Damselflies - nature photography

Damselflies
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Never take pictures at noon on a sunny day. Except sometimes. This photo of lovely blue damselflies was taken outside at the Missouri Botanical Garden around noon on a sunny day. For some reason, the photo looks like it was taken in a studio with elaborate lighting. But there was only one light. A big one.

Shutter: 1/250; Aperture: f/8. ISO: 100; Focal Length: 145 mm

Fruit Road - Midwest Landscape Photography

Fruit Road
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The horses stood facing into a strong wind on this cold, snowy morning along Fruit Road where it crosses Illinois Highway 4, not far from Alhambra, not far from Marine, and not really close to anything.

Shutter: 1/200; Aperture: f/7.1; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 18 mm

Focus

Laila Jason
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The moments just before a big race can be the most dramatic. In this photo, Laila Jason is waiting to run the first leg of the 1600 meter relay at the state high school track finals in Charleston, Illinois. She appears extremely calm, extremely focused. Almost in another world.

Shutter: 1/500; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 400; Focal Length: 190 mm

Chain of Rocks Canal - landscape photography

Chain of Rocks Canal
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The Chain of Rocks Canal was built in the 1950s so traffic on the Mississippi River could bypass the dangerous "chain of rocks" north of St. Louis. It helped create a lovely, strange island near Granite City known as Choteau Island, a winter home for Bald Eagles, farms and a landfill. I think.

Shutter: 1/20; Aperture: f/22 (don't ask me why); ISO: 200; Focal Length: 18 mm

Hannah Skirball - Edwardsville maternity pictures

Hannah Skirball
Photograph by Tom Atwood

This maternity portrait of Hannah Skirball was taken at the Gardens at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville a month or so before she had Noah, her second child. For pricing information, or to schedule a maternity pictures session with Tom Atwood Media, visit our website: www.tomatwood.net

Shutter: 1/60; Aperture: f/3.8; ISO: 100; Focal length: 20 mm

Granite City Invitational

Cross Country
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I may have taken 10,000 cross country photographs in my life. That is not an exaggeration, just a guess. Many were forgettable, I'm sure, but not this one of Michael Gorsage nearing the end of the Granite City Invitational in the rain and mud on September 5, 2009.

Shutter: 1/320; Aperture: f/13; Focal Length: 190 mm; ISO: 1600 (hence, the grain)

Snow bird - wildlife photography

St. Louis Cardinal
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The winter "storm" has arrived at Photo of the Day. Some sleet, snow and puffed up birds.

Shutter: 1/250; ISO: 800; Aperture: f/5.6; Focal Length: 300 mm

Strasen Lane - landscape photography

Strasen Lane
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Here at Photo of the Day, a "winter storm" is moving in later today. What we used to call "snow." This picture looking down Strasen Lane, a dead end country road in Madison County, Illinois, was taken on a blustery, wonderful day a few years ago, during another "winter storm."

Shutter: 1/1000; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 200; Focal Length: 200 mm

Garden Spot - Edwardsville Senior Pictures

Tori Carrow
Portrait by Tom Atwood

One of the best and most unusual locations for portrait photography is tucked away on the vast campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. A 35-acre botanical garden, known as "The Gardens," is capable of a lot of different "looks" all year. Water, woods, flowers, and a wooden bridge over "Turtle Pond," that is the garden's centerpiece. The bridge can be seen here with grasses and cattails in the background of Tori Carrow's senior picture.

Shutter: 1/200; Aperture: f/2.2; ISO: 200; Focal Length: 35 mm

A Passing Shower - landscape photography

Fruit Road near Edwardsville, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Some days the sky has a lot of energy. Brief storms blow up and blow away. The rain pours, soaks a field, and suddenly gives way to sun and rainbows. Every direction is a picture.

Shutter: 1/80; Aperture: f/13; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 18 mm

Blue - Edwardsville Senior Pictures

AlexWever
Photograph by Tom Atwood

This is one of the first senior portraits I took: Alex Wever  leaning against a lumber warehouse, a kind of blue landmark in Edwardsville, Illinois. In fact, this portrait of Alex is a kind of blue landmark, too. Blue bricks, blue metal siding, blue jeans, blue eyes.

Shutter: 1/125; Aperture: f/1.8 (late in the day); ISO: 100; Focal Length: 35 mm

Polarizing - landscape photography

Blacktop Road near Lebanon, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

There is a lens filter, known as a "polarizing filter," that brings out deep colors in color photos, and as you can see, also adds unusual contrast to black & white images, especially to clouds and a bright blue sky.
Almost other worldly.

Shutter: 1/200; Aperture: f/8; Focal length: 18 mm; ISO: 100

Taylor - Edwardsville Senior Pictures

Pin Oak Road
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes the most interesting ideas for a portrait come from the client. In this case, Taylor Mulhall, who wanted a senior picture draped across the hood of her beloved Mustang. With some help in editing, this image captured along Pin Oak Road near Edwardsville, Illinois turned out to be one of the most colorful, and unusual, senior pictures I have taken.

Shutter: 1/200; Aperture: f/4; ISO: 1250 (it was nearly dusk); Focal length: 18 mm 

Processed in Lightroom 4

"Unposed" - Edwardsville Wedding Photography

Wedding Day
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Some of the best wedding portraits are not planned, or posed. This portrait of Katy Fechter was actually taken moments after the wedding ceremony as she and her husband were greeting guests inside Emmaus Lutheran Church in Dorsey, Illinois. It is one of my favorite bridal portraits, taken from a distance using a telephoto lens.

