Swift Island Awakening

The morning I had a perception shift, an awakening...

16x24 metallic gallery wrap

From the current Deb Russell - Landscapes of Lake Tillery and the Uwharries Exhibit

at the Stanly Agri-Civic Center.

2 more days

Morning Insight

10x20 metallic print, matted and framed

View from the steel bridge area on Indian Mound Road north of Norwood, NC.

On display at the Stanly Agri-Civic Center now

Swift Island Daybreak - one from my Agri-Civic Exhibit

Swift Island Daybreak - by Deb Russell
 16x24 Metallic Gallery Wrap

 Agri-Civic Center directions  Mon-Fri ~ 8am-5pm 

Stanly News & Press article 

The exhibit is in cooperation with HD Photo Lab and  Falling Rivers Gallery.
My work is also on display this month in the front window of Falling Rivers Gallery.
Many thanks to Anita Ammerman and Jackie Layman for their work on it.  

Ready for a Piney Point Spring!

Make a free photo slideshow

The 4th of July on Tillery

I was out for a good walk first thing this morning, deciding the Woodrun docks would be a nice detour for the morning of the 4th.  Striding at a fast pace along the docks, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the latest addition to the lines of boats.  What has come to be a bit of a signature image of mine, the hand-crafted sailboat, "Sailing into Morning", flashed in my mind as I was standing by its replacement - another hand-crafted motorized, "tugboat/shrimpboat-like" vintage-looking and gorgeous wooden boat.

The owner and I immediately recognized one another and he (Steve Cycotte) began to tell me about his new beauty.  His brother, Tim, mostly constructed the boat by hand, using mahogany, white oak, teak and cherry. The Smilebox here, are are few shots I grabbed this morning, but Steve offered to let me take more in better lighting on a weekday late afternnoon.   When I happened back down on the docks later in the morning, Steve and his two brothers were just getting back from a cruise up past the Uwharrie River into about 3 feet of water and rocks.  The other shots are ones I took while goofing around later on the docks.

So, the Smilebox is 2 little vignettes of a 4th of July morning at Woodrun on Tillery.  Enjoy.

This digital slideshow customized with Smilebox

The Cottage at Tillery - great new spot for browsing gifts, produce, art

The Cottage is open Thursday - Sunday...it's right behind The Uwharrie Sportsman ("log cabin store") on Hwy 24/27 at River Road.

A digital slideshow by Smilebox

The Gift of the Lake - Thank You's

GREATGIFT  ....coupon code for Blurb.com good til Dec. 31,2009

Thanks to all who have viewed my book online and to those who have purchased a copy.  Special thanks to Sonja Simmons of Reflections on Main in Albemarle, NC for her support and willingness to display not only my books, but selected large prints from the book.  I also want to thank Dorothea Theus, Jackie Smith, LaDonna Greene and Jean Thompson for their permission to publish their very kind and thoughtful comments.   I also thank neighbors in Woodrun who allowed me access to their beautiful views, and to the Woodrun board members and office staff who supported a joint sales venture to benefit our quiet and special subdivision by the lake.  I can't fail to mention Don Bullock of Bullock Pro Labs, who is one of my "unofficial business managers and marketing directors".  I say "one" because I've received so many marketing ideas and so much support in general from old friends and new friends,and I want to acknowledge them. Being a self-described "hermit", much of the promotional aspects of the book have been challenging, so I am most appreciative of all the help.

I will also be taking into consideration those suggestions from residents of other lakes along the Yadkin-Pee Dee River system that I make "their" special lake the focus, or at least part, of my next book.  When I commented to Sonja that "would be a very big project", she shot back, "well, you better get busy!" 

My Lake Tillery landscape book is done ...the lake's gift to us

GREATGIFT    $ 10.00 off coupon code

Use this coupon code for $10.00 off  -   GREATGIFT

Order by Dec. 16th, Ship 2nd Day or Next Day to receive by the 24th

 Order by Dec.10th to receive by Dec. 24th

Last week, I finished the project I most wanted to complete and share - LAKE TILLERY - Our River, Our Beauty. A collection of landscapes shot during winter, spring, summer and fall, along with sunrises and sunsets, it represents much of what I feel about our lake.

