The hard lines and contrasting shapes of this construction venue captured my eye during sunset wanderings in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.
For the best viewing experience, click on an image to view in high resolution.
Cheers!
C. S.
Captured several weeks ago at the end of strawberry season in north central North Carolina.
Thanks for taking time to visit!
Cheers,
C. S.
Last week I traveled to Uptown Charlotte for a couple days of business meetings . After work, I found my way to the street and was rewarded with many composition opportunities. Here’s the first in series street photos featuring architectural abstracts.
Thank you for stopping by for a visit. For the best viewing experience, click on an image to see a high resolution version.
Cheers,
C. S.
In late April, I met my oldest son Austin in Charlotte to attend a University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Delta Sigma Phi fraternity event in Uptown (I’m also a Delta Sig, but from NC State). We rode the light rail from the University of the UNCC station to the Arena Station in Uptown. From there we walked through the Epicentre area to our destination on Trade and Tryon Streets. Of course, I was in the rear capturing these street photos along the way.
Thanks for checking out this post. To see these image in full effect, click to see a high resolution version from my portfolio site.
Cheers,
C. S.
I especially enjoy the “unveiling” experience when switch a composition from color to black and white. Shapes, textures, lines, patterns and their supporting monochrome tonalities are elevated to a higher-level, often embellishing, or presenting a totally new composition. That was mostly the experience with this series of compositions from a recent visit to my local farmer’s market.
In the image above, I started with a sepia tone look, but quickly found a bit of subtle color was needed to bring alive the red Portulaca flowers. For those who follow my blog, this is one of my common monochrome workflows, which usually ends with a vintage Kodachrome slide film emulation with Alien Skin’s Exposure X3.
The Coleus composition above was a noteworthy because of the intense experimentation with red, orange, yellow and green luminosity value combinations. With some patience you can usually enhance patterns and extend the tonal range. This image had the “fattest” histogram of them all.
For the best viewing experience, including really seeing the gorgeous textures in this series, click on an image to see a high resolution version. On this U.S. Memorial Day, I’d like to personally thank my fellow countrymen, and their families, who serve, or have served in our Armed Services.
Cheers!
C. S.
For the image below, I patiently waiting about 30 minutes after sunset for the photocell in the lighthouse to finally turned on the lighthouse beacon. Yep, the kerosene lamp and Fresnel lens were replaced back around 1934.
The remaining images in this post, along with most in the previous post, were captured the following day when my Scout Troop visited the Cape Hatteras National Seashore park. Because I usually linger to get the best shot, they’ve learned not to wait on me.
Because of high winds, I was only able to lean outside the door to the lighthouse balcony. If you look at the image below, along the right side of the horizon line, you can see the breakers along the leading edge of the Diamond Shoals mentioned in the previous post. For a better view of this image, or any other image in this post, click to see a high resolution version.
The steel and wood groin shown below, was a last ditch effort to save the lighthouse. Sand is captured on the updrift side, in this case on the left side, at the expense of lost sand deposits on the right (downdrift) side. No that the Hatteras Lighthouse has been moved further away from the seashore, I wonder if this groin will be removed, or left to deteriorate over time.
Thank you for stopping by today. If you liked these images, be sure to checkout the previous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Study post.
Cheers,
C. S.
At 210 ft tall, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, and second tallest in the world. Just off the cape, the warmer Gulf Stream collides with the colder Labrador Current creating shifting sandbars and powerful ocean storms. The resulting Diamond Shoals and surrounding areas have claimed over 5000 ships and countless lives.
Since 1871, in it’s second incarnation, the lighthouse has helped mariners navigate around these treacherous waters. By the 1990s however, the encroaching sea was just 15 feet, (4.6 m) from the lighthouse foundation. In 1999, the structure was moved 2,990 ft (880 m) and is now 1,500 ft, (460 m) from the current shoreline.
During my exploration and study of the lighthouse interior, I sent members of my Scout party ahead with direction not to wait on me. I intended to use two legs of my tripod along with the wall or railing to squeeze out a few additional stops of depth of field. Unfortunately, tripods are not allowed inside the lighthouse. Keeping my ISO between 800 and 1200, I was able to get satisfactory captures with my Tamron 15mm-30mm wide angle at f2.8.
I have several additional compositions from Cape Hatteras to share in my next post. Click on an image to see the high resolution versions of this iconic structure. Have a great week!
Cheers,
C. S.
When I first encountered these Yellow thistle plants near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, I was immediately reminded of the “Audrey II”, the alien man-eating plant from The Little Shop of Horrors movie. The plant is a contradiction of exotic beauty and menacing horror.
Interestingly, the Yellow Thistle’s genus- species name is Cirsium horridulum. In several states, Cirsium are considered noxious weeds, while others states have designated it as an endangered or threatened species.
In my state of North Carolina, the thistle is relatively common in the coastal plains and is know to initially flourish were the ground has recently been disturbed. Over time, the thistle gives way to other plants who establish themselves with permanence. I found evidence of this with numerous thistles thriving along the 2,900 foot strip of land where in 1999, the lighthouse was moved inland away from the encroaching sea.
Thanks for “sticking” around for this post! To best appreciate the prickly detail in these thistles, click on an image to view the high resolution version.
Cheers,
C. S.
