View from the Sand

Long Jump
Photograph by Tom Atwood

It's a simple sport: who can jump farther? But in addition to speed and strength, some long jumpers also bring grace and beauty to the competition. The jump itself, captured here at a high school meet in Edwardsville, Illinois, is a blur, followed by an explosion, then a brief flight that ends in a sandy landing, reaching for every inch.

Shutter: 1/320 sec; Aperture: f/4.5; Focal Length: 18 mm; ISO: 200

Guesswork

Blue Heron on the Mississippi
Photograph by Tom Atwood

A photograph like this involves a great deal of guesswork. And luck. The heron was flying at dusk, after the sun had gone down along the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois. The low light meant using a slow shutter speed, and focus was at best, a guess. I took several pictures of this magnificent bird, and one of them turned out. This one.

Shutter: 1/80 sec; Aperture: f/13; Focal Length: 200 mm; ISO 400

Lovely, awful

South Roxana, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

How can an image be lovely and awful, at the same time? The same way a refinery can. The ConocoPhillips Wood River Refinery in South Roxana, Illinois is beautiful and horrible. I have been fascinated by it for years, and struggle still to actually capture it in a photograph. This attempt was made around Christmas looking down a residential street. 

Shutter: 1/4 sec; Aperture: f/4.5; Focal Length: 26 mm; ISO: 800

Fly Away

Great Blue Heron
Photograph by Tom Atwood

One thing I've learned after years of photographing Great Blue Herons along the Mississippi River - they never fly toward you. 

Shutter: 1/2000; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 400; Focal Length: 200 mm

The View from East St. Louis

Old Courthouse
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Accidents happen. Like this photograph for example. I was in East St. Louis to shoot long exposures of the St. Louis skyline. Suddenly, during this shot, fireworks erupted behind the Old Courthouse. A brief, small display. It was November 20th, not the 4th of July. I never did find out what the celebration was about!

Shutter: 15 secs; Aperture: f/20; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 55 mm

Frozen

East St. Louis Relays
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes, more than helping you see, a photograph can help you feel. In this case, the feeling is tension. High school runners at an invitational track meet wait anxiously for the baton to be passed to them in the 1600-meter relay. Their nerves are part of the image. 

Shutter: 1/500; Aperture: f/6.3; ISO: 400; Focal Length: 18 mm

Scattered Light

The Black River
near Piedmont, Missouri
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I went to the Black River looking for darkness, but found all kinds of light in this photograph taken beneath the spillway at Clearwater Lake. The Milky Way glows like dust above the clouds, while the clouds themselves are lit from below by scattered light, most of it out of nearby Piedmont, a small town several miles away. The hillsides are lit by flashlights shining in the hands of hikers, walking the paths along the river in "darkness."

Shutter: 25 secs; Aperture: f/3.5; ISO: 3200; Focal Length: 18 mm

Memo to MoDOT

Barn near Piedmont, Missouri
Photograph by Tom Atwood

This magnificent barn is on a county road in Missouri with a very generic name: Highway V. I prefer the county road names in Illinois, names like Quercus Grove, Gilomen, Fruit and Jersualem. Why are roads in Missouri named after letters of the alphabet? I blame unimaginative thinking. 

Shutter: 1/160; Aperture: f/6.3; ISO: 320; Focal Length: 18 mm

Wind - Edwardsville Senior Pictures

Mckenzie Keth
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Taking senior pictures outdoors--or any portraits, really--is risky. Sometimes I feel like a farmer, who looks to the sky, knowing he is at the whim of the weather. But the farmer and I make the best of it. What else can you do? On this blustery day along the Mississippi River at Alton, Mckenzie Keth faced a constant wind of at least 20 mph, with fantastic gusts, like the one that blew the hair across her face and helped create this unusual portrait.

Shutter: 1/320; Aperture: f/3.5; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 35 mm

Rotate Right - St. Louis Wedding Photography

Sisters Dance
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes a photo doesn't know which way is up. Or maybe the photographer doesn't? That's more likely. I have displayed this image upside-down, right side up and sideways, and haven't decided yet which way is best. Maybe that's because of all the color, flow and movement as Katie Mareing and Amy Suppaslama dance at their father's wedding in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Shutter: 1/8; Aperture: f/4.5; ISO: 400; Focal Length: 18 mm

Wisconsin Blur

Skyscraper
Wisconsin Dells, Wisc.
Photograph by Tom Atwood

It's amazing what 25 seconds can do to a photograph. That's how long the lens was left open on this time exposure taken on a summer night in Wisconsin. The Skyscraper, a ride that carries two people at a time high into the air and upside-down, is not nearly this impressive when viewed in real time. This is photographic sleight of hand.

Shutter: 25 secs; Aperture: f/18; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 18 mm

Darkness

Milky Way above the
Garden of the Gods
June 17, 2012
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The Garden of the Gods is one of the darkest places in Illinois. One of the few areas where you can see the Milky Way on a moonless night like this one on June 17, 2012. In the photo above, the sandstone rock formations were lit by a flashlight during the 25-second time exposure. (The flashlight also caught some trees, which you can see in the lower left corner).

Shutter: 25 secs; Aperture: f/3.5; ISO: 5000; Focal Length: 18 mm

We're Back

Self Portrait

After a year or so away, Photo of the Day returns with more portrait and landscape images from Tom Atwood Media, including this photo which is both: a self portrait and landscape taken on the Big Thompson River in Rocky Mountain National Park at moonrise. 

Shutter: 20 secs; Aperture: f/3.5; Focal Length: 18 mm; ISO: 200