My Photography Bucket List

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Full Time RV Travel is on the horizon once again!

As many of you know, my home is on the market here in Sevierville, Tennessee, and my husband and I are going to be embarking on a new adventure in our RV! In 2015-2016 we sold everything we had in Illinois and traveled the country in our RV for a full year, and then landed here in The Smoky Mountains area of East Tennessee. Well, after 7 years here we are ready to move on once again! As soon as our home is sold, we will be hitting the road in our 45-foot RV, towing my green Jeep and seeing America some more! We can’t wait!! If you know anyone that wants a GREAT house in a great neighborhood in Sevierville, TN, here’s the link to my listing: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/209-N-Riverview-Cir-Sevierville-TN-37862/81464753_zpid/

As soon as we get a contract, we will be hitting the road, as all the closing paperwork can be done online anyways. So, where should we go? Well, that’s the problem – we can’t decide which way to go first! In 2015-2016 we spent a lot of time south and west. We have spent a lot of time south and east since living here. The northeast is sadly lacking – we have never been there. But it’s February and nobody wants to go there right now! There’s a whole host of places that I want to see (and photograph), at certain times of the year:

*Sedona, AZ with snow on the red rocks
*The Tulips blooming in Washington State
*The Lavender blooming in Washington State
*A superbloom out west in California and/or Arizona
*All of Utah! We have been to Arches National Park. So much more to see there!
*Yosemite
*Yellowstone – we’ve been there but it’s been a few years
*Autumn in the Northeast – Vermont in particular
*Alaska! This has been on our list for so many years! We’re ready!!
*Maine – I want to go there and eat ALL the lobster!
*Montana – Glacier National Park
*Oregon – Thor’s Well and Oneonta Narrows in particular, but all of Oregon as well
*Washington – Jade Lake. Sigh…

I feel like when we traveled for that whole year in 2015-2016 that we barely scratched the surface. We went to a lot of places, but oh man, there is so much more to see!! I may never buy a home anywhere again! This list is just a tip of the iceberg of where I want to go, and I will use this list (as well as my travel Pinterest boards at www.pinterest.com/carolmellema.)

Stay tuned! We’re hoping to get this home sold soon and hit the road for more adventure! Come join us! I have made a YouTube channel HERE for our friends and family to follow along on our journey. We’d love to have you along too!!


Understanding Shutter Speed

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Learning Photography | Shutter Speed

This post contains affiliate links.

The world of photography can sometimes become very confusing. In order to shoot in manual mode like the pros do, you first need to understand the basics of how to use your camera and what all those buttons mean. In this article, we are going to address shutter speed. Happy learning!!

There are 3 components that define manual exposure: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.

Shutter Speed can be defined as the length of time the camera’s shutter stays open to allow light into the camera’s sensor. Think of it like a pair of curtains on a window. You open the curtains and light comes in. If you open the curtains for 2 seconds, more light will come in than if you only open the curtains for 1/2 a second. Make sense?

The shutter on a camera works exactly the same way – the longer the shutter (curtain) is open, the more light it will let into the camera’s sensor, so the brighter your photograph will be.

But what’s the benefit of being able to adjust your shutter speed? The simple answer is that it allows you to capture motion.

Learning about shutter speed camera settingsIn the 2 photographs that you see above, you can see that in the first photo the water seems to be still – not really moving much at all. My fast shutter speed of 1/4 second allowed me to “freeze” the movement of the water. However, in the second picture I set my shutter speed at 1 second – much slower than 1/4 of a second, and you can see that the water seems to be moving or flowing. Which image do you prefer? Both have exactly the same composition – the only difference is the illusion of movement caused by my shutter speed adjustment.

