CHAPMANS POND
​Took a ride yesterday morning in the fog looking for shots, well not much fog here, but I still liked it. This was my uncles pond a long time ago, and they even baptize people from Talatha Baptish Church here.

AUGUSTA LOCK & DAM
A little play on the location. From my new BnW collection.

"Through The Trees" from the Homeland Gardens- Study #1

A walk in the woods and Phinizy Swamp

Was blessed again with winning the peoples choice award in photography, with my image from the "Ace Basin", titled "Show Me The Way", and also my images was graced on the exhibit rack card, and the exhibitions poster. Thank you NAAG and the Arts & Heritage Center, and all the many fine people that voted for my image !

A old mill in McCormick SC, built in 1898, shot several years ago in color, but decided to convert to my new BNW obsession. Hope you like it ! ​

One of the Lighthouses on OBX, and my little different take on shooting it ! My agent said he really likes it, Oh, that's right, my agent is ME !, Well, so much for what he thinks!

​AIKEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Stop in this Thursday evening for the opening receptions at the ACA for local artists celebrate Hopelands & Rye Patch 50th Anniversary, I will have 3 pieces of work in the show.
Redeption is from 6-8pm, show runs from Mar. 25-Apr.30.

Take a minute and relax and be enlightened ! Video by Will Senior

Nature
Most of us are so divorced from our ancestral home -- the natural outdoor environment -- that leaving the city and going where the cell towers don't reach feels like entering an altered state of consciousness. Probably because our consciousness has changed. I know when I'm out there, whether it's at a secluded beach, ​deep in the redwoods, or alone on a snowy mountaintop, I feel different. I notice new things. My brain works better. I'm high by virtue of eliminating the extraneous sensory clutter of the city.

Music
We've all heard -- or performed -- music that has left us with goose bumps and chills. We're utterly struck by it, held by it, entranced and touched in such a deep way that we feel moved physically and spiritually. I always think of a concert my wife and I took in some years ago -- a choral performance that ended with a piece so piercing and transcendent that it took my breath away. The hairs on my neck and arms stood up and I was swept up in some collective out of body experience. To this day, listening to the piece catapults me back in time and I feel it in my gut.
Science has confirmed the existence of the euphoric music-induced "chills." Researchers asked participants to choose music that gave them the "chills" each time they heard or played it. Then they allowed subjects to listen to the music while they monitored their brain activity with PET imaging. (In other parts of the experiment, they listened to other peoples' musical selections or general noise.) Each participant's chosen music, the researchers found, exclusively produced activity in brain areas associated with "euphoria-inducing stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse."
The researchers suggest that as humans evolved they developed the ability to experience euphoria from more abstract activities like music. Although unnecessary for hard scrabble survival, music likely contributed to social bonding and the cohesion of human communities, which in turn aided survival. Music is also a way to tap into the rhythm underlying life itself. You won't find any clinical trials, but there's real music happening right under our noses every single day. Musicians just reveal it.
Dream
Remember how you'd hang out at night with your friends, looking up at the stars, just thinking and talking about how immense and crazy and impossible and possible everything is? Remember when you were filled with wonder? Dreaming is one thing that still gets to me and makes me feel like a kid again. Best of all, we have direct access to it. It's the great mystery that we get to explore every single night of our lives.
Every night, we enter a fantastical world of our own creation. In this world, time is relative; we can live out entire lifetimes in the span of a single sleep cycle. We become artists, novelists, world-builders and storytellers that put Tolkien, Spielberg, George RR Martin, and Salvador Dali to shame. And we get to live and breathe and act in those worlds as if they were real. It's amazing.
What's going on here, chemically? Some researchers think that our brains release very small amounts of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a powerful psychedelic compound, during sleep. That certainly seems plausible.

Okay, they are more, but you get the point! I was totally surprised the first time it happen to me while doing a walk in Nature with the camera, I just couldn't believe how good I was feeling, later while rethinking this, I realize that it was because I thoroughly enjoy my photography, and this is my reward.

I found out much later that other photographers have this same feeling as well, but most don't talk about it much, I guess for the same reason I didn't at first, because it sounds to strange, but now I'm looking forward to getting HIGH!

​Peace Out !

Received word yesterday that all three of my photography's were juried in the 13th Annual Juried Photography Exhibition at the "MACK" in McCormick, SC, and one titled "Neon Footprints"received "Honorable Mention".
Many thanks to the McCormick Arts Council and the Juror, Bill Barley.

Found this site today using one of my photo's of Aiken, SC on a site listing the 15 best charming towns in South Carolina, Aiken was listed as #12, not sure about how they came up with this rating. Anyway here's the site if your interested. (Click For Links)

 "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE EYE"

The camera has been extremely good to me, and because of that I have added two new projects to the mix.
The first project is titled "Drive-By Shootings", somewhat self-explanatory, if I had titled it drive-by photography, I don't think anybody would be interested. ( They may not be interested anyway, but these projects are just self-assignments that I enjoy doing.)
The other project is titled "ICM's", (this will be defined at a later date) mainly because I don't have any work to display as it was just created last night.
Both of these projects may SUCK in the long run, but they are a reason to keep the camera battery and my battery charged, being active is the key to longevity, I just need more energy !
Check out the Galleries for posting to these new projects.

This is another article from the Aiken Standard by Dede Biles about this years contest for the United Way, and  I was fortunate to have five of the top nine winner.  I think this will be my last year to enter, cause it will be hard to top that next year, and anything short of that,  everybody will say, that I'm losing my touch!   LOL....

"Our Aiken" photo contest auction benefits the United Way

By Dede Biles

Published Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:54 PM EDT

Even though the price kept rising, Renay Trotter kept bidding, and her determination paid off.

