I am happy to announce the latest Photo Contest for the Chester County (PA) Facebook and Flickr groups!
The theme for this contest is “Insects”, and submissions are now being accepted on the following Flickr thread:
Flickr Insect Submission Thread
Submissions will be accepted till March 20, 2011 at 7:21pm EST (Spring Equinox)!
Tuesday night (2/1), we got struck with an ice storm that came in from the mid-west and headed up to New England, and in the morning, many people and business were delayed, if not closed.
Both my kids were home from school, and we watched as the thick ice that had accumulated over night on the branches, slowly melt during the day.
By Thursday morning, the sun was out, and life was getting back to normal.
While driving to my client along Conestoga Road (Rt. 401) in Chester Springs, I noticed the bright sun was creating many interesting patterns and shadows in the ice glazed fields, and I was kicking myself for not having brought my camera.
This morning, my camera bag was packed and walked out the door with me, but the conditions were much different.
It was now an over cast day, with the anticipation of some more snow, changing into rain for the rest of the weekend.
After getting my kids off to school, I started off to the clients, hoping to salvage something from what I saw on Thursday’s commute.
As I traveled by the first field, some of my hopes had be dashed. The flat light from being overcast gave no texture to the scene, so I continued.
When I got closer to the second shoot area, I noticed that some of the incoming storm clouds where lining up with the sun rise in a very interesting fashion, so I pulled up ???? Road, and quickly parked with my flashers going.
Getting onto the field was very interesting, especially in Business Casual Work clothes! – It was Friday… Dress Down Friday (DDF)
Anyhow, I was barely able to get in far enough to get into clean snow, because of what had been plowed into banks…
Also hoping that I was not going to lose a good shoe, made the whole experience, it all the more interesting….
Note to self – Next time, wear different shoes in deep snow!
In under 10 minutes, I was done, and heading off to my clients with very wet cuffs on my pants…
I did take a passing look at Shoot #3, but had to continue…
For the rest of the day, I was trying to figure out when I was going to be able to return for Shoot #3.
It HAD to be today!
Between the forecasted weather, and family life at home… When was I going to do this…
Then around 3pm, I was driving back home to meet my daughter, as she got of the bus.
As I got closer to the Shoot #3 location and was looking for a parking spot.
Guess who was sitting there…
The Townships finest.
How dare they take my Parking Spot!
I needed to get this shot!
Finally, I got home, greeted my daughter, and got her afternoon snack.
After about a half hour or so of unwinding, I mentioned that we needed to go out for our Friday afternoon errands, and that I needed to do something special.
Blah, blah, blah… Some time passes…
I’m walking down Conestoga Road, camera attached to tripod, trying to plug in the remote trigger, waiting for traffic to clear…
The traffic clears, and I am able to cross the street.
From there, I scaled some minor snow plow hills, and into some fresh snow, where I place my tripod down, and at first, it was stable, but as I aligned the head some more, the whole tripod settled…
I made corrections by means of pushing deeper into the snow, and was finally ready to “expose film”…
Where was my remote my remote shutter release!
Reaching into my pockets… Nothing…
With camera/tripod in place, I back tracked my steps, and it was not until I got to the plow drifts, that I noticed my remote trigger in the middle of the road!
Checking traffic, I was able to retrieve the unit and see it had not be run over.
Yeah!
I got back to camera/tripod location, plugged in my remote, and did a series of exposures with both Single HDR (HDRs) and Multi-Exposure HDR (HDRm) in mind, which were all captured in Canon RAW (cr2) format.
I was done within 5 minutes and we were off on the rest of our errands…
Publicly, again, I want to thank Madison for putting up with her father’s insanity.
The following paragraphs are more informational in manner.
In setting up of the “Chester County (PA) Photography” Facebook page, and the Introduction of the “PhotoShare-MakeOver” (PSMO) projects, I may have overlooked some details…
So this Post, is the First in a planned Series, of short FAQ style articles, based on feedback from this Blog, Facebook and Flickr groups that I belong to.
Here goes…
FTP is a fundamental protocol of the Internet, as the name implies “File Transfer Protocol“. It has been around since the inception of the Internet. It is a base protocol for how things work on the Internet. It is your Friend!
– You could also think of it, as the phone line coming into your home, your voice(s) are nothing more than data passing back and forth.
In the good old days, one would have to get into a command line session, maneuver to the various directories, start a PUT/GET, and continue.