Nascar cars show shutter speed movement

The same can be said for the NASCAR photos – in the first image I used a much faster shutter speed and froze the action, whereas in the second image my shutter speed was a bit slower and you can see the movement in the car and in the stands in the background . This is called “panning” – where you follow the movement of the object with your camera as you shoot the photograph. For example, these cars were moving close to 200 miles an hour when I took these photos! But I moved my self and my camera right along with the cars in order to get a sharp shot.

One caveat: If you are going to photograph at slow shutter speeds, your camera MUST be mounted on a tripod, otherwise you will just end up with a blurry mess! I recommend a good, sturdy but lightweight carbon fiber tripod such as this one, with a good ball head with quick release such as this one.  For more information on my recommendations for what every budding photographer needs to get started, see my article “5 Things Every Budding Photographer Needs“. It gives you basic information on the bare minimum things you need to get started taking great photos without breaking the bank!

Want to learn more about The Basics of Photography? See my e-book HERE! It’s a great little e-book to get you started taking control of your camera!

If you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter! Thanks bunches!! 🙂

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase a product through one of my links, I make a small commission, which allows me to continue travelling and photographing this beautiful world! Thank you for supporting this small business! 🙂

 

Beginning photography learning how to use and set shutter speed for how to shoot in manual mode

5 Things Every Budding Photographer Needs

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How to get started as a photographerThis post contains affiliate links.

So you want to learn photography? Let me just say that once you get started learning this valuable skill, it will get under your skin and become a part of you forever. No other hobby or career takes you to exciting, beautiful places, tests your technical skills, and challenges your artistic side at the same time quite like photography does. Sure, anybody can grab a camera, put it in “P” mode, and press the button. However, I’m talking about when you’re really ready to learn the ins and outs of your camera, and how all the technical aspects work together to make interesting, well exposed and beautiful photographs. These are my recommendations of the things you need to begin the process of learning the basics of photography:

• The book Understanding Exposure This book has been around for generations, and has consistently garnered 5 Star reviews on Amazon. is It is THE book for learning how your camera works and how shutter speed, f-stop and ISO play together. I cannot recommend a better book – seriously. Even if you are just a hobbyist, this book will help you to understand how to work your camera to get optimal results and beautifully exposed photographs. It’s the best 20 bucks you’ll spend.

• A high-quality carbon fiber tripod – It’s definitely a little awkward at first trying to learn how to use a tripod, but it’s absolutely essential for getting sharp shots, especially in low light or long shutter speed situations, such as sunsets or waterfalls. I also use my tripod all the time when I am shooting for stock – it’s imperative that your stock photos be sharp as a tack or they will be turned down by the stock sites.

• A  ball head with quick release – A high-quality swivel ball head is needed so you can maneuver your camera quickly on the tripod, which is important when shooting things that move like wildlife, people, or sports.

• A circular polarizing filter – A good-quality circular polarizing filter that screws on and adjusts by rotating the filter is a must to control reflections on water, glass, or other shiny surfaces. When used properly, the filter will reduce haze, increase contrast, get rid of reflections, and saturate colors in your photographs. Be aware though – the filter will affect the exposure of your photographs (all the more reason to have a quality tripod for the reduced shutter speeds!) Make sure you get the correct filter size to fit your lens!

• Extra Memory Cards – As far as I’m concerned you can never have too many memory cards! It’s personal preference, but I don’t like to shoot on large sized memory cards. That way if the card corrupts, you are losing less images. And it forces me to think about each shot I’m taking because I don’t have thousands of shots left on my card. The largest card I would use is a 16 GB card.

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase a product through one of my links, I make a small commission, which allows me to continue travelling and photographing this beautiful world! Thank you for supporting this small business! 🙂

Sandhill Cranes of Whitewater Draw

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Migratory Sandhill Cranes at Whitewater Draw in Arizona

It’s early morning – the sun has not yet risen. In the distance I can hear the rattling calls of thousands of Sandhill Cranes as they begin to wake up for the day. I cannot yet see them, but soon the sun will rise. My husband and I are hiking on the path around the wetland where they are located, in the pitch dark in order to find our position for sunrise, when these magnificent birds will take flight.

