2016 SuperMoon Pictures

Over the past few days I have taken several photographs of the moon as it made it’s way towards tonight’s SuperMoon status. We were traveling over the weekend in Palm Beach, Florida giving me the opportunity to get a great shot of the moon in a dark sky over the ocean. The photo below was taken Saturday night.

Nikon D800, 70-200mm, ISO 400 1/200 sec @ f/8

This next photograph was taken last night with my iPhone over the Publix back in Atlanta at the Chastain Square Shopping Center. “Don’t forget to dot the ‘b'”. Based on the number of likes it got, I’m not sure many people realized it was the moon above the ‘b’ in Publix.

iPhone

This morning the Sun was not going to be out-shined by the Moon, so it put on it’s own show at sunrise thanks to the haze of smoke covering Atlanta right now due to wildfires in the North Georgia Mountains and the North Carolina Mountains. Here is a picture of the sun this morning as it rose. Typically you wouldn’t be able to get a clear shot like this without glare.

Nikon D800, 28-300mm, ISO 250 1/8000 sec @ f/8

 

Finally this evening the true SuperMoon came along. The day was full of haze, blue skies muffled and gray as the wildfire smoke moved across Atlanta. This evening was no different and I almost abandoned the photo trek all together. Convinced by my friend Lily to try it anyway I headed to Tower Place in Buckhead to see if I could get a good shot with a building in the foreground. It wasn’t happening, at least when I needed it to. Last night it seemed to rise earlier, and tonight I just didn’t have as much time. After walking around for 45 minutes with no moon, I headed back to the car (after being chased down Peachtree Road by a lunatic screaming “come here bitch-ass” at me). I drove closer to Lenox Mall and decided to check out the roof top parking at Pirch above Dick’s Sporting Goods. While it wasn’t a great spot, it did turn out a couple of pictures of a ghostly blood orange moon rising above the trees looking east.

Nikon D800, 70-200mm – ISO 5000 1/13 sec @ f/5.6

It was clearly affected by the haze, and much darker than usual, so I proceeded to head back to Chastain Park to see if I could grab one more picture on the way home. I got several pictures of the SuperMoon as it continued to rise over Chastain Park.

Once I got home I snapped a couple more from the front porch, probably the clearest shots of the night.

Nikon D800, 28-300mm, ISO 800 1/200 sec @ f/6.3

All of these pictures can be seen at http://www.carsonmatthewsphotography.com/Photography/Supermoon-2016/

 

Thanks,

Carson Matthews
www.CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com 

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Sunset Rock Highlands North Carolina

This weekend over Fall Break we made a quick trip up to Highlands North Carolina. On Saturday morning we strolled up to Sunset Rock to get the kids out of the house before lunch. The trail head is located just past Mountain Fresh and only takes about 20 minutes to hike. There is parking across the street from the Highlands Nature Center on Horse Cove Road. Sunset Rock offers a stunning overhead view of the town of Highlands. In the morning the sun behind you provides beautiful light over the town, highlighting the fall colors.

 

Full Res Image on CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com

 

In the evening the sun sets perfectly over Highlands. Below is a picture taken in November of 2015 over Thanksgiving.

 

Full Res Image on CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com

 

Tomatoes and Green Beans

Over the past couple of days I have noticed some of the green beans getting pretty big in the garden. This morning I picked a couple of handfuls of beans and two pretty red tomatoes. Tomorrow night I believe we will be having green beans, tomatoes with basil and a cucumber for dinner!

Stay tuned for more harvesting.

Carson Matthews

Straight Eight Cucumber

After picking a few of the straight eight cucumbers this summer I have realized mine are not going to resemble either of those descriptions. A straight eight cucumber is supposed to be long and straight, about 7-8 inches. The first fruit was really fat and short, and while I waited on it to grow, it turned yellow and became compost food. This time I picked it when it looked about right, just not straight or eight. Here is the picture I got of it. On the right side you can see it oozing from the fresh cut. Click on the image below to see the hi-res version on my website.

Based on some articles online this shape is due to a lack of bees getting their pollinating on. I have definitely noticed a lack of bees this year for some reason or another.

Thanks,

Carson Matthews
www.CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com

Swimming at Chastain Pool

Last weekend we took our new GoPro out for a spin at Chastain Pool. We had a lot of fun trying it out and getting some underwater footage.

 

Carson Matthews

Cat Photography

Cat photography has never been on my radar. I didn’t have a cat growing up and have pretty much been scared of cats my entire adult life. It’s not an unwarranted fear, they really seem to hate me. Showing houses I have had cats just walk up and bite me on the ankle, leap across the room and shred my mls paperwork, just harassing me. They love to be in my face, almost certainly aware of my fear.

