As much as I like green and as much as I get tired of the monotonous tones of winter, I do like rare cases when wet snow falls without much wind. And this photo is what we get when that happens. This photo is a bit of a jumble and seems almost abstract, but I guess that's what I like about it.And if you study this photo closely, you will find that I was paying attention to the rule of thirds. And maybe if you look closely again, you will find the hidden man in the tree???Canon 5DIII 1/1250s f/4.5 ISO320 200mm
Nature
03-17-13 Late Summer
in Blog, Landscape, Macro, Nature, South Dakota
I suspect that there is nothing all that special about prairie grass, unless, of course, you live where there is no prairie. Or, like me, live where there is no living grass right now. And, as I know I've said, when I am feeling SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) kick in, I go looking for photos I took in better weather.This clump of grass lived on the bluffs overlooking the Little Bend of the Missouri River on Lake Oahe. In late July, 2012, I took close to 50 photos of this grass one morning, mainly because the wind was gusty and the grass wouldn't sit still. I imagine that taking photos of children might be like that. Though children offer considerably greater diversity, don't they?
03-14-13 Portugal!
The thing I remember about the day we spent on Tavira Beach on the south coast of Portugal, which is considered one of the best beaches in Portugal, is that it was cold and windy. By "cold" I think it must have been in the low 70s. Boy, do I long for the cool 70s!
03-11-13 Footprints In the Snow
Big Foot? Sasquatch? The UPS Man? No. Just me.
03-07-13 An Ordinary Rose
You may have noticed that I revisit the same subjects and scenes in my photography. It could be that I do that because I have limited access to new subjects and scenes. Or it could be that I both lazy and have limited vision.But it occurs to me this morning that, though there may be a grain (or a bolder) of truth in in this, the real reason is that as I improve as a photographer, I keep wanting to go back and improve on the photos I have taken. Whether the improvements are visible or worth the time and effort, I can't say. I'll admit that photography for me is sometimes more about the experience and process than it is about the result. Talk about right brained. . . .What I like about this "ordinary rose" is the texture in the catchlights in several of the drops of water. How did that happen? By accident, of course. In the process of experimenting with a honeycomb grid on a medium soft box, I discovered that the grid shows up like window panes in several of the focused drops. I like it even if you don't. :-)I also like how I spent 10 minutes in Photoshop moving one of the drops because I thought the balance in the photo would be improved. I figure that the drop is less than 3mm in size. But in the macro world, that is pretty big. Which drop? I'm not telling. . . . It ends up being one of the "1000 unseen details."
02-26-13 Japanese Garden
Here is the chain of consciousness that led me to post this photo:
- I'm not impressed with the options available on TV
- I check my DVR for possibilities
- I find that I have recorded 9 episodes of "Lonely Planet," a travel show
- I start watching the first one, which is set in London
- Half-way through, the travel guide takes us to Kew Gardens
- I remember that I have some Kew Gardens photos
- I stop watching the TV show
- I find this photo and work on it
- I post it here
That sounds like a disciplined mind hard at work, doesn't it?
02-22-13 Brachiation (Reprise)
TS Eliot was wrong. Februrary, not April, is "the cruelest month." At least for me. Yes, the days are getting longer. Yes, the temperature ocassionally soars into the high 20s. But it is often in the heart of February that what I think is SAAD (seasonal affective disorder) hits me. And I lose my will to post new photos to this blog.So I'm posting old stuff. . . But, in the event that you haven't meticulously looked at all four years of my posts, you've probably never seen some of these. So maybe they're not old.
02-14-13 Better Than the Real Thing
Red roses are a symbol of love in our culture. So sending roses is an act of love, I guess. And I'll admit that fresh, red roses beautifully arranged are hard to beat. But they're expensive. And they are ephemeral: if a fresh rose symbolizes love, what does a wilted, drooping rose suggest? I'm not even going to suggest the possible answers to that question.But these roses will never wilt. So that's why they are "better than the real thing." Feel free to share them with someone you love. . . .
02-08-13 Forest Primeval (Reprise)
TS Eliot was wrong. Februrary, not April, is "the cruelest month." At least for me. Yes, the days are getting longer. Yes, the temperature ocassionally soars into the high 20s. But it is often in the heart of February that what I think is SAAD (seasonal affective disorder) hits me. And I lose my will to post new photos to this blog.So I'm posting old stuff. . . But, in the event that you haven't meticulously looked at all four years of my posts, you've probably never seen some of these. So maybe they're not old.
02-02-13 Morning Sky
This photo found me. I was heading west yesterday morning to run an errand on the way to work and I noticed nice, soft blue and scarlet hues in the western sky. Thinking that I might have a good sky to drop in to a photo that has I less interesting sky, I took this photo.I really wasn't thinking that the photo would stand on its own, but when I worked on it in Aperture 3.4, and with Nik HDR Efex 2, I decided I liked it.
01-30-13 Christmas In January
This cactus lives on a shelf in our main bathroom and during much of the year it just sits there. But once a year, spurred on by forces a photographer like me could never comprehend, it blooms.And when I went into the bathroom a few minutes ago, I wasn't thinking about macro photography. But I couldn't ignore the blooms, which were backlit by soft sunlight filter through thin clouds in the winter sky. And so I abandoned my original mission, and got my camera.Incidentally, this is a Christmas cactus, but given that it is January 30, I think this one is a bit of a nonconformist.Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/4.0 ISO1600 100mm
01-18-13 For the Lunatics
This one is from the photo archives, though I don't think the moon has changed much in the 8 years since I took this.Canon 1DII 1/50s f/9.0 ISO100 400mm