The rain was on the horizon. Shafts of sunlight pouring from above, trying to punch through the storm clouds.
The grandeur of nature strikes me with awe, in case you have not figure that out about me yet. I love to capture the fleeting beauty of the chaos of wind, rain, sunlight, clouds, and the forests, flowers and creatures, including us two legged ones.
Another scene from a continual play put on for free. All we have to do is take notice and enjoy.
From April 2001, at a family dinner in our home.
We got silly. Well, we always are, but I started this one exhibition.
How to hang a spoon from your nose: http://www.wikihow.com/Hang-a-Spoon-from-Your-Nose A rare talent, which even you may take up and make your own. If you’re of a silly bent.
Son Chris took this one, using my first digital camera, an Olympus D450Z. I’m on my sixth camera if I count the one bought for my bride, and I do.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must give this trick another go in the here and now. It’s been far too long since I’ve done it. =)
One flower, against a background of stone.
A burst of color, red, green, yellow and white.
Catching my eye as I rove the backyard in search of catchable visuals.
Out here in full splendor, catching the sun it needs to grow, throwing off the colors within it’s genetic code.
Just as this flower is doing what it was made to do, so am I.
Works out well that way for the two of us.
My first thought was of setting the camera on the ground in front of my car and taking my photo as I lean over peeking under the car.
That didn’t work out so well. So I punted.
I saw the timber framed wall next to my car and thought this one up. Not complex, as I have a list of other things to do. I always have a list, but it’s been growing. Time to prune it a bit. =)
Just me, and this one struck me as more natural than a pose. I was testing the wireless remote to make sure it was firing, listening for the shutter as I walked.
Catching me in mid-stride, remote in my right hand.
I noticed later that the leaves of the birch tree are covering the left side of my head. That’s the side which was turned, listening.
I like the perspective and view that the 10mm lens give to this.
A slice of my evening.
I like this even though it’s not in focus.
The solitary bee, going about it’s business. Flitting from flower to flower in search of sustenance.
The bee was a very busy bee that day. I tried hard to keep it in focus, but between the 300mm focal length, the low light and the photographer, it isn’t sharp. Not even close.
The photo as an impressionist painting. The image of color and purpose, letting your imagination fill in the details.
Even the imperfect can attract and provoke a response. Like much of life.
I saw the swiftly moving thunderclouds and had to try.
I changed lenses to my ultra-wide Sigma 10-20mm. Went out to the deck and propped the camera up on top of our grill with a wire grill brush to give the lens a nice tilt. Set the timer and this is the result.
I kept going back and forth between a black & white conversion and this color version. I left it color to give a more ominous sense to the clouds, at least in my perception.
I used the selective enhancement tool in the beta version of Lightroom 2, which went live into full production today. I used the tool to lighten up my face. You can really see the noise in there, but not so much in the other, properly exposed parts of the photo. I’ve learned to expose to the right of the histogram, in order to reduce the apparent effect of sensor noise. Look it up if you’re curious. I know I am, always. =)
This one yard has three trees which have been cut down and which stumps have been carved into animal likenesses. In addition to this Eagle, the menagerie includes a bear holding two fish and two owls.
I stopped along the road to take this. There’s no really good close parking. One day, I plan on parking and hiking back along the busy highway to take better portraits.
I like what the owners have done to turn what had to have been a painful decision into works of art. The trees had to have been 30-50 foot high beauties.
I wonder if there’s more to the story.