 
Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is healthy and safe today! This week's blog is about a trip I took a few weeks ago to get to as many state parks as I could in one week. I have a personal project to visit all of the state parks in North Carolina in one year. I have visited a lot of them already, but I wanted to visit all of them in one calendar year. There are 34 state parks and 7 recreation areas that I had planned to visit on weekend trips. Shouldn't be a problem until Covid-19 showed up and shut down the parks for a few months. Well actually here in North Carolina everything shut down for a couple of months and some stuff is still shut down. At
my work all vacations were canceled, like we would have somewhere to go, so I had some extra vacation. So when the parks opened back up for camping, I configured a week-long camping trip that would take me to 10 state parks to make up for the ones that I missed during the lockdown. My wife, Forrest, and myself took our teardrop trailer for our trip and had four different camping spots reserved.
The first leg of our trip we headed out "on time," which never happens. We drove to Haw River State Park for our first state park. There we took a lovely walk around the lake and had lunch there. After lunch we went to Mayo River State Park where we actually did the same thing hiking around a lake. Of course we were taking photos during the whole time. Our last stop was to Hanging Rock State Park where we were scheduled to be for two nights camping. While there we hiked and enjoyed ourselves camping. I got to use a new solar panel kit to try to keep my teardrop battery charged and it worked well. We did not have electric power at this campsite.
The second leg of our trip we left on time again, a really great job to my wife. When we headed out we went to Pilot Mountain State Park where we went to the observation deck and had great views. After that we went to Stone Mountain State Park where we had lunch and hiked to a historic farm site at the base of Stone Mountain. We then took off to New River State Park the furthest point of our trip. This is one of the parks that I haven't visited yet, and I was really surprised at how nice the campground was and the park in general. The trails were nice and well-maintained. We stayed there for two nights where we had an electric hookup and were able to enjoy the A/C in our little trailer, although this was the coolest spot on our trip. While we were there we took a trip to Elk Knob State Park where again I was pleasantly surprised by the small trail that we hiked and how well it was maintained. On our way back to New River State Park, we stopped at Mount Jefferson Recreation Area at one of the lookouts overlooking Jefferson, North Carolina. I can easily say that this was my favorite leg of this trip with cooler temps, and weather matters when you're camping.
The third leg of our trip started out not so good. We actually left on time, filled our trailer up with water, and were on our way. But the fog was going to be a problem. We were scheduled to drive the Blue Ridge
Parkway to the Aquaduct by Grandfather Mountain State Park. But when we got up on the Parkway, it was fogged in and we drove for about 20 minutes on winding, foggy roads with no views. So we canned that part of the trip and went straight to Lake Norman State Park where we were scheduled to be for two nights. We had a nice spot but the temp was hot, hot. We had no electric hookup so no A/C, but we did have a battery-powered fan that we ran off of our RV that helped a little. We did a 2.5-mile hike on the morning of the first day and saw lots of deer. The lake was pretty, but it was hot. We drove into Statesville to cool off in the car and went to Walmart and got some supplies and water. Back at our trailer we did have lots of TV channels on our TV, so we could do that and we had a pretty good cell signal.
The last leg of our trip was to Morrow Mountain State Park. This is a park that we had visited and camped at in the past and had fond memories of. We were scheduled to be here only one night. But the difference was that when we visited before it was in cooler weather. When we arrived at Morrow Mountain, the heat index was 105 and very hot and sticky. The campground was half empty. When we arrived we partly set up, as we were only going to be there one night, and tried to stay cool. It was too hot to hike and even Forrest got under the trailer to try to hide from the heat. After a few hours of this, my wife and I figured that we were only three hours from home and A/C, so we decided to leave and go home. So we packed up all of our stuff and headed home. This was maybe the best decision that we made because the extra day of rest before going to work was really needed.
So that's how we went to nine state parks in one week. We had a good time and enjoyed the sites. I have visited 25 parks so far and have 9 more to go. It will take me four or five three-day weekends to reach the parks that I haven't gotten to, but hopefully I'll meet my goal. Please go out and visit your local state park. You might be surprised like I was of all the things there to do. So until next week, get out and shoot!
