Work and Success

The only place that success is before work is in the dictionary.
--John Wooden (b.1910) UCLA Head Basketball Coach from 1948-75

This is a photo of Milligan College senior Tyler Estepp (Limestone, TN) that I took a week or so ago at a game against Bluefield College. Basketball is notoriously a difficult sport to photograph because of its fast pace and usually poor lighting. You need a fast lens (at least f/2.8), a high ISO (800+), and a shutter speed of at least 1/250 sec (preferably faster). You'll want to set your camera to auto focus continuous so the camera will continue to focus as the subject moves through the frame. White balance is always another issue -- gym lights give off their own distinctive colored glow. You can either shoot raw and adjust this later or use a gray card to remove the color cast while shooting. Obviously every court is different, so it takes some experimentation. You can forget using a flash. First, it's a distraction and many teams won't allow them, and second, the court is huge and the reach of the flash is limited.

I've recently been reading an excellent book on photographic composition and design by Michael Freeman entitled "The Photographer's Eye." It's very well written with lots of wonderful images. I highly recommend it if you love photography -- you'll never look at a photo the same again! As I was sorting through the photos from the basketball game, this photo stood out because it illustrates some basic aspects of composition I had been reading about. For example, I noticed how Tyler is framed by two arms and by the curved bodies of his two defenders -- frames draw attention to whatever they enclose, while curves convey a sense of flow and smoothness. Next, I noticed what the author calls 'eye lines' - the viewer is automatically drawn to the eyes and then follows to see where each subject is looking -- notice the way in which #22 is looking at #42 draws your attention to #42. I recommend this book if you want to understand and articulate what makes an image compelling -- which will then help you make stronger, more effective, more successful photos. (And isn't that what we're all working for?!)

Photo Details: Nikon D90, Tamron 28-75mm lens at 55mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec., ISO 1600.

Fly Poison

The North American Wildlife guide contains the following words of wisdom, "It is a rule of survival among hikers and campers to eat no wild plant that looks like an onion but does not smell like one. This...species is one good reason why." Also known as Stagger Grass or Fall Poison, Fly Poison is extremely poisonous -- livestock and people have died from eating this plant -- care should be taken to avoid contact altogether. The name derives from its use as an insecticide by early colonists, who would smash the root bulb and then mix in sugar to create a fly bait.

There are lots of guidebooks out there for identifying birds, bugs, trees, plants, and insects. The one that has proven the most helpful to me is the Reader's Digest guide to North American Wildlife. While there's no way that a single volume can cover every species of plant and animal, I have found it helpful in narrowing down the choices and getting me started. It's logically organized and beautifully illustrated. I have the 1982 edition (which is the exact same as the so-called "updated" edition) which can be bought used via Amazon for 1 cent!

The Limestone Cove Tragedy

A historical marker in Unicoi County marks the site of a bloody incident that speaks volumes about the impact of the Civil War on upper east Tennessee. It's easy to assume that since Tennessee was among the eleven Confederate States that all residents of Tennessee at that time supported secession and the Confederate cause. But the history of this region is much more complicated that simply drawing a line north and south. My first recognition of this came when I was still living in Illinois ("The Land of Lincoln") and read about a small college called Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN. Strange, I thought, a college in the South named for the Great Emancipator. Upon moving to to east Tennessee, I found it fascinating that most cities in the area had a "Union Street" and a "Lincoln Street." When I asked local folks about this, they said that east Tennessee was pro-Union during the war. And while that is true, it's also an over generalization.

One hundred and forty five years ago, the Limestone Cove Massacre occurred in what is now Unicoi County (it was created from parts of Washington and Carter Counties in 1875). The site of the massacre was the Bell house, which originally stood across the road from the Bell Cemetery. A 1903 book entitled History of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry describes the incident in all its gory detail. The Bell family is said to have been well known and respected in Carter County. Yet neighbors led the Confederate troops to this home of Union sympathizers -- and upon finding a house full of men enroute to join the ranks of the Union army, the Confederate troops killed the men and burned down the house. The roadside historical marker at Bell Cemetery gives a brief account...

Limestone Cove Tragedy
Here are buried the eight civilians killed at the home of Dr. David Bell in Nov 1863. Enroute to Kentucky to join Federal Forces, they were found by a detachment of Col. W. A. Witcher’s Confederate Cavalry, while waiting for breakfast. They were: B. Blackburn, Calvin Cantrel, Elijah Gentry, Jacob Lyons, Wiley Royal, John Sparks and two unknown. Buried nearby is Dr. Bell's brother, James killed at the same time.

Be who you is...

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end of life.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish author

This quote reminds me of advice author Brennan Manning gave in his classic "The Ragamuffin Gospel"...

One of the wonderful results of my consciousness of God's staggering love for me as I am is a freedom not to be who I should be or who others want me to be. I can be who I really am.

When I get honest, I admit I am is a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.

It is the real me that God loves. I don't have to be anyone else. For 20 years I tried to be brother Teresa. I tried to be Francis of Assisi. I had to be a carbon copy of a great saint rather than the original God intended me to be. My 70-year-old spiritual director, Larry Hine, gave me a word from the Lord that he heard once from a black, evangelical preacher in Georgia. "Be who you is, because if you ain't who you is, you is who you ain't."
--Brennan Manning

Above: A tree near Aunt Willie's Wildflowers, Sullivan County, TN

hope begins in the dark

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
--Anne Lamott (b.1954) American author

I thought I'd try a nighttime photo of the waterfall on Buffalo Creek at the entrance of Milligan College. Based on my recent caving experience (or experiment), I used a flashlight to "paint" the waterfall, bridge and gazebo with light during the fifteen second exposure. A spot light would have helped, but you get the idea!

