Nick 365
With the start of the new year, I have decided to make an attempt at my own Project 365. This gallery will exhibit a photograph per day for the next year. The photos will be randomly inspired with varying techniques. My hopes are this will be a fun experience that will broaden my creativity and allow me to learn more to help enhance my photography skills. Hope you enjoy!
126/365 - May 10, 2012 - On My Perch
After an enjoyable day at the beach, we crossed the sound into Morehead City to enjoy some seafood at the Sanitary Fish Market. It's been a staple in Morehead City for over 70 years. Every time we vacation here, it is on our list of stops to make. Since our last visit, they have added a waterside dining area which we took advantage of. I was able to capture this shot just after ordering our dinner with the sun setting off to the west over Bogue Sound.
125/365 - May 9, 2012 - Emerald Waters
One thing I love about Atlantic Beach is the color of the water. At other places along the Atlantic, the water is usually a murky brownish green color, but for whatever reason, the water here is more bluish green. The only thing I can come up with is the surf is somewhat calmer as the shoreline on this part of North Carolina tucks back inward away from the main currents of the Atlantic. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoy my time relaxing on this beautiful, non-commercialized, quiet beach.
124/365 - May 8, 2012 - Morehead City Docks
After a long, relaxing day with the family on the beach, Anna and I went out about sunset to grab some takeout food for dinner to take back to the condo. On the way to pick it up, we made a detour to the Morehead City Docks to capture this shot at sunset.
123/365 - May 7, 2012 - Wilber's
On our first day of vacation on our way to Atlantic Beach, NC, we made our customary stop at one of the great Eastern North Carolina barbecue joints, Wilber's Barbecue. Wilber's is located in Goldsboro, which is about an hour southeast of Raleigh. This is mine and Lisa's fourth trip to Atlantic Beach, and every time we make sure we stop at Wilber's on the way in to enjoy some delicious Eastern North Carolina barbecue. If you haven't tried this style, it's a must.
122/365 - May 6, 2012 - Packing Progress
On a day that was spent cleaning out the Sequoia, packing and tying up loose ends before leaving for vacation, I just didn't have the time to get an interesting shot. I captured this shot prior to packing my camera gear in the back after realizing I had not met my photo quota for the day.
121/365 - May 5, 2012 - Super Moon
Tonight after sunset while the moon was still low on the horizon, I pulled out the camera and tripod and tried to capture some shots of the "Super" full moon that is supposedly 20% brighter and larger than normal. This was captured with my telephoto lens and 300 mm. Some cropping was required to make it look this large. Would have loved to have had longer lens to get this capture in more detail.
120/365 - May 4, 2012 - Anna on a Bike
Another day with little motivation, as it has been a crazy busy week at work trying to tie up loose ends before taking vacation next week. I captured this shot of Anna prior to bedtime on the deck riding her bicycle.
119/365 - May 3, 2012 - Surprised Gaze
Tonight I had to watch the kids while Lisa was out doing something for her jewelry business. Since I was low on inspiration for the day, I got the camera out to take some photos of the kids. This is one of Nate sitting on the couch.
118/365 - May 2, 2012 - Sequoyah Hills Park
Today on my lunch break to get away from the hustle and bustle of the office, I grabbed my lunch and headed down to Sequoyah Hills Park. This shot is under a large tree on the banks of the Tennessee River at the west end of the park.
117/365 - May 1, 2012 - Small Critter's POV
My creative slump is continuing. I captured this shot as I walked out of the office. This shot is along the grass/mulch border on one of the landscaping beds on the side of the office. I was going for a different POV and a shallow DOF. I tried to highlight the various light/contrast levels between the green grass, red mulch and bright background.
116/365 - April 30, 2012 - Repeating Weave
Not an exciting way to end April needless to say, but it at least keeps the string alive. On a day that I came home mentally drained, I just could not muster enough energy or creativity to get something really special. I captured this shot as I laid on the floor trying to find something. This is a close up of one of the many toy baskets we have sitting around underneath our end tables in the living room.
115/365 - April 29, 2012 - Sky Column
This shot was taken atop Sharp's Ridge overlooking downtown Knoxville. My original plan was to get a shot of downtown from the overlook, but the sky was very hazy off in the distance and the cables from the TV antenna obstructed the view. I also didn't have my telephoto lens on hand, so downtown was just too small in the shot to be worth much. This shot is looking up the WBIR TV antenna just across the road from the overlook.
