Scott Fillmer » fall

The Sunset is Just an Amazing Display of God in Creation

Scott Fillmer — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:41:41 +0000

We have had a stormy few days leading up to Christmas this year, with some really weird warmer weather. I took this photo above yesterday with my cell phone as I was walking across the pasture to my house. I had forgotten something at my house that I needed to fix my mom’s computer, and literally as I was walking, I decided to take a few shots of sun through the clouds with my phone. I’m always amazed at the beauty that is before us all the time, but because we see it every day, day in and day out, we forget it’s there, or fail to recognize it’s beauty.

Of course this is no accident, and we are told over and over again that this display, the very display we can now capture on a phone, shows the existence of God to us all, and therefore, we are without excuse to say we have never known God to be real, to have shown his beauty to all of us.

This is what David says in Psalm 19.1-6 where he said

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork… in them, he has set a tent for the sun… its rising is from the end of the heavens… and there is nothing hidden from its heat

and again, what Paul says in Romans 1.20

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

I have seen photos taken by Hubble that truly astound and boggle the mind, but sometimes we only have to go as far as to look around us, because God has displayed himself everywhere in His creation, from the Orion Nebula to our own backyard.

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Reflections on the Grey Days of Fall in the South :: Friday Feet

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:39:03 +0000

We can’t seem to escape from these cloudy grey days down here, but it could be far worse, we could be somewhere farther north where it’s got to be colder. My Friday Feet today came from an impromptu photowalk around my the block, so to speak. I was taking a very needed break from writing one of three research papers that are due by next Friday.

One of the subjects of photography I have always loved to look for are reflections. Reflections are one of the more rarely photographed views basically because you have to search them out, and then try to make the subject useable. Reflections are everywhere, and they look great when they show up naturally. We have a small pond in the back of our place that has very little water in it right now, and consequently, it’s very black and still.

As I walked around the property I found a great combination, and created the shot below of me with my iPhone. There isn’t any special filters or photoshopping done to the image below, just a little boost to the contrast to bring out the leaves (see exif metadata here). The reflection of myself comes from the water, just like the trees above my head. The color and texture comes from the leaves sitting on the mud bottom of the pond, so the shot is both translucent, and reflective. All shots in this post were taken on my iPhone. Have a great weekend everyone.

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Massive Fog Bank Settles over Our Auburn Trees

Scott Fillmer — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:12:00 +0000

Every year as the seasons change this tree puts on a different face. I’m guessing I have taken 100′s of photos of this one particular tree, and every shot looks different. Today we had a fog-bank cloud descend over the property making visibility a few hundred feet or so giving me this shot. The weather this year just seems freaky, like having 75*F and fog on December 6th, but in a few days it’s supposed to be below freezing. Oh well, that’s the weather in the south.

I know I post random photos on here from time to time but each individual photo I pull out of a shoot is part of a bigger set, and next year, I am actually going to do something I have wanted to do for the better part of 15+ years, and that’s Project 365 as it is so called now. Project 365 is something I will post about more later, but basically that is a project that refers to taking and posting one photo a day for 365 days. I know, sounds simple. Ever tried it? Maybe 2012 will be the year.

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Time For Chopping and Splitting Wood :: Friday Feet

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:00:31 +0000

That cold-ish time of year has come again, even down here in the south. On Wednesday it was almost 80*F, and now it looks like all that warm air is gone for now. One of the things we love about our house in the winter is our Lopi wood burning stove, but it takes a lot of wood too. Normally we cut and split wood all throughout the year, but the past year or two we haven’t really been able to catch up with the wood work so to speak. With all the trees down from the storm on Wednesday it’s too bad we couldn’t have just driven around Auburn and picked up all the wood, but instead I just cut my own up for today’s Friday Feet via my cell phone.

It was a little surreal driving around Auburn today in the sunshine seeing huge holes in people’s roofs, and massive trees down all over the place. I know there are still a lot of people in Auburn that are dealing with huge trees down on their property, and many with a lot of damage to their homes. Hopefully this will be the end of any more tornados for Alabama this year, this state has seen enough for 2011.

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No Refunds in Auburn for City Schools Fall Festival :: Friday Feet

Scott Fillmer — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:35:32 +0000

I’m playing catchup today with some photos I took earlier in the week. My countdown clock to Uganda (we leave on Wednesday) is running faster than a normal clock it seems and I didn’t get a chance to post these Tuesday night after the festival. So, today’s Friday Feet comes from the Auburn City School Fall Festival that took place on Tuesday, but the feet shot above was just way to cute not to use for today’s post. Each year the Auburn city school system gathers at Duck Samford park in Auburn for their fall festival, and this year I was asked to take some photos of the opening band, called No Refunds. The youth have a great band and it was a lot of fun to listen to them play on Tuesday night.

Below is a shot of each of the band members from No Refunds. No that the fall festival is over we could use some actual fall weather.

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2011 Auburn Football Starts My 40th Season :: 5 Photo Outtakes

Scott Fillmer — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:45:48 +0000

Well I know we all know down here in the south that the 2011 football season is only a few days away, but after seeing so much posted on the internet about Auburn’s upcoming season I had to go back and look at the last 5 years or so and revisit what I shot through all those games. Every football season is so completely different from the year before, and last year for Auburn was the dream season for those of us who have followed Auburn football for 40 years (like me).

