Great Blue Heron and American Coot, Lake Guntersville

Panorama of a Great Blue Heron and American Coot
at Lake Guntersville, in Lake Guntersville State Park, Alabama

Find this and other photos of bird and wildlife in the Galleries.

Panorama of the Birmingham Barons at Regions Field

Panorama of the Birmingham Barons at Regions Field, Birmingham, Alabama

Blue Skies and Clear Water, a Miramar Beach Panorama

Panorama of Miramar Beach in Destin, Florida

Panorama of Mallard Ducks at Wheeler Lake, Alabama

Panorama of Mallard Ducks at Wheeler Lake, Wheeler Wildlife Refuge, near Decatur, Alabama

Foggy Panoramic Vista in Jefferson County, Alabama

Foggy Panoramic Vista near Brookside, Jefferson County, Alabama

Panorama Mode with iOS 6 Update on iPhones

If you're not an adventuresome iPhone user, you may not have discovered that with the iOS 6 software update on the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, you now have a new camera mode with the iPhone Camera app. Under "Options" at the top of the screen, there is a "Panorama" choice. The camera operates by taking numerous photographs and automatically stitching them together.

Clicking on this will bring up a screen which directs you to pan the camera from left-to-right and provides an arrow that assists you in keeping the camera level. As can be seen in the photo to the right the Panorama mode opens with a prescribed length, though that can be shortened by tapping the camera icon at the bottom of the screen for a second time. Using the Panorama mode will create an image that is approximately 8" x 30" at 240 dpi, which is a good large size for printing.

Below is a photograph I took the Alabama-Ole Miss football game on Saturday night. The Million Dollar Band was on the field at half-time. They were more-or-less stationary during this sequence, which was good because moving subjects do not yield positive results in Panorama mode.

Panorama Mode on iPhone 4s :: Alabama-Ole Miss and Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa

Noccalula Falls

In honor of the recent notoriety Noccalula Falls is receiving as a result of a trio of kayakers paddling over the waterfall on Monday (link), I have decided to post my only photo of the falls. Noccalula Falls is near Fort Payne, Alabama.

Noccalula Falls, Alabama (c.2003) :: Mamiya M645, Sekor C 45mm f/2.8

from a Vivitar PN2011

I went down to the Warrior River, Locust Fork with my friend Tyler on Friday morning. My primary objective was to work on some time lapse stuff, but I also had a couple new cameras I had recently picked up at the thrift store, and they needed a trial run. 

In the panorama below, I stitched three photos together from my Vivitar PN2011 while using its "panoramic" mode, so I suppose its a panorama-to-the-fourth-power. If you peep really closely, you can spy my camera on tripod on the far right, set up for its time lapse work. 

The Vivitar PN2011is the less-sought-after brother to the Vivitar Ultra-Wide-and-Slim ("UWAS"), which bears a 22mm lens. The PN2011 has a 28mm lens, with a fixed aperture of f/8, and a single shutter speed of 1/125s. It has a sliding lens cover, which fortunately prevents you from taking a photo when it is in place. Unlike most "toy" cameras of its ilk, the PN2011 has a tripod socket; additionally, it does not require batteries to operate.

The PN2011 is most noted for its "panoramic" mode. When the slide on the back of the camera is pushed to P, a set of inserts descend that crop off the top and bottom portions of the frame, both on the film plane and in the viewfinder. Another perk of the camera is its bright and crisp viewfinder. There is quite a lot of information to be found about folks who have modified their PN2011's to accept filters, have a Bulb mode, and/or take multiple exposures.

The VIVITAR PN2011 Focus Free / Panoramic Camera can be purchased from Amazon.

Xanthous Glow of the Parking Deck

2nd Avenue Parking Deck Panorama :: Birmingham, Alabama

Rolling Hills on a Misty Summer Morning

Misty Morning in Fultondale, Alabama

Pump House on Village Creek in Roebuck, Alabama

Village Creek Pump House in Roebuck, Alabama

Multi-Exposure Panorama :: Canon Rebel T2i, Tamron LD Di 70-300mm

Turkey Creek

Turkey Creek Falls :: Canon EOS 3, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5, Fuji Superia 400

Since first learning of Turkey Creek last fall, I have been several times, with various friends. While I was working with the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in Fall 2010, I learned of a number of protected and endangered species (like the vermilion darter) who live only in these waters; it's kind of interesting to know they don't exist anywhere else in the world. 

Roots :: Canon EOS 3, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5, Fuji Superia 200

 In October, members of the North Jefferson Kayak Club hosted a clean-up effort here at Turkey Creek, where a large red oak had fallen across the creek and was causing erosion of the banks and buildup of debris. Some video and photos from that outing can be found here.

The Turkey Creek Nature Preserve has done a lot of work to promote and preserve Turkey Creek as a local refuge, not only for critters but also for people. There's also some good paddling to be done here, but mostly there's only enough water right after a rain.

Turkey Creek Nature Preserve :: Canon EOS 3, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5, Fuji Superia 400

And here's a little video of Tyler and me testing out a rope swing over the chilly waters today.

