Friday, October 27, 2017

Country Home in Drummonds

I photographed a home this week in Drummonds, TN.  It was an older home that made me think of my grandparents.  I could imagine an apple pie baking in the oven while I sat on the front porch swing drinking sweet tea.  




The property sat on 3 acres with various fruit trees and backed up next to a wooded area.  I can only imagine how pretty this place will be when the leaves change color.  In the back yard I can imagine a fire pit where hot dogs and marshmallows are roasted.




I took a partial shot of the home from the back door.  It's not really a typical MLS real estate shot but the composition reminds me of all the old country homes I would find as I roamed around the countryside looking for scenes to photograph.  While I was taking the photo I could see the scene in monochrome and edited it to bring the viewer back in time.


Photographing this property brought back a lot of happy memories for me.  It's on the market and looking for a new family to call it home.  If you're looking for a really affordable home in the Drummonds, TN area, this is the place.  For more information, check out the listing: 75 Caughron Road, Drummonds, TN

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Camaro Fun

I like Camaros and hope to get one some day.  Until then I am researching and went over to Jim Keras Chevrolet yesterday and photographed a few.  I love the red one, but I really hope to get a convertible SS2 version.  One day maybe....

The photos were taken with my Canon 5d Mark III and a B&W polarizing filter.  They're a 3 image HDR processed in Photomatix 6.  I'm much happier with the updated Photomatix.  It seems to result in a lot less grain in my photos.


Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Hidden Treasures

I started photographing rural Tennessee scenes in the Fall of 2012.  Since that time I have created a huge online gallery of images.  This consists mostly old barns, abandoned houses, cemeteries and rural landscapes.

In the beginning I would edit all my photos and typically create some monochrome images out of most of the images.  I regret creating so many monochromes right after a photo outing because it was just to get the pictures done, upload them to the website with the hopes of a print sale, and then quickly move onto the next thing.

Many times I go back through those images and the monochrome edits are not what I would do today.  It's a rushed version and mostly a monochrome edit copied and pasted from another scene in the set.  It's as if I threw my work out to the world without much thought.

Yesterday I was going through a batch of photos from one particular location in Henning, TN.  At the time I edited them I thought they were OK, but I wasn't in love with the captures.  As I looked back on them yesterday I felt they were little treasures that had been overlooked.  There was even one particular photo that was perfect for a conversion to add to my Blue Series Gallery.

What I have learned is to slow down and not be in such a hurry to edit and get finished with everything.  It's best to leave things sit a while and come back.


Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Change Is Good

For months now I've been in the middle of restructuring my photography business.  I've pretty much stopped almost all my free/volunteer photography.  My subject matter will totally focus on landscapes or architecture.

For several years I've tried to perfect and speed up my workflow so I can provide a quick turn around to offer real estate photography services.  With interior rooms being such a challenge, I have not refined my technique yet to 100% personal satisfaction.  I'm going to dedicate more time in trying to perfect my skills for photographing homes and also focus on the art side of photography.  The end result is I will be able to offer real estate photography services in Tipton County with a fast turn around time.

I did photograph an old barn recently.  It was a spur of the moment thing.  I had gone to work out one morning and on the way home I suddenly realized I had left my camera equipment in the car.  Suddenly, I had the gumption to photograph some old stables.  It went well.  I didn't take many points of view like I usually do on subjects, but just what caught my eye.  It made me realize, this is what I should be doing.  Get back to the art of it.  It's my work and my time and I will do it for me.  If people enjoy it, then I am doubly blessed.


Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The Red Bush & Old Porch


This one always caught my eye as I drove by so I decided to go out early one morning at sunrise and photograph the place. So I'm standing in a ditch photographing with my tripod and camera and some lady comes along and tells me the people across the street were about ready to call the police because they thought I was deer hunting. Apparently people do that around here, they stand in a ditch along a country road and deer hunt. To me that sounds silly, but I really have never lived in such a rural area so some of the things that happen around here seem pretty odd. Also, it puzzled me they thought a camera with a wide angle lens on a tripod would look like a gun to hunt with. The moral of this story is when you stand in a ditch and photograph an old house someone may think you are getting ready to shoot a deer.