To make matters more interesting, just east of Koka Booth, Swift Creek and its greenway separate another Cary municipal park, Harold D. Ritter, from a much larger nearby state nature preserve, Hemlock Bluffs, where there are still more greenways although the trails in Hemlock Bluffs are mostly unpaved.
The artsy creation above is on a gate leading to the amphitheater grounds near an ancillary parking lot that belongs to the next door neighbor HCLTech, which leases parking spaces to Koka Booth on performance nights. The path one takes to the amphitheater from this gate is seen in the first three photos below, where one finds that interesting four-section wooden bench (third photo). And yes, all of those low-level lamp posts along the pathway really lean like that.
So much in a relatively compacted area!
I did not mention in Part I (yesterday's post) that I did a couple things differently during this shoot. I’ve been watching some photography educational videos on YouTube in the past couple weeks. In one of those videos, the photo expert mentioned how he tends to use his camera’s Auto ISO and exposure compensation features a lot when he wants to lock in on his shutter and aperture settings and not have to stop and fidget with settings when light changes during a shoot requiring him to take many pictures.
He also espoused a recommendation to use the matrix (aka evaluative) mode option for metering exposure in landscape images because matrix does a better job evaluating an even distribution of exposure throughout the frame, assuming you have no compelling reason to pinpoint a metering spot in your composition. I have tended to use the spot metering mode so that I definitely know what point in a photo will be exposed the way I want. But I decided to try his suggestion on both the Auto ISO and matrix metering mode during this shoot.
He was mostly on target regarding the matrix mode, I felt. But what was real surprising to me was how Auto ISO introduced third and fourth exposure setting variables into my practice of using three-frames-per-composition exposure bracketing (which I do to allow for high-dynamic range imaging later in post-processing).
I continued to use aperture priority shooting mode for my bracketing. Until this shoot, this choice by default made the shutter speed the setting that varied with each of the bracketed frames because I also had locked in my ISO, usually as low as possible. But on April 24, when I went with Auto ISO on this shoot, Auto ISO would not allow my shutter to dip below 1/60 in low-light situations. Instead, for frames in which the shutter would have been slower than 1/60, the camera either increased the ISO accordingly to compensate ... or invoked a stop or two of exposure compensation value (EV+) to ensure proper exposure.
I normally don’t turn to EV+/- when trying to set camera settings when composing, because I usually find that dealing with three exposure settings (aperture, shutter and ISO) is enough work already (and stressful in shoots involving a high volume of images) to get it just right. But I saw afterward, in post-processing, that it was definitely not a bad thing. I was thankful the camera found a way to take the worry of fidgeting with the EV setting out of my hands and do good things.
Indeed, Auto ISO had my back to prevent image blur with slow shutters, even though my Tamron zoom lens has vibration compensation that has almost always protected me from camera shake blur for up to three or four stops.
If you’d like to view a gallery containing all my images from the visit to Koka Booth Amphitheatre and Regency Park, follow the link in this sentence.
Above is one of the first scenes you come upon as you approach the park from the parking lot. Symphony Lake is in the background; Regency Park Lake, which is more of a pond than a lake, is in the foreground. The two are shown again below in an image in which the focal distance is compressed by using the long end of a 28-300mm lens.
Variable light splaying on a rock ballast near the park paved trail (above); the entrance trail shown in perspective (below).
Above: A withered growth above the surface of Regency Lake (pond).
Above: An anonymous person donated this granite bench for Regency Park in September 2008 in honor of Nancy Lynn Cooper, a mother of two children who was killed and her body left near a construction development site in July 2008. Her husband pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2014 while awaiting a second trial following a successful appeal of his conviction by a jury for first-degree murder in 2011. He was sentenced to 12 to 15 years and was released in November 2020. Friends said Nancy was a jogger who enjoyed using the greenways in Regency Park. Her parents were awarded custody of the Cooper's two children.
Above and first two photos below: More views of Symphony Lake.
Above and first eight photos below. With a lake of this size, wildlife is sure to follow. And indeed, on April 24, I saw geese, ducks and turtles. The fowl seemed quite accustomed to humans, too. My experience with them previously is that the geese would honk wildly to warn everyone that a human was approaching and then, when the encroachment was too close for comfort, fly away. But with these ducks and geese, I could walk in close proximity, and at the worst, they would simply walk in another direction. That, combined with having lens with a 300mm reach, enabled me to get some nice closeups. The eighth photo below is a distance shot of the lake with a solitary duck swimming towards shore where another duck awaits. You probably will have to click on the image and zoom in to see both ducks.
Above: A simple landscape composition of a mulched area not far from a side platform and seating area of the amphitheater, which would be off to the right.
A reflection shot (above) of a leaning tree along Regency Lake/Pond, where a mother duck and her chicks (first photo below) were wallowing in a much shallower area to not far from where I was standing (and to the left of me) when I took this shot. Off to the right near shore was the turtle in the second photo below. I almost tossed this photo, but the irony of a turtle causing a blur while in motion persuaded me to hang onto it and present it in a playful manner.
Above, this intriguing tree trunk's double 90-degree angle turn stopped me in my tracks, crying out to be photographed.
Above: Along a paved path on the grounds is this tribute to the late Edward O. Woolner, a native Hungarian, Holocaust survivor, real estate developer, conservationist and patron of the arts. He was a longtime supporter of the North Carolina Symphony. He was instrumental in the development of Koka Booth Amphitheatre and the full 705-acre Regency Park complex and contributed to the establishment of Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve. Woolner became a U.S. citizen on July 4, 2000, identifying it as one of his best and proudest life moments. He passed away from complications of COPD and COVID-19 at age 93 in January 2021.
Above: A simple landscape composition to end this post.
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