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!
174/365 - June 27, 2012 - Rhea County High Construction
Today I made another site visit to one of my projects, Rhea County High School. Since this was the first trip I have made since April, I decided to try and mimic the panoramic shot I took on 4/9 in order to show how much progress has been made to date. It's hard to tell from the photo, but a lot of progress has been made. To put it in perspective on how big the school will be in the end, this is only about 3/4 of the school. There is still another 1/4 to be constructed on the front right quadrant.
173/365 - June 26, 2012 - Pink Daisy
Another trip to the UT Gardens resulted in a macro shot of a pink daisy.
172/365 - June 25, 2012 - I'm Watching You
My first thoughts tonight were that I was going way out on a limb. I was wanting to do some macro work tonight, and after Googling for some ideas, I came across a pretty cool eye close up. To execute the shot, I set the camera up on a tripod with macro filter, and my two Alien Bees flashes and began to snap away. It took several shots to get the focus to an acceptable level since I was just guessing on how close to place my eye away from the camera. A little Photoshop work later, and what you see is what I came up with for the day.
171/365 - June 24, 2012 - Deck Lines
On an evening where I was scrambling for a shot, I randomly placed the camera down on the deck at an angle and captured what you see. I liked it and went with it. Anna being out of focus at the other end of the deck was merely a coincidence.
170/365 - June 23, 2012 - Shelby
I had to make another visit to my parents' house to pickup Anna after she stayed the night. My mom was dog-sitting her friend's wirehaired dachshund, which just happens to be my brother's dog's sister. They look just alike, as at first I thought it was my brother's dog Ernie. Shelby was very photogenic, so I had the chance to capture several pretty good shots, with this being the best.
169/365 - June 22, 2012 - Mossy Sourwood
Another night with the kids to myself resulted in a trip to my parents to get a little help. While playing with the kids in the backyard at their new playset, I captured this shot looking up the trunk of a fairly horizontal running sourwood tree. I shot this wide open to really limit the DOF to achieve the really blurred background.
168/365 - June 21, 2012 - Chapman Restaurant
Another evening with the kids equated to another evening driving around. Tonight's ride took me into my hometown of Lake City. This shot is the old Chapman Restaurant sign, which has definitely seen better days, located on an old storefront on Main Street. Unfortunately, the sign is pretty indicative of the shape several buildings on Main Street in Lake City are in.
167/365 - June 20, 2012 - Corinthian Columns
This evening between work and meeting some guys from church for dinner, I took advantage of Lisa and the kids being at her parents and ventured downtown for my daily shot. This shot is of the front facade of First Baptist Church on Main Street.
166/365 - June 19, 2012 - Instrument Cluster
After a stressful evening with grumpy kids, which resulted in a grumpy wife, I couldn't wait to get out of the house for just a few minutes to try drive my new work vehicle around. With bedtime quickly approaching, Lisa mentioned the need to have some cash on hand to pay for parking at the hospital in the morning, so I took the opportunity to get out and get some cash from the nearest ATM. After getting back to the house and realizing I had no photo for the day, I captured a quick shot of the illuminated instrument cluster.
165/365 - June 18, 2012 - Grist Mill
An evening with the kids turned into a drive out to Norris Dam State Park. This is a shot of the Grist Mill below the dam on Lower Clear Creek.
164/365 - June 17, 2012 - Weenie Roast
Today we went to the campground in Cades Cove to visit Lisa's parents and family who were in from Colorado. The afternoon was spent lounging around the campsite. What camping trip is complete without roasting something over the fire.
163/365 - June 16, 2012 - Smurf-y Wedding
Tonight we attended a wedding for a friend of our family's. I was originally asked to take photos for the event, but I declined due to the unwanted pressure that weddings create. However, I still brought my camera along and captured some shots for experience sake while trying to stay far away from the paid photog. The wedding was far from a Smurf wedding as my caption suggests, but the colors in this shot made me think of one of my favorite childhood cartoons.
