Scott Pennington

I’ve been thinking of Japan again lately… I need to get back over there.

palace walls

I was flipping through some old Paris photos tonight – will be spending a day there soon, passing through – and decided to post this one. If I had to pick out why I like the shot so much, I’m not sure I could. I just like the shot.

Seine shadows

I tried my hand at manual HDR photography tonight, and I have to laugh – I failed miserably. It’s the tonal imaging that’s tough. I’ll get it. And that’s how we learn – a few failures, a few “ah-ha!” moments, and we learn. Still, I am not going to post tonight’s work. Ugh.

Yes, there are multiple ways to use Photoshop to do this kind of work automagically, but I want to learn how to do it myself first, then have the skills to tweak auto-HDR. For the same reason I enjoyed learning photography from behind the lens of an all manual Pentax K-1000 camera, I’d like to learn how to make HDR myself. Then I know what’s going on; then I know how to tweak for better performance. And I blew it tonight. Tomorrow? I’ll make it work. Seriously.

So it’s one from the archives tonight. This shot comes from alongside the river in Kyoto. Sunset light is beautiful – the camera captures the sideways light, and photos look magic. Also, I like playing with depth of field in tight shots.

red

Yet another from the archive – a few long days in a row here, so I’m calling the day done.

I took this just as the sun was diving into the horizon a few years ago in Kyoto at Fushimi Inari.  It’s been few years now, but I still remember what an amazing day we had there. And I still remember trying the grilled sparrow on a stick. Not exactly “yum.”

Messenger’s place

Maybe it’s the time living in Charleston, SC, or maybe it’s just an affinity for work that has to be done by hand – I love wrought iron. When I spotted this staircase I was glad I had my camera.

wrought

I forgot the daggum camera today – ugh. And frankly it’s too cold outside right now, so one from the archives tonight.

The plum blossoms must be just about popping out at Tenjin-san, and they’re so stunning! This photo is from the same town, walking back from dinner one night. The sake bottles were set out by the street to tempt passers-by in for a cup. This night, I declined. But I got the shot.

sake

Busy day today, and I didn’t find time to get out and shoot. One from the archives this evening – from my family’s farm, down in SC.

I intentionally underexposed this one to get more of the sunlight on the door-frame. As a kid, I spent many an early morning walking through this door into the shed for work. Many an early morning….

doors