As this website comes together, slowly but surely, I can only think that I should write down some of my thoughts about this process.
{Downtown Manteo - 5 minute walk from my house}
I never in my wildest dreams would have placed my life here. Growing up I always assumed I would live and die in Northeast Ohio. I grew up vacationing in the #outerbanks of North Carolina. This place always had a strong calling to my soul. And while it may be hard to separate the excitement of a popular vacation spot versus a potential location spot to call home, I always wanted the #obx to be my home.
I brought my wife here in 2009 for the first while we were dating. Though it was in the winter, she fell in love. She too felt the strong pull of this magical place. We returned in 2011 with a larger group of my family. Then I went through the longest period of my life without visiting the outer banks. Due to work, school, and getting married, 5 years went by before I returned in 2016 with a combination of my family and her family. This was a wonderful experience, allowing our two families to be together in one house in this wonderful place. Everyone got to experience this place in their own way, some enjoying each and every sunrise, some enjoying the beach, others the cuisine and outdoor activities.
One month prior to our vacation that year I applied to a full-time position at The Outer Banks Hospital. I did not receive the position. I remember driving past the hospital a couple times while on that vacation and the lamentation was intense. I honestly had felt my best opportunity to live here had past. Opportunities at small hospitals like this are hard to come by. However I did not spend my whole vacation focused on missed chances. I was so excited to work on my technical photography skills. Primarily with film and using my #olympus #omdem1 for astrophotography.
{One of my first photos capturing star trails}
This feature is one of my favorite to use on the Olympus. It is called Live Composite and it essentially stacks photos in camera. The secret here is it only stacks photos where new light is introduced. Thus able to create photos like these without any post-processing stacking.
{One of my first star photo-taken from the balcony our rental house}
I had read and read and read articles about how to photograph the night sky. I had many attempts that were unsuccessful. I would not even consider these two photos "good" photos. However these photos represent many important aspects of astrophotography:
Composition is king
Manual focusing in the dark takes practice (a lot)
Researching your site is paramount
The first photo caused me to throw my hands into the air in glee!!!!!
But....
As successful as I was at using the Live Composite feature, this photo is b-o-r-i-n-g...BORING!
The second photo shows that even something in the foreground as boring as a backyard pool helps auto-focus, but still makes for a boring photo. By taking the time to research a site, learning how to use manual focus, and finding a proper composition you can achieve photos like these.
{This photo demonstrates an interesting foreground-as well as adapting to passer-by with flashlights}
{This photo demonstrates when manual focusing is used-inside tip: i use the enlargement feature on my LCD display over the light on top of the lighthouse and focused when the light was on}
{This demonstrated proper research. I knew I could get the star trails to become circular because I was facing north.}
This learning experience came in very handy. A PRN position came open at The Outer Banks Hospital later that year. I applied, had a telephone interview, and received a phone call roughly a week later asking about my wife, who is a respiratory therapist. HA! Imagine my confusion. I had mentioned her during my interview and they ran with that. We both scored in-person interviews, got the job offer later that night, and moved within 6 weeks.
Living here for the past 10 months has been the most amazing time of my life. I do feel like my dreams have come true; married the love of my life, living (comfortably thanks to wonderful careers) in paradise, healthy, and have loving families. Amongst all this my photography has found new life. I have found new inspiration in not only landscape photography but many others. In short- I have wonderfully supportive co-workers who loved my landscape photographs and one gave me an opportunity i'll never forget. Thanks to Amanda I found a new niche that I love about photography, family photography. Since our shoot, I have had two other shoots, and have been approached by dozens of other co-workers. This interest in my photography motivated me to take my photography more serious. Thus, I began making tadunmirephotography.com.
-Thank you for reading! Have a great day!
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