Seasonal Lights

It's that time of year again when the lights go up all around town. I get out and take a different view of the lights then most people do. When you visit the photos posted on my photos you will see what happens when I twist my brain. Twisting my camera while taking those photos of the lights is just as crazy. So for my December post I'll share some of those for you and if you enjoy these, please follow the link to my Flickr page and get a view of some others. The abstract once are made by using a slow shutter speed and putting a little motion to the camera. Try some up and down, circular motion or even a little zig zag. Take a look and maybe they will get you thinking about reaching out and being more creative. Enjoy the photos and please get out and experiment some.

Fall is here.

Fall has hit and the weather is showing it. This is one of my favorite times of year with the cooler weather and the spectacular colors of the foliage. I was able to get away and take a trip up to the Great Smoky Mountains. On this trip we didn't actually go into the national park, but rather in Gatlinburg along the edge of the park. Gatlinburg Tennessee is considered the gateway to the Smoky's and if you have never been there I highly recommend you visit there when you're in east Tennessee. Though the many years that I have lived here I never get tired of visiting there. The place has changed so much in the years but you can still walk the streets and visit the many shops or watch fresh taffy being pulled or pick up some one of a kind wood carvings. Take a ride on a ski lift chair or take the tram all the way to Ober Gatlinburg where you can enjoy the ice skating rink or visit the bear exhibit outside. As always I'll give you a few photos of Gatlinburg and you can see those and many more on the flickr site by clicking on the link to the right under my photos.

Was Great

San Diego was great while I was there. I was able to spend lots of time with my family and do some great things with them. Kayaking in the bay and at the Imperial dam, going to the car museum, botanical garden and zoo. I got to take my mom out for her birthday along with my brothers. It's so hard to explain how great it was but it was and now I'm back to Knoxville. Was able to get lots of good photos while there and met a lot of people along the way. As normal I posted some pix on the flickr page for you all to enjoy, but here are a couple for a preview.

San Diego's Sea World fireworks.

Have been visiting family in San Diego and managed to get down to Mission bay to view the fireworks from Sea World. I'm making this post a little different then the past by adding a video of the fireworks instead of the usual photos. So this one is short and I want to let you get right to the video. Just click on the attached youtube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7SYwqCku4

Car shows

  I made it to another car show today and posted 55 of them on Flickr, you can get there by clicking on My Photos on the right side of the page. As always I will post just a couple of them on my post. This year has offered a lot of car shows and I enjoyed going to each and every one of them. Cars are another one of my passions (second to photography). I think of automobiles as art within themselves. When you meet the owners of the cars, you car see the love they have for their cars. These people have years of work put into their cars. When you go to most shows you will always find a couple of cars for sale. When you talk to them, they will usually tell you that they had so much enjoyment building it that they want to start on another. Just like art, you can buy them if the price is right. Now that is what I call a true passion for cars. As you can tell by the post. (I would love to build one for myself. So before I bore you all, here is a few of the cars from today.

This is only four of the cars, and as I mentioned there are fifty five of them posted. I recommend you view them, not just for the cars but for the variety of photography styles used. For those of you that have a passion for photography, you should take a look and even get some ideas for your next shoot.

Counting down

  Well it's about four more weeks and I'll be out on the west coast again, and I am getting more excited every day as it gets closer. You would think that it isn't that big of a deal since I grew up there and I've been going back out there every year for at least a month at a time. But it is still so nice to spend time with my Mom and Brothers out there, of course it also gives me a chance to take some good photographs in another location other then east Tennessee. Don't get me wrong, there is so many different things that go on out here, I'll never run out things and places to take photos. Being in California for only a month at a time, there will always be something new to shot. Last year I managed to get many Christmas light and decoration shots. this August and September there will be all new opportunities. That's what you can look forward to seeing on this post in a couple of weeks. For now here are a couple photos that have recently been taken.

Don't forget to go to the flicker site and see many more new photos that have been recently added.