Seattle :: The Emerald City

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Pike Place Market and the Fisherman's Wharf

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Seattle Skyline on a Rainy Day

Alder Lake and Mount Rainer National Park

Having arrived in Lacey, Washington, my family and I unloaded my sister's belongings from the vehicle we had just driven 2300 miles. Then we set out to visit Mount Rainier (I expressed to my folks that I must be some kind of idiot to voluntarily subject myself to another 5 hours in the car, after being subject to its confines for most of the previous 37 hours; no one disagreed). 

I had previously visited Mount Rainier in Thanksgiving 2008, but managed to ruin most of my film during the developing process. It was one of those times that I was really unimpressed with my ability to do unfathomably unintelligent things.

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ALDER LAKE

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @12mm, ISO 100, 1/200s @ f/5.6

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @15mm, ISO 100, 1/125s @ f/8

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @24mm, ISO 100, 1/100s @ f/7.1

Canon Rebel t2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 @24mm, ISO 100, 1/100s @ f/9

This last photo, the panorama, is a composite of about 20 photographs that were stitched together. It amuses me that, since the file was originally saved in TIFF format, that single file was so large that it would not have fit on the hard drive to the first computer my family purchased in 1995 (which I think it had 4MB of RAM, 400MB of hard drive space and ran Windows 3.1).

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MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, ISO 200, 1/125s @ f/5

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, ISO 200, 1/250s @ f/11

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, ISO 200, 1/125s @ f/9

Canon Rebel t2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, ISO 200, 1/160s @ f/9

Canon Rebel t2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 40mm, ISO 200, 1/320s @ f/10

from Birmingham to Washington State

In an effort to help my sister and her husband (she has an infant, and he's is deployed to Afghanistan with the Army), I agreed to help my dad drive their stuff up to Washington state from Dallas, where she was living while her husband was away. But I don't want to give the wrong impression and have someone prematurely nominate me for sainthood - my motives weren't entirely selfless. First, a road trip (even a really brief one) was going to provide some great photo opportunities. And second, I needed to add some more states to those that I've visited; it had been a couple years since any new states had been added (I'm now at thirty-three).

I flew out of Birmingham at 5:30pm on Wednesday; upon arriving in Dallas, I disembarked the plane headed straight to my dad's awaiting vehicle, and from there we grabbed a burger from Whataburger and hit the road by 8:15pm. Initially, there had been some discussion of spending the night in Kansas, but we decided to head straight on through the night.

Daybreak found us already in Colorado, where temperatures reached 15 degrees, which was sixty degrees colder than what I had left behind in Birmingham.

some Rest Stop on I-70 in Colorado

My favorite road on this venture (I have to qualify it by saying "so far," because we're currently still in Idaho), has been Hwy 287 in Colorado. Fortunately, from my photography perspective, we hit some road construction on Hwy 287 in a very opportune location.

on Hwy 287 in Colorado

on Hwy 287 in Colorado

We stopped for gas around lunchtime in Rawlins, Wyoming, so I asked the attendant for a suggestion (this after I commented to him that I hoped he had his store anchored down because the 30mph winds were about to push us off the road, to which he replied that it was "just a light breeze"). He recommended Penny's Diner, which was a 1950s style diner located in an aluminum trailer just up the road. It was the best BBQ burger I've had in a long time, maybe ever.

Penny's Diner :: Rawlins, Wyoming

So being filled up, we went onward and forward. More grandeur accompanied us on our route.

west of Rawlins, Wyoming

near Salt Lake City, Utah

near Ogden, Utah

So it's dark now, and we're about to wind it down for the evening in Ontario, Oregon. After more than 24 hours of being largely confined to either the captain or passenger chair of the Tahoe, I'll be able to unfold myself for a bit, before setting about on the final leg of this trip...actually, only the driving portion. I still have the flying back to do, which should be less taxing.

Update: This was taken Friday morning in Oregon, just before crossing over into Washington.

Caprock Canyons

Canon T2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5

Caprock Canyons State Park is quaintly situated nearly equidistant between Turkey (where you can find a restaurant that "specializes" in Mexican and American food) and Silverton, Texas. The nearest municipality to the park is Quitaque (pronounced "Kitty-quay"), with a burgeoning population of 432 folks. Now you know exactly where I'm talking about, right?

Caprock Canyon claims to be the home of the "Official Texas State Bison Herd," but metal cutouts and statues aside, my father and I saw nary-a-one. We were privy to some feral pigs and a couple small herd of deer, not to mention the more than plentiful roadkill, which was pretty standard fare - just your average collection of opossum and armadillo. 

Canon T2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5

Canon T2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5

Caprock Canyon is the little brother of the better known Palo Duro Canyon, about 90 miles to the northwest. Palo Duro, which is near Amarillo, is both larger and more commercialized than the appreciably more desolate Caprock. For additional information about Caprock Canyons State Park, you can find its website here.

Canon T2i, Tokina AT-X Pro 12-24mm f/4

Canon T2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5

This little 9-hour round-trip to and from desolate West Texas served as the maiden voyage for my then-newly-acquired Canon T2i and Tokina AT-X 12-24mm f/4 lens. It was also the first Texas road trip I was to have taken in some time, so off Dad and I went at 4:15am in early January. And the further west we trekked, the further the thermometer plummeted. But aside from the decidedly frigid temperatures, it couldn't have been a better outing.

Canon T2i, EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5