WOW! What a ride! Blue Ridge Parkway

[Sailor Don]

What I really wanted was to take a picture of myself coming around this curve a 80 mph, tires just sliding a little bit, floorboard scraping on the pavement. Just a bit of gravel, leaves, or water on the road and it's "Goodbye Charlie!" But this was the best I could do. The frame was added with FXfoto (freebie viewer from FXfoto.com).

http://users3.ev1.net/~sailord/IMG_0901_frame.jpg

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly
proclaiming
--- WOW --- WHAT A RIDE !!

[gsmx2]

Nice composition and a great example of why not all great photographs are taking on sunny days.

Scott

[Sailor Don]

Nice composition and a great example of why not all great photographs are taking on sunny days.

Scott

But it was a sunny day, deep blue sky with beautiful white cloud formations.

This is a perfect example of one of the outdoor photography challenges that trashes my photos. The challenge is, when there is light and dark, sun and shadows, all in the same scene, what the human eye corrects for, the digital (or film) image cannot. If I set the exposure on the sky, the green colors come out as black as the motorcycle (and I get a nice blue sky). If I set the exposure on the subjects in the shadows, then I get what you see above. I'm not sure what metering I used on this photo. I will have to check my EXIF file and see if it has that info.

I recall that by using a circular adjusting polarizing filter, the blue color of the sky can be enhanced without "killing" the light in the shadows, but I don't have one of those for my Canon Pro 1. I think it is time to go out and buy one.

I could also attempt a sky replacement like Tommy did in his Castle photo. Tommy achieved a very nice end result.

[blinking8s]

i did a cruise last weekend there, cars though...sadly

but it was amazing

[gsmx2]

It was a sunny day???

Must have been high noon because except for the shadow under the bike, I sure don't see any shadows.

But here's the advantage of digital photography...bracket all you want...(controlled and purposeful over and underexposure) without "wasting film."

In addition, you can get the exposure for the shadows and the exposure for the sky, then set the camera on a tripod and shoot a shot at each exposure. Post process to combine the two. It would be a little tricky for me given this particular shot, but it could be done.

Scott

[ndh]

Wow. Beautiful place, nice composition and framing. Be sure to post the result if you try the replacement -- I bet a deep blue sky would suit this picture well.

[blinking8s]

with so much haze in the smokeys its easy to let the sun fry the sky and dim the colors

a polarizer is awesome for shooting in this area, really pulls the colors back into the pictures...although I have slowly been getting better at shooting without one

[Sailor Don]

Here is the EXIF file for the original photo.

Exif Version=0221
Maker=Canon
Model=Canon PowerShot Pro1
Software=
Color Space=sRGB
Image Width(pixels)=3264
Image Length(pixels)=2448
X Resolution=180.0
Y Resolution=180.0
Resolution Unit=dot/inch
Date Time Scaned=2004:05:27 14:50:14
File Source=DSC
Description=
Artist=
Date Time Original=2004:05:27 14:50:14
Scene Capture Type=Standard
Exposure Mode=Auto Bracket
Shutter Speed Value=1/125 Second
Aperture Value=4.00
Flash=Off
ISO Speed Rating=
User Comment=

The time stamp in the EXIF file needs to be corrected by adding 1 hour since I was shooting in EDT (Virginia) and my camera is set for CDT (since I live in Texas). 3:50 pm should give some pretty good shadows, so I was confused.

I believe in the excitement of the moment, I shot the original picture while a cloud was passing overhead since I shot the following photo only 40 seconds later.

http://users3.ev1.net/%7Esailord/IMG_0906_sm.jpg

There are very distinct shadows in this shot.

This is the kind of day it was:
http://users3.ev1.net/%7Esailord/IMG_0928_sm.jpg

[rick barclay]

I've travelled the BRP betwen Front Royal and Luray. The Shenandiah
Valley is just a picture-perfect place.