Hard Labor Creek State Park

I woke up about an hour before sunrise on a Saturday morning and drove for about 30 minutes to get to Hard Labor Creek State Park. It's located just above the city of Rutledge, GA.

I wasn't even aware that this park existed until this past Thursday when I began looking for a few places to go within a short distance of Athens. Apparently, this park has a really nice public golf course. It gets its name from one of two sources:

1. It was named Hard Labor Creek by slaves who worked the fields.

2. It was named Hard Labor Creek by native American Indians who "found it difficult to ford."

I don't know which one is the true origin, but it's a nice little park. I'll have to go back one day when it's not so cold. The temperatures were in the teens when I was taking these photographs. I stayed out about two hours and my fingers and toes were so cold, I had to cut the trip short.

I'm rather proud of this particular B&W, though. It's one of my favorite B&W pictures I've taken.

Tv: 1.0
Av: 29.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 53.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Frost Meets Water

This was the first shot I took this morning. It was a little cold to be laying on the ground in order to get this perspective...but it was worth it.

Tv: 1/13
Av: 8.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 21.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Ice

I thought this frozen stick standing out over the water made for an interesting subject. I have another picture in color, but I like this B&W much better.

Tv: 1.0
Av: 36.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 54.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Vines

I really like this one. The little window on the side gives it some character...and the lighting is nice.

Tv: 1/25
Av: 7.1
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 24.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Smoke On The Water

The only thing I wish could've been different with this photograph is the clarity of the reflection in the water. It would have been nice if the refelction were as crisp and some of those I took below at Watson Mill.

Tv: 2.0
Av: 32.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 105.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Bridge In Color

I was pleased with the crisp colors in this photo. I did saturate it a little bit in Photoshop, but it made for a good shot on its own.

Tv: 1/13
Av: 8.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 42.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Ducks On The Pond

Well, it wasn't really a pond. It was a wash down below the bridge. I wanted to get closer to get a more crisp shot, but this was as close as I could get.

Tv: 1/80
Av: 5.6
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 300.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Bridge Over Fog

I shot this from across a small lake. The early morning mist coming off the top of the water gave this picture a nice effect.

Tv: 1/8
Av: 8.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 220.0mm 

Hard Labor Creek State Park - Broken

Not the greatest or most picturesque subject, but I liked the perspective.

Tv: 1/40
Av: 4.5
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18.0mm 

Color In Hand

This is a picture of my Dad holding a butterfly on the trip to Brasstown Bald.

There's a little story behind it, as well. The temperature that day was very, very cold and being on top of a mountain, the wind was blowing quite a bit which made it even colder. This butterfly wasn't moving at all when we saw him on the trail. It was in the shade and was just lying on the dead leaves on the ground. My Dad gently picked it up and put in in his hand. I snapped this picture and then we placed it on a rock in the sun hoping that maybe it would warm up enough (if it was even still alive) to fly down to a lower elevation.

We left it there and continued on the trail up the mountain. When we came back down, we looked on the rock to see if it was still there...and it was gone.

So, I like to think that this little butterfly that was facing sure death (had we not happened upon it) was lucky enough to be warmed up on that rock in the sun and mustered up the energy to fly away.

I'll never know for sure...and it's pretty trivial...but I like to think that's what happened, anyway. 

Georgia Theatre - Photoshopped!

I was in a Photoshop mood last night and decided to go crazy with it.

I didn't like this picture in its original state very much, and I don't intend to do much of this kind of thing, but this photo was just begging to be manipulated. The original was taken at night under very bad lighting conditions and there was a lot of noise in the image itself, but the focal point of the picture (the marquee) was actually pretty decent.

So, I just decided to leave the marquee in its original state and desaturate the rest of the picture. To offset some of the noise, I added a blur motion to the desaturated areas to give those areas a little more contrast with the colored, in-focus marquee.

Watson Mill - Photoshopped!

I've had Photoshop Elements for a while, but I've recently started seriously working with a full blown version of Photoshop...and this is my first attempt at playing around with selections in one of my photographs.

I figure that it's just as important to learn post-processing with the photos as it is to learn about in-camera processing and composition. Earlier this year when I took up photography as a hobby, I thought that post-processing with a software application like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements took away from the original captured image and I was determined not to use it, but as I've learned a little more and have gained a better understanding of how to maximize the capabilities of my camera, I realize that post-processing is an integral part of digital photography. It's basically the digital version of a film photographer taking his negatives into the dark room and processing them. Just as that was and is an important step in film photography, so is post-processing with Photoshop in digital.

This is the same picture as Watson Mill at Dusk below, but with the obvious changes made. 

Athens Sunset

This was taken on the last day of November, 2006. I was on top of the College Avenue parking deck and happened to get a nice sunset to photograph. It was a tricky subject to shoot since I was looking directly into the sun, but I think it turned out alright.

Tv: 1/400
Av: 5.6
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 125.0mm 

Watson Mill Bridge B&W

I took this one well after dusk and had to leave the shutter open for 20 seconds. It turned out to be a pretty good B&W pic of the bridge.

Tv: 20.0
Av: 9.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18.0mm 

Watson Mill - Waterfall

The bridge gets most of the attention at this park, but the falls underneath it is really spectacular. It's not that tall (maybe 10 to 12 feet), but it spans the entire length of the bridge and is always very active. I've never seen it at a trickle.

Tv: 2.0
Av: 5.6
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 28.0mm 

Watson Mill - Moonlight Reflection II

Another shot of the sky refelcting off the very still water. I think I like the composition of the photo below better than this one, but I think the reflection is better in this one.

Tv: 1/8
Av: 11.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18.0mm 

Watson Mill at Dusk

Another shot of the old bridge at dusk on a Sunday evening.

Tv: 1/6
Av: 8.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 21.0mm 

Watson Mill - Moonlight Reflection

I was lucky enough to get a nice, calm dusk to shoot. I've never taken advantage of these opportunities at Watson Mill, but I'm going to start trying to shoot the place at more light-friendly times.

Tv: 1/10
Av: 11.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18.0mm