Amateur photography

I continue to paddle a couple of times a week.  When Joe and I get together on Tuesdays our pace allows for conversation.  When I get back out by myself on Saturday or Sunday I push the pace a bit more to keep my body used to the idea of training and racing.

I won't bore you with the details, but I've been exceptionally busy on numerous fronts lately, and as much as ever an hour or so on the river has been a welcome respite from all the other things going on.  Each time I prepare to head downtown I ask myself if paddling is the best use of my time that day, or if I shouldn't be "getting things done" in one of those other areas.  But once I'm down at the dock stretching and readying my boat and gear, the sudden relaxation I feel gives me confidence that I'm doing the right thing.

Of course, even in the boat I have to have a side project, and my project for the last few weeks has been to try to get a really good photograph of the Memphis riverfront with my Go Pro camera.  I usually set the camera to take a shot every ten seconds and have hundreds of photos by the time I'm finished, and you'd think surely I'd end up with at least one winner each time out.  But while I've gotten a lot of pretty good pictures, and certainly some very interesting ones, that iconic image that begs to be on the cover of Life magazine hasn't quite materialized yet.

Anytime I see a thing or a landscape I like, I just point my boat in that direction and paddle toward it... not the most precise method of point-and-shoot.  I'm often disappointed when I try to get a particular object in a photo because the camera's lens has a very wide angle and the object looks much smaller and more distant in the picture than it had appeared to my eyes.  Back in August when I paddled on the Hudson River I tried several times to get shots of Amtrak and Metro North trains going by, but they're barely visible in the photos.

Perhaps what I'll do for the next little while is share a few photos here and see what readers think.  I hope you might be inclined to say something in the "Comments" section or, if you're my Face Book friend, to tell me what you think there.  Here's today's offering:

Number One

This one has many of the elements I'm looking for: the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, the river, a good chunk of the downtown skyline.  And the late-afternoon light looks pretty good.  I wish the sky were a bit more interesting... it's lovely and blue, but I like some clouds and stuff.


Number Two

This was taken in the late morning.  I remember being all excited to get a barge rig in the photo: one of the things I love about the Mississippi is that it has incredible natural beauty and recreational value even while being a major artery for commercial transportation.  But just like those trains on the Hudson, it turned out not quite as prominent in the photo as I would have liked.  Another problem with Number Two is that the camera was tilted farther upward than I realized and the Outdoors, Inc., sticker didn't get in the photo.  Outdoors has been a good friend and sponsor of mine for many years, and is largely responsible for the very existence of sports like paddling in Memphis and the Mid South, so I'd like it to be acknowledged in that one great photo I come up with.


Number Three

Number Four

Numbers Three and Four were both taken yesterday when the sky was much more overcast, and I like the effect that has on the lighting.  Both photos have pretty good composition, with the bridge and the skyline and The Pyramid on display.  But is either of them the photo?  Hmmm....


Anyhoo, I'd be grateful to anybody who weighs in.  If nothing else, I'm always thrilled to know when somebody has actually read all this stuff I write.