As with taking photographs, so it is with shooting video - you can do a whole lot of it, but that doesn't mean most of it's going to be worth viewing. After a morning hiking at and playing in Turkey Creek at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson, here is all I have to offer from the video from that outing.
This and other photos and videos of Darby can be found here.
An alternate title for this post could be: "Darby, a Water Dog at Long Last." For some time now I have been somewhat ashamed of my Golden Retriever who appeared to be scared of swimming. She loves water and splashing about the local creeks. But she does not like the swimming pool, and refuses to go in it of her own accord. So we thought she was defectective.
But today, I had a chance to go down to Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson, Alabama, with a couple of friends and Darby. And since the water wasn't running overwhelmingly fast, I decided it was time to put Darby to the test, and she performed beautifully. The video below offers some snippets from our morning, including such items as a footrace between Darby and myself, which I led most of the way, and Darby's swim across gallant Turkey Creek.
All photos and video were shot on my GoPro Hero2 HD camera, which can be found at Amazon.com: GoPro HD HERO2: Outdoor Edition.
The recent rains have the waters of Turkey Creek running and roiling.
Panorama of Turkey Creek Falls, Turkey Creek Nature Preserve, Pinson, Alabama
I went with Blake and Darby down to Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson, Alabama, the other day. There's a smallish hiking trail along the creek, and I wanted to get Darby some off-the-leash experience out in the woods to see how she'd do, and I'm not sure but that she had the best time of her short little life.
This particular trip didn't yield a great many pictures, but I was able to catch some colorful reflections (above) and some early spring flowers. Several times I set up for shots of flowers, but just as I was ready, Darby would run by and bite the heads off of them. I think she found it greatly amusing.
Other posts involving Turkey Creek can be found here. And finally here's some video of the trip, involving Blake and Darby:
I realized, much to my dismay (and of course, your detriment), that I had left out my favorite photo from my recent outing to Turkey Creek. At the time I took this photo, I liked it but didn't anticipate that it would become my favorite from that trip. Nevertheless, it has grown on me quite a bit in the interim.
Turkey Creek Nature Preserve :: Canon T2i, 50mm f/1.8 II, 0.5s @ f/16, ISO 100
...I present my final photos from Friday's outing to Turkey Creek. These differ a bit in style from the previous couple of days' postings. I really wanted to emphasize color and texture.
I have found, for whatever reason, that Turkey Creek Falls seems to be a particularly difficult subject to photograph well. And I'm still convinced there's room improvement from the offering here. For the photo below, I employed two different techniques. A couple of months ago, I explained about using welding glass as a neutral density filter, here. So I combined that with a multi-bracketed exposure (HDR) so as to get the full dynamic range and have that lovely milky smooth water that comes with a long exposure.
Turkey Creek has become one of my favorite places, and not for any particular reason. It just seems to resonate with me to some degree. But for whatever reason, the photographs I've taken both at the Nature Preserve and elsewhere on the creek have never been as impressive to me after I have gotten home with them, as at the time of taking (a prior outing with decent results, here). And that's always distressing.
Of the many photos taken yesterday, these are a couple that are worthy of seeing the light of day (or perhaps that judgment is more appropriately left to the viewer).
One of the things I wanted to focus on for this little outing was photographing reflections and emphasizing textures and colors. One of the photographers whose blog I follow is Donald Kinney, and he does this sort of work particularly well. I do not, but he has inspired me. So this post and the next one will evidence the trial (and error) of the task I set before myself.
One last note, my friend Tyler Dooley went with me and has posted his work as well.
pnW.jpg)