She got what she wanted during the live auction for the City of Aiken's second "Our Aiken" photo contest Thursday.

Trotter's $40 purchase was a black and white picture called "Train Depot" that James Perry had taken at the site of the old Aiken Railroad Depot.

"I am so happy," Trotter said. "I've been in Aiken all my life, and this is part of Aiken's history. I love Aiken."

The City of Aiken United Way Committee chose nine winning photographs. The pictures were enlarged and sold during the live auction outside of the Municipal Building. Inside, there was a silent auction that featured small prints of the winning pictures and other photos that were entered in this year's contest.

"We also had about 20 pictures from last year's silent auction," said Emory Langston, the City's Aiken's special projects coordinator.

Five of D.S. Owens' photos were among the winners.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "I don't know who the judges were, but I'll have to thank them."

Owens' winning photos included "Radiating" and "Path to Enlightenment," which both had been taken in Hopelands Gardens. His other winners were "Chestnut," "Aiken 4202," and "Gaston." The subject of "Chestnut" was a horse, and "Aiken 4202" was a train engine. "Gaston" was a photograph of the historic Gaston Livery Stable.

"I started taking photos when I was in the Navy," Owens said. "I wasn't any good at it for a long time, and then digital photography came along. That's what made the difference for me. I could see what I was doing wrong and then I worked on it. I was self-taught."

Nancy Moseley enjoyed looking at the winning photographs before the start of the live auction.

"I entered a whole bunch in the contest last year, and I wanted to see how the entries looked this year," she said. "They're very nice pictures, very pretty."

Moseley especially liked "Train Depot" and "Radiating."

"I've taken that one many times, but never at night in black and white," she said of "Train Depot."

Then Moseley pointed to "Radiating," which had a statue in the foreground, and said, "I like the way the morning light is coming in on it."

The winning photographs brought prices ranging from $20 to $45 during the live auction. USC Aiken's head baseball coach, Kenny "Coach T" Thomas, was the auctioneer.

"This was wonderful," said Langston afterward.

"I was extremely pleased with the turnout. I think the crowd really had fun."

The nine winning photographs will be highlighted in print and online promotions for the City of Aiken, Langston said.

In 2014, the proceeds from both the live and silent auctions went to the United Way of Aiken County, and the organization was the beneficiary again this year.

"It's such a nice thing for the City of Aiken to provide this wonderful event in support of the United Way," said Sharon Rodgers, president of the United Way of Aiken County. "It brings awareness to our mission, and it raises funds for our critical-need programs in the community."

This is an article from the Aiken Standard Newspaper by Stephanie Turner about the new photo display in the building as of July 2015, that I had the privilege of having seven of my photos included in this permanent display.

Assistant County Administrator Brian Sanders looks at the Aiken County Government Center as “the people’s building.”

To help depict such a notion, he and the rest of the building committee wanted to exhibit photos representing of all of the county and reached out to Anne Wood Uskup of Marketplace Art, which she runs with her husband Tom Uskup, and Tom and Chris Abbott of Southside Gallery of Aiken.

Uskup then contacted local photographer Shelly Marshall Schmidt of Oh Schmidt! Productions to help decorate the second floor.

"We’ve worked together on many other projects, but this one was fun to do,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt spent two weeks traveling and taking photos, narrowing down her massive pile to a handful for the committee.

Uskup did the framing, while Schmidt did the printing.
One photo the committee wanted but was difficult for Schmidt to take was the Bicentennial Wagon of South Carolina, which is housed in the Wagener Museum, so Schmidt obtained an archive photo from the museum and formatted it for the County building.

The Abbotts handled covering the first and third floors with photos either the committee provided or from photographers the couple knows. These included their photos and photos by Larry Gleason, Pat Paxton, Mark Hudson, Mike Kleiman and D.S. Owens.

Since Southside is considered a “one-stop shop,” according to Tom Abbott, the studio was able to print, frame and install their contributions.

Overall, about 60 photographs of noted buildings or nature scenes came out of these collaborations and have been hanging for less than a month.

"They are really beautiful,” Sanders said. “They both did a fantastic job.”

Showcasing local artwork in the facility has been a plan since at least fall 2013; the building opened last spring, the Aiken Standard reported.

Other artwork hangs in conference rooms in addition to a temporary exhibit on the first floor. The historical photos for this display originally came from the former Shoney’s restaurant on Whiskey Road, and the idea to hang them came from Gayle Wolman, Aiken County’s Human Resources director.

"They’re such great photos,” Sanders said.

The Aiken County Government Center is located at 1930 University Pkwy. 

 I coined a new phrase the other day and that would be "PHOTO DRIVE". It's a combination of "Photo Walk" but with a car. This was one of the better days I've had lately with the camera. I started out early heading to Allendale, SC to see if I could find the Swallow Tailed Kites and the Mississippi Kites. They show up in July each year migrating from South America to the Allendale area to breed. This was my first time to view these amazing birds, and I was lucky enough to find them after two hours of looking for them. They feed on June Bugs; that they catch in fight with their feet, and consume while still flying. It's really something to see. I have included several photos for viewing, but these birds are hard to photograph because they are so fast.
Also found several "Rural Abandonment" photo opportunities that I have added to my gallery; here's the link if your interested in viewing them.
http://www.dsowens.com/rural-abandonment.html
All in all it was a great day for me, even if it was 95 degrees, but now I have to go thru about 600 pic's of birds in flight, and you thought this was easy, but I still love it, maybe it's more about the adventure, than the finished product!

Looking forward to the next outing.

DS- The Camera Hippie
dsowens.com
‪#‎PHOTODRIVE‬