Just gonna duck right between ya here

It has been a week without posts, which I don’t even do when I’m traveling, always having a couple of even token posts appear to keep from announcing that the house is empty. Yet I’ve been here in Walkabout Studios and the environs the entire time, just wrapped up in projects, to say nothing of it being ridiculously hot out there and not only is it uncomfortable to be read more

Snoozing in the sun

I have a post coming up that revolves around some updates, which then required more updates, so this is dragging out longer than intended, but it should be along soon. For now, we have a capture during a break today, the same trumpet flower plant from the previous post (whose occupant is still hanging about, undoubtedly thinking more mantids will be along soon.) This time, the subject remained read more

On this date 46

Like I said last week, lots to play with this week! In your face, Slow Period! Let’s see, now…

We start with 2010’s entry, a sampling of fall colors that didn’t get posted then:


I spend too much time trying to identify things like this right as I upload them for posts, instead of doing it, oh, anytime in the several years that I lived right next to read more

Just because, part 25: the lead in


The two images here both (perhaps obviously) came from the same outing, a student session, but are the inspiration for a composition post soon to appear. Sometimes it takes a little effort to separate ourselves from the concepts we hold of our surroundings to see what’s actually right in front of us. The image above is more subtle than the one below, but both made use of the read more

Daily Jim pics 40

Okay, so, part of the idea of doing a ‘routine’ on your blog is to goad yourself towards making regular posts, which helps visitors find something new nearly every time they come by. And one of the hazards of this is that you’re obligated to be creating new content, even when you might not necessarily have something strong to post. A lot of sites suffer from this now, putting up read more

Daily Jim pic 39


And so we close our visit to Custer State Park with a rock formation under a little smear of clouds and a gibbous moon – the exact same moon that produced the recent solar eclipse, as hard as that may be to believe.

I’ll use this image to illustrate a basic trait of photography: photos always have increased contrast over what our eyes see at the time, which is why it’s read more

Going through channels


So this past fall, seeing my shadow falling across a view of reflections in still water, I decided to get a little fartsy again (I’ll never learn) and make it an intentional part of the image. I didn’t really want a shadow of someone in the peculiar and recognizable position of taking a photo, so I set the camera and held it down by my hip, assuming a more natural-looking read more

Not spiders


You know, if I’m telling you in the title that spiders will not be found in this post, that only means some following post is not going to be good for arachnophobes…

Since the move, I’ve been taking the opportunity on occasion to scope out the new area, trying to determine what kind of decent shooting locales can be found nearby. One stroke of luck is a large pond, close and easy read more

On composition, part 20: Contrast


I find it hard to believe that I never actually tackled this in a separate post before – I guess I kept thinking I’d done it early on, and have certainly touched on it in numerous posts. But it’s such an important part of photography that it really deserves its own specific, detailed treatment.

First and foremost, and something I teach my students right off the bat, is that photographs read more

I just do what I’m told


When going back through my files of images, I can get a rough idea of what time of year photos were taken by the apparent seasons displayed within. Sometimes.

Friday, after meeting with a student I went down to the North Carolina Botanical Garden to drop off some paperwork, and took the opportunity to check the potential of staging a few photos that read more