Pelican

Pelican near Seagrove, Florida
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The brown pelican is a big, beautiful bird. Fast, too. This photo required a shutter speed of 1/1000 second to freeze the pelican as it flew above the Gulf of Mexico. I was lucky to have a hotel balcony on the 11th floor near the beach. The pelicans would float past the balcony, mainly in the morning and evening, practically begging to be photographed. Shutter: 1/1000; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 200; Focal length: 200mm.

Eagles

American Bald Eagles near Alton, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Bald eagles spend winters along the bluffs of the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois. Photographing them is probably like hunting or fishing: it requires patience, you spend time outside and get a close look at some remarkable, beautiful creatures. These particular eagles were actually showing off along the Great River Road for a crowd of tourists that pulled over to watch and take pictures. Shutter: 1/800; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 100; Focal length: 200mm.

Focus

Laurin Wright
Photograph by Tom Atwood

In photography focusing is obviously important, but sometimes being in focus is overrated. Take this senior portrait of Laurin Wright, for instance. A beautiful photo and almost entirely out of focus. In fact, other than a few strands of Laurin's hair and her cowboy hat, nothing is in sharp focus. And that "blurriness" makes this a better picture. If everything had been in focus, the photo would appear flat and one dimensional. Instead it has a kind of depth and softness that only poor focus like mine could create.
Shutter: 1/125; Aperture: f/2.8; ISO: 100; Focal length: 35mm.

Long Jump

Julian Harvey, Orphan Relays, Centralia, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

There is a trick to photographing the long jump (or almost any sporting event for that matter). The trick is to get as close as possible to the long jumper without A) interfering with the jump, and without B) getting jumped on. I have found that placing the camera just along the edge of the pit, in the sand near the landing spot, is best. You can't see what you're shooting, but if you point in the general direction of the jumper, you might end up with a picture like this one of Juilan Harvey as his coach, Chad Lakatos, watches closely. Shutter: 1/400; Aperture: f/6.3; ISO: 400; Focal length: 18mm.

Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden
September 25, 2010
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I took my camera to the Missouri Botanical Garden yesterday, hoping to find something unusual. There were gorgeous flowers everywhere, but the ones growing in water were the most striking to me. Wish I could tell you what this flower is, but I have no idea. A water lily? Shutter: 1/250; Aperture: f/8; ISO: 100; Focal length: 145mm.

Point of View

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
Edwardsville, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I was looking for a way to capture the beauty of my church without making it look pretty. As I have mentioned here before, I am not wild about pretty pictures, but I am all for beautiful ones. So, in this picture, I decided to lay the camera on the floor and set the timer. The result--a photo straight up of the gothic ceiling, including a fan that is blurred by the long exposure. The ceiling at St. Andrew's is old and beautiful, the wood darkened from years of coal furnaces and oil lamps--and maybe even all the incense we use? Shutter: 1 second; Aperture: f/11; ISO: 200; Focal length: 18mm.

Alluvial Fan

Rocky Mountain National Park
Photograph by Tom Atwood

This photo of the Alluvial Fan in Rocky Mountain National Park was taken at sunset, but the glow you see along the mountains is not the sun. In fact, the sky was completely overcast on this evening. Instead, the glow is from the artificial lights of nearby Estes Park reflecting on the clouds. The Alluvial Fan was actually formed by a massive rock slide in the park years ago. Shutter: 30 seconds; Aperture: f/4.5; ISO: 800; Focal length: 18 mm.

Paratrooper

Glen Carbon Homecoming
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Somewhere on this carnival ride, the "Paratrooper," there are a lot of screaming people, but you can't see them in this picture. It is a long exposure photograph (8 seconds), so the only objects you can see clearly are the ones not moving. Everything else, including the lights on the ride, become a colorful blur.
Shutter: 8 seconds; Aperture: f/18; ISO: 100; Focal length: 22mm.

Kylee, Michael

Michael Cullen's senior pictures photo shoot
Photograph by Tom Atwood

It is better to be lucky than good. I believe that's true. And this photo is proof--it was pure luck. I was taking it to check the exposure, or the focus, or lighting while preparing to take a "real" picture. Instead, it's probably the one photo Michael and his family will save so they can look at it years from now and have a laugh. A really good, really lucky picture. Thanks, Kylee! Shutter: 1/160; Aperture: f/1.8; ISO: 100; Focal length: 35mm.