Shutter: 1/200; Aperture: f/5; ISO: 2500 (not much light in the church); Focal Length: 180 mm

Low light - landscape photography

Garden of the Gods
Photograph by Tom Atwood

It was just after dawn among the cavernous sandstone formations in the Garden of the Gods near Harrisburg, Illinois. The light was dim, even outside the caverns. This photo was taken at a slow shutter speed to allow as much light as possible through the lens. The color was saturated slightly in editing.

Shutter: 1/80; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 200; Focal length: 200 mm

Guinea pig

Carson Eby, 6 mos
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I couldn't have found a better man for the job. The job--for 6-month-old Carson Eby--was to serve as a guinea pig today for my new portrait lens. The lens is a Nikon f/1.8 85 mm. As you can see, in the soft reeds behind Carson, the lens allows for an extremely shallow depth of field. The result: you are focused, literally, on Carson and his smile.

Shutter: 1/500; Aperture: f/1.8; Focal Length: 85 mm; ISO: 100

Time

Three Jets
Photograph by Tom Atwood

The Garden of the Gods is an ancient formation of sandstone in southern Illinois. Not as ancient as the Milky Way above it, pierced by three jets passing through this 25-second time-lapse photo.

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

The Moment - Collinsville Wedding Photography

Wedding Day
Photograph by Tom Atwood

There is a moment at each wedding. One that, for a photographer, captures the day. Sometimes there is more than one moment like that. You don't want to miss it. You have to be watching for it. You have to put yourself in a position to find it. But enough about being a wedding photographer. 

This is Patty's moment. 

Shutter: 1/125; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO:200; Focal length: 18 mm

Point & Shoot

4th of July
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Photographing fireworks involves luck and planning. Since I am not a very good planner, it's mostly luck for me. The only planning is really in the camera settings (below):

Shutter: 30 seconds; Aperture: f/20; ISO: 160; Focal Length: 18 mm

The Vanishing Night

Weber Road
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Darkness is a thing of the past. Even on a country road in the Midwest, far from any towns or cities, the sky is lit up at night, not by stars, but by our scattered light. Farmers have yard lights, cars have headlights, billboards have floodlights. The result? The night sky that has inspired people for thousands of years is disappearing before our very eyes. Even on Weber Road.

Shutter: 30 seconds; Aperture: f/3.5; ISO: 400; Focal length: 18 mm

After the Race

State Track Meet
Photograph by Tom Atwood

There's good news and bad news about this behind-the-scenes photo at the Illinois High School Association State Track and Field Meet. The good news is I followed my journalistic instincts and snapped this dramatic, gripping shot. Or, the bad news is I followed my journalistic instincts and intruded on a teenager's moment of personal anguish. Up to you.

Shutter: 1/500; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 280; Focal Length (a telling stat): 200 mm

Arch, again

Arch
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I believe it is very difficult to take an original, or even interesting, photo of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Not impossible, just difficult. I have tried different angles, different locations, different times of day. This attempt came early in the morning, just after sunrise, when the Mississippi was high along the banks in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Metadata

Self Portrait, New Years Day
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I ran across this old photo this morning in an online gallery of mine. I had forgotten about it, everything except for how cold it was. So, I checked the metadata embedded in the photo file, an eternal source of information. Turns out this was taken at 11:04 p.m. on New Years Day, 2010. I'm standing on Pin Oak Road, not far from Strasen Lane near Marine, Illinois. The memorable barn behind me has since collapsed completely, and has been cleared away. I am still standing.

Shutter: 25 seconds; Aperture: f/4.5; ISO: 200; Focal Length: 18 mm

Details

Along Interstate 55
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes you find treats in unexpected places, like this spider web along a frontage road near Interstate 55 in Madison County, Illinois. From a distance, the web is unseen. But once you discover it, up close, in the details, it is magnificent.

Shutter: 1/100 sec; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 55 mm

The God Tree

Moon near Marine
Photograph by Tom Atwood

My friend calls this ancient elm the "God Tree." And it does have power at its location in a thin place near Marine, Illinois. I have photographed it many times, on this night as the moon rose above the field.

Shutter: 3/5 sec; Aperture: f/5; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 75 mm

Virgin Farm

Near Emerald Mound
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Olympian Craig Virgin invited me to his parents' farm near Lebanon, Illinois one snowy day. Or did I invite myself? Either way, it was lovely.

Shutter: 1/250; Aperture: f/10; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 18 mm

Light Pollution

44 Halogen Floodlights
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I remember when the Gateway Arch wasn't lit up at night. It stood proudly as a shadow against the St. Louis skyline. Now, 44 halogen floodlights illuminate not only the Arch, but the clouds, passing airplanes, and the rest of night sky, which is increasingly obscured by scattered light.

Shutter: 13 secs; Aperture: f/13; ISO: 100; Focal Length: 18 mm

Ten Seconds

Ten Seconds
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Here's the secret(s) to photographing fireworks: 1) use a tripod 2) use a high aperture, at least f/14, preferably f/18 3) try exposures of between 8 and 25 seconds and 4) make sure you have something interesting, like an arch, below the fireworks. No charge. These tips are on the house. Details for this photo, taken on the 4th of July in East St. Louis:

Shutter: 10 secs; Aperture: f/14; Focal Length: 18 mm; ISO: 100

The Cold Hour

The Blue Hour
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Some photographers call this the "blue hour." I call it the cold hour. I don't remember the temperature when this particular photo was taken. I just recall my fingers were so numb I had trouble adjusting the settings on the camera. The time was 5:56 a.m. The location - a thin place between earth and sky along Strasen Lane near Marine, Illinois.

Shutter: 38 secs; Aperture: f/5.6; Focal Length: 27 mm; ISO: 200