162/365 - June 15, 2012 - Shower Gel
Tonight after work, I met Lisa and the kids for a family date night. After a rushed dinner at Brixx Wood Fired Pizza due to Nate being extremely grumpy and loud, we proceeded to the mall for some walking and shopping. No trip to the mall with Lisa can be complete until we make a stop by Bath and Bodyworks. Knowing I didn't have my photo for the day, I pulled out my phone and snapped this shot of the shower gel display.
161/365 - June 14, 2012 - Healthy Eating
Lisa and I are into our second week of trying to eat better. Tonight I fired up the grill to cook some chicken tenderloin, in which I used a Jamaican jerk rub to give it some flavor. Lisa complemented the chicken with an apply, grape and mango fruit salad. As you can see, it was pretty yummy.
160/365 - June 13, 2012 - Market Street
Tonight after picking up the kids at my parents, I took an alternate route home through Clinton. In the process of passing through, I made a quick stop on Market Street. This part of town is old to several old buildings which are mostly home to antique shops now.
159/365 - June 12, 2012 - Hall of Fame
Tonight Lisa hosted a Pampered Chef show at our house, and being the smart man I am, I took Nate out for a ride to avoid the hen party. My brother also met up with us to ride around. I had hoped to get out and capture some good shots tonight, but my outing got off to a rocky start after getting rear-ended by a semi-truck on the interstate. Fortunately it was pretty minor, but enough to shake my inspiration for the evening. After driver around aimlessly downtown, I finally found some inspiration at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
158/365 - June 11, 2012 - Mega Tantrum
After a weekend of being spoiled by family, Anna was in quite the mood this evening. I typically post nice happy photos of my kids, but I captured this one to show Anna treacherous side. Honestly I don't remember what exactly set this tirade off, but I do know it lasted way too long...
157/365 - June 10, 2012 - Foggy Banks
With Anna at her grandparents and Lisa at the grocery store, Nate and I took a ride out to Norris Dam State Park to merely get out of the house. Of course, I brought my camera along. This shot is along the banks of the Clinch just below the dam at the canoe launch. Due to the fog over the water, you can barely make out the two fisherman wading in the river.
156/365 - June 9, 2012 - Flying Nate
We spent the evening out at my parents having a cookout with some out of town relatives. My shot tonight is another Nate shot. This time he's enjoying the swing.
155/365 - June 8, 2012 - '51 Chevy
This afternoon on the way home from work, I made a stop by the University Gardens off of Neyland Drive on the UT Ag Campus. I had intentions of getting some plant/flower close-ups, but after walking around I discovered an old Chevy pickup. I was really torn on whether to use the black and white version you see or the color version. This shot is an HDR image using 3-bracketed shots, 1-2/3 stops apart.
154/365 - June 7, 2012 - Hidden Eyes
As you can see, Brady is starting to get a little shaggy. It's gotten to the stage where his hair is covering up his eyes. In the next few weeks when he starts running into things, we will know its time for a haircut.
153/365 - June 6, 2012 - Upgrade
I finally got tired enough of my slow laptop to do something about it. Since I upgraded to Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3, the 4 GB of RAM just didn't give me enough power to multi-task. Today I doubled of the RAM and am proud to say the performance has definitely increased.
152/365 - June 5, 2012 - Morning Light and Shadow
Prior to heading out to Clinton to make a job site visit, I noticed a portion of the morning sun casting a shadow on the fence from one of my pear trees. It was good timing, as the rest of the fence was in the shade due to other trees and the house.
151/365 - June 4, 2012 - Nate in Action
This evening on the deck, I captured a sequence of shots of Nate going from his Frankenstein walk to a crawl. In order to add some interest to the sequence, I created a film-looking background to frame the photos. To all the film gurus out there, I do realize I rotated the orientation of the frames to a portrait format instead of the landscape format 35mm film actually has.
150/365 - June 3, 2012 - Gay Street Bridge
If you can't tell, I have gotten myself into a panoramic state of mind this weekend. Today after having lunch at Calhoun's on the River, I captured these shots of the Gay Street Bridge crossing over the Tennessee River. Calhoun's is on the left (north) bank of the river in the photo. I wasn't exactly happy with some of the processing on this one, but considering the time it took, I just didn't have the desire to redo it. It's a compilation of 6 3-shot HDRs. I ran an HDR batch in Photomatix to create 6 TIFs and then merged the TIFs in Photoshop CS5.
