Blog has begun the move...

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! I am so happy with the interface on my new website that the blog has already moved over there. So now everything is in one place...jeffball.squarespace.com. Eventually earthandskyphoto.com will point to the new website, but I am cleaning up some issues from a site hack. So for now, the squarespace domain is my home. Please visit when you get a chance and check out the new posts with more on the way. Take care and thanks.

New Website Preview

I am getting excited about my new website. I had been searching for a while and I believe I have found what will work very well for me. The site is hosted by squarespace. They provide a template type of input that is configurable in many different ways. The site will also host my blog. So everything will be moving to the new site when it is up and running. Unfortunately, most of this has been the result of a hack on my original website, but the site was in desperate need of an upgrade. The earthandskyphoto.com link is still not active as I had to transfer web hosts, but you can get a glimpse of the site and new blog at jeffball.squarespace.com. I hope you get a chance to check it out. I don't have the galleries active yet as I am building them now. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the site and check back often as I hope to take it live very soon. Take care and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Photographic education

Photographic education never ends. The sources I utilize for continuing education are listed in the links section to the right. Most recently, Charles Cramer provided an update to his Photoshop handbook to his email subscribers for free! Charles is one of, if not the best, photographic instructors in the word today. I owe a great deal of my improvement to his instruction and photographic examples. The update covers a lot of the changes with PS CS4 and there were a lot of changes. I encourage you to visit his website and sign up for his newsletter and to certainly look into taking one of his workshops. I hope to attend one of his Yosemite workshops in the next couple of years myself. One additional note is that I have been working very diligently on the Smoky Mountain portfolio or "folio." This will be an entirely new presentation and one that I really find conducive to my artist vision. I will keep you updated as the folio nears completion. I am expecting the folio to be completed in the next couple of months. Take care and have a great Thanksgiving.

Smoky Mountain Rain

I was hoping for at least one day of rain for atmospheric enhancement on our Smoky Mountain photography trip and boy did we get one. I have more portfolio images from the rainy day than from all others, but I didn't need 1-2 inches of rain, just a mist or a sprinkle would have been just fine. I love the saturation that the rain provides. My gear selection for rain prevention included garbage bags and umbrellas. Many other photographers recommend the garbage bag option as a way to demonstrate frugality. I have now yielded to the more elegant option for rain protection which includes a Kata E-702 camera rain cover from Amazon. I received the unit a few days ago and while I haven't had it out in the elements, it appears to be just what I need. It can cover my 5DMKII with the 24-105 zoom and even the 70-200 f2.8 IS zoom. You can find more information at Amazon or by Googling Kata. This will now be a permanent part of my supplemental bag for those rainy/snowy days. Can't wait to use it on our return Smoky's trip in April!

What a treat!

I don't know why I took so long to take a photographic visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I can tell you that it won't take me long to visit the park again. I returned this past Thursday from 5 wonderful days of landscape photography in the park. The visit exceeded my expectations. There were many wonderful moments of exciting photography from changing lighting conditions, dramatic sunrises, wonderful streams, perfect fall leaves, and wildlife including elk and bear. I love the western U.S. locations, but GSMNP is second to none of these locations and I plan on it becoming a frequent location for me in the future. I have just completed my first work through on the images in Adobe Light Room. I will keep you updated on the progress of the images. My plan is to publish a PDF portfolio of the images within the next few months. Plans are underway for a spring visit in late April 2010.