114/365 - April 28, 2012 - Neyland's Gate
This afternoon I had Nate to myself as Lisa and Anna were at the mall. After some male bonding at Lowe's, we drove around in hopes of Nate taking a nap. In the process, I drove around campus and snapped a few shots here and there from just outside the car. This is the shot I settled on for the day. It's a shot of the Gate 21 plaza at Neyland Stadium.
113/365 - April 27, 2012 - World's Fair Park
After leaving work about an hour early for a mental health break, I decided to stop by the World's Fair Park since the weather today in Knoxville was the Chamber of Commerce type variety. I really had very little inspiration prior to getting outside, but once I put on my polarized sunglasses and noticed how deep blue the sky was this afternoon, I couldn't resist stopping to take some photos. Since I started this project, I have wanted to recreate one of my favorite all-time shots of the Sunsphere. The shot I like so well is actually already documented in my project on Day 5, iFramed. After getting the shot I wanted, I spent a few more minutes around the park and captured another shot that I liked as well. I couldn't decide on which to use, so I used both.
112/365 - April 26, 2012 - Be Creative
In a week that has been challenging on many levels personally and professionally, I have had some issues with inspiration for my daily shot. Tonight prior to bed, I began to scramble to find something photo worthy around the house. After taking some photos of the place mats on the dining table (photo was about as exciting as it sounds), I caught a glimpse of one of Lisa's wall decorations above her desk. It consists of a mounted canvas with several inspirational phrases and comments. Since I was having issue with creativity, I decided to hone in on the "Be Creative" phrase.
111/365 - April 25, 2012 - Double Knockout Roses
This evening before leaving the parking lot at work, I snapped a couple of shots of the Double Knockout Roses that make up part of the landscaping. It had just rained prior to me getting outside, so the roses still had some raindrops covering the petals.
110/365 - April 24, 2012 - Early Rise
This morning with deadlines looming at work and an inability to get a good night's sleep due to the sinus infection I am currently fighting, I made it in the office early, even by my standards. To prove it, I snapped a shot of the security alarm control panel at the front door after disarming it on my way in.
109/365 - April 23, 2012 - Big Pink Ball
This evening after sneaking out to the garage to fix Lisa's desk chair, Anna came out to check on me and she found one of her pink balls sitting in the garage. Of course upon seeing it, she just had to play with it. I decided to take the opportunity to grab some shots of the kids in the backyard. This shot is of Anna marching around with her ball with some selective coloring to highlight the ball.
108/365 - April 22, 2012 - Brady Dog
In reviewing the first 100 days or so of my project, I come to realize I didn't have a shot of the 5th person residing in our house. He is actually our oldest "kid". At this stage, he's more like a retired, grumpy old man who is hard of hearing and sleeps away the day without a care in the world. I snapped this shot as Brady was moving around on the couch.
107/365 - April 21, 2012 - Cold One
After watching the kids all day by myself with Lisa out of the house doing a couple of jewelry shows, I settled down with a cold one after Anna left to stay the night with her grandparents and Nate went to bed. With the day I had trying to keep the house in somewhat reasonable order with the kids hellbent on destroying it, I just didn't have the motivation tonight for a creative shot. However, I did have the motivation to consume an adult beverage.
106/365 - April 20, 2012 - Open Your Eyes
A few weeks back when I was doing a photo session at the World's Fair Park, I noticed the reflection of the Sunsphere in the Knoxville Museum of Art's windows overlooking the park. With the sky dotted with big, fluffy clouds mixed with some blue sky, I ventured back to the park during my lunch break to get the shot I envisioned a few weeks back. I have been on an HDR kick of late and thought it was applicable due to the vast light differences between the sky and building.
105/365 - April 19, 2012 - Vol for Life
On the day Pat Summitt officially announced her stepping down from the helm of the Lady Vols basketball program, the Rock on campus was painted as a tribute to her. To capture the day, I drove by the Rock on my way home to get this quick shot. Thanks Pat for all you have done for the Tennessee athletics program and the Knoxville community. Godspeed with the battle that lays ahead.
104/365 - April 18, 2012 - Rails to the Horizon
On my way back to the office from performing a structural review at Dutch Valley Elementary School just north of Clinton, I crossed the old L&N line on Granite Road. After seeing the long straight line of tracks, I decided to stop for a minute and pull out the camera. This shot is the result of my brief stop. Not sure why I am on a railroad kick of late, but it has made for some interesting shots. I liked this one with the rural setting.
103/365 - April 17, 2012 - Corbel Stepped Gable
This shot is of one of the corbel stepped gable walls on the Southern Railway Terminal downtown. This building was completed in 1904 and now is home to a local architecture firm.