149/365 - June 2, 2012 - Cades Cove
This evening we made a trek to Cades Cove as a family after running some errands for Lisa's jewelry business in Maryville. I didn't bore the family too much with multiple stops for photos as I would do if I was visiting the Cove by myself. However, I was able to get this panoramic shot from one of the pull-offs on the north side of the loop road. This is a vantage point looking off to the east with the main ridge of the Smoky Mountains in the background. Bote Mountain is around the left-third of the shot with Spence and Russell Fields off to the right. It was an absolutely beautiful day to visit the mountains.
148/365 - June 1, 2012 - Warehouse District at Dusk
Tonight after work, Lisa and I took the kids out to dinner and a leisurely drive back home. Our drive took us downtown, which was about as busy with people traversing the streets as I have ever seen on a Friday night. I had not intended on taking any photos, but when crossing the Gay Street viaduct, there was an empty parking space that I quickly took advantage of. I only had my 17-40 mm lens with me, so I had to settle on a wide shot. This shot was taken with the camera propped up on the viaduct rail looking over the Southern Terminal and warehouse district. This is similar to another shot I took back in February but at night.
147/365 - May 31, 2012 - Thunder Cell
Tonight while mowing the yard, the sky went from sunny with scattered clouds to very ominous looking storm clouds. Once I saw this cell coming towards me, I had to grab my camera. As you can see, the cell had a very definitive concave ring between the lower and upper cloud mass. This is a multi-shot panorama that I stitched together in Photoshop. To get the bulk of the sky in the shot, I had to shoot at an upward angle, hence why I have some bad distortion of the fence.
146/365 - May 30, 2012 - Lord Lindsey House
This is a shot of the Lord Lindsey House, which is currently up for sale/lease. Its located on Hill Avenue just off of Henley Street. I had originally stopped here to get some shots of the Henley Street Bridge construction, but the house caught my eye and I ended up using this shot instead.
145/365 - May 29, 2012 - Self-Portrait
I am not a big fan of having my picture taken, hence the reason why I operate behind the camera. On a day where inspiration was fleeting, I decided to use the mirror to capture a shot of me behind the camera.
144/365 - May 28, 2012 - Just a Swingin'
We spent Memorial Day at my parents' house, swimming in their pool and playing on the kids new playground. I had intended to do something more patriotic considering the holiday, but I just didn't get the chance as the day got away from me just relaxing by the pool. This shot is looking down at Anna on the swing.
143/365 - May 27, 2012 - Slip 'n Slide
We had originally planned to spend the day at my parents pool, but our plans were altered due to a nasty migraine Lisa woke up with this morning. By the time she felt good enough to get out, it was just too late to deal with the hassle of getting ready to go out to my parents. Instead, I setup the slip 'n slide in the backyard along with a make shift swimming pool (I filled the empty sand box with water). This is a shot of Anna enjoying the slip 'n slide.
142/365 - May 26, 2012 - Cupcake Nate
Today we were invited to a birthday party for one of the kids in our church community group. The kids had an absolute blast with all of the games and other kids to play with. However, the kids favorite time was the cupcakes. This shot is of Nate polishing off the Elmo cupcake with all of the red icing.
141/365 - May 25, 2012 - Date Night
Lisa and I actually got away from the kids for a night to have a night to ourselves. We had dinner at Cafe 4 on Market Square and then when to a movie at the Riviera 8 on Gay Street. Definitely a well deserved night away from our parenting duties.
140/365 - May 24, 2012 - Tropicana Gold
Today I made a quick stop by the University Gardens on campus to snap a couple of photos. This one is looking down the "barrel" of a Tropicana Gold.
139/365 - May 23, 2012 - OneLife Community
Tonight was our once every two-week community group meeting. Lisa and I started attending OneLife Church on a regular basis in February and eventually got plugged-in to this group. We have a great group. As you can see, we have lots of kids...
138/365 - May 22, 2012 - Babysitting MBI Style
While waiting out Lisa's jewelry show at the house, I had a work emergency to resolve. In order to multi-task, I grabbed some Chik-fil-a for the kids, went to the office and went on lock-down in one of our TV conference rooms. Since this room as no cable, I used the computer to pull up Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the kids on You Tube. It actually worked...even if it was only for 30 minutes.