Hey Everyone! Hope you are doing well. Today is a review of a new addition to my camera bag -- the Lume Cube 2.0. This is an LED-controllable light that can be described in two words -- small and powerful! This is a small, rugged, waterproof, and powerful light that is perfect for the landscape photographer. But to tell you the truth, I really didn't buy it at first for my bag or landscape photography. I bought it for video. With the way our society is now with the Covid-19 social distancing rules, video meetings are starting to be the norm. So I initially got it to shine on me when I was video conferencing. But when I got it I
quickly figured out how versatile this light was. It quickly found a place in my bag. It comes with a 1/4 20 thread tripod mount that will go right to the hotshot of your camera for fill light in darker places. And with a cheap adapter you can make this light fit on all of your GoPro mounts and tripods. I rigged a suction cup mount to fit on the back of my monitor, and the light fits right to it to shine on me as I video conference. Let me go over what you get when you get this neat package.
In the package you get the cube light in, you get a USB-C adapter cord to charge the battery. You also get an adapter to fit on the front of the cube that is magnetized. It comes with two gels. One is a white defuser and the other is a warming gel.They use magnets and just stick on the front of the light. You can buy other gels and accessories for the light like a barn door or a shoot-through snoot. Here are a few of the specs of the Lume Cube.
- 1.6" x 1.6" size (approx. the size of a golf ball)
- True Daylight Balanced 5600K Color Temp & 95+ CRI
- Custom Lens /w 80º Beam Angle and ZERO Hot Spots
- USB-C Charging
- Durable Aluminum Body & Water to 30 feet
- 750 LUX @ 1M
- 1.5 Hour Run Time @ 100% Output
- 2 Button Control System (increase & decrease brightness manually)
- Wirelessly Control via Lume-X iPhone/Android App from 60 feet away
- 360º Optical Sensor for Slave Flash Capability
- Built-in 1/4" 20 for Tripod Mounting
- Low Light Mode (adjust in 1% increments) for Night Photography
- Accessories Included (Shoe Mount, Warming Gel, Diffuser, etc)
To wirelessly hook up to the light with your phone is easy using Bluetooth, and you can control the intensity of the light with a slider. You can
choose if it's for video or photo. It also has an optical trigger for using with flash for fill flash. So if you have an onboard flash on your camera, you could control the trigger with your camera. You could also use this light with small light painting projects for foreground interest in astro photography. I've always wanted to take a small flash in my bag, but it was too cumbersome with batteries and triggering the flash if its off-camera. But with this little light the size of a golfball, I now have extra light that I can control with a slider on my phone. It can hook up to any tripod or GoPro mount I have that makes it very easy to use in the field. Being waterproof is another plus for the
landscape photographer. It is built like a tank. I have been talking about all of the uses for landscape photography, but it could also be awesome for tabletop photography. I'm thinking about getting another one and doing all of my tabletop photography with them. As you can tell, I am very excited about this little light and I think you should be too. It would be a great addition to any photographer's kit, no matter what type of photography you do.
As you can tell, I highly recommend this small LED light to expand your photography kit to make you a better photographer. So until next week stay safe, keep shooting, and get outside!
Hey Everyone! I hope today finds you healthy and safe. Today's topic is what camera mode should you shoot in? Let's go back in time a bit. When I started using an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera, it was a manual camera that you had to kind of figure out how to shoot. This was before digital so you had to shoot a roll of film, send it off to get developed, and then see what worked and what didn't. You also had to take notes because there was nothing to tell you on the film negative what your settings were. But I learned and became pretty good at getting a properly exposed photo. I shot like this for years. When I finally went digital Technology had flown past me and I had to learn the other modes like aperture priority, shutter priority, and all of the camera settings that you can get now. It is actually overwhelming how many camera modes there are now. But what is right for you? I am a firm believer that you, as a photographer, should know how your camera works. How a photograph is exposed and the exposure triangle. That said, I don't shoot in manual all of the time now, but it is because I know how I can revert back to it when I need it.
So what do I shoot in? Ninety percent of the time I'm shooting in aperture priority. I set the aperture and
the camera does the rest. I set the depth of field for the shot I want, and I let the camera make the decisions on what my ISO and shutter speed are going to be. We pay a lot for our cameras and they have powerful computers on board to make decisions to get a properly-exposed photograph. And 80 to 90 percent of the time they get it dead on. It's that other 20 percent that we have to take over and fix what the computer is fooled by. That's why I think when you're a beginner you should shoot in manual all the time until you fully understand what you are doing. Then you can change to one of the other modes on your camera and not worry about what setting you have. You can just shoot and compose your shots. The other 10 percent of the time I'm shooting in manual mode, usually when I'm using a tripod and working slowly and methodically or when I'm using studio lights. Other than that I'm in aperture priority. But that's just me. There are tons of other shooting modes that can be found on almost any camera from a point and shoot to a DSLR. So let's talk about some of these.
