Category: Photos

Toying with Aperture

My friend and fellow North Carolinian, Lee at Tarheel Ramblings, often posts his beautiful pictures. He will sometimes describe difficult and artistic photography processes, like he did on his last post about HDR photography. I’m not in his league, but I do like to take pictures now and again. When I bought my new computer, I also invested in Apple’s Aperture program. It has a number of filters that make it easy to change a so-so picture into something quite else. Here is my first effort, a shot I took this past fall, from a mountain in Old Fort, NC, just east of Asheville, looking north onto the Blue Ridge. I took it with my Canon xsi in RAW format, and then applied a number of tweaks with Aperture. I’m using it as my desktop photo right now. I don’t usually upload large files like this to my blog, but I wanted to capture as much detail and color as I could.

Sunday Scenery – via nephew Ben

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This awesome picture comes from my nephew, Ben, who is an accomplished and creative photographer. He has a wonderful eye! And that is coupled with a wanderlust that has taken him to many unique and out of the way corners of the world.

This shot was taken at his current place of employment, as a scuba instructor in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. If you want to learn how to scuba, this is the place to go!

Great job, Ben!

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Lee, I hope this was alright, using someone else’s photo. But I thought it was exceptional, he IS my nephew, and I gave him all the deserved cred!

Sunday Scenery – Outer Banks, NC

  Outer Banks, NC

This is my offering for Sunday Scenery, a cool meme created by my friend, Lee, at Tarheel Ramblings. Check him out. Today he put up an absolutely awesome photo of the Blue Ridge in Boone, NC, in the northwest corner of the state. So I chose a pic I took at the other end of the state, at the Outer Banks around Kitty Hawk.

BTW, as an aside, I had gotten up very early on the morning I took this picture so I could watch the sunrise. I was on a college hunting trip with my son, Kevin, and a few of his friends, and we had stayed up very late the night before. The Best Part was the surprise of finding my son already outside, doing the same thing, waiting to enjoy the sunrise. The “nut” doesn’t fall too far from the tree!

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Colorful Kelly

From the day she was born, Kelly has added color to my life. Her playful creativity as a child is stuff of family legend. The ups and downs of her adolescence were painted with the joys and pains of life. She discovered some of her gifts, which include her intellect, athleticism and musicality. She has a view of the world that is special and unique. Her stories are Kellyesque. Her writing is spectacular. I wish she had a blog.

It was wonderful catching up with Kelly in AZ these past few days. I enjoyed meeting her manfriend, Jamen. As a father, it gives me great joy seeing her make the decisions that shape her life. A colorful life. Like the unfolding of a beautiful flower.