Amanda and I took a brief field trip Wednesday night to check out the scenery around Danville as the sun was setting. We wound up taking photos on the Main Street bridge over the railroad tracks, and I shot this three-photo panorama.

Marquis Teague gets a hand on the ball as a Radford player attempts to go up for a layup.

On the eve of Thanksgiving, I shot the Kentucky vs. Radford basketball game for the Advocate-Messenger. The game was a slaughter — UK won 88-40. The first half was more fun to shoot because by the second half UK was so far out ahead that the game was already decided and no one seemed to be pushing very hard to score.

I get to serve as the Advocate-Messenger’s back-up photographer for UK games this season, which is an awesome job. I’ve been a Kentucky basketball fan since I was 5 years old and my pastor gave me a UK sweatshirt, so this was somewhat dreamlike for me. It had been several years since I shot a basketball game but I shook the rust off enough to get some decent shots. UK won 108-58.

For more on the game, visit Vaught’s Views.

We have a cool little spider guarding our living room window for now. This evening, it was spinning a bigger web.

The bright "star" in the center is Jupiter. I guessed it was Mars, but Amanda's guess of the fourth-brightest celestial body visible from Earth proved to be the correct one.

I shot some extended exposures on my tripod at two different Danville locations tonight — along Clark’s Run Creek and at Hilldale Cemetery. Amanda joined me for the expedition to the cemetery.

The lights catching the creek in the distance are from a gas station at the merger point of Third and Fourth streets in Danville.

This is a vertical panorama made from two horizonal images. The first shot in this post was a vertical pan made from three horizontal images.

Another shot in the cemetery. The clouds in the sky looked coolest to the naked eye in this direction, but the clouds in the other images wound up being better for camera lenses.

Amanda and I headed west to Perryville Monday evening in search of good sunset photos. After checking out the scenery at Perryville Battlefield, on our way back to Perryville Amanda spotted a lit-up house and a lake that was reflecting the house and the sunset. We stopped by the side of the road and I snapped this shot.

UK tailback Jonathan George (25) scrambles for a first down inside the 15-yard line.

With our staff photographer Clay Jackson occupied taking photos of Centre College’s homecoming, I picked up the photo assignment of UK’s homecoming football game against Jacksonville State University. Given UK’s performances in the last few games, I was worried the team wouldn’t put together much offense, which makes it more difficult to get good photos, but UK did not disappoint, scoring 38 points to Jacksonville’s 14. I probably shot UK on their best game of the year — this was their highest point total of the year and another win this season is only halfway likely at best.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK quarterback Morgan Newton (12) runs on a quarterback keeper play.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback Jonathan George (25) runs for a first down.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback Jonathan George (25) pushes through a Jacksonville State defender for the first down.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: The Jacksonville State quarterback (11) turns away in disgust as UK safety Winston Guy Jr. (21) intercepts his pass. The interception was eventually ruled an incomplete pass after further review, but UK would make a successful interception just a few plays later.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK safety Winston Guy (21) celebrates after making what had been ruled an interception.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK safety Winston Guy Jr. (21) celebrates with a UK coach after coming up with what was initially ruled an interception.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: The Jacksonville State quarterback (11) was pressured heavily by the UK defense throughout the game, often being rushed into incomplete passes.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK teammates celebrate with defensive tackle Luke McDermott (68) after McDermott intercepted a Jacksonville State pass.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK receiver La'Rod King (16) makes a reception to put UK inside the 5-yard line.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK safety Martavius Neloms (15) scoops up a forced fumble before running it back for a touchdown.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: Neloms running back the fumble.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: Neloms running back the fumble.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: Referees move in to break up an altercation between UK linebacker Danny Trevathan (22) and a Jacksonville State player.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK wide receiver La'Rod King (16) catches a Morgan Newton pass for a touchdown.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: Five UK defenders swarm a Jacksonville State running back.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback CoShik Williams runs along the out-of-bounds line with the football.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback CoShik Williams runs along the out-of-bounds line with the football.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: Morgan Newton (12) eyes his options from the pocket.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback CoShik Williams runs with the football.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback CoShik Williams runs with the football.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK tailback CoShik Williams (26) runs the ball.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: A referee was injured on a UK pass play when his ankle got stuck underneath Danny Trevathan (22). Trevathan caught the pass from Morgan Newton but was stopped short of the endzone when he got tangled up with the ref.

Ben Kleppinger/bkleppinger@amnews.com: UK medical staffers check out the referee's ankle.

I took the photos for this image shortly after Midnight Tuesday in a field across from my home.

My plan was to create three panoramas of the same scene, one at -2 EV, one at 0 EV and one at +2 EV. TO do this I locked my tripod’s right/left swivel and turned on auto-exposure bracketing, which allowed my T1i to shoot three shots in a row at the different exposures and grab all the clouds in the same place before they moved.

I shot one AEB set pointed toward the street, with some sky at the top. I shot a second AEB set in the middle of the sky, and my third AEB set pointed at the moon.

While the plan worked and I did generate what seemed at first like a very nice HDR panorama when I compiled everything in Photoshop, it had various anomalies and blown-out or oddly-colored portions, especially along the streets.

In the end, I wound up just using Photoshop’s shadow/highlights and brightness/contrast controls on the +2 EV panorama to simulate a fancier HDR image. It wound up looking even better than the actual HDR, plus it doesn’t have any anomalies.

An impressive bunch of clouds filled the sky over Danville this morning, so I headed to Main Street and took some photos standing in front of the courthouse, then pulled them onto my computer and worked some Photoshop HDR magic to bring out the street and sky at the same time.

Centre running back Matthew Farrell (26) breaks an Austin tackle during the fourth quarter Saturday.

These are photos I took during Centre’s rout of Austin Saturday afternoon.

Centre defensive back Kent Crick (13) pulls an Austin running back down to earth during the third quarter Saturday.

Centre running back Monte Scotton (3) runs for a first down in the third quarter Saturday.

Centre running back Justin Williams (24) fights off a tackle in the fourth quarter Saturday.

Centre running back Monte Scotton (3) breaks free and runs for a touchdown in the third quarter Saturday.