claytonbrandenburg

Buchanan Rd. Heard County, Ga.

NIKON D90

Aperture f/1.0 ISO 400 Shutter 1/100

upload_date

Jan, 2014

Views

561

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+56

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken on Buchanan Rd. in Heard County, Ga.

Time

This was just after noon on a foggy day in January.

Lighting

It was overcast with a heavy fog that was just beginning to break so the lighting was very soft.

Equipment

I used a Nikon D 90 with an old manual Nikkor HC 28mm f3.5 lens.

Inspiration

Heard County is a very special place for me. My family has lived here for several generations. I lived here until I was about seven years old. Over the next 40 years I would visit often to see my grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We would visit for Thanksgivings, family reunions, weddings and too many funerals. About a year ago I moved back to Heard County for a new job. I had always wanted to spend time here photographing the people and scenery and now I have that time. There are so many things here that I want to record before they are gone. Buchanan Road is actually a short section that remains of a road that used to run past my grandparents house. My dad would walk down this road to my mother's house when they were dating. Over time the road was abandoned. You can still see some evidence of the road bed in the pasture behind my house and in the woods across the road from my house. On the day that I took this picture there was a very heavy fog. There have been many mornings like that, but usually it burns off before I have a chance to get away from work and take pictures. When my lunch break rolled around the fog was still very heavy, but starting to burn off. I jumped in my truck and drove to a few locations that I had been wanting to photograph on a foggy day.

Editing

To be able to get all of the road and the trees and the trees in the photo with the 24mm lens, I had to shoot four frames and then stitch them together in Photoshop. I used a levels layer to enhance the fog a little in the center and then used the Low Key filter in Nik's Color Efex Pro 4 to bring down the overall brightness.

In my camera bag

My camera is the Nikon D 90. The lens that I use most often is a Nikkor 35-70 f3.3-4.5. My second most often used lens is a Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6. I also have a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 that I sometimes use in low light. I keep a Nikon 18-135 f3.5-5.6 in the bag, but that is where it usually stays. I might use it for shooting snapshots when I really need the wide angle, but it really isn't my favorite lens. It doesn't seem to be as sharp and the zoom sometimes changes between shots when doing panoramas or HDR. I like to throw in one of my old manual lenses every now and then just to play around with. The 24mm that I used for the Buchanan Rd. photo is usually on an old Nikkormat FTN sitting on a shelf. I also have an old Nikon 7mm extension tube that I use for macro work. My flash is a Nikon SB910.

Feedback

Keep your camera with you all the time. Be ready to shoot whenever the opportunity arises. You can't take a picture if your camera is sitting at home. Get out and explore your community. Sometimes a great photo opportunity can be sitting right under your nose. Be patient. Revisit places at different times and weather conditions.

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claytonbrandenburg

claytonbrandenburg

Buchanan Rd. Heard County, Ga.

Behind The Lens

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