The cranes wade in the shallow pond in order to rest at night, only to take off en masse each morning to go out and find food and socialize nearby each day. It’s freezing cold outside – even though we are in Arizona! However, it’s January and we are at an elevation of about 8000 feet here. It’s so cold I can barely hold my tripod because the metal is freezing my hands. Of course we didn’t bring enough clothing or gloves – not realizing that it would be so cold.

It was totally worth it though as the sun rose and the cranes began to take to the sky! Enjoy this video to see this wonderful scene:

More than 20,000 Sandhill Cranes roost at Whitewater Draw each winter. They are attracted to this area by the abundant wetlands, the shallow waters of Whitewater Draw, and the food sources in the area. Whitewater Draw is now the best Sandhill Crane viewing site in Arizona.

This beautiful image of Sandhill Cranes may be purchased HERE

More images of Arizona can be seen and purchased HERE. Thank you for supporting this travelling photographer 🙂

Airport Mesa Sedona Arizona

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Airport Mesa Sedona Arizona lenticular cloud sunset

 

I love Sedona! No, I adore Sedona! It’s definitely one of my favorite places that we have traveled to so far. If I wasn’t so darn allergic to something there, I would even live there. Such incredible beauty! And…

A little bit of weirdness.

If you do any research on Sedona, you will see lots of references to “vortexes”, “portals for terrestrial spirits” and other strange oddities.

Now, I’m from Chicago, born and bred. We don’t do weird stuff like extraterrestrial beings or energy vortexes. We do overpriced housing, crazy taxes and bad politics (I guess we lie in different ways LOL). So when I first heard about these weird people who would hike to the top of these mountains to find the energy vortexes and experience strange bodily sensations I was all like, “yea right”.

And then I went there.

My husband and I took a drive up to Airport Mesa to experience the sunset from up high. We had heard from people in our campground that the views there were amazing – and we were not disappointed! I can’t say that we experienced any odd or unusual experiences, but we did see this way cool lenticular cloud above the mountain at sunset, as if to say to us, “See – there are extraterrestrial things going on here, you just gotta believe it!”

And so just maybe we did go home with a little tingle in our neck that night – so what? It was a beautiful adventure anyways!

This image can be purchased HERE. Thank you for supporting this travelling photographer 🙂

That One Time A Bear Walked Right Past Me

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Black bear walking down the road in Smoky Mountains National Park Tennessee

It was mid-November, and I thought I would go up into the park and shoot some Fall colors. The trees were fading fast and there were not many leaves left to be photographed, so I hopped in my car and headed for the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, which is located just outside of Gatlinburg. To get there, turn out of downtown Gatlinburg at stoplight #8 and follow the signs to the one-way Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. It’s a beautiful, somewhat short drive that makes for a great afternoon of nature appreciation after being in crowded downtown Gatlinburg.

So I had just turned in to the national park, rounded a corner, and lo and behold – this bear is walking directly toward my car!! I got exactly this ONE good picture of her, because I had my 70-200mm lens on my camera, and she was just too close to me to get good focus on her with my zoom lens on!! Notice the bumper of the car that’s coming from the other direction – we stopped and chatted out our windows for a moment as we passed each other, marveling at this site that we were just so privileged to have witnessed.

The rest of the day was pretty much a bust because the leaves were basically gone from the trees, but this one moment was enough to make my day complete!

“The gypsies believe the bear to be a brother to man because he has the same body beneath his hide, because he drinks beer, because he enjoys music and because he likes to dance.”
~Ernest Hemingway

American Eagle Foundation

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Bald Eagle in captivity at American Eagle Foundation Pigeon Forge Tennessee in Great Smoky Mountains

We happened upon The American Eagle Foundation quite by accident. We are actually camping at Bear Cove Resort, which is right up the street from this hidden gem. We took the dogs for their usual walk one morning, and decided to turn right instead of left out of the campground. The next thing you know, we’re exploring up a side street when we come upon the sign for The American Eagle Foundation, and it says that they do tours! SCORE!! So as soon as we got home, I looked them up on the internet at Eagles.org, and made my reservation for my FREE tour! You have to make your reservation for a week in advance, so we were all set up for the next Monday.