137/365 - May 21, 2012 - Yard Mowing
Tonight I had the chore of mowing a really grown up yard. It's been almost 2 weeks since I mowed prior to going on vacation. Last week with all of the catching up I had to do, I just didn't have an evening where I could get it done. To get my shot for the day, I grabbed my camera after cutting the first strip and shot this perspective.
136/365 - May 20, 2012 - Mover Rich
Today Lisa and I took Anna to the Imagination Movers concert at the Tennessee Theatre. In aw of the theatre, I captured several shots of the architecture, etc. in hopes of getting my shot for the day. Unexpectedly after the show, we ran into Mover Rich on the street. He was nice enough to take a moment to have a picture made with Lisa and Anna. As you can see, Lisa enjoyed meeting Mover Rich way too much...even Anna was embarrassed by her mommy's blushing.
135/365 - May 19, 2012 - Need a Push?
Today I took the kids out to my parents to play on their newly constructed playset in the backyard. My dad has constructed a mini-park in the backyard for the kids to enjoy when they visit. This shot is pretty self-explanatory. Nate was contemplating a ride on the slide. Anna, being the caring and loving sister she is, was caught by the lens just about to give Nate a sisterly push. Fortunately my dad caught her attempt shortly after the shutter closed and helped prevent Nate's unsuspecting slide.
134/365 - May 18, 2012 - Let Me Drop Everything
While on vacation, Lisa found the "Let Me Drop Everything..." sign in a beach shop and surprised me with it. She said this would go perfectly in my office at work since it pretty much describes a typical day of mine at the office. I decided to place it just above a previously purchased "Another Day in Paradise" sign, which is my facetious motto while at work. I used a preset negative curve treatment on the photo for a funky color arrangement.
133/365 - May 17, 2012 - Knotty
A very simple shot of a knot on one of the fence pickets in my back yard. The color of the knot is as shot with the remainder of the wood weathered to the gray tones shown.
132/365 - May 16, 2012 - Immaculate Conception Church
This afternoon on the way home, I made a quick detour downtown to get my shot of the day. I ended up in the old warehouse district and captured this shot looking up at the Immaculate Conception Church steeple up the hill from the street below.
131/365 - May 15, 2012 - Hot Water
My hot water heater has been discharging water from the temperature and pressure valve for the past couple of months. In the past couple of weeks the leak has become a steady flow of water. After some diagnosis, I determined by pressure relief valve is on the fritz. This evening, my jack-of-all-trades grandfather came over to help me with the repairs. This is a shot of the water heater thermostat and pilot valve.
130/365 - May 14, 2012 - Red Day Lily
On my first day back from vacation, I was looking for a quick fix from the camera to get in my daily shot once I got home from a LONG day of work. I stepped outside to gauge the grass length to help determine when I needed to mow. As I was going back inside the house, I caught a glimpse of some flowers in bloom in one of our planters that has been neglected since the kids have joined our household. They provided some needed inspiration.
129/365 - May 13, 2012 - Seafood Market
This afternoon prior to leaving Myrtle Beach, we grabbed lunch at the Flying Fish restaurant and seafood market at Barefoot Landing. As I was leaving knowing I probably would not have a better chance to get a photo with the 7-hour drive ahead of me, I took the opportunity to capture a shot of one of the seafood coolers with my phone camera.
128/365 - May 12, 2012 - Palmetto State
On our second leg of our trip, we spent the weekend in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Definitely a stark contrast to the quiet place we were earlier in the week. Nevertheless, it's still a place to spend time with the family on the beach. Prior to heading out for the day, I captured this shot off our patio of a palm tree in the pool area at the resort. As with most of the week, the sky was a deep blue color.
127/365 - May 11, 2012 - Beaufort Time
On our last day in the Morehead City area, we made the short trip across the sound to the town of Beaufort. This stop is another staple of our trips to this area. We had lunch at another one of our favorite places in the area, Clawson's, and afterwards spent some time in the local shops along side the docks.