102/365 - April 16, 2012 - Azalea
On my lunch break, I went home to check on Lisa and the kids since Lisa wasn't feeling well. Prior to stepping inside, I took a quick shot of one of the azalea bushes in front of the house.
101/365 - April 15, 2012 - Times Gone By
This afternoon on the way out to visit my parents, I made a detour into downtown Clinton. I parked at the Courthouse and aimed across the street at Hoskins Drugstore and the Ritz Theater. To help preserve the details that would have otherwise been lost in the shadows created by the marque and awnings, I created an HDR image with 3 bracketed exposures, 1-stop apart. I also utilized a polarizing filter to help bring out the deep blue color in the sky.
100/365 - April 14, 2012 - Day One Hundred
Today is quite a milestone in my project. It marks the 100th day. Triple digits from here on out. To commemorate the occasion, I decided to get a shot of the number 100. With not much else around the house, I used the speedometer in the Sequoia to get the shot. I took the shot with my telephoto lens coupled with my macro filter in order to hone in on the numbers and create a very shallow depth of field to help isolate the number 100.
April 14, 2012 - The First One Hundred Days
To review the first 100 days of the project, I put together a 10x10 collage showing each day's shot.
99/365 - April 13, 2012 - Around the Bend
On a Friday the 13th, I decided to shoot something a little less colorful and spring-like. I didn't come across any black cats, but I did get stuck behind a funeral procession and inadvertently passed two additional hearses throughout the course of the day. Instead of going that morbid with my shot, I ventured downtown to the rail yard just opposite of Western Avenue and the World's Fair Park. I captured these box cars with graffiti. The original shot was quite colorful, but I muted the colors with a partial black and white layer in Photoshop to give it a more gloomy feel that I was looking for.
98/365 - April 12, 2012 - Sneaking Inside
After playing outside with the kids for a bit while Lisa was working on her business taxes, Brady had decided to go back inside. With the patio door wide open, I caught Nate gorilla walking toward the door. I captured this shot as he took a quick glance around to look back at me. While the shadow created by the other half of the door masks his face, the lighting on his face was actually pretty good.
97/365 - April 11, 2012 - Andrew Johnson Hotel
This afternoon on my way home, I made a detour downtown to get a panoramic shot of the Knoxville waterfront from the Riverwalk at City View on the south bank of the Tennessee. As you can see, the panoramic didn't make it, even though it didn't turn out too bad. This shot was an impromptu shot taken from the window of my vehicle while sitting at a red light at the intersection of Gay Street and Hill Avenue. Nothing really special, but I liked the angle and the deep blue sky in the background. I'll save the panoramic shot for another day.
96/365 - April 10, 2012 - Construction Progress II
Today I had another site visit to another school project in which I am the structural engineer. This time it was at the new Anderson County Alternative Learning Academy, which is located on the Anderson County High School campus in Clinton. This one is special to me since I am a 1999 graduate of Anderson County High. The field just to the left of the construction is the football practice field, which I spent lots of time on during high school. This project is supposed to be completed for the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year in August.
95/365 - April 9, 2012 - Construction Progress
Today's shot is nothing spectacular from a photographic standpoint. And for that matter, it's probably not all that exciting from any standpoint for most people. For me however, this shot shows some early stage progress on the largest project in which I have served as the structural engineer of record on in my career. This shot is of the early makings of the new Rhea County High School, located in Evensville, TN. The steel that is currently in place only frames roughly 20% of the entire building footprint. The new building will provide in excess of 200,000 square feet and will cost Rhea County in excess of $30 million in construction costs. The design of this project cost me about 6 weeks of my life during the summer of 2011, as it was a super fast-track design that normally would have required a 3 to 4 month schedule to complete.
94/365 - April 8, 2012 - Easter Water Fun
After a great Easter service at One Life Church, we had family over to our house for an Easter cookout. After eating, the kids discovered the ice in the drink cooler. This kept the kids entertained (and everyone else) for the better part of an hour. This shot was taken minutes prior to it getting out of hand when Anna took a bucket full of ice cold water and poured over Nate's head. At this point, they were just wetting their hands and messing up each others hair. Who needs toys when there is ice and water around?
93/365 - April 7, 2012 - Easter Egg Hunt
Today we took the kids to an Easter egg hunt at our old church home at First Cumberland Presbyterian. It was good to see some old friends while allowing the kids to have some fun hunting Easter eggs. To be an equal opportunity dad/photographer, I merged two separate shots of the kids into the daily photo.
