The Best of 2011 – Landscapes/Cityscapes and Scenics

So 2011 is drawing to a close. I feel like my photography world has grown exponentially this year. It started with the completion of my “This Week at the Lake” project. That was a project that I truly enjoyed and was proud that I made it the entire 52 weeks. I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do once that was over. Was I still going to take many photos? Of course the answer was YES!

 

2011 brought me many new clients and friends. I photographed engagement sessions, family portraits, babies, weddings, and parties. I grew my stock photography collection on Getty Images from just a couple photos to over 180. I’ve licensed photos to companies all over the world and mailed prints to clients all over the US. October brought an amazing opportunity  to display my Radnor Lake photos in a gallery next to extremely popular local artist Phil Ponder. I even covered a couple college football games and the Murfreesboro Christmas parade for HobNob Murfreesboro.

 

I’m going to break up “The Best Of” posts into sections. This first post features my favorite landscapes, cityscapes or scenic photos. I hope you enjoy them!

This Week at the Lake - 47/52

This first shot was taken on a cold snowy morning at Radnor Lake. It was the lead shot for Week 47 of my project. I was the first (and only) one out there. No footprints to mess up the scene! Standing on that deck is where I get a lot of my sunrise photos at Radnor Lake. This time, I decided to include the snow covered deck and benches in the shot. I like how it turned out!

 

Wrong Side of the Tracks

This is a shot I got at Shelby Park in Nashville. I met a few local photographers there and we walked around taking photos waiting on the sunset. I really liked how this turned out. I think it’s a good reminder to look around when taking photos. Look up, look down. Try to get a unique angle.

 

Vanderbilt at Night

Years ago, I took a shot similar to this on film and I really liked it. Finally, I made it back there and tried it with my digital. This was taken at Vanderbilt University. I like the colors and lights in this shot.

 

Lightning - in HDR

I have to admit, in photography you have to have a LOT of luck. Be skilled enough to put yourself in the right spot at the right time, be skilled enough to know what to do when it happens. But other than that, you need some luck. I was set up to shoot the sunset this evening as some storms were rolling through. I had seen some lighting but not much. As soon as I pushed the button, the lighting streaked across the sky. Seconds later, it began pouring. This was the only shot of this sunset that I got. This might just be one of my all time favorites!

 

A Self Portrait

This was my first attempt at a window reflection self portrait. I really liked how this turned out and I’ve done several others. I find them very interesting to look at. Trying to determine what’s inside and what’s reflected. This one was taken downtown Murfreesboro Tennessee. I have an album on facebook that has the others if you are interested in seeing them 🙂

 

Cannon

As soon as I left work this day, I called my wife and told here we were going somewhere to shoot the sunset. I could tell the skies were shaping up to make for an awesome sunset. We decided to head to the Stones River Battlefield in Murfreesboro and this is the result!

 

The Linn Cove Viaduct at Sunrise

This is the Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. I was vacationing there and knew that I wanted to get a shot of the viaduct. I scouted out this area the day before and realized that the sun would be rising over this scene. So the next morning (and the last morning of the vacation, so it HAD to be a good sunrise!) my brother and I drove, hiked, climbed in the dark and waited for the sunrise. We were not disappointed as this beautiful sunrise took shape over the viaduct.

 

Morning Rays on the Blue Ridge Parkway

On the way back to the house from getting the sunrise shot above, we came across these sunrays breaking through the trees onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. I took a couple shots but decided they needed something else in them. I told my brother to go stand in the rays.

 

LP Field at Sunset

Sometimes you get a shot in your head that you want. It’s rare (at least for me) that it ever happens exactly the way you envisioned it. This one, however, did! I’ve envisioned this shot in my head for a long time. I’ve been to a few Titans games but never at sunset. This year, I was invited by a friend to a preseason game. The timing was perfect and the seats were already near the top. All I needed was some color! Sure enough, the sky started lighting up so I headed to the 50 yard line and got this shot.

 

Follow the Light

Not much to say about this one, I just really liked how it turned out. I love the light and color and the path leading you in.

 

Nashville, Tennessee

This is my favorite Nashville Skyline photo taken in 2011. I like the lighting and colors. This is such a classic spot, every time I’m downtown I just have to get another skyline shot. It’s really an impressive scene from the Shelby Street bridge.

 

Radnor Lake

Just another beautiful morning at my favorite spot in Middle Tennessee. When you shoot at the same places over and over, it’s hard to make the photos unique. For this one, I backed up to include the path into the water and waited for the sun to peek over the ridge to give me a flare.