Well this week we got a cat. We adopted her from our neighbor who fostered 5 kittens since they were found about two weeks old under a neighbor’s back deck. Her name is Poppy and she is pretty unbelievable! We are 4 days in and everyone in our family is in love with her, including Cody the Goldendoodle who was also adopted about 6 years ago; maybe he feels a connection with her…

I’m excited about the opportunity to photograph her as she grows from a kitten into a cat. Her markings are really beautiful, and something I assume sets every cat apart. One thing I really like are the five stripes down the back of her head and neck. What made her jump out to me at first was her white paws and the white splotch on her chest. We almost named her Boots because of her white paws, but after a slew of name ideas and changes we landed on Poppy. Watching her play around the name really fits her, she loves to pop around chasing her tail, shadow or whatever has her immediate attention.

Check back here to see how her little kitty life evolves, I will do my best to photograph her often. Hi-res images can be seen and purchased at http://www.carsonmatthewsphotography.com/Photography/Pets/

Thanks,

Carson Matthews
Carson Matthews Photography

We’ve Got Fruit

The Matthews back yard garden is starting to produce fruit in the way of tomatoes, cucumbers and squash. Below are some pictures of the progress. We are still waiting on the zucchini and green beans to start fruiting. Not pictured below are the bell peppers which are starting to change from green to red, and now have a purple tone to them.

First Cucumber in the garden

The flowers should stay above the grate with the fruit hanging down below

Cucumber bud

Cucumber flower

Squash

Green Tomato

May-June 2016 Garden Update

Over the past couple of weeks I have added some growing structures for the tomatoes, squash & cucumbers.

I have harvested lots of strawberries, but for most of them a slug has been getting to them first. I added some natural wood charcoal ash around the raised beds as well as epson salt around the plants which will hopefully take care of the slugs.

I added some stakes to the pole beans, cucumbers & tomatoes and all seem to be shooting up as a result. The blueberries are starting to get their color which has the kids really excited, hopefully they will be ready to go soon.

Blueberries

Tomatoes & Basil

Pole Beans

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

Spring 2016 Back Yard Garden Update

At Matthews Farm, 2016 will be the year that I defeat the squirrels and chipmunks. Each year my garden has grown bigger and bigger, and each year more critters come out to enjoy the harvests the night before I come out to pick the fruits of my labor.

This offseason I decided to build real cages around each raised bed, and my strawberry & carrot bed has a hinged top as well. The other bed cages will be organic, as in they will grow with the crops as needed. I plan to build trellis’s for the tomatoes, cucumbers & squash, and keeping those caged in will be an ongoing process.

Below are lots of pictures of the evolution of the garden, the planted crops, and some early seed bloomers (pole beans) that will grow in a bamboo teepee. I am also quite proud of the set of sawhorses that I built thanks to direction from familyhandyman.com.

I’m looking forward to a summer full of fruits and veggies from the back yard!

 

Garden coming out of the Fall

the first cage going in

First Raised Garden Cage

Right of Passage Sawhorses doing their thing

Strawberry Patch Cage with Top

Faithful Sidekick Cody

Nifty hinged top

tools of the trade

Finished Cage Top

Broccoli

Blueberries

Strawberries

Green Beans

Green Beans

Strawberry Patch

DIY Soaker Hose

Strawberry Ready to Eat

Vegetables and diy soaker hose

Blueberry Patch

Matthews Farm

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

NYO Whitesox Win a Nailbiter

We were always told that the first year of NYO kid-pitch would be a long season, mostly due to the kids getting used to pitching, and hitting against fellow players instead of coaches. Well it hasn’t been horrible, Ben has definitely been hit a lot, and you can tell when he is up to bat that it’s going through his mind. Up until today our Whitesox have not won a game, we are something like 0-13, but today was our day. I took a video of the last few minutes of the game just in case and it paid off. We won our first game in style, stealing 3 runs in the bottom of the 5th inning.

Click on the image below to see the video.

 

Enjoy,

Carson Matthews

Swimming at Chastain Pool

Last weekend we took our new GoPro out for a spin at Chastain Pool. We had a lot of fun trying it out and getting some underwater footage.

 

Carson Matthews

Thanksgiving Turkey Preparation Timelapse Video

Here is a iPhone 6 timelapse video of our Thanksgiving turkey preparation on Thanksgiving morning. After this it went into the Big Green Egg for several hours and came out perfect!

Timelapse Compilation of Sunrise and Weather

Here is a video compilation of time-lapse videos out of our front window. Our house faces East so we get great sunrises and a consistent look at clouds and storms moving through.

Sunset over the Chattahoochee River

Here is a picture of the sun tonight as it began setting over the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta. This shot was taken from the East Palisades Trail of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area looking west to Cobb Parkway as it crossed the Hooch.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

70mm f/8.0 5 frames processed in Photomatix and Lightroom

Saturday Down South

Saturday Down South