Midnight in the Garden

Savannah's popularity really seemed to take off following the publication of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and the associated movie.  Never read the book.  The movie served the purpose of entertainment and did star Kevin Spacey (one of the few actors I actually like) but people became obsessed with it.  Savannah is similar to what I assume New Orleans is like in that it's a safe place for people to be their quirky selves and the book and movie really highlighted some of Savannah's more interesting characters.  I say check it out for mild entertainment and to see Savannah.

I finally got around to pulling some pictures and chose to do some night photos of Savannah (hence the title).  There are a couple of pictures from the phone (you can tell because they totally suck!) but most are real!

But first...in searching through pictures I found some to tack onto the last entry.  I found a few pictures of Corvus's dad from the National Working Dog Championships I attended a few years ago in Grove City, OH (suburb of Columbus).  It was great to see Corvus's dad, Erri, do what he did best-compete!  Erri and his handler, Mike Diehl (super nice guy) have competed at the world level on the US team.  Sadly, due to an accident that resulted in the loss of a leg, Erri had to stop competing prematurely.

Anyway, let's get to the Savannah stuff.

This is the Catholic church.  While most of the south is decidedly NOT Catholic, Savannah's history includes strong Irish influence.  This church often stands out as part of the city's skyline and it takes on a lovely appearance at night.

Forsyth Park serves kind of a Central Park for Savannah.  Lots of open space for people to bring their dogs or join a game of...well, pretty much anything!  There are lakes, playgrounds, beautiful sidewalks to walk and run and...the famous fountain.  If you've ever seen a Savannah landmark in pictures, this is probably it.  I, of course, needed a picture of it at night!

Now, these photos have some editing done to them but still what a difference your white balance setting can make.  Both pictures were taken at the same time with similar settings but different white balance options.  The top one was shot on the "tungsten" setting...you know how incandescent or many street lights have that yellow glow, right?  This setting eliminates that, cooling down the overall temperature of your photo and allowing the blue shades to come out.  The bottom photo is shot on the "shade" setting.  On shady days you'll find a much cooler light spectrum and by setting your white balance to a "cloudy" or "shade" setting, it warms your photos up, allowing the reds, oranges, and yellows to come out.  No right or wrong for this-it all depends on the look you're going for!

I'll demonstrate further with a couple of images of River Street-unedited.

Exact same location, exact same settings (as far as aperture, shutter speed, ISO) with the only difference being the white balance.  Cool, huh?

Another fun photography tip using my night pictures...

Notice how the lights in the first two pictures of River Street have six-pointed stars while the two above multiple points?  Yes, you can buy a filter for your cameral that does that but I prefer to do as much as I can just from camera settings.  Getting these really neat multiple-point stars can be done simply by shooting with a super small aperture (if I recall, these were done at F22).  Fun!

Just a few more random river pics.  The first one here was done without a tripod so is a touch blurry.  But the colors and lights in the water came out really neat so I kept it.  The second picture was an awesome encounter-a Black-Crowned Night Heron!  I've posted a picture of a rarely seen Green Heron before but this was even more of a rare find.  It flew down and sat on the dock the whole time we were photographing the river.  

Everyone knows how much I love having a balcony overlooking River Street when I stay in Savannah.  I love it most at night where I can watch the ships glide silently by.  Stay up late and watch the activity as the restaurants close down.  Watch the mist roll in after an evening shower as it enhances the color of the street below...

Savannah retains many traces of it's history, from the cobblestone roads to the original riverfront buildings to the gas lanterns.  As evening falls you begin to catch the almost ghostly scent here and there of the kerosene fueling the lamps...

On a previous trip I ventured out after a rain storm to take some pictures of some of the neon on Broughton St.  At first I was really annoyed that, as is so often the case down there, my lens fogged up from the humidity.  Then I thought it wasn't a bad effect so...

Obviously the second picture is after the lens adjusted but I still think the first is kinda cool!  Freaky factoid...as I was looking for some background noise while I worked, I found that Netflix just added E.T.  I haven't seen that in ages but wouldn't have to pay much attention as I worked.  Notice the movie on the marquis that was playing?  Weird...  And for the record, I was never a fan of that movie.  And I'm still not.

Finally, I'll wrap up with a few more random pictures for funsies.  

Phone pic-did you spot it in its low quality awesomeness?

So nothing spectacular here but it's a start.  I need to get Savannah posted in its entirety so I can focus on other topics.  It's not a Savannah blog after all!  Now that all the pics are off my camera and exported from iPhoto, maybe I'll actually get something done here!