This season will actually be the start of the 40th year of my involvement in Auburn football as a fan. I don’t even know why that is significant in the scheme of things but it just occurred to me as I started looking through all the years of Auburn football images I have now compiled as a photographer and a fan. I was born the day after the Auburn vs Alabama football game in 1970, the last game of the season. Auburn won that game 33-28 at Legion Field in Birmingham. Apparently the only photographer at the game that day was Tod Papageorge, this was about the only image I could find from 1970 but if I can find one of my family from that game I’ll post it tomorrow for Throwback Thursday. Over the next 15 YEARS Auburn would go on to lose the Iron Bowl 12 times going into the mid-80′s when Bo Jackson would then step on the scene. The one historical event coming in 1972 with the “Punt Bama Punt” game where Auburn won 17-16.

Below are outtakes from the last five years. One shot from each season, starting with Gene Chizik going through Tiger Walk from 2010 down to 2006 when we were on the field for pre-game warmup. These are shots that never made it to my blog or use anywhere else, just a few random shots I found from the last five years. Can’t wait for the start of the 2011 season, it’s always a fun time of year down in the south.

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Fall is Fire on the Mountain with Yellow Aspen Leaves

Scott Fillmer — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:48:51 +0000

Ok, well maybe not here in Auburn, but right now, the Aspen groves of the Rockies are ablaze with color. After flipping back over some fall photos of the last few years I came across this one, taken at this exact time of year, but at the 11,000 foot range in the Rockies. You can’t see the glorious fall colors that surround these tall pines from the photo, but at the time, it was about 40*F outside and the entire surrounding area was full of yellow aspen trees, like the one shown below. Fall has to be one of my favorite times of year, almost as much color in the fall (if you look closely) as there is in Spring.

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Pictorial History of a Tree in Year Long Time Lapse

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:23:54 +0000

This is not a true time lapse as we might think about today, but, a sequence of shots, taken over time, of the same subject. We have this great tree back behind our house and I usually take photos of it as the seasons change and I have been wanting to write one single post with all of the photos together to see how one single spot can change over time. Below is where I sit in the summer and read, contemplate life, and view from the house in the winter and rain. I love the warm open feeling it gives in Spring or Summer and the uninviting look of winter. As the days count down for our departure to Virginia, this is one spot I am going to miss while we are gone.

The original posts that came from this photos can be found here:

Below is are some of the photos from the posts above.

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Another Beautiful and Colorful Fall Day in Alabama

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:13:11 +0000

What a difference just a few days makes in the fall. This is what our tree (and swing) looked like this afternoon. Compare that to this Fall Has Finally Arrived in Alabama, and My Swing Loves It, taken just a few days ago.

It was a totally different time of day of course, but the colors have changed dramatically, and many of the leaves have started to fall off the trees. I don’t remember this tree turning colors like this last year but as the years click off each fall probably looks more colorful to me. How were your fall colors this year?

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How To Do a Photo Walk in the Backyard with Creativity

Scott Fillmer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:04:32 +0000

Have you ever heard of a photo walk? A photo walk is very simple. Usually a group, consisting of a walk leader (usually an advanced or pro photographer) and those interested in participating in the photo walk. You choose a location that can be walked in a certain time frame and then you shoot what you come across and interests you photographically in the walk. An example of the results can be seen at the DPS Las Vegas photo walk which took place during the BlogWorldExpo in September.

They can take place anywhere you want to have a few photographers get together and pound the pavement (or dirt) to get those creative minds moving. For a photo walk tutorial or more information on how they are generally done, see 10 Tips For A Great Photowalk. This basically is what I did for 2 years at UAB while I was studing photography. We would just go out and shoot at a predetermined location and all look at the results the following class.

There are a few differences but it now has a fancy name, and we have things like blogs that can be used for show-and-tell. Whatever you want to call it, it is always a good learning process and helps open your eyes to what interesting photographic elements are around us all the time.

My Own Photo Walk in the Backyard

With all that said, you can always do a photowalk in your own backyard. I have done this for many many years and it doesn’t matter if you live in a high rise in NYC or on a farm in Alabama. There is always something you can call your backyard, even if it is the MARTA station outside your house or office in Atlanta (or MTA station if you are in NYC).

I try to get in a little exercise each day, so I usually walk in my backyard but now that the sun is setting around 4:30pm each day, I have to get out there a little earlier to be able to see where I am going. Yesterday I decided to take my camera bag with me and do a fast photo walk before the sun went down. I really only had time for two different shots.

First I came across this swarm of gnats flying through the setting sun. Have any of your photographer out there tried to get a acceptable shot of a swarm of gnats? Wasn’t as easy I had initially thought, but the second shot above was the result. This was shot hand held in manual everything. At least the wash of sun gave me some good color on the fall leaves in the background.

Next I came across this feather that was stuck in the barbed wire fence that runs along the length of our property. Probably something I walked by every day and just never noticed. One of my most favorite types of photography is marco photography (or closeup), so I took out my macro lens and shot the first image above as the sun had set. The sun was all but gone at this point so depth of field was interesting to preview, but it was an image I walked by every day and never noticed until I did the photo walk.

By the way, for those writers or painters out there it works the same way. Just take your canvas or journal and get out of your office or normal environment and see how creative you can be by changing your surroundings.

Any time you think there is nothing to shoot, just try taking a photo walk in your backyard. You might be surprised by the results. Anyone else tried this?