 The MetroCommuters waiting for the Metro in Washington DC.
Shutter priority is when you set your shutter speed and let your camera make all of the other decisions like aperture and ISO. This mode would be good to use if you're trying to show motion, like a car passing by and blurring out. Or just the opposite, it could be set really high so you don't get the blur, maybe for shooting flying birds. Now shooting in manual, aperture priority, or shutter priority you still shoot in raw, but most of the other modes your camera puts you into shooting JPEGs. So you might want to take that into consideration before you use them. But some of them are great. For instance, fireworks, soft focus, underwater, background de-focus, water painting effect, fish eye effect, handheld night scene, stars, portrait, panning, panorama, self-portrait. These are just ones I pulled off of my Canon G7XII. They are all self-explanatory, like for shooting fireworks you use the firework mode. For nighttime, you use the hand-held mode. ISO for shooting dark night scenes that are handheld, not on a tripod. Some of these modes will take multiple shots and combine them to give you the best photo. All of these modes are found under the scene setting on my camera and should be under something similar on your camera. So out of all of these, what is the best mode to shoot with? Well, it just depends. It depends on what kind of photographer you are, it depends on what you're shooting, it depends on your experience as a photographer. It just depends on lots of things. But one thing is for sure. You should know the basics first and then experiment with the other ones. So figure out what is best for you and get out there and shoot. So until next time, get out and shoot!
 Max Stansell Photography
Hey everyone! Hope ya'll are doing well and are healthy and safe. What's up with the title this week, "Photographers Are the Ultimate Scavenger Hunters"? Well this again might just be a me thing. But I think that to be a good photographer you need to be able to pick out subjects or scenes out of your larger field of view. In my real job I commute to a lot to different towns and places and do quite a bit of driving. But while I'm doing that I'm framing different shots as I go with my eyes. And it's not just when I'm driving. I do it all of the time. Looking for leading lines, putting the subject of whatever I'm looking at on the 1/3 line. I think photographers as a whole tend to see in photographs. At least I do. I think it's a lot like a scavenger hunt, looking for different things in everyday scenes to pick out and shoot.
Have you ever done a photographic scavenger hunt? It's pretty fun. You and some friends or maybe your camera club can do this. You don't need fancy equipment or a camera. A phone will do. Then make a list of things to find or shoot. Maybe a portrait of a stranger, shoot through
 Goldsboro Fire House
something, a pair of something, you get the picture. LOL Then just set up a time frame, maybe a couple of hours, and the location it will be shot like downtown. Then everyone goes off in a different direction looking for the items on the list. After everyone is done you can get together and compare, and you will be surprised of all of the different photos you will have for the same subject. It's pretty fun and you can see how other people see things also.
When you're taking a trip with the family and you have a long car ride, look around and see what kind of photos you can take with just your eyes. It doesn't have to be a grand photo, but maybe an opening through a fence or maybe a horse grazing in a field. Work the scene with your eyes and your mind's eye on how you would frame up the subject and how it would look in the end. You can do this in a split second. Then move to the next thing, a farm house sitting on a hill. Man on a bicycle. Just keep going. What your are doing is getting your photographic eye in shape, putting it through a workout if you will. So the next time you're out with your camera, your photographic eye takes over and you only see in pictures and photographs. And you can quickly pick out the important things in a scene without struggling for a composition. Like anything it takes lots of practice, but it will help you in the long run. You might even see something that you just can't pass up and have to stop that car and make the shot that you've seen.
 Cotton Sail HotelCotton Sail Hotel, Savannah Ga on River St.
Another way to develop your photographic eye is to look at others' photographs. Looking at sites like Flickr, 500px, and Instagram can help you improve your mind's eye. Other people post photographs that are their best ones or they wouldn't have posted them, and looking at these over and over again will help you develop the way you look at things and the way that you want to see things. So be a scavenger and look at as many things as you can as a photographer to develop your photographic eye. Try to pick other photographers' photographs apart, try to see what they saw and how they took the photograph to improve your own.
