Daily Archives: January 4, 2026

RiverWalk

Posted by Mike on

Chattahoochee RiverWalk – Dragonfly Trail

I can easily be complacent. Simple statement of fact. I point to the four year gap between selling the house and finally moving South. I want to do better.

The allure of my current video game was calling me after I fed the boys (my cats) their dinner. The “want to do better” thought was floating on the top of my mind. Thankfully, the lazy side of me didn’t win. I packed the camera and headed out. At the very least I would go to the park and do more exploring. The sunset would not be until 5:45pm, I had plenty of time.

The short conversation I had with one of my friends at work about the trails along the river popped into my head as I sat at the light. Straight to the park or make the turn to the right, and find the trailhead. I turned right.

I’ve known about the trail along the river since I moved to this area. I’ve walked a short section of it near Uptown Columbus. This time I was going to start at the very north end and walk downstream. You can see more info about the trail system here. I did grab a phone pic of the map.

I walked from mile marker 3.7 to marker 2.0. That small section there on the bottom left of the map. As you can see, I have more exploring to do. Added to my agenda for the year…

I had no idea what I would find along the trail. This was more of a scouting mission. A deposit on future possibilities. I met a few photographers on the trail and they provided me with some advice on the birds I could find. I only brought the 24-70mm lens but the next walk will be with the zoom lens.

I mentioned in the post on the Shine event at the botanical garden that I’m not a street photographer. But, there were a couple of opportunities to include people in my pics. I’m thinking I need more practice…

The Journey Begins
Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4 S, 1/100s, 24mm, f/8, ISO 100

Golden Days
Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4 S, 1/80s, 70mm, f/11, ISO 160

Behind the Scene – Carefree Days

Posted by Mike on

Behind the Scene – BTS01

I’ve been doing more thinking than I normally do. WTH?

It is so bad that I have been writing things down. Who am I?

I’m not a reflective person, nor am I a person who looks very far down the road.

But, I have been enjoying my photography these past few months. During the summer of neglect I was unsure if I would continue this journey. I now understand a contributing factor to my recent enjoyment are the interactions I have with my online friends. I need to put in the work because I know I tend to go silent at times. I’m trying to be better…

A few ideas have been bouncing around in this empty head of mine. I’m hoping I can find a way to bring them to these pages in a way that everyone will enjoy. The first one is this Behind the Scene idea. A few comments on recent posts got me thinking an understanding of what I went through to create the image would be something interesting. Hence, a peek behind the curtain and sorry to say, into the jumbled mess of my mind.

So, let’s get this party started with a recent image, Carefree Days from Flat Rock Park. As soon as I spotted the swing hanging from the tree, I knew that it would be the image of the day. In my excitement I jumped right in photographing it and didn’t spend the time working the scene. My first image looked like this…

Carefree First

What do you see? A tree, right? But the swing is my subject. So what did I do? I only had my 105mm prime lens on the camera, so I needed to zoom with my feet. Yes, I could have cropped the image later as I processed it but I generally try to get the image as best I can with the camera.

Few steps closer. Same sight line. You get this…

Carefree Second

A slight improvement. I removed the clutter at the top of the image but the tree is more prominent than the swing. Still not what I want. Also, what do you see behind the swing? Yes, that’s right, more clutter.

I need to change my view in an attempt to remove as much of the distractions as I can. The other factor working against me is my focal length. The 105mm is working hard to compress the view. Even though my aperture is wide open at f/2.8, I’m not getting much blur in the background due to the optics. The distance between the background and the swing is less than the distance between me and swing.

I’m not going to be able to make the background disappear but by choosing a consistent grouping of brush I can help the swing stand out. Stepping a little closer and moving to my left, I find the best view available. This is the image…

Carefree Third

I’m happy. I’m also thinking I should come back for another attempt with the 24-70mm lens, but for now I can continue the walk. But I’m distracted because thoughts of how I want to process the image are already running through my mind. I was aware of my surroundings enough not fall as I zombie walked back to the car.

These three images are straight out of the camera. Now the camera images are in a 2 x 3 format which is not my favorite. I tend to use 5 x 7, 4 x 5 or the radical 1 x 1 formats. This is a tall image so my first adjustment is to crop to the 5 x 7 format. It helps me remove a little more of the clutter at the top and bottom of the original. I’m basically removing anything that doesn’t help me tell the story.

The last big adjustment I made was to convert the image to B&W. That allowed me to hide the small patches of green in the foreground and background. Plus, as you all know by now, I love me a monochrome image. And, so you do not have to go look at the other post, the finished image…

Carefree Days
Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, 1/640s, f/2.8, ISO 100

My hope is that you will find this interesting, maybe helpful and at the very least entertaining. Please let me know in the comments. As for the other ideas swirling around in my head, they should find their way to the blog soon. I know, I’m excited too…