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Traveling the Road to Discovery
Tag: motorcycle riding
It’s Not the Destination, It’s the Journey…
Well folks it’s been one whole year since I began this blog. When I started SpeedDemon2 I had a vague notion of where it would lead but just like riding my motorcycle the whole thing was not about the destination; the whole purpose was the journey. When I started the blog I wanted to share my images with a wider audience and connect to other like minded folks. I didn’t know how it would happen but I knew that if I gave it a shot it would all work out.
The past twelve months have been rewarding in so many ways. I discovered other artists and photographers who shared with me their thoughts and criticism, challenged myself to become a better writer, have taken my photography to an entirely new level, gained access to photo opportunities, the list goes on.
When I start out on a motorcycle ride whether it is a month of travel across the country to a specific place, or a short ride into the city, there are so many possible routes to take that will lead to new discoveries yet still get you to the destination. Along the way I discover new vistas, see features and things that I’ve never seen before, make new friends and all the while I feel connected to the life force that surrounds me. Blogging has done that for me as well, exposing me to others who care about many of the same things I do and broadening my experience as an artist.
I have no idea where the next twelve months will take me but I am sure the journey will be filled with discovery. There will be new influences on my photography, new tools that spark new ideas, new destinations to explore, new projects to immerse myself in and most important of all there will be the journey. I hope you, my readers, will stick around and join me on this journey; I don’t know the destination yet but I am confident it will be worth the effort.
Parklands Morning
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I rode out to the Parklands yesterday morning to revisit the images that I shot the last time I was out there. It was a cool brisk morning and I enjoyed riding my motorcycle in the early morning darkness. I am so lucky to have two things I am passionate about that bring me out into the early morning awakening of the planet. As a photographer I need to get up early and get to a location in time to get my gear out and get in position to capture the dawn of a new day. As a motorcyclist the early morning hours are also magical and allow me to see, hear and smell the world as it rises out of the darkness. The feel of my machine as I carve through turns and feel the wind on me is something I have enjoyed for over 48 years and hope to continue for many, many more years; when I do I will always have my camera with me too.
I returned to this spot because I wasn’t particularly happy with the noise in the earlier set of exposures I shot here last week and wanted to capture the feeling of spring before the trees filled in completely. Instead of trying to capture the scene just at sunrise I took a walk along the shore and scouted some additional vantage points. After that I headed back down along Floyd’s Fork to see if the redbud trees that I shot last were still blooming. I wanted to revisit those images as well. I found what I was looking for and shot along the creek for a while before returning to the lake about an hour after sunrise.
The sun was peeking out from behind the clouds and illuminating the new born leaves beautifully. There was a weather front moving in from the west and it was bringing with it some very interesting cloud formations. I set up my tripod and started shooting again. The air was still and left the water undisturbed to reflect the sky beautifully. I was hoping for a fish to break the surface so that I could have the rings on the water when I heard these two geese coming down from the cove as they lifted themselves into the air. They were moving along in the shadows on the left when they turned and started flying toward my position. I shot two frames and then waited until they were up in the sky before shooting the last frame.
This image is another HDR from a three frame bracket set. I merged them in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and applied the Deep 1 preset before returning it Aperture 3 for some minor adjustments and sharpening. NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 anti-ghosting worked incredibly well, set at 40% strength, to isolate the two geese and prevent ghosting that would have shown the geese in different places in the frame.
