Shooting Fireworks

Tonight, I made my first attempt at photographing fireworks. The fireworks display was part of a large outdoor party thrown by Faith Promise Church on the campus of Pellissippi State Technical Community College. I set up my tripod and camera on a hill overlooking the campus. I used a 3 to 6 second exposure for these shots. I had a lot of fun and I'm pretty happy with how the images came out. I hope you like them too.

Secret City Festival - WWII Reinactment

The Secret City Festival was recently held in Oak Ridge, TN. This year the festival featured a WWII living history encampment as well as a small skirmish reinactment between Allied forces and German SS forces. After the skirmish, the public could walk through the battle area and the camps and get an up-close view of the period uniforms, vehicles, and camps for the soldiers. These reinactors spend a lot of effort getting the details accurate and it really is like stepping back into a living history. Below is slideshow that features the Allied troops in the first half and the German troops towards the end.



If you would like to purchase copies of these photos click here.

Savannah Photography Workshop - Part 2

The following slideshow contains pictures from our class exercises as well as some grab shots between activities. I still haven't caught up on my sleep from this workshop. I haven't stopped smiling or talking about it either. It was a fantastic experience!

Savannah Photography Workshop

I have recently returned from attending a week long workshop in beautiful Savannah, GA. The workshop titled "Location People I" was taught by The Mindful Eye contributor Bryan Allen. Wow, what a great experience. The people in this class were some of the most encouraging people I have ever worked with. There was so much creative energy in the air. One of my favorite things to do is to be with people who are genuinely hungry and eager to learn.

Everyone in the class was so helpful. A special thanks goes out to Mike Novoseletsky, a fellow Nikon shooter and to Allan Mueller who assisted Bryan. I only got one photo with Mike and Allan in it. Most likely because Mike was standing next me helping understand some of the more advanced flash settings or that Allen was hauling gear and working behind the scenes. Sorry guys, but I want you to know that I'm very thankful for all your help.

Below is a slide show of everyone in the class including my wife Sandra. Sandra was not an official student, but she did help us out by modeling and she shot video of our class throughout the week with her camera.



I'll try to get another post together soon of the some of the interesting people who modeled for us. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

Habitat for Humanity - Emerson's house

Last Saturday, I wrapped a week of photographing the build activities for the Emerson sponsored house for Habitat for Humanity in Knoxville, TN.



The view from Knoxville College. Emerson sponsored the middle house.



Bill and Sylvia Van Dyke


Mayor Bill Haslam





Mayor Haslam and former Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist.




Tennessee State Senator Tim Burchett.




Emerson's Don Marshall presents the new house keys to the Van Dyke family.





New Homeowners!

Sunset at Clingman's Dome- GSM

Here are the sunset photos I promised. This was truly a beautiful end to the day. It was surprisingly cold but Sandra and I just couldn't leave. The view was breathtaking.

Amen

Great Smoky Mountains

Here are some of the photos from our trip to GSM in November, 2008. I'll have another post later this week just for the sunset from Clingman's Dome. More to come....

Fall Colors on Display

The bridge and stream at Chimney's Picnic Area

The view from Clingmon's Dome tower.

Sunset - Feb. 22, 2009

I know I have been catching you up on our adventures this fall and I have some nice photos coming this week from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from a couple of trips that Sandra and I made in November. But the sunset last night was really nice, so I grabbed my camera and made these. The photos are straight out of the camera (SOOC) with not enhancement to the color with Photoshop. I simply walked into my neighbor's backyard (I have the coolest neighbors. They had previously given me permission, so I took them up on their offer.) and shot these. Enjoy these and I'll get back to the GSM pictures including some awesome sunset photos from Clingman's Dome later in the week. Stay tuned.....

CZ Trip Day 7 Sun – Prague

This was our final day in Prague. We shot some footage for summary purposes of the trip and took mom to a rather large shopping mall. We then got off the subway near the museum and walked down the new town square for more shopping. We stopped in at the Louve' Restaurant for dinner and their world famous hot chocolate.