From 2007 thru early fall of 2009, I have enjoyed the hunt for the likes of dramatic, misty sunrises, the glorious color of fall maples and sunsets and the first pops of yellow-green spring buds twinkling along the lake's edge. Checking the local radar for cloud cover and movement, deciding on a couple of target locations, leaving the house with my tripod and camera before dawn and driving along the pre-dawn country roads simply makes me happy. It also makes me happy to show Tillery enthusiasts how beautiful and precious "the river", "their river", "our river" remains.

Of course the lake and it's surrounding rural landscape are also full of interesting photographic opportunities at all times of the day. Sometimes, I just walk across the street to one of my neighbor's docks to check the setting sun, or the morning light hitting the River Haven lakeside cottages and homes. Planning a vacation day and hoping for a misty daybreak or interesting light or clouds is exciting in it's own way. Not unlike a fisherman hoping for the fish or the hunter hoping for deer, I am alway looking for a unique capture of light and color. Showing up lots of times at the same place increases the odds of being in the "right place at the right time" every now and then. I admit to being lucky more than once and I admit to having another day job that makes the whole process even more randomly successful.

Creating this book has been Tillery's gift to me, and I hope you find it one, too.

LAKE TILLERY - Our River, Our Beauty can be previewed and purchased on blurb.com.

Special holiday pricing applies until Dec.10th and you'll receive your book by Dec. 24th if ordered by the 10th.

120 pages - 10x8" landscape format

Premium paper

Available in softcover, hardcover with jacket, or hardcover image wrap

Finally, feel free to "comment" in the section below the book's description after looking through the preview on blurb.com. Here's my first such comment....

"This book is gorgeous! An inspirational and heartening book for anyone who values the beauty of the land and water we have left. For those fortunate enough to live in the Lake Tillery area, it is a beautiful record of the gems that are just outside their door and down the road."   ~DorotheaT

"Wow!!!!! You capture the magic of Tillery....the essence of why we are at

peace while there! "  ~ Ladonna.Greene

"Deb Russell has brilliantly shared her photographs of Lake Tillery with such passion and appreciation of the beauty of this body of water we call our playground, our vacation spot, our place of inspiration, our home".

J. Smith

"Deb, this book is such a wonderful display of "The Lake" in all it's fine natural glory! Thank you for all the work you've done to give us more insight to God's spectacular inspiration and beauty!!"

~Jean T.

Capturing the feeling of a home

Touring a home for sale - the PAM BREWER HOMES way
A couple of local realtors asked me to shoot some of their listings to see what my perspective might be. My main goal was to capture the feeling of the home and especially the feeling of its view, if it's on the lake. I was able to be at the Carolina Forest location on an August evening at sunset and into the evening for a few night shots of the home on its wooded lot.

For Tranquil Bay, Emma Rogers, a Century 21 realtor was instrumental in getting me to just the right location and angle to shoot the night shot. It turned out to be from inside a friend/neighbor's very hot and steamy boathouse.



Although not on the water, this home is near Piney Point Golf Club in rural South Stanly near Norwood, NC. Pam Brewer, the realtor with REMAX and the homeowners allowed me to shoot on 2 different days, as the power was out in the neighborhood on the first day's shoot.

Another May Sunset by the Docks

An older fellow fishing on the docks when I arrived greeted me with "looks like it's too cloudy for pictures, eh?" He left about 45 minutes later...too soon to see the show. I'm playing with my new CS3 and trial versions of NIK Efex (filters) and NIK Dfine 2.0 (noise reduction). Adobe Bridge is a powerful editing tool and I love the ease with which I can now view, move and edit files.

A short show.

