Jeff Smallwood Photography
4 posts from February 2012     [clear date filter]
Dawn Is Worth More Than 98¢
Feb 29, 2012
I left the house in the dark in order to make it down to the end of Ocean City and get to the pier before the first light of day. For anyone that's been to Ocean City, MD, you know the main drag along the coast is packed with cars, people, shops, lights, hotels, motels, and marquees for over a hundred blocks in the summer. This early winter morning I passed exactly two cars on the entire stretch, from Delaware to the southern inlet...two cars!
On An Old Country Road
Feb 16, 2012
I was wandering south from Moorefied, WV toward Spruce Knob (the highest peak in WV and in the Allegheny mountains). Traveling alone provides a level of freedom you don't usually get (or at least I don't usually get), so I took numerous little detours as I drove, letting my eyes and heart direct me where to go. Where Rt 220 crosses the South Branch of the Potomac River, a little country road on the right caught my eye.
Stay Focused and Don't Look Away
Feb 11, 2012
Hanging out under this pier for sunrise created so many opportunities to shoot. It was a little frantic because I had numerous options and ideas coming to mind. I tried shooting from far back and up close, super wide angle and telephoto, underneath, from the side, with the sun and without, long exposures and short. You name it, I was scrambling to try 'em all
Break Through the Funk
Feb 7, 2012
I've been going through a period lately where I thought everything I took was crap. I was struggling to keep my eye and produce any shots I felt really confident about. A lot of scenes I was shooting just felt like lost opportunities once I looked at the results. In the past my reaction to feeling like this has been to back away, keep the camera out of sight and not push it. This worked before by allowing the creativity to come back on its own but I've never felt very positive about that approach.