My introduction to Anne Lamont was through her powerful book Traveling Mercies. She's brutally honest about her issues and hangups, opinionated about everything, and, well, earthy. She makes me uncomfortable. Which is good. Click here to listen to a public radio interview with her. And click here to watch her interview on the Colbert Report.

Stay a while.

Let your heart be broken by the unspeakable bad of this Friday we call good. Stay a while in the eclipse of the light, stay a while with the conquered One. This is the axis mundi, the center upon which the cosmos turns. In this killing that some call senseless we are brought to our senses. Here we find out who we most truly are, because here is the One who is what we are called to be. Stay a while. Do not hurry by the cross on the way to Easter joy, for we know the risen Lord only through Christ and him crucified.--Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Catholic priest and author.
Today's quote is taken from excerpts from Neuhaus' excellent book, Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross. Neuhaus was the editor-in-chief of the monthly journal, "First Things."

The stained glass window above is found in the beautiful St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church in Blowing Rock, NC.

Having confidence when you don't understand

Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.
--Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), minister and author

Late yesterday afternoon, I ventured out to see if Lower Higgins Creek was showing signs of hope. We've had a little bit of rain lately, and I was kinda anxious to get the tripod out of hibernation. Like every creek around here, Lower Higgins was reduced to a trickle this summer and fall. And as you can see, it still has a long ways to go. This photo was taken right at sunset (5:15), so to get the proper exposure, I left the shutter open for eight seconds -- which not only softens the water, but saturates the colors. After this shot, I hurried to hike out of the woods before it turned completely dark.

I love Chamber's definition of faith in the quote above. If you click here, you'll be taken to an online version of Oswald Chamber's devotional classic, My Utmost for His Highest. If you're thinking about New Year's resolutions, walking with Chambers for a year will change your life. But I have to be honest and say that my favorite devotional of all time is Brennan Manning's Reflections for Ragamuffins. I'll try to work in some of his quotes soon.

Our abundance

This flower is some type of aster -- my guess is that it's either Southern Prairie Aster (also known as Tennessee Aster) or Aromatic Aster. You never realize how diverse plant and bug life is until you try to discover their names! For instance, there are 600 species of Asters alone. The best book I've found for identifying flowers is here. Although it's titled Wildflowers of Tennessee it covers the entire Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians.

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
--Epicurus (341-270 BC), Greek philosopher

A radical, restless life

 

Your life is not going to be easy, and it should not be easy. It ought to be hard. It ought to be radical; it ought to be restless; it ought to lead you to places you'd rather not go.--Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), priest and author

This is my favorite quote by my favorite author. Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest, author and professor who left teaching at Harvard to live and minister in a community of mentally and physically handicapped adults. He entered this "small, hidden life" because God called him to seek his healing by living among the broken and poor in spirit. He was a man of tremendous courage, compassion and wisdom. My favorite books of his...The Return of the the Prodigal Son and In the Name of Jesus.

[In this photo, a kayaker on the Nolichucky River in Washington County, TN]

Neon Shroom

If you're singing a Brooks and Dunn song right now, then I'm happy. If you've read the title of this post and still don't know what I'm talking about, just move on. :)

One helpful bit of advice I read is to always be on the look out for color, preferably bright, vivid color. And when you see it STOP. Whether it's a bright red, neon mushroom in the dark forest or a child's bright yellow rain jacket on a gray day or a golden-orange reflection in a mountain stream as the sun sets --when you see vivid color stop and capture it. The trick is to train your eyes to see color. Which sounds crazy. But the truth is that we pass by bright colors everyday without even noticing them. If you really want to wow someone with your photos, nine-times-out-of-ten it will be with a photo that has color that pops.

As far as I can tell, these are "vermilion hygrophorus" mushrooms. There are lots of guidebooks out there for identifying birds, bugs, trees, plants, and insects. The one that has proven the most helpful to me is the Reader's Digest guide to North American Wildlife. While there's no way that a single volume can cover every species of plant and animal, I have found it helpful in narrowing down the choices and getting me started. It's logically organized and beautifully illustrated. I have the 1982 edition (which is the exact same as the "updated" edition) which can be bought used via Amazon for 1 cent!

Linville Falls

Kevin Adams, in his excellent guide "North Carolina Waterfalls," gives Linville Falls a Beauty Rating of 10 out of 10. It's one of the most visited and photographed falls on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Located at mile #316.5 on the parkway, views of the 45 foot tall waterfall can be had from two available trails, an upper trail (Erwin's View Trail) and a lower "plunge basin" trail. The upper trail is the easier of the two -- but is still listed as "moderate" in difficulty. A bridge just past the gift shop/restroom area leads across the Linville River and to your first stop above the falls. From there the path gets more steep but you are rewarded with great views of the falls from Chimney View Overlook and Erwin's View Overlook.

The lower trail or "plunge basin" trail begins to the left of the visitor's center. Eventually the trail will split, the right fork taking you to the 'plunge basin overlook,' and the left fork taking you down to the bottom of the falls, called the 'plunge basin.' This trail is listed as difficult because of its steepness and its difficult footing over roots and rocks. The view is great from any of the overlooks mentioned, but my favorite is the view from the plunge basin (pictured above).

A much smaller waterfall, Dugger's Creek, is located at the end of the parking area and is best viewed in the spring or after a heavy rain.

Click here to see another photo from a different vantage point, and to see a map of the falls.

Click here and here to see more pictures and to read other descriptions of the area.