Today doesn’t look too bad. The sun is out for now although the clouds are building. 441 over Newfound Gap is currently closed. They are getting ice and snow there along with Mt Leconte. The hourly forcast shows the snow as starting to taper off around 4pm and is a 40 to 60% chance from 4p to midnight. Accumlation is expected to be less than an inch, so it is tough to tell when the road will reopen.
There are a few people walking around today. Yesterday was extremely slow, with a drizzle all day long.
I did finally complete moving the studio at home, which with the Art and craft show Saturday has kept me from shooting this week. I’ll be in the shop for the next 2 days, and family in town for the holiday so it will be next week before I’m back out there. Better get long the johns warmed up. Even if I start in the lower elevations in 40 degree weather I can end up in the 20’s in the higher elevations. So its shooting in winter mode from here on out. Keep the batteries warm!
The Art and Craft Guild of the Smokies had a show in Newport on Saturday. A bit on the slow side but it gave me chance to talk with some of the other members see what kind of work they do. They have a pretty broad range, which is nice.
Still working on finding a good HDR program to work with. I haven’t been too happy with the results I’ve gotten in Photoshop. I’m playing around with photomatix to see if I like it, and an article in Outdoor Photography had a reccomendation for another one. I’m pretty picky about it. I’m trying to get one that will let me relatively easily combine the images for as realistic effect as possible. I’m working more with composite images now, so when I combine the HDR with composites I’m looking at anywhere from 9 to 15 images to make a print, sometimes more, so the processing can be extensive, especially when the post HDR processing has to match for each of the composite images to give a natural effect. It is pretty interesting though. I feel like I am just scratching the top of what I can do to move in new directions.
That’s all for now.
Bc