92/365 - April 6, 2012 - Nate's New Kicks
This shot will make my brother Chad and cousin Jim proud. Nate has out-grown his first pair of Chuck's, so Lisa got him another pair today for his growing feet. I took this shot prior to going to bed, as I had not filled my quota for the day. I took this shot of the shoes on the kitchen counter. I used Photoshop to help washout the counter background. Definitely would have looked better in the lightbox, but not bad for the few minutes I had in the shot.
91/365 - April 5, 2012 - Ayres Hall Tower
This is another on the way home shot. I had to pick up some pizzas at Mellow Mushroom on the strip, and while I was waiting, I drove up The Hill to capture this shot of the Ayres Hall clock tower.
90/365 - April 4, 2012 - Spring Flowers
Not having much motivation or time, I captured a quick shot of some of the flowers planted in front of my office before heading home. Nothing great, but it's a shot for the day.
89/365 - April 3, 2012 - Drink...Coca-Cola
On my way home this evening, I made a detour through downtown. Prior to turning onto Central Avenue from Broadway, I saw this painted Coca-Cola sign on one of the old brick constructed buildings on Central. After making a U-turn, I captured this shot peering over top of a chain link fence standing on the running board of the Sequoia.
88/365 - April 2, 2012 - Sunburst
Tonight on the way home, I had to make a stop at Ingles to pickup a few things to grill for dinner. With the crazy weather pattern we have been under this week, this is a shot of some of the big puffy clouds ahead of some thunderstorm clouds. Over my left shoulder were some very dark ominous looking clouds which had decided to dump a deluge of rain on Powell as I was leaving the grocery store about 15 minutes after this shot.
87/365 - April 1, 2012 - Kris, Brooke and Micah
Today I had the pleasure to do a photo session with one of my co-workers and her family. We met up at the World's Fair Park for our session. Unfortunately, the overcast skies and impending rain rushed our session, but thankfully I captured some decent shots with the time we did have. This is a shot of Brooke and her family on the rail tracks adjacent to the Knoxville Museum of Art.
86/365 - March 31, 2012 - Sunset on the Clinch
Tonight on my way to my Aunt Kim's to pick up the kids from my parents, I made a quick detour out US 441 to get a quick shot on the river. With the afternoon storms, a nice layer of fog was sitting in the valley. This shot is an HDR of 6 bracketed shots. The sun was completely behind the ridge, so the actual light was much less than the photo would suggest.
85/365 - March 30, 2012 - Family Picnic
Today I took the day off so that me and my family could visit the Smokies for a picnic. The party consisted of Lisa, the kids, my parents, my grandparents, my brother and me. We grabbed some chicken from KFC and proceeded to the Chimneys picnic area. Since I had so many favorite shots, I decided to use one of my landscape shots of the stream flowing through the picnic area coupled with several black and white shots of the family merged into a collage.
84/365 - March 29, 2012 - Tennessee at Night
After working a 15-hour day in which I started the day around 5:30 AM and didn't leave the office until close to 10:00 PM, I made a detour to Gay Street on my way home since Lisa and the kids were spending the night at Lisa's parents. This is an HDR image of the Tennessee Theater marque.
83/365 - March 28, 2012 - Canon AT-1
This afternoon I didn't have the time or inspiration to get an outdoor shot. I was strapped for time between meeting with my insurance adjuster and going to our community group with church this evening. To get my shot, I got the light box and lights out of the garage. I chose one of my Christmas gifts as the subject. It's my mom's old Canon AT-1 that she got as a gift before I was born. Now that I am into photography, she decided since she didn't use it anymore that it was time to pass along to me. While I haven't shot with it yet, I am very excited to have this in my possession.
82B/365 - March 27, 2012 - Rail to Somewhere
Today's alternate photo was really an afterthought as I was heading back to the car. I went to the World's Fair Park with intentions of capturing some spring blooms (and I did), but I crossed some railroad tracks on my way back to the parking lot and decided to squat down and place my camera on one of the rails and aimed without even looking through the view finder. This shot was the result. The depth of field coupled with the black and white rendition really intrigued me. You probably think so what, but I liked it.
82A/365 - March 27, 2012 - Knoxville in Spring
Today I found myself in a good struggle after capturing my shots for the day. The struggle was the decision on which photo to use. I have made some difficult choices along the way, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't decide tonight. Since I make the rules, I decided to bend them somewhat and post dual photos today. This shot is of one of Knoxville's landmarks, the Sunsphere, in the background with a blooming Dogwood tree in the foreground.
81/365 - March 26, 2012 - Chillin' Like a Villian
This evening after dinner, I spent an hour or so in the backyard playing with the kids. This is a shot of Nate lounging in Anna's red wagon. Must be nice to be able to sit back and relax without a worry in the world.