so I gave it some more prominence.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 35 mm f/1.4 L USM, ISO 100, 1/8000, f/2.0

4. But then that sky called again …

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 35 mm f/1.4 L USM, ISO 100, 1/8000, f/2.0

5. I wanted to get in closer, but the ticket stand was in the way. I drove my truck right up in front of the stand and climbed up into the bed.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM, ISO 100, 1/1000, f/4.5

6. Almost there. But the debris around the edges … top of the roof, power lines … I hate edge debris. So I got up just a little higher (standing on the side walls of the bed of the truck) and got off one last frame …

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM, ISO 100, 1/320, f/10

And when I showed the images that evening, one of my heroes said he liked the first one the best. Oh, well – was a fun little shoot. And now I want to know when the Elberton 12 County Fair is and try this at night.

Posted in Home/Work, Visual Explorations | Leave a comment

Crystals

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: March 3, 2010

Our little winter adventure yesterday amounted to not much of anything – nothing really stuck, but we got a bunch of ice which made some nice crystals on the car. This structure is about eight inches across.

Canon PowerShot G10, 6.1 mm, ISO 80, 1/320, f/4.5

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More Space Available

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: March 3, 2010

A midday look at empty places and vacant spaces. There were a lot of them in the downtown area, more of them as you drove off into the distances.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM, ISO 200, 1/8, f/3.5

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM, ISO 200, 1/25, f/3.5

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Signs

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: March 2, 2010

Another from Elberton this past weekend … several more to come.

I dragged out my old Quaker apothegm again: Proceed as the way opens. Hurled it at some students who were trying to decide what to shoot next while they were over-thinking the situation. As for me, I yielded a bit in what I shot – aside from editors and students, not a single person.

What’s become of me?

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 35 mm f/1.4 L USM, ISO 160, 1/6400, f/2.8

Posted in Home/Work, Visual Explorations | 1 Comment

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: February 28, 2010
  • This is February? http://yfrog.com/331p3dj #
  • Mapping out how to spend every penny my college has on technology upgrades … and fully aware it may be a pointless exercise. #
  • @graybs13 The tech will work in my lab … as long as no one messes with it … in reply to graybs13 #
  • *sigh* … I used to live in the "PARALYZING BLIZZARD" area … http://tinyurl.com/y8z6wtf #
  • My drug of choice used to be adrenaline. Then I turned to caffeine. And now it is Advil … what that says is a little sad. #
  • RT @dsilverman: I understand that there are now cheeseburger-flavored Doritos. Be still my heart . . . so to speak. #
  • So many things could be said about this … http://www.ajc.com/news/effort-launched-to-make-328963.html #
  • Another way I'd like to spend some time … http://tinyurl.com/ya4yos9 The world is too cool for the limits of time we are dealt. #
  • Have been advised I should say I love all my students and want no harm to come to them. Well, except for one. You know who you are. #
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Empty at Night

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: February 27, 2010

Still up in Elberton, Ga. After a late dinner we were walking back to our cars (the only ones left in the downtown area) when I saw this empty, for rent space. Just two lights at the far end gave it a hollow feel. Almost an anticipatory feel.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 35 mm f/1.4 L USM, ISO 640, 1/80, f/3.5

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Lost Signs

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: February 26, 2010

I’m up in Elbert County, Georgia, for my annual weekend workshop. Did a short walk around the downtown area looking for … for … I don’t know. Light? History?

Have been thinking about abandoned signs for a while and found a pair.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, EF 70-200 mm f/2.8 L IS USM, ISO 200, 1/1250, f/6.3

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM, ISO 200, 1/2000, f/6.3

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM, ISO 200, 1/2000, f/6.3

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: February 21, 2010
  • Glad they pointed out that this is a famous photo, never would have known otherwise. http://yfrog.com/2esmshj #
  • Very sorry to see this. Bah. RT @copress: The rumor is true: CoPress is closing down operations http://tr.im/Ovkp ^DB #
  • It is official – I have gone over the technology edge now … really, I need 3 computers with 4 monitors to work? http://yfrog.com/339gefj #
  • Learn Final Cut Pro from one of the best, here in Grady. RT @biddletheeditor: http://www.grady.uga.edu/appletraining/ #
  • It's mid-February and I have opened a window in my office. The world is not right. #
  • I love that my college paper is tweeting from SU games, but @DOsports will kill me if they continue to stop updating with a minute left. #
  • I am remembering why I like the online world so much more than the printed world – no worrying about stupid ICC printing profiles. #
  • Every now and then I'm reminded how brilliant Elvis Costello is. Also that the dog gets confused when I sing along. Not that I know that. #
  • I Have reinstalled @Tweetdeck … and my mind is kind of melting right now. That's a lot of information to process … #
  • Dairy Queen has free Wifi? The world just got so much more strange for me. I MUST BLOG ABOUT THIS BLIZZARD BLAST!!! #
  • @Pogue If you design etextbooks to have value beyond the class they're assigned for there's no need to worry about a used market. in reply to Pogue #
  • And this is all I shall ever say about Tiger Woods: that seems expensive to me. http://yfrog.com/338j9sj #
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Snow Time

By Mark E. Johnson | Published: February 14, 2010

A view out my office window. Not a terribly engaging view, but this was shot over 27 hours. (Details below.)

Details: I put a Canon EOS 1D Mark II N with a EF 16-35 mm f/2.8 L USM lens on a tripod and pointed it out my window. The camera was powered with an AC adapter (so I didn’t have to worry about the battery dying) and tethered to a laptop running Canon’s EOS Utility. I programed it to take one photo every minute and left the camera in aperture priority mode. The only hiccup was the overnight time exposure grew to longer than one minute, so it started skipping minutes. The music is a generic loop created in Garage Band and the editing was done in Final Cut Pro.

Things I learned: I needed to shield the lens better, as it picked up reflections in the window’s glass. A little gaffer’s tape and some black cloth would have solved that. After the first few test frames I removed the screen from the window – with the wide angle view and extensive depth of field, I was seeing the pattern of the screen in the frames.

Posted in Photo Geek, Visual Explorations | 3 Comments