Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great New Year so far. This week I want to talk about a tradition that I and my photography wingman Robert have been doing the last 6 years or so.  It's to capture the first light of the new year. Each year we try to capture something different from the highest point on the east coat (Mount Mitchell) to the coat at Carolina Beach. We attempted a shoot from the rooftop of a hotel in Charlotte NC but the weather really got us there. But each year we go out and shoot something different. This year was no different. We were planning to go to Florida to shoot Saint Augustine but that plan kind of fell through so this year we decided to stay fairly local and shoot first light through a swamp.  Living in eastern North Carolina finding a swamp is very easy as they are very abundant. But which one. We decided to go to a state park that we had visited before a few years ago. Merchants Millpond State Park in the north eastern part of the North Carolina.

Merchants Millpond State Park- From where we live to the park is about a 2 1/2 hour drive so we had to leave early. So we planned a departure for 4 AM. Kind of early even for me. Now I really haven't shot anything lately but a Christmas parade I had to get my gear ready for the shoot. You know format SD cards, Charge batteries, Clean gear. It also has been kind of cold the last couple of weeks and (Max doesn't like to get cold) so I packed up some cold weather gear to include insulated coveralls, gloves , neck gator, and some electric hand warmers and stocking cap. So we met at Roberts house and headed out into the darkness.  GPS set and on our way. When driving in the dark everything seems to look the same so nothing really to see but we did have lively conversation like always. When driving in this situation we are always on the lookout for deer. I have hit a couple in my travels in years past and we even had a camera club member hit one on the way back from a night shoot on the coast. We saw a few and even had to take some evasive action to miss one of them but we made it to our destination with no problems. When we got there we noticed that the gates were locked keeping us out of the parking lots that we wanted park. They didn't open up until 8am which would be too late for us. So we found a parking spot outside of the park and hiked in. Hiking in the dark with headlamps on wasn't too bad and neither of us old guys fell down. We found our spot and waited for the sun to show itself. 

The Shoot. To me shooting sunrises is all about the before the sun breaks the horizon and right at the breach so you can get stardust. Of course using a tripod because of the low light in the beginning. But after a while you will have enough light to get the camera off of the tripod.  I brought 3 lenses with me but mostly used the 20-70mm but also used 70-300 and a 16-35mm. We had some cloud cover that when the sun is below the horizon really gives color to the clouds and we had some great reds and oranges in the beginning. After a while we decided to change our position to another location to capture the sun breaking the horizon. Of course there were trees in the horizon so not as prolific as say at the beach shot but still very good. We shot for about an hour or so and then headed out to get some breakfast and on the way home.  All in all it was a great shoot and lots of fun. 

This is a great tradition that Robert and I have started and maybe you should try to start also. It's a great way to start your photography year. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out some more of my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Video by Robert O'Sullivan

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! We are in the middle of the holidays as I am writing this blog so lots of activities and holiday stuff is going on.  I  have been working on the van and the Roof work and for now is almost complete. (Solar Panel may be going up later) This part of the build is the scariest for me . The build is going to be done in stages. Stage one Electrical, Stage two bed frame, Stage 3 Roof work, Stage 4 floor, Stage 5 Cabinets , Stage 6 Galley and the last and final stage will be the most fun taking it out and testing. Modifications will go on for ever as I find new products or gadgets that will make things easier. Right now I'm in Stage 3. Roof work. 