Skyline

Sunrise, Mississippi River, St. Louis
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Yes, there is trickery involved in this picture. First of all, the photo is upside down. It started out as a traditional shot of the St. Louis skyline at dawn along the Mississippi. But as I looked at image, the most interesting part was the skyline's reflection in the water. So, I rotated the photo, cropped out the actual skyline, and that left this ripply picture, which has also been enhanced in terms of contrast and saturation (color) during processing. Shutter: 1/5 sec; Aperture: f/18; ISO: 100; Focal length: 18mm. (The picture was taken at 6:20 a.m. on September 20, 2010.)

Witches Gulch

Witches Gulch near Wisconsin Dells, WI
Photograph by Tom Atwood

To take a photograph you need light. Usually, the more light the better. Lack of light leads to blurry, dark photos. At Witches Gulch, a rock formation resembling a canyon along the Wisconsin River, even at high noon there is not much light. So, that means taking long exposures to allow enough light into the camera. It also means using a tripod to keep the camera from moving. This photo was taken at about 9 a.m. You can see a few spots of sunlight, but for the most part Witches Gulch was so dark that an eight-second exposure was required. Shutter: 8 secs; Aperture: f/13; ISO: 100; Focal length: 18 mm.

Mary in Black & White

Mary Marty Senior Portrait
Photograph by Tom Atwood

When taking senior pictures, or any portrait for that matter, sometimes less is more. Less color, less processing, less retouching. In this black and white photo of Mary Marty, not much has been done to it.  The only real alteration was to change the picture from color to black & white. The set up was not complicated, either. Mary is standing close to a window in her home: that's the only source of light. The wide aperture setting (f/2.0) creates a shallow depth of field so that her eye is in sharp focus, but not much else. The result is a beautiful, striking photo of Mary in black & white. Shutter: 1/40; Aperture: f/2.0; ISO: 200; Focal length: 35mm.

ARTEAST

Big Cloud, July 15, 2010
Photography by Tom Atwood

This year several of my photographs will be shown at ARTEast in downtown Edwardsville October 16 & 17. The photos, including "Big Cloud," will be on display at Main Street Art Gallery on ARTEast weekend and the during the month of October. The photograph shown here is phenomenal--and by that I mean it is a photograph of something phenomenal. This giant cloud hovered near Edwardsville for an hour as the sun set on July 15. I just kept looking for different places to shoot it, and settled on Strasen Lane, the site of one of my favorite barns. Shutter: 1/80; Exposure f/4.5; ISO: 200; Focal length: 18mm.

Desaturation

Wild sunflower field near Wisconsin Dells
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes as a photographer you don't want a picture to be too pretty. In fact, I almost always go for unusual or interesting over pretty. If you find a wild sunflower field it's easy to take beautiful pictures, the kind that are featured on greeting cards. But to take an interesting picture of a sunflower is more difficult. To make this photo more eye-catching (hopefully), I desaturated it during processing. In other words, I removed some of the bright yellow and green colors, giving the image more of a gray, old-fashioned appearance. Even the sky that day was gray, which helps. However, this photo will never be on a Hallmark card. Shutter: 1/30; Aperture: f/3.5; ISO: 100; Focal length: 18mm; Software: Lightroom® 2.

Is this light pollution?

St. Louis Gateway Arch
Photograph by Tom Atwood

For years the Gateway Arch was not lit. At night it stood along the riverfront like a giant shadow against the St. Louis skyline. But in 2001 the decision was made to install 44 powerful floodlights at the base of the arch. In this photo taken earlier this year those lights not only illuminated the arch, but also lit up the low, fast moving clouds as they passed just above the top of it. A dramatic photo, but also an example, some would say, of excessive, unnecessary lighting. Is this light pollution? Shutter: 13 seconds; Aperture: f/13; ISO: 100; Focal length: 18mm

The Vanishing Night

Moraine Valley
Rocky Mountain National Park
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I have taken hundreds of long exposure photos at night, but this one has the most stars. That's because it was taken in a very dark spot in Rocky Mountain National Park. There aren't many truly dark places left in the United States--none within 80 miles of St. Louis. (The closest dark place is Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri.) Usually when I take a long exposure photo at night, the sky becomes bluish because of all the artificial and unnecessary light these days. The night sky is vanishing.
Shutter: 30 secs; Aperture: f/1.8; ISO: 800; Focal length: 35mm.

Bon voyage

Photograph by Tom Atwood

This week the hummingbirds in my backyard disappeared. I guess they have left for South America, or wherever it is they spend the winter. I'll miss them, but I'm not sure I'll miss trying to take their pictures. It's kind of like fishing. You spend a lot of time waiting to catch one. The photo of this brave hummingbird had some help from the flash on my camera, the only way to freeze the fast-moving bird on a cloudy day.  Shutter: 1/200; Aperture: f/7.1; ISO: 400; Focal length: 18 mm.