Allot of typing, mistakes, etc…
Finally, someone put a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to the protocol, and created an application as an easier way to move files!
Those FTP applications, also known as Clients, are available for EVERY platform, and I believe every OS still has the ability to FTP form the command line…
FTP Clients are the way to go, but deciding which one…
It is my nature to be frugal, so Free is good, and Good Free software that is reliable is even better!
So I offer up FileZilla as my personal choice.
“FileZilla is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License.”
Well worth the price!
This is the easy part!
Most modern Browsers allow FTP downloads with a simple click of a link, and following the various download dialog boxes and screens.
Once you have the file(s) locally on your hard drive, now have fun putting your “touches” to the images!
Don’t forget to Re-Post your efforts to the Group(s)!
If you would like to be considered for a “PSMO Project“, please contact one of the Group Admin‘s.
For illustration, I am going to use aseymour.com, if you are going to use another website/domain, please contact that Admin for details on Directory, Username and Passwords.
It is estimated that the PSMO files are going to be approximately 50MBs+ in size per image, and need a Common Area for the files to be stored so others can access/download them for the projects.
In the case of aseymour.com, I have setup a Dropbox for the “Chester County (PA) Photography” groups, which is Password Protected for Uploading.
For Username and Current password, please contact the PSMO Admins.
The “CCPP PSMO – Dropbox” can be found here: <http://www.aseymour.com/CCPaPhotography/dropbox/>
Again, you need a Username and Password to Upload, and if files are NOT invited, they will be deleted!
If you have the Current Username and Password, you launching your FTP Client, in this case, FileZilla (WinTel).
The first time that you use aseymour.com, you will need to follow these steps. but once done, but once Saved, you can return to the Site without the need to go through all these setup steps:
<– These instructions are for the Windows Client –>
Launch/Open FileZilla;
On the General tab –
On the Advanced tab –
Then Click the Connect button at the bottom of the dialog box.
Once you have connected, you should see a index.html file, please do NOT touch this file!
From here you should, find the file(s) that you wish to upload with FileZilla and than Upload (FTP “PUT”) your invited files!
Once you are completed Uploading your files, please let the Admins knows so that an announcement can be made!
If you have any questions or comments, please let us know!
Thanks in advance (TIA),
I would like to thank all those that participated in the First and hopefully Annual Downingtown, PA Flickr group Photo Contest!
When I originally posted the idea for the contest back in December, I was afraid that it was going to go no where quickly!
But we got 23 entries from 11 different members!
So without further adieu… I present the Winners!
Thanks again for participating, and another Congratulations for some wonderful images!
Thanks for Sharing!
I had just dropped off my daughter at a birthday party for one of her classmates.
Now I had two hours free!
Before I had left the house, I said to Logan, that when I got back, he needed to be dressed to go for a walk in the woods.
When I got home, he was ready, so I grabbed my camera bag and tripod, hopped back in the car, and drove over to the Jones Pond area of the Uwchlan Township Park on Dowlin Forge Road.
We parked in the little lot next to the pond, and as soon as he was out of the car, he was off toward the trail. Nothing was going to stop him. I only had time to get my camera out before he was beginning to cross the small bridge.
At 4 1/2, Logan loves to go for walks, and it is always fun to go with him.
While I followed him, I began to take hand-held shots of the general area, which still had a lot of snow still stuck on the trees.
As you can see in the above picture, there was still soft unpacked snow on the trail, and had already been split into two lanes. One for the walkers and the other for cross-county skiers.
I explained to Logan the reason for the two trails, and asked him if he wanted to learn, to which he said yes. (If you are a skier, the conditions were great.)
When we got to the top of the hill, I stopped to put my camera on my tripod, and start doing some HDR captures.
Looking back down the trail, I was setting up a shoot, when I heard a small little voice from behind me saying – “Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom!”
Thinking the worst, I asked him to be more specific, and was happy to learn, it was going to be an easy remedy.
I proceed to carry him a few feet off the main trail, helped him get prepared, and began his first lesson in snow scripting.
Giggles and laughter were all I heard for the few seconds of the lesson.
When he finished, I got him in order and he was back up the trail.
I continued shooting, concentrating on the long shadows and contrasting sun colored leaves still to hanging to the trees.
Several minutes later, I hear – “Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom!”
“Do you need help??
“No!”
and then endless giggling…
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