Home Sweet Home

  Only 48 days left until I get back to San Diego. A photographers dream with the ocean, beaches, Mountains and desert to see and enjoy. It's going to be great to see my Mom and two brothers that still live out there. They are always active and I'll be able to join them in their activities such as luncheons with a performance each Tuesday, Kayak Fishing and camping in the desert. Along with that we will get to spend a lot of quality time together. We don't see much of each other but I have taken the time to get out there once a year. Last year I wound up going there three times the first time was a planned trip when all five brothers were there at the same time for our mothers eightieth birthday. The other two times were not for pleasure. Our youngest brother had a heart attack the day after our mothers birthday and I still had to fly back home on schedule, But I did a turnaround and flew back after one day home. I then spent another three weeks there. A month later he was back in the hospital with serious complications and I flew back as soon as I heard about it. He wound up having a six hour surgery on my birthday and all turned out well. He has now recovered and is doing better then ever. This years I am hoping for a much more relaxing trip and less traumatic. I only have two more planned photography meet ups before I leave and will get some more pictures posted within that time. So for those of you that follow my Flickr site, You will have some more shots to enjoy within the next three weeks. For those of you that only follow this page I will still post a couple of photos from each shoot.
  So you all keep on taking those photos and enjoy the passion of photography.

Car Show

Last week Evelyn and I attended another Car show. I didn't know about this one up until a week before it happened. It was by luck that I found out about this one when I decided to pick up a sandwich at Subway. While they were making my sub I noticed some passes sitting on their counter that were for this car show at Chilhowee Park in Knoxville TN. I usually know when there is a car show anywhere near here but was taken by surprise on this one. Well we made it to the show and found that this one had a super selection of vehicles from classics to race cars and monster trucks.

As usual I got lots of photos at this event and have posted many of them on my Flickr site. I'll post a couple of them here as I normally do, But you should go to my photos on the right side of this page and it will lead you to the flickr page. If you have never been there and you do have a passion for photography, Please go there and see some of my work. You'll find that I look at things differently and have a style that makes me stand out in the automotive photography area. As always I have a couple shots here to share.

Wood Carvers

I had a idea the other day to go out to Townsend and see what they had at the wood carvers. My plan was to get prices on a large chainsaw carved Wolf. Believe it or not, some of the large chainsaw carvings were less then the smaller hand tool carvings. The person working there pointed out that all the detail in the smaller ones can be a whole lot more difficult. It makes total sense. They don't only use chisels, But they use dental tolls as well both power drills and the hand held scrapers. With these tools they can make very fine details like feathers and fur. With the chainsaw the size of the carving is significant but the detail is less. They have no problem with people taking photos there and I'm thinking about going back ( and remember my DSLR camera. Here is a couple of the pictures I took with my point and shot camera. Not as fine and detailed but they do show the creativity of these craftsmen. heres a couple of photos taken. As always you can view many more shots on my Flickr site. Just click on My Photos on the right side of this page. Enjoy and go take some photos. You'll have fun doing it and have the pictures to remember the experience.

 Hand carved indian head. Looks like it was carved from cedar, could have been hickory Aprox,12x20.

This is a chainsaw carved wolf that is 4' tall and comes with a 6' tall indian holding an eagle on his outstretched arm. You can buy it for $8,000.

Relay For Life.

I managed to make it to the "Relay For Life". For those of you that don't know what that is, It is a charity to raise funds for cancer research as well as a way for people to remember those who did not win the battle with cancer. The event was held at the Maryville College in Blount county Tennessee. There was a few hundred people participating in the walk and more running booths to raise more funds for this cause. The luminaries all had the name of someone we have lost to cancer. There was a thirty minutes of silence while all there was was they people walking the path of luminaries. I was so taken by all of this that I did not get too many photos. I'll share a few that I did take below. Please think of the ones you lost or are battling this horrible thing.

 People came from all over to participate in the event. There was even a non female pageant to raise $.

 Many booths around to continue raising more donations.

 Luminaries with names of loved ones that have lost the battle with cancer.

The torches stayed lit thru the 24 hour event. God bless you all.