Well that's enough for this topic. Until next week keep shooting and get outside!
Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is healthy and safe. Photographers are tearing up the landscapes we love. With the growing popularity of photography and landscape photography, new photographers are going to the places we love to get their selfies, tearing up the landscape as they go. The popularity of social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and such are having people in hoards going to our national and state parks, and that's a good thing if they follow the simple rule to take only photos and leave only footprints. But many are wandering off of the beaten trail and leaving behind trash, and the sheer number of people can trample our beloved special places, all to get likes or followers on social media! There is a right way and a wrong way to do things when you're out in nature, and this blog will cover some of the basic principles of "Leave No Trace."
Leave No Trace has been around for years and isn't just a politically correct statement that is popular. I was
taught this in Scouts 50 years ago. Outdoor enthusiasts have been practicing this for years, but with the onslaught of the internet, we have brought new people to the wilderness that haven't ever strayed from their local Starbucks. But now, because they saw a post on Instagram, they just had to have a selfie at Mesa Arch. According to the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, there are seven principles to Leave No Trace. They are:
1. Plan ahead and prepare.
2. Travel on durable surfaces.
3. Dispose of waste properly.
4. Leave what you find.
5. Minimize campfire impacts.
6. Respect wildlife.
7. Be considerate of others.
Do all of these really relate to a day photography trip? Most of them do. We were given a great gift with the national parks and forests and the state parks and nature reserves. We need to be stewards of the land that was given to us so we can give it and its natural beauty to the ones that follow us in the future. If we don't they could be gone forever, and our grandchildren and their grandchildren will never know the beauty of our great nation. Forest rangers aren't there to pick up after us like we are at a hotel. That's not their job. It's yours and mine! So let's go through the principles from a photographer's perspective.
1. Plan and prepare ahead of time. If you're going to the wilderness, look for trail maps and find out the rules of the place you're going to. There may be special rules in the area to protect some species of plant or wildlife that you don't know about. 2. Travel on durable surfaces. That means stay on the trail making the least amount of impact as possible to the environment. With the amount of people going into the wilderness areas now, this is especially important. We don't want to trample the area like a herd of elephants. This is a big one. 3. Dispose of waste properly! I have been five miles off the beaten path in the middle of the Smokeys and found a gum wrapper! Haul all of your trash with you out of an area. If you eat a power bar, take the wrapper with you when you leave. I won't even get into what backpackers do when they have to use the bathroom in the wilderness. Just take your trash out, please. 4. Leave what you find. Don't take anything natural out of the park for a souvenir. By doing so you're stealing the beauty from the park. Leave it for someone else. Don't take plants out of the parks. You could be spreading diseased plants and accidentally spread it to your house. Leave them, please. 5. Respect wildlife. Give them plenty of space. Bears, elk, moose, snakes, and all kinds of critters need their space. Remember, you're in their house, so respect their house. Give them the distance they deserve and they will most likely leave you alone. 6. Be considerate of others. We all want to see the beauty of the forest or natural wildlife scene. Don't ruin it for others by carving your initials into a tree for everyone to see. Nobody wants to see it. Remember, the place that you are in is fragile and must be cared for so others will enjoy it also. 7. And lastly I don't think there is any reason to talk about campfires, but if you do have one, follow all of the rules where you are at. You don't want to start a forest fire.
Common sense is what's needed here. Do unto others and all of that. I know of a lot of famous
photographers who do not give the location of where they got the great shots and scenes from just for the reason that the masses will come and destroy them. Nick Page, a pretty popular photographer, puts Mesa Arch on all of his photographs just so people won't go to where he photographed them. Not because he wants to keep the place for himself, but because he wants to protect them. I don't go to that extreme. However, if I'm at a tourist location, I'll give the name, say, the Wright Brothers Memorial. But if I'm not and I think that the place is fragile, I'll just put North Carolina for the location. Not that I'm popular and people are looking, but just in case someone wants to go to that place they will have to do the research to find it and maybe that will keep them from trashing it.
Well, that's pretty much it for this topic. Please take care of the land. There isn't any really being made at the moment, so we must take care of what we have. Until next week, keep shooting and get outside!
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