Roof Work entails installing Exhaust Fan and installing Air Conditioning for the back half of the van. When I say back half I mean where the bed, galley and the living area. (camper part) Most everything in the camper part of the van will be 12 volt and run off of battery power separate from the van's main battery for the engine. The scary part about installing the exhaust fan and AC is that I have to cut a hole in the top of my new van. Yikes!!! And I have to get up on top of the van to do it. I needed some help for this portion of the install so my son was my helper. Step one was the Exhaust Fan install. I started with the easiest first. Now I have studied and watched many YouTube videos on how to install the fan so I was pretty confident on the "how to" part of it now was just the "doing" part left. I have been waiting for good weather. Well I must say that the install of the fan went without a hitch and turned out pretty well. After you poke a hole in the roof there is no going back. LOL We were finished in a few hours and the next day I finished all of the insulation reinstall on the inside of the van around the fan and run the power wires to the fuse panel it turned out great. Next was the AC unit. It is much heaver than the exhaust fan and help was definitely needed in getting this unit on the roof. But as before being well prepared and having everything ready was the key. I had to do some prep work on the AC before it went in . It comes with a external electrical cord that I would have to put another hole in the van which I didn't want to do so I rerouted the power through the return duct in the same hole as the AC unit and it worked out great. Then the big question will it fit under my carport! The total hight of the Van empty is 9 foot 2 inches to the top of the AC unit. The clearance of my carport is 9 foot and 3ish inches. It just made the clearance. But this is the tallest the van will be with gear and all loaded down the van will squat a little giving me even more clearance. But it's close when empty. LOL The next day I did all of the inside work. Routing and securing the power cord , Re-insulating the roof around the AC. Then there was re installing the ceiling . To do this I had to cut holes that match where the holes were for the new AC and exhaust fan. To do this I made a cardboard template with the hole in it and transferred that to the ceiling. The ceiling is about 3/8 inch corrugated plastic which is very tough and heavy and awkward to handle. So I made a couple of braces to hold it up as I secured it to the roof of the van. After some struggling I got the ceiling in place and secured it. Then there was just the trim pieces on the AC and the Exhaust Fan to go back in. 

It actually turned out better than I thought and I am very pleased and glad that I am through with this phase of the build which I consider the most difficult and scary. If everything goes as well as this part did I should have no problems meeting my Spring deadline of having this van complete and ready for adventure. The next phase will be the floor installation. Until then wish me luck! And Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great Holiday season. It's the end of the year and there are certain things I think that every Photographer should do to end this year and begin the next year on the right foot. Now I'm a very organized person and this stuff might not apply to you as it does to me. Planning the next years activities and trips is crucial to having a successful year. And reviewing the previous year can help in figuring what went wrong and what went right with projects or trips.  

Reviewing things that went right in your last year project and trips. Did they go as planned? Were the plans you made good did they have enough detail or too much? Was there enough time to complete? Was it fun? Because most of all Photography and the things we do with it should be fun! Thats why we do it. Take a good honest look at how your year went. Did you get good winners? Last year I had a couple of good winners but not as many as years past. Why? Maybe it was the subjects I was shooting. Maybe I wasn't as inspired. Maybe I just wasn't holding my tongue right. There could be many reasons but be honest and figure it out so you do better next year. Start planning for next year by setting up projects and trips. I hope to have my Van finished by spring and taking it out on trips with my wife and Forrest the wonder dog is a definite thing I will do. Taking some small maybe week or so trips and then maybe a larger one out west that would be cool!  I want to finish my Small Towns project that I started this year but for some reason or another didn't finish. So that can be a weekly small trips. I'm looking at doing maybe a small bike packing trip also that will produce some photography or at least a good video. I think bike riding and video kind of go hand in hand. Then there is the photography Club stuff that I will be doing. As one of the officers of the club I tend to get volunteered to do some sort of presentation or two during the year. Then there is this blog that keeps me thinking and writing about photography.  Last but not least there is my Film Photography that I am still working on. I had this on last year's list and still didn't do anything.  This year I want to concentrate on medium format photography with my Bronica ETR SI 645 film camera that I have. So I have lots to do and plan for this year.

Some other maintenance things that I think photographers should do. First I think that you should check the Firmware updates on all of the camera equipment that you have. From Camera Bodies to Lenses and even some flash heads you can check and maybe upgrade the firmware.  Another maintenance item to do is to change the copyright year on the metadata on your camera if your are doing it in camera or in software like Lightroom. This is easy to do but also easy to forget. So at the first of the year make sure you change the year. What about updating your inventory of your camera equipment? Keeping this up to date and sent to your insurance company can be critical if you break something but it's not on the list of items you insured. So it's a great time to do an inventory not only for insurance reasons but maybe you have some stuff that you don't need anymore and can sell or maybe you have some stuff to upgrade. The biggest item I need to upgrade is my Laptop. Although I use a MacMini desktop computer for most of my editing stuff my laptop is almost obsolete because of age and not being able to keep up with newer operating systems and software. I have been using an iPad for mobile editing and it works good but I may need a newer laptop to run Photography meetings and it would be much easer on trips than my iPad. So that's one thing I'm thinking about upgrading this year. I'm down to a couple of models of MacBooks but haven't decided yet but I'm sure it won't be long before I'm writing a blog about my new MacBook.

Well I have rambled on enough. The point of all of this is to plan your year and get ready so all you have to do is start shooting. The less you have to figure out the more energy you can put towards your photography. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out some more of my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link