 

State Line

This one is from my hiking trip along the Appalachian trail. Straight ahead is Jane Bald, and Round Bald. The left of the photo is North Carolina, the right side is Tennessee. This is near Roan Mountain Tennessee.

 

Another from my hiking trip. This tree was near my camping spot on the first night. The fog and the mist gives it a mysterious look.

 

Foggy Tree

Taken on a foggy morning in Murfreesboro. I just loved the fog, the fall colors, and the look of this old tree. This is one of my top favorites of the year.

 

Foggy Fall Morning

This was taken on the same morning as the shot above it. I really love shooting in the fog. Everything looks so mysterious.

 

Radnor Lake Sunrise

Another shot of a Radnor Lake Sunrise. There was so much color in the sky this particular morning.

 

A Christmas window display

Finally, it’s another shop window/reflections shot. The key to these is to find the right window with enough interesting stuff inside and interesting reflections from the outside. I knew I wanted to get one of these of a shop window with Christmas decorations. I circled the square in downtown Murfreesboro several times trying to find the right window. Finally I came across this one, it has a great display inside and the reflections worked perfectly showing the courthouse clock tower.

 

 

And that’s it! Just a few of favorites from this amazing year. Thank you to everyone who continues to support my photography and here’s to an even better 2012!

 

Don’t forget, most of my photos can be purchased by visiting the Storefront Site.

 

Are you a photographer thinking about HDR photography? Purchase Photomatix from hdrsoft.com and use the coupon code MALCOLMPHOTO and get 15% off! Then check out my tutorials!

 

Happy New Year!

A Whole Lot of Randomness…

So I haven’t posted many blog entries lately except for my This Week at the Lake posts. So now is the time to catch up! There are a lot of photos here, if you follow me on facebook or flickr you may have seen some of these but many are being published for the first time.

Here is the Randomness, in not so random order:

Here I was practicing with using a flash

A random office building in Franklin, TN

From the Laundromat from when my washing machine broke:

A Self Portrait…

Looking out at the snow on my car during my 4 hour commute home one snowy evening

On the way to work one morning, didn’t look like a very good day for a hot air balloon ride!

Vanderbilt University at Night

Swish!

More portrait/lighting practice

I like the one above of my daughter but I feel like I blew this one of my son. I should have been able to get more sky in the photo…

A neighbor

Jump!

See? Random wasn’t it!? Hope you enjoyed them though!

This Week at the Lake – 49/52

Week 49 and again I’ve seen something I’ve never seen before. The sunrise this past Wednesday was pretty amazing. The photo just doesn’t do it justice. I almost missed it too. The sky just exploded with color while I was walking along the trail towards a good sunrise spot. I was practically running trying to get to a spot before it was over. I came to the dam bridge and that’s when I got a clear view of the sunrise. There was a beam or column of light shooting straight up. I set up as quick as I could and grabbed the above shot. The beam of light was so bright it’s getting blown out in the bracketed shot. I then grabbed the gear and quickly headed down to the lake shore. From there, the light was starting to dim so I had to hurry to grab a few more shots before the color was completely gone:

Pretty cool…

Also Wednesday morning I got another shot of a Barred Owl

I went back at lunch and only came away with this shot:

I was able to go again Friday morning when I got this

I also saw an Owl again then:

Later in the day, I got this shot:

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 47/52

More snow in middle Tennessee!? We’ve had quite the winter so far. I haven’t lived in this area for long but even I know that this much snow is pretty unusual. Tuesday night into Wednesday morning we got more snow so I headed out to Radnor Lake. I got the above shot before anyone else messed up the snow on the deck by putting footprints all over it!

Other shots from the snowy morning:
Caught these bucks in a battle to the death! OK, not really. They were more just kind of playing I guess. It never looked real intense and it certainly didn’t last very long!

I really liked the framing of the trees here and cold tones.

More random texture work

I haven’t gotten a shot of this stream at all during this project. This is downstream from the dam.

I went back to the lake on my lunch break to try to get more snowy shots:

Saw this deer about to cross the road as I leaving to go back to work. I got out and ready just in time! (I wish that sign was a “Deer Xing” sign)

I also went on Monday when I got these Deer shots:

And just to say I saw the owl again, here is a shot from Friday:

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 46/52

That’s pretty much how this entire week looked – Dark, cloudy, rainy/snowy, cold….

Because of all the rain, I was only able to visit Radnor Lake twice this week. I went Wednesday morning, and Friday mid-day.

