08-01-12 Feed Me, Seymour

So here's and example of what I was talking about yesterday when I said the sunflower had amazing textures. The plant has a bit of a gothic appearance. And, no, this is not a cousin of the man-eating plant that stars in "The Little Shop of Horrors."

07-31-12 Waiting for the Sun

So who takes photos of sunflowers before they bloom? I guess I do, though I'll admit that it was a total afterthought yesterday morning. I was finished with the tree, clouds, and sunrise photos and as I headed back to the truck, I noticed the field of nascent sunflowers that was next to the field I had been standing in.What I liked was the deep green hues of the plants. I also liked the amazing textures in the sunflower heads. And so I took about 40 photos of sunflowers not in bloom. This is the first in a series of three. Bear with me if you're not into green things. . .

07-30-12 Distant Showers

Once again I ventured out before sunrise this morning. My wife and I were at the Spring Creek marina and when my wife told me to make less noise so she could sleep a little longer, I grabbed my camera bag and tripod and went driving.I headed to the two trees that I photographed last summer thinking that I might get something a little different. And I did. What made this shot special, of course, is the rain shower that is happening miles off in the distance. And I should admit that one of the reasons I went back to the same two trees is that I wanted to try to get an HDR photo that does a better job of exposing the relatively dark foreground. And I got what I wanted. Because of that, there's a lot of texture in this photo. Maybe too much?

07-29-12 Wing Span

I'm not really equipped to photograph birds in flight - I need a much bigger lens. But, When twelve big bird started circling the trees not too far from the Spring Creek marina, I decided (being pushed by my wife) that I needed to try to photograph one.This one came pretty much overhead, though even with my 200mm telephoto, I had to crop out about 80% of the photo to get a decent "close-up." In case my wife is wondering why I keep getting higher resolution cameras, this photo will certainly answer that question. Now, Deb, how about letting me get a 400mm lens?(We thought these might be eagles but after doing a little research, I've decided they are turkey vultures or buzzards. Oh well. . . )

07-27-12 Disaster Drill

Under normal circumstances, I don't think the hospital would let a photographer in to ER to photography a patient, who, in this case, seems to have a big twisted bolt in her belly. But this was only a drill. It was conducted by a variety of police and rescue units in our area back in April.It started at the airport but I volunteered to ride on the first ambulance to leave, in part because the hospital part of this exercise seemed interesting and in part because it was freezing cold the day of the drill and the ambulance looked warm and inviting. :-)

07-26-12 Morning Rain

07-25-12 Black Eyed Susans

07-24-12 Depth of Field

07-23-12 Patterns

Last in a series of wheat photos.

07-22-12 Glorious

Sometimes, when I'm out at Lake Oahe in central South Dakota, I don't go sailing. On this particular morning, I woke up well before sunrise and at first light saw that there were some clouds off in the east that looked promising. So I packed up my camera gear and went driving. I ended up on the bluffs above the Little Bend area - an area I have been to many times before.It may seem obvious but a sunrise photo isn't about the sun - that looks pretty much the same every time. It's about the clouds, the terrain and the atmosphere. And in all of these cases, I got what I was looking for.This photo, incidentally, is an HDR photo, which means that it's really two or three photos sandwiched together into one. I experimented with a process that gives this photo a bit of a surreal look. Compositionally, this photo does what a landscape photo should do: there is something in the foreground, the middle ground and in the back ground.I wish you could have been with me when I took this photo. It was an amazing moment in an very special place.Canon 5DIII f/8.0 1/250 ISO400 19mm

07-21-12 Rain Drenched

I have been known to "fake" rain drops by spraying leaves and petals of my garden subjects. But these drops are real: it actually rained the other morning!

07-20-12 Star Gazing

It hard not to notice the star gazer lilies, which just bloomed a few days ago.