Craig A. Lee: Featured Galleries and Collections

2007 Favorites

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:39:00 GMT

This is a collection of my favorite photographs from 2007.

2008 Favorites

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:11:25 GMT

A collection of my favorite photographs from 2008.

2009 Favorites

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:25:54 GMT

A collection of my favorite photographs from 2009.

Lunar Eclipse; Feb. 20, 2008

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:42:00 GMT

Pictures from the Lunar Eclipse on Feb. 20, 2008. Taken from the southeastern US. The first set of pictures shows a wide frame progression of the eclipse. The second set of frames is a progression of enlargements from the first set. The final three pictures are wide angles for the lens I used that contain the nearby stars as well as the eclipse.

It was a fun evening. The weather was slightly cool, but the clouds that had been in the sky at dusk cleared out by the time the eclipse started. I'm not sure if I'm particuarly happy with the shots I got, but I did enjoy the experience. That is the most important thing, I suppose.

Lake Moultrie and Cooper River; May 25, 2008

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:37:00 GMT

While visiting my sister and her family, we went out on their boat on to Lake Moultrie. We had lunch, went through the lock to the Cooper River, searched for wildlife, and Sarah and Dave water skied. It was a fun day and I took a lot of photographs. These are what I found to be the best of the batch.

Blue Ridge Mountains; Oct 25, 2008

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:04:12 GMT

It was time for our annual Autumn trip up into the Blue Ridge Mountains to view the seasonal colors. We took a more varied route this year. Like last year the weather started up rainy and cloudy, but eventually cleared out in the afternoon.

First we traveled up to Caesar's Head State Park. On the way up the escarpment, we stopped at the Bald Rock overlook. There I made my first multi-shot panoramic image. The next stop was Caesar's Head. We were blessed with a small rainbow as a cloud was cresting the escarpment very close to the upper observation point.

Next we continued up US Highway 276 into Brevard, NC and the Pisgah National Forest. There we stopped at Looking Glass Falls and Sliding Rock. The overcast sky provided nice, diffused light for the waterfalls which prevents harsh reflections from the water and also helps make the colors more pronounced.

We then travelled along the Blue Ridge Parkway toward the south for a little while before turning around and traveling back toward Asheville, NC. The upper elevations at the southern portions of the parkway were clouded over. We even when through a cloud in one of the tunnels which was quite unnusual to see. There were spots of clear skies that afforded dramatic views of the valleys, ridges and the covering cloud banks.

Finally, we stopped at Chimney Rock. The elevator was out of order so everyone had to take the stairs up. Mom and I only made it to the first overlook landing. Dad did manage to make it up to the top though. While at the landing we had a great view that was framed nicely by the overhanging ledge and the mountain's shadow below use. The trees in the Chimney Rock area had not yet started to change colors. So, the moutains, valleys and ridges were all still quite green in contrast to the the Asheville and Parkway areas.

May 28, 2009 Note: Added a color corrected version of Looking Glass Falls in Autumn here.

Autumn Drive; Nov. 8, 2008

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:33:40 GMT

Christine, Connor and I took a drive down US Highway 11 to take in the Autumn colors. Along the way we stopped at the Poinsett Heritage Preserve to view the old Poinsett Bridge. The bridge was built in 1820 and is considered the oldest surviving bridge in South Carolina. I used the opportunity to try a high dynamic range (HDR) image which is several shots of the same subject taken with varying exposure values. I then used a special software application to blend those photographs together for an image with a greater dynamic range than can usually be captured with a camera. The first image in this gallery is the HDR image. The second is a similar photograph of the bridge taken and processed as I normally would. I like both, but for different reasons. I do plan to continue working with the HDR technique.

We also drove up to Caesar's Head State Park again. There were so many people there that they were parking along the highway. I got what I think is one of my best portraits of Connor while we were there.

I also played around with some motion blur images on the drive back down the mountain. It is a lot of fun to take these abstract style photographs.

U.S.S. Yorktown; Jan. 31, 2009

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:06:17 GMT

Photographs taken during our trip to Patriot's Point (U.S.S Yorktown museum) and the Charleston Aquarium.

Furman Shamrock Run; Mar. 21, 2009

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:16:31 GMT

A former co-worker is the organizer of a charity run for her church's youth ministry. It is held on one of the weekends close to St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't able to make it last year, so I promised myself that I would go this year to take photographs for them. These are some of the photographs from the race. I took nearly 800 images during the day, and processed just over 200 of them. I didn't up load all of the photographs to this gallery simply because I didn't want to overload my account. However, I made a disc of all of the processed race images for the church to use for their promotion.

The race is held at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. I had been wanting to go to Furman to photograph the sunrise or sunset over it's lake with it's signature clock tower. I was able to get myself up early enough to spend about 20 minutes photgraphing the clock tower at twilight just before the sun started to rise. Two of those particular photographs are included here as well. I like them, although I didn't have the time to get the particular images I had in mind. Since my wife is a Furman graduate, I'm sure I can convince her to go on a family outting there in the future.

Niagara Falls Trip; July 17-25, 2009

taallyn1@hotmail.com (Craig A. Lee) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:12:39 GMT

We went to visit a friend that lives in Niagara Falls, Ontario for a week. On the way we stopped at the New River Bridge in West Virginia which is the longest single arch span in the Western Hemisphere. The next day we visited Presque Island State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania before arriving in Niagara Falls.

While we were in Niagara we spent two days at the falls themselves. Our friend took us on a hike down into the Niagara Gorge, later she showed us around Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Port Delhousie. The last evening we went back to the falls to see them light up the falls and watch the fireworks.

The weather was touch and go most of the time we were there although we did get a couple of days of sunshine. However, the skies were mostly gray, overcast and basically not photogenic. It made it hard to get good shots most of the time, but I did manage to get some that I liked.

Note: I took a lot of photographs over the week we were on vacation. Therefore, I don't have all of them sorted and processed yet. Keep checking back. I will be adding to this gallery until I am finished processing the select photographs.