Wednesday morning was very dark and rainy so I was only able to get a couple shots, the one above and this one:

Finally the sun broke out briefly on Friday so I headed to the lake on my lunch break. Of course, I ran into the owl again! I believe this is the same one as last week because they were in the same area. This time, however, he was not very active. It was mid-day and very cold. He found a spot in the sun and was just sitting tight:

While watching this owl, I saw another bird that I’ve only seen one other time at the lake. I have no idea what it is but it looks pretty awesome. This time, I actually got a shot of him:

Anyone know what this is??? He’s fairly large, probably about the size of a blue jay.

Also got a shot of this little snow covered ceder:

Got this on the way back to the car

I’m sure not many people go to Radnor Lake and take a photo of the equipment in the parking lot, but hey, I thought it looked cool!

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 45/52

One of my favorite weeks of this entire project! I have so many photos to share!

We got some snow in middle Tennessee again this week. Sunday night/Monday morning we had several inches of snow fall. The roads were terrible first thing in the morning but I couldn’t stand to see all the snow falling out the window – I had to go! It took me almost an hour and a half to get to Radnor Lake that morning (usually would take 45 minutes), but it was worth every second. I finally made it and headed out down the lake trail. Unlike the snow pictures from Week 41, there was no sun. The skies were dark and it was still snowing off and on. I first headed to the edge of the lake to get a snowy lake scene:

Then headed back to the trail. I told myself I was going to get more shots of snowy land and lakescapes this time since I didn’t get any last time. Right after crossing the dam, I got this shot:

As soon as I heard there might be snow, I new I wanted to get a shot of an owl in the snow. I’ve gotten shots of the owls at Radnor Lake in all the other seasons, now I needed winter so I was really hoping to see one this morning. Well, it didn’t take long. Right after I took the shot above, I saw a barred owl sitting on a tree limb! I saw he was getting ready to fly, so I got the camera set for some fast shots thinking that may be my only chance! Little did I know that he would put on quite a show for me for the next 60 minutes!
Here he is leaving his original perch:

He quickly landed on another tree branch. I could tell right away that he was actively hunting! I have never seen an owl so active. He flew from branch to branch scanning the ground all around. Then he saw something:

This attempt resulted in no food, but he didn’t give up! Off he goes to find another perch:

This time he dives pretty close to the walking path but he was behind some heavy brush. I actually crouched down and crawled down the path and peeked around a tree looking for a better view. As soon as I peeked around the tree, I saw him toss back and swallow an entire mouse. By the time I raised the camera, the mouse was gone and he turned to look at me:

Back up to a tree:

He then went to a tree that was a little far for my 200mm (remember, at Radnor Lake you are not allowed to leave the path). I was so excited about the shot I just got that I was about to just leave and let him be. I also figured that, since he had caught a mouse, he would find a good resting spot and settle down. I was wrong! As I got up to leave, he flew to another tree that was right on the path and was still looking around for more to eat:

He dives again but comes up empty again. Head to a new spot:

Again he dives. This time in clear view of me. As soon as he dives, I drop straight to the ground to get a ground level shot:

You can see how he flattened out his wings on the ground to try to trap the mouse. It worked, he headed up to a tree with a large mouse in his mouth:
From there I watched him swallow the entire mouse again.

Then he flies right to a tree that I’m standing under!

He dives from that spot and is now on the ground probably only six feet from me! He’s keeping an eye on me this time so I can’t drop to the ground because I’m afraid it will scare him off. So I grabbed these shots from a standing position:
(For you photographers, this was only at 110mm and not cropped – to give you an idea of how close he was)

He ate another large mouse and headed up to a tree. By then, I had been there for an hour and had over 150 photos. I finally decided to head on.

I went ahead and took the lake trail and Otter Creek Rd all the way back around. Grabbing these shots along the way:

All of these shots were from Monday morning. I was able to go again Wednesday morning, and sure enough, in almost the same spot:

But this time it was much earlier in the day. I had to use a tripod to get this shot, so there would be no chasing him around again!

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 41/52

Snow at the lake!

We got some rare snow in middle Tennessee this week so I made sure I was at the lake! It started snowing last Sunday, so I got up early Monday morning and headed to Radnor Lake State Park. When I first got there it was still a little dark so I headed down the trail to a great sunrise spot.

I was the first and only one there for quite a while. No footprints on the trail at all. After getting the above shot, I passed another person, then shortly later I met one of the park rangers on the trail. I also met another photographer, Charlie Tallent.

I’m ashamed that I don’t have more wide angle landscape shots of snow at the lake – but I do have an excuse. I spent nearly 45 minutes watching a large Red Tailed Hawk that was way up in a tree. The light and snow on the ground was perfect and it would have been an amazing chance to get a great shot of the hawk. He never did come down from the tree and I eventually had to head to work (although already pretty late!).

Here are the snow shots I was able to get:

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)