Here is a video of our ride on the Prague Metro/Subway. There is no music on this one so you can hear the sounds better. If you are ever fortunate enough to visit Prague, then the subway is the best way to get around in the city. A week long pass gets you on the metro as well as the buses and street cars.

Here are some random photos.

From Prague - Misc

Our Apartment Building and street

From Prague - Misc

The view from our window at night of the street

From Prague - Misc

Cafe across the street from our Apartment

From Prague - Misc

From Prague - Misc

From Prague - Misc

Bread Basket at the Louve' Restaurant

Waiter at the Louve' Restaurant

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – Lesser Town Park

After we walked across the Charles Bridge we made our way along the bank of the river in a wonderful section of Prague known as Lesser Town. There we found a nice park where we leisurely strolled through until we arrived at the next bridge back across the river. In the middle of this bridge, there is a staircase down to an island which has another nice park. The trees were beginning to turn showing off their wonderful fall colors. It was a nice end to a great day of sightseeing in Prague.

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – The Charles Bridge

Once we left the Old Town Square, we made our way through the ancient streets towards the river. We then walked across the Charles Bridge. This bridge is now pedestrian only and is famous for its statues that line the bridge. The statues depict various scenes from the Bible. We walked out on the bridge to where an old-time jazz band was playing. I surprised Mom by asking her for a dance. We danced on the Charles Bridge to an old song that was popular when she was a teenager. For a moment, she was 20-something again. She still talks about it to anyone who will listen.

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – Old Town Square

After our river cruise, we walked into the Old Town Square. The square is a huge pedestrian only space flanked by two large churches. One of the churches has two large towers called the Adam and Eve towers. The other church has a single large tower with a large astronomical clock at the base. In the middle of the square is a statue of some of the founding fathers and past heroes or Prague. We stopped off at one of the many sidewalk cafes for a cold drink and a pastry.

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – The River Cruise

Sandra and I got up early and hopped on the subway with some of our gear and went out on our own to film some B-roll footage of the town. Ava had to catch her train to Stuttgart, so we missed saying good-bye to her. When we got back we took mom for some lunch. That afternoon, we took a river cruise. Our tour guide spoke 12 languages. On our tour, he narrated in German, English, and Russian.

CZ Trip – Day 5 Fri– Prague at Night

The giant Cathedral and surrounding Castle are especially magical at night. Ava and I went out for a walk at night and of course, I had to take my new Nikon and a tripod with me. Thanks to Sandra’s thorough research of apartments and hotels, we stayed just a short walk from the river and perfect view of the Cathedral on the hill and the Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava River. After taking several pictures of the Castle, we walked out onto the Charles Bridge and then into the Old Town Square for some more night photography.

CZ Trip – Day 5 Fri– Prague: The Castle

With our major day trips behind us, we could relax a bit and do some sight seeing around Prague. We did take the cameras with us and occasionally filmed some scenes for B-roll footage and to simply document the vacation aspect of the trip. Ava volunteered to drop us off at the castle in the rental car while she returned it to the airport. She would take the subway back and stop in visit the Czech National Museum while we took mom on a leisurely tour of the castle grounds and then a slow walk down the hill and back to the Old Town Square in Prague. Ava and I went out at night after dinner for some night photography of the Charles Bridge, Castle, and Old Town Square. I've got lots of photos from this day of sight seeing that I'll post over the next couple of days. For now, here are some photos from the Castle with it's fairy tale like Cathedral that dominates the Prague skyline. Enjoy.

CZ Trip – Day 4 Thur– Cseke Budejovich

We were tired this morning from two long days of shooting and did not get started as early as we would have liked. We experience some bumper to bumper traffic in the Prague morning rush-hour as we tried to get out of town going south this time to Cseke Budejovich, home of Budweiser Beer. The morning traffic delays made the trip take nearly two hours. We found a good parking place near the town square and had lunch and then started a great day of filming. Cseke Budejovich has a beautiful town square. Here are some photos.

As we were wrapping up the day we noticed a police escorted motorcade pull into the town square where were. The big black limousine had American flags on the front. So Ava and I followed by Sandra and mom walked over to say hello. It was the US Ambassador to CZ! The embassy is of course in Prague so it was quite a coincidence that he would in the same town at the same time as us.