Tour of American Eagle Foundation Headquarters Pigeon Forge Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains National ParkThe American Eagle Foundation is located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. They area 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the majestic Bald Eagle and other birds of prey. Their motto is “Educate, Repopulate, Rehabilitate”. You can see them perform the “Wings of America” Birds of Prey Show every day at Dollywood Theme Park. But getting behind the scenes at The Foundation Headquarters (located outside Dollywood theme park), was the real treat! The Headquarters houses AEF’s non-releasable birds (due to injury most of the time) and trains them for educational purposes. It’s also a place to rehabilitate sick or injured birds, provides breeding enclosures for Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles, incubates the eggs for later release into the wild, and houses all of AEF’s administrative offices.

Challenger Bald Eagle at American Eagle Foundation in Pigeon Forge Tennessee Great Smoky MountainsOn the tour you will get to meet Challenger – the bald eagle rescued at a young age after he had fallen from a nest in Louisiana. Challenger now has a permanent home at The American Eagle Foundation, and has the very important job of being a free-flying Eagle in stadiums and sports arenas during the playing of The National Anthem. We did get to see Challenger free-fly back and forth between 2 of our hosts, and it was very majestic!! We also got to meet other birds of prey that are housed at The Foundation, including owls, kestrels, vultures, falcons and hawks.

All in all our visit to The American Eagle Foundation was a lot of fun, very educational, and quite inspirational! I would highly recommend this (FREE) tour to anyone wanting to learn more about Eagles and other birds of prey. They also have live Eagle’s nest webcams, which you can visit on their website. Just click on the “Nest Cams” link. Since they are a non-profit organization, they run on donations from the public. You can donate here or shop their store here, where all merchandise purchases help out the foundation as well.

Smoky Mountains Sunset

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Smoky Mountain Sunset

Smoky Mountains National Park is one of my favorite places on Earth. The mountains, the streams and rivers, the trees – all blend to make a spectacular place to visit. We love it here so much that we are working on purchasing property near the National Park, so we can live near its spectacular beauty forever.

This image was taken at Morton Overlook in Smoky Mountains National Park. Morton Overlook is located on Tennessee Route 441, and can be accessed at a pull-out. The layers of mountains make this a spectacular place to photograph sunset. There were several cars there, and quite a few people also taking pictures there with us, but not so much as to crowd anybody out. It might get worse there in the high-tourist summer season – we were there at the very end of May, right before school let out and all the tourists come out to play.

To photograph this image, I used my Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens. I normally wouldn’t use this lens on landscape work, but I wanted to be able to pull in closer to the mountains and sunset. I took 3 separate exposures so I could use HDR later on in my processing and get one good exposure. I did this rather than use a neutral density filter mostly because I don’t care for putting filters (which can get dusty and dirty) onto my high-quality lens glass. With my tripod mounted camera, I shot the first image at .8 second at f-32 and ISO 100. The second image was shot at .4 second, and the third was shot at 1/5 of a second – keeping the f-stop at 32 and the ISO at 100. I then pulled the 3 photos into Adobe Lightroom, chose the 3 images I wanted, keyworded and titled them and exported them to Photoshop. In Photoshop I used the Google NIK HDR merge multiple image series tool, merged the 3 images, and used the “End of The Road” preset just because I preferred how that one made this image look. All in all I think this image turned out quite nicely, and I will be putting it up for sale on my Fine Art America page.

Would you like to learn to photograph like this? I am available for private lessons! Just use the contact form and let me know!

If I can do it, so can you!

Carol