blog | photography by David Kennedy » Picture Story

Draft One: Columbia’s MKT Nature and Fitness Trail

David — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:49:30 +0000

MKT Trail (Draft One) from David Kennedy. (Note: video defaults to 1080P playback, so if it loads too slowly, turn HD off)

This morning I showed my Picture Story class what is really my first draft of a video and photographic essay the MKT Nature and Fitness Trail in Columbia, Mo. The nine-mile trail connects to the state-wide Katy Trail in McBaine, Mo.

This is in rough form, unfortunately, because the past couple of weeks have been consumed by my proposed project to fulfill the requirements of the M.A. program here at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Before I begin work on that project, which will take me back to Lake Michigan, I will be working to improve this essay. Foremost, I plan to speak with Brett Dufur, author of The Complete Katy Trail Guidebook, as well as Columbia’s former mayor, Darwin Hindman, who was a champion of projects like the MKT Trail and Stephens Lake Park.

That said, if you have any other suggestions for people to talk to whose voice would strengthen this piece, I am all ears, so to speak!

Bridge over the Flat Branch Creek

David — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:00:38 +0000

Bridge over the Flat Branch Creek | Canon 5D Mk. II and 16-35mm f/2.8 II lens @ 16mm; exposed 1/5 sec. @ f/8, ISO 400.

One more landscape before I post the first draft (well, what will be the “final” for my Picture Story class) of my essay on the MKT Trail on Thursday.

Why I should have worn quick-dry pants…

David — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:31:54 +0000

Flat Branch Creek, MKT Trail, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens; exposed 2.5 seconds @ f/18, ISO 100.

I was out this evening, working on some more pictures and video for my project on the MKT Trail that runs through Columbia, Mo. and connects to the Katy Trail in McBaine, Mo. I’ve been meaning to get into the creek beds, and wore quick-dry pants and sandals with that purpose in mind the other day, but wound up staying dry because many of the creeks are precarious to get down to when you’re laden with camera gear.

Today, however, while walking along a stretch of the trail near the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Garden off of Stadium Boulevard, I found great access down to Flat Branch Creek. Now, my jeans are hanging up to dry, because the only way to get an appropriately low angle was to kneel down behind my tripod, which was only inches above the running water.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Unintentional-turned-Intentional Blur on the MKT Trail

David — Sat, 08 May 2010 20:50:07 +0000

Panning blur, MKT Trail, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 7D and 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens; exposed 1/6 sec. @ f/8, ISO 400.

Yesterday, while gathering some video and making images of the “real” nature offered to the people of Columbia along the MKT Trail (vis-a-vis the artificial nature at Stephens Lake Park), I made an unintentional panning blur. Hand-held. And it didn’t suck. As Artie Morris would say, “you gotta love it!”

Normally, the trick to and panning blur is to have the camera on a tripod and to slowly pan downwards. This is hard to do on a ball head, but easy to do if you have a big lens mounted on a Wimberley or other gimbal-style head, or if you’re using a video head.

Usually, the hardest part is going slowly enough on the pan that you get the effect that you want, but not so slow that it just looks out of focus! Start with a shutter speed of 1/15 second and slow down from there. In this example, my exposure compensation in aperture priority brought me to 1/6 sec. before I even realized it–I just heard the slow shutter and cursed under my breath. Only when I looked at it did I jump for joy. Then I tried making more blurs, and they all failed! Again, you gotta love it.

Broadway: Is it Finished?

David — Sun, 02 May 2010 00:56:04 +0000

Stephens Lake Park: A Green Oasis on Broadway from David Kennedy on Vimeo.

Well, just when you think you’re finished with something, people remind you that you aren’t. Yesterday, while I was choking on the seeds in some home-made bread, my picture story class attempted to watch the last draft of my essay on Stephens Lake Park. I say that they attempted to do so because, as much as I love my hosting provider (BlueHost), I don’t have access to a streaming server, and the process of loading the minute and a half video took close to ten minutes. Yikes.

A lot of people in my program have been posting their final videos on the hosting service Vimeo. For a while, I didn’t understand why: the video is great, yes, but there are ads for Vimeo all over it, and the only way to watch the videos in High Definition is on their Web site–it cannot be embedded. No one told me an account where you don’t have to deal with any of its (few) shortcomings was available for only $60 for a year!

In any event, I received some very good feedback, particularly from David Rees, Calin Ilea, Lillian Kelly, and Vivian Esparza. While I’m fine with other people introducing textual information into their documentary presentations using “text slides”–black slides with white text–I’m usually trying to avoid it for my own work. However, with some healthy dialogue and also a touch of arm twisting, I was convinced that the introductory sequences of the video needed to be changed. I think that this is, finally, “it” for the Stephens Lake Park piece.

Breaking Bread

David — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:57:13 +0000

Bread from Colin Spitler, before we dove in... | Olympus PEN EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/100 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400.

Fellow Picture Story and Photographic Essay student Colin Spitler, who is separated from our class by the distance between Missouri and California, sent us a care package with two loaves of bread that he had baked earlier this week. It was very nice to munch our way through our Friday class…until a seed got stuck in my wind pipe. Ouch.

David Rees, with his trusty towel thrown over his shoulder, slices the bread before class begins. He said that he always cooks with a towel. | Olympus PEN EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/40 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400.

Rediscovering the world of the small

David — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:00:21 +0000

Violet Wood Sorrell (Oxalis violacea), MKT Trail, Columbia, Mo. | Nikon D700 and 105mm f/2.8 G ED Micro Nikkor lens; exposed 1/125 sec. @ f/3.5, ISO 800, hand-held.

Over sixteen years ago, when my dad put a camera in my hands, I began to explore the world of the small. Macro photography continues to be one of his specialties, but it’s something that I didn’t feel that I had the patience for. At the time, I was right. Who knows, that still may be true to some extent–I was hand-holding, after all–but as I begin the process of bridging documentary photojournalism with nature photography, a need to enlarge the world of the small has arisen.

In another day or two, I should have a new Canon 100mm macro lens, but in the mean time, I am working with one of the university’s Nikon D700 bodies and a Nikon 105mm macro lens for the close-ups for on a new project on the MKT Trail. The trail runs through Columbia, Mo. to McBaine, and then connects to the Katy Trail–a large trail that runs where the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railway used to have its tracks. While it is conceptually similar to the piece I made on Stephens Lake Park, it is because I remain curious how people in urban environments connect back to nature. For some of them, parks and trails may be the closest they ever come to experiencing something truly “wild.”

FINAL: Stephens Lake Park – A Green Oasis on Broadway

David — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:00:57 +0000

While I was “officially” finished with my contribution to the class’ Broadway project on Wednesday when I turned into my professor, David Rees, a disc with my “second draft” of the video, I was still not quite satisfied with it. The timing of a few things was still off.

On Thursday, I posted a third version of the video, and received some more feedback from it both in person and through a comment on the post, and took those into consideration. I was also unhappy with the color of certain clips in the video, and adjusted those within Adobe Premiere. Finally, I went back to Stephens Lake Park for one more “walk around,” which was also my last opportunity to experiment with the Canon 35mm f/1.4L lens. The result is a little tighter, with better matching between audio and visual components.

I consider this a finished piece, but am still more than happy to hear comments and suggestions.

Content © 2010 David Kennedy | View Original Post | 4 comments | Filed under Broadway Project, Picture Story | Tags: Broadway Project, Canon 35mm 1.4L, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 7D, Stephens Lake Park, video