CZ Trip – Day 3 Wed.– Klatovy and Pilzen

Being able to park the rental car right outside the apartment was very convenient. Back-packing all of our gear on the subway was not fun. There was some concern about parking downtown in Prague. Our apartment was in the old city a short walk from the river and the Charles Bridge. Apparently, only permanent residents who have special permits are allowed to park on the streets in that area of town. Others will be towed at least during the business day, when parking is scarce. But we got in so late and left so early each morning it was not a problem. On Day 3, we were up early and loaded and on the road ahead of the morning traffic.

We headed west for an hour to the outskirts of Pilzen and then turned south to the town of Klatovy. I should mention that my sister Ava did the driving each morning and through out the day. She did an awesome job. Sandra and I would read the maps and road signs to help navigate. Sandra would also talk us through the shot sequence for the day. Here are some photos of Klatovy.



Pretty much every where Sandra went with her big camera she drew a crowd. Here are some photos of us setting up in a park to shoot a scene in Klatovy. The school must have dismissed for lunch because soon there was a crowd of middle schoolers watching us film.



We got the shots we needed in Klatovy and headed back to Pilzen. As you have seen in some of the videos, I occasionally, would get out the little Panasonic camera and use the mono-pod to film us driving from the passenger seat. The Czech country side is really beautiful and the best way to show you is these little driving videos. I hope you like them. This one was filmed on the drive from Klatovy to Pilzen.


CZ Driving from Klatovy to Pilzen from Jim Walker on Vimeo.


Some of you may not know that Pilzen is home to Pilsner Beer. Once we got into Pilzen, we got the video shots we needed and found a small little restaurant for some dinner. I drove us home at the end of a long day of shooting. Here are some photos of Pilzen.

CZ Trip – Day 2 Tues. – Usti nad Labem and Lovosice

This would be a good time to mention, that I am under strict orders from my producer (Sandra) not to spoil any of the story details from the “Jonne Project.” Fortunately there are plenty of other interesting stories from the travel, sightseeing, and vacation aspect that I can tell you. I should also mention that we chose to stay in Prague because it was in a central location to our 3 main filming destinations. Each destination was just over an hour away from Prague. So the first order of business was to rent a car. Driving in Europe is not recommended for most Americans. While all of Europe does drive on the right side of the road (except England) the signs are very different and some of the customs are different. But, I lived in Italy three years, and Ava has been to Europe frequently, so driving in CZ was not going to be a problem.


Now that we were unpacked, our batteries charged, cupboard and fridge stocked we were ready for our first day of filming. The breakfast cereal with buttermilk was quite a rude awakening. We ended up eating the cereal dry. We left our apartments, with our bulging backpacks loaded with equipment and walked down the streets to the nearest subway. From there we went to the end of the green line and caught a shuttle bus out to the airport and rented a car. This took nearly two hours, but soon we had loaded up our little black Skoda sedan and we were on our way north to Usti nad Labem.



The first location that we needed to find was on the outskirts of town, down some rather small country roads. Sandra had turn-by-turn directions and we did a good job finding all the streets until we got to the last road called “unnamed road”. We went by it twice, but finally found what turned out to be a little dirt field-road, which explains the unnamed part. We bravely inched the little Skoda over the ruts in the road praying we would not meet anyone, because it was definitely a one lane road. But since there were no signs of civilization, we figured the odds were pretty good we were the only people around. We found our first location and got our shot. We packed up and headed back into town to see if any other locations looked familiar to mom. But so much has changed she didn’t recognize anything. The Elbe River passes through the town and there is new modern bridge which we managed to drive across.



Driving in Usti nad Labem from Jim Walker on Vimeo.


We then moved onto the small town of Lovosice for more filming and a good dinner. Then it was back to apartment in Prague.

Snow in Knoxville, TN

Here is a quick post about the weather in Knoxville. We had snow today, which rarely happens. Here are some photos and video that I shot at sunset today on the PSTCC campus. Both the video and the still photos were shot with Nikon D90.

Snowy Pond from Jim Walker on Vimeo.