April - Lake Tillery sparkles

I finally got a few shots of Morrow Mountain from the Swift Island Bridge. I was passing over it in my pickup truck with my dog, Scout, when the afternoon's gorgeous light, spring leaves and clouds were too much to resist. I shot a preliminary image while driving, generally aiming blindly in the direction of the mountain (slideshow image #33). When I saw the result, I went back across the bridge, parked and made a few short ventures onto the bridge on foot. #'s 52 and 53 are HDRs while the final several images are early morning on a farm near the lake. I'll have more of that series in a show to itself later.

Thanks Giving

Woodrun on Tillery - Fall Color 2008

Dabbling in easy slide shows and HDR

Hallmark's Smilebox provides an easy and

quick way to get a slideshow together and

emailed. Their templates range from the very simple,

classic and clean, to the all out "scrapbook" look.

There are single page "postcards" and multi-page

"books". Thankfully, Hallmark has the styles

grouped and sorted nicely, so finding a simple

slideshow with minimal graphics is fairly easy.

A choice of 3 music tracks is provided for each

Smilebox for free in the "basic" package, but you can opt

for the "premium" package, which allows unlimited

music choices, bigger viewing size and no

advertisements on the page.

The "basic" package is 100% free, if you

don't mind the smaller size, the ads, and

limited music clip choices.

The slideshows below are the "basic" version

and can be emailed, forwarded or blogged now, or

at any time in the future.

If you look carefully past

Hallmark's family oriented, busy graphics, you'll

find the simple, clean designs for

more serious photography slideshows.

The slideshow (Ridge Storm) below is a quick one I did last summer while I was experimenting with HDR (high dynamic range). Photomatix is the free trial software I used, as evidenced by their logo. If you can put up with the logos, the free trial download can be used indefinitely.

HDR requires shooting 3-5 images or so, bracketing the "over" and "under" exposures so that the HDR software can then make a composite image. In this way you've got the shadows opened up and the hightlights filled in with info. My Nikon D80 has a 3 frame, +-2.0 setting that works well.

above, HDR - final composite

middle exposure

2 stops underexposed

2 stops overexposed

HDR can be used in subtle ways to obtain a more perfect exposure of a difficult lighting situation, or it can be used for extremely dramatic, 3-D like effects. Once you figure out your camera's bracketing procedure, haul your tripod out and decide on a lighting-challenged subject. It's fun to see what "cooks up" later in the HDR software's compositing process.

I didn't know about HDR while I was shooting the "October Party" sunrise images, but wished I had, as I did a fair amount of post processing to better balance the skies' exposures. HDR is the sort of post-processing tinkering that will remind you of the fun part of being in a traditional darkroom.

Getting my feet wet

My boss suggested the idea of blogging to me today, and I guess I've jumped right in..."jumping right in" isn't typical of me but that's where I am today.


I work in digital photography and I play in digital photography and graphics, so this blog will have lots of images, mostly my own. For example, the header of this blog is from a 2 page spread of "Swift Island"...80 Years A Beauty, a book I've recently self-published. Not meaning to sound self-important, in case you're oblivious to the self-publishing revolution, anybody can fairly easily publish a book these days. Quality, content, appeal...none of that is required...just the motivation to collect thoughts and/or images and dump them into the self-publishing website's software, and then "pay up" .


The self-publishing idea caught on with me a couple of months ago when a neighbor sent me a link from a professional photographer whose Yosemite workshop she and her husband attended this past winter. One of their instructors had published through Blurb.com and I was instantly and thoroughly sucked into site. If you're a photographer or writer, or both, you should check out some of the self-publishing sites sproutin' up all over. Even if you have no intention of getting a book together yourself, you'll probably find browsing the crazy, wide variety of books available from those who have. Blurb.com is an easy one in which it's easy to navigate and search. Although I've already mentioned "anybody" can publish, some of the self-published photography coffee table style books are gorgeous ....bookstore quality and are truly first rate in content and style.


I'm just starting to explore what's out there along this line, but I plan to comment on my new finds, bad finds, ...whatever. Well, I guess I got my feet wet, so I'll give it a rest for now.