Bridget on Blacktop

Senior pictures photo shoot with Bridget Fisher
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes odd combinations can help create interesting senior portraits. Like a blacktop road, cornfields and a girl dressed up for a homecoming dance. It helps if the girl is Bridget Fisher, who obviously was having fun with the unusual juxtaposition. To separate Bridget from the background requires a shallow depth of field, so I used a lens with a very wide aperture (f/2.2). Shutter 1/1250; ISO: 100; focal length: 50 mm. (By the way, this was taken last month on Pin Oak Road near I-55 in Madison County, Illinois.)

Blue Angels

Scott AFB, September 11, 2010
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Some events are what I call "point-and-shoot." Yesterday's air show at Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, Illinois was one of them. If you were there, and had a camera, all you had to do was point and shoot. And focus. The Blue Angels performed on a sunny day in a blue sky filled with clouds. Impossible not to take great pictures. Here are the details about this one: Shutter: 1/1000; Aperture: f/7.1; ISO: 200; Focal length: 200 mm.

Wingwalker

St. Louis, Missouri. July 4, 2010
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Probably the most important decision you can make when taking a picture is where to place the camera. Obviously, where you put the camera determines what the camera will "see." At the air show in St. Louis on the Fourth of July, I decided to shoot from the middle of the Eads Bridge (instead of along the riverfront). That put the camera directly in the middle of the air show. The planes flew right over--and sometimes right at--the camera. For fast-moving shots like this a high shutter speed is also needed, in addition to manual exposure to compensate for the bright sky. Using auto exposure would have made the plane in this photo a silhouette. (By the way, the wing walker in this picture is Teresa Stokes.) Shutter: 1/1250; Exposure: f/7.1; ISO: 400; Focal length: 200 mm.

Jamie

Jamie Alexander Brown
Castor River Shut-Ins
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Jamie suggested the Castor River Shut-Ins near Fredericktown, Missouri as a great spot for photos, and she was right. The river creates a series of clear, cascading pools in the Amidon Memorial Conservation Area, part of the Mark Twain National Forest. But what makes this picture memorable is not the river; Instead, I think it's a couple of other things. First, Jamie's eyes looking directly into the lens. And second, the extreme angle of elevation. Jamie is in the river, and I, the brave photographer, am standing on a rock above her where it is dry, shooting straight down. Often, an unusual or extreme perspective can make an otherwise ordinary photo more interesting. The Shut-Ins are scenic, but no additional scenery was needed for this shot. Shutter: 1/80; Aperture: f/4.5; ISO: 200; Focal length: 35mm.

Cross Country

Granite City Regional
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes a good photo is just a matter of luck. This picture at Granite City was taken the morning after a heavy rain which left a small lake in the path of the runners. The photo is spectacular not because of the photographer, but because of the unusual situation. All I had to do was find the right spot to take the picture--without getting soaked. Date: October 24, 2009; Shutter: 1/500; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO (film speed) 800; Focal length: 116 mm.

The View from East St. Louis

July 3, 2010, E. St. Louis, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The best technique I have found to photograph fireworks is to let in as little light as possible through the lens, in other words to close the aperture up tight. This photo is a 20-second time exposure, using an aperture of f/22. The long exposure time allows the lights of the skyline to show up, while the aperture setting keeps the brief, brilliant fireworks from being too bright, and blowing everything else away.

Big Cloud

Weber Road near Marine, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Summer 2010 was filled with big storms and big clouds. This one never quite reached me, but that didn't matter -- it was much more impressive from a distance. In fact, instead of chasing the storm, I ran away from it, trying to get far enough to see the big cloud. In this picture I used a polarizing filter, which helped saturate the sky, making it appear almost black. Additional contrast was added using processing software (Lightroom 2). Shutter: 1/200; Exposure: f/8.0; ISO: 100; Focal length: 18 mm.

Arch Shadows

Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
Photograph by Tom Atwood

This photo was taken during the winter as low clouds moved in above the arch at about 9:00 p.m. The unusual shadows on the clouds were caused by 44 floodlights at the base of the arch, shining up. A tripod was used for this 13 second exposure, aperture: f/13, ISO: 100, focal length: 18 mm.

Reagan

Reagan Kaleta, Age 2
Photo by Tom Atwood 

Reagan Kaleta is my great niece. Her mom asked me to take some portraits of her when they came to visit this weekend. The photo was taken in the backyard on a sunny day in the shade. Exposure: 1/100; ISO: 100; Aperture: f/2.8 (the soft background is created by the wide-open aperture).