Awesome Trucks

Back on the 18th of May I drove out to Pigeon Forge TN, to see the "All Ford Super nationals" The focus was on Fords F100 series trucks yet there were other cars there as well. It was a warm dummy day and that helped show some of the reflections from those perfect paint jobs. I spent a few hours there and still did not see everything there was to see. As my regular readers know by now, It's all about photography for me. But, Classic cars are a fascination of mine and they always have been ever since I could walk. Well this was great for me to enjoy both of my passions at one time. It's gets even better for me because there are a couple more car shows coming up soon. Once again I'm going to share a couple of my shots with you again. But, as I always say "Please go to the My Photos link on the right and see a large variety of my work". Or Copy and paste the link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-clack/

Reenactment

This past weekend was another great opportunity for some action photo shots. Here in the Knoxville area they had a Civil War reenactment. It showed how they dresses, set up camp, and the way they battled back then. As usual I had a great time making it to another wonderful outdoor event that was unique. There was one down side to this whole thing and that was the pain I had to endure by the end of the visit. I was only there for two and a half hours, But that was a very long time for me to be on my feet these days. Yesterday I received a shot in the back and will have two more rounds of this. The goal is to make the back pain more bearable while lowering the amount of pain relievers that I must take. So that's enough of that. Back to the reenactment. There was so much going on that I managed to take 225 photos while there. This gives me a great number of choices when it comes to finding good photos to post. So here we go as usual I am going to add a couple of pictures here for a sample and if you want to see more, you can click on (my photos) on the right side of this page or follow this link. www.flickr.com/photos/paul-clack/. Thanks again for visiting my passion for photography page.

A nice day at the old mill

I made it back to the old mill in Pigeon Forge the other day and managed to get some more beautiful photos. The big surprise was when I was leaving and a couple of nice looking Hot Rods showed up as they stopped in to grab some lunch. I've not posted the mill shots yet, But there are a few nice pictures of the two hot rods posted on my Flickr site. You can get to those by clicking the My photos link on the right side of this page or you can go to (www.flickr.com/photos/paul-clack/). By the time you get there I may have a couple shots of the mill up as well. This weekend will offer a opportunity to see a civil war reenactment in Knoxville. This will give me a chance to take some good action photos and capture the dress and lifestyle of people of that time. I'm looking forward to sharing photos from that event with you. As usual I'll leave a photo for you all to critique. This time I'm only leaving you one shot, so visit the flickr site to see them all.

Point N Shoot cameras

Two days after the Dogwoods Arts Festival Chalk Walk, We had a training Meetup on Lightroom 4 and the new changes. This class was also at the Market Square were I was able to see some of the finished chalk art. The only thing I had on me was my point n shoot camera. This just goes to show you that a point and shoot camera can take photos just as good as the big expensive ones. So if you don't have a lot of money but want to take up photography, Go for it. Here's another tip. Lets say you've taken your pictures but they just need a little adjusting. You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to accomplish this either. There are a lot of free editing softwares out there. The one I've used in the past is Picasa from Google. I was able to do the basics with it and my photos came out looking great.
So it all comes down to your desire to take good photos that you want to share with family and friends. Practice the fundamentals and have a great time.
Here are a couple of shots from my Point N Shoot.

Dogwood Arts Chalk Walk.

What a wonderful day! Knoxville Tennessee's annual Dogwood Arts Festival is in full swing all month and today was the Chalk Walk in down towns Market Square. The day started out pretty nice and everyone was progressing well with their artwork. Suddenly we got hit by a downpour. The rain lasted a while and was coming down hard at times. They talked about doing it tomorrow but the weather finally cleared up. So some diehards stayed to finish their work, The rest will return tomorrow to finish. I will say that everybody there was smiling and just having a great time. This was one of the best Meetups I've been to. As I always do, I'll leave you all a few photos. But don't forget that you can see many more on my flickr site which is linked on the right side of the page. Remember to take those photos so the memories will last forever.

A little color.

While I was out the other day, I was looking around for some more photography opportunities since I always take my camera with me when I'm out. The sky started to get overcast so I really wasn't looking for any landscape shoots. Don't get me wrong clouds can often add a lot of contract to your photo and increase the appeal. But this just wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted something that reflected spring time. As I drove by a Home Depot parking lot and saw all the plants. I knew that this was what I wanted. As always I put some on the Flickr site but will share a couple of them here. I hope you enjoy these and have a wonderful spring.