• clouds,  landscape,  Plants/Nature,  trees

    Like What I See

    October 12, 2011
    Standing Alone

    Last week Ken Bello had a post asking the question about what was blogworthy. That was a new word for me. After a quick search on the internet I found the word to already be in the Urban Dictionary. Anyway he offered up a new word for me to chew on. His question asks why we post the images we do. His selection is based on one thing: does he like it. My answer is the same. I think my blog is pretty eclectic in its subject matter. Even though I add text to my posts, the premise of my blog is photography and I would like for them to speak for themselves and that doesn’t always happen. I post images of landscapes, macro, street scenes, portraits, and whatever catches my attention around me. I do have certain subjects I’m drawn to, such as trees and lately the more wide open scenes (see above). Sometimes I put my eye to the viewfinder and press the shutter button because a whisper within me suggested it. If I listen to the whisper and spend the time working the scene, I will usually “like what I see” on my computer at home.

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  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  Plants/Nature,  trees

    Standing Tall

    October 11, 2011
    Standing Tall

    If any of you follow my blog then you have seen images of this tree before. It is located east of Fort Collins along a dirt country road. It stands alone in an open field. The farmer leaves it there as a watchtower of the field. I would like to think he intimately knows this tree. Anyway, this tree has been on my mind the last few days as it’s been a while since I made a visit. And, as a photographer sharing life on this earth it’s important to revisit some of our subjects in nature to check up on them. Trees have so much to offer us in sustaining this earth.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunsets

    Colorado Sunset

    October 10, 2011
    Sunset

    “Nothing is learned so well as a craft mastered through trial and error.”

    John Fielder

    The above image was created with one of the presets in HDR Efex Pro and made from a series of three exposures bracketed at one stop. I’ve done nothing else to it except add my watermark. Again, my favorite trees. I’ll add followups as I progress along.

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  • Plants/Nature,  trees

    Fall Colors

    October 9, 2011

    I’ve not had the chance to head for the mountains in search of the celebrated aspen Fall colors. So, I went back in the archives and located an image that in my opinion depicts the colors we see in Rocky Mountain National Park. I think the aspen colors in the northern part of Colorado are very different than what you see in the southwestern part of the state. As of now, Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road are closed due to snow with snow expected over the weekend. So, this image would look very different right now.

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  • Cityscapes/Urban

    Telephone Pole Revisited

    October 8, 2011
    Telephone Pole

    It is a cold and wet Saturday morning. By wet I mean it is a mix or rain, sleet and now snow. The rain started around 3:00 this morning and is expected to last most of the day. And, by cold I mean 36 degrees. This is the transition time between Fall and Winter. I sipping on a hot chocolate at one my local coffee hangouts, watching the moisture and gray sky.

    This past week I had a short overnight in Dallas that did allow for a couple hours to walk around the hotel in the morning before our flight time. I headed to this telephone pole just to see what other images I could come up. I’ve posted two other images from this same telephone pole, here and here.

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  • landscape,  mountains,  sunsets

    New Software

    October 7, 2011
    Peralta Trail

    I was one of those photographers who carried two GND filters, a one stop and a two stop. A year or two ago I removed them from the bag and started bracketing certain scenes for HDR images, even though I did not own any HDR software nor did I know what the technology would evolve into. I also did know how well it would be acceptable by myself or others. The only cost to shooting more images would be a small amount of my time and disc space. So, why not.

    Just as any software there is a learning curve involved. We all go through the steps. I mumble to myself a question like: What happens when I do this? I watch the image form on the screen then mutter something close to “Yuko!” I then quickly hit command “Z” and try something else. I’m quickly noticing how important it is to expose them correctly. A good series of images will make a good final image.

    The scene above was taken while visiting my parents in January of 2010. I took a total of seven images, bracketed at one stop each. This scene is created with three exposures, one at metered, the second at plus one stop and the third at minus one stop, and using one of the presets in Nik HDR Efex. I settled on the Nik HDR Effex software over Photomatix because it was more intuitive for me. Only time will tell if I made a sound decision.

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  • architecture,  Barn

    Cloudless Sky

    October 4, 2011

    A cloudless sky was whispering my name. After loading up the car I started driving east, I knew would end up at this old barn set against this open sky. I’ve taken several images of this barn and always with some wonderful cloud pattern to go along with it. But on this particular evening the lifeless sky was barren of clouds. Even the birds and flying insects seemed to be lost without a cloud painted sky. And, this barn has always intrigued me. I wonder about its history. When was it built and what was it’s initial purpose? I may visit some of the farms houses around the area and ask about it. If I do it could make an interesting story.

    I parked the car and headled across the newly plowed field, circling the barn for an appealing perspective. I can’t remember the last time I walked in a plowed field. It may have been in my high school years when our family would visit relatives in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle area where they farmed. We would time this visit during their wheat harvest, giving me opportunities to work in the fields. A different world for a city boy.

    As I stumbled along, I realized how much of my life is lived on level and smooth concrete, asphalt or tile, very seldom ever making full contact with the earth. The smell of the dirt was refreshing to me, stirring from sleep memories of the past. I smiled. I reached down and grabbed a handful of earth, feeling the texture, breaking small clods of dirt and let it fall through my fingers. As I stood up I noticed how vast the scene was around me, something not experienced in our large cities. With only the barn and no trees, I felt so small and insignificant. So what did this land look like 200 hundred years ago. What plants grew here before the plow? Was this area a massive prairie dog town? Enough of that. Hope you enjoy these images.

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  • landscape,  sunrises

    A Subtle Pink

    October 3, 2011
    A Subtle Pink

    Every so often I have trouble sleeping. On this particular morning this past July I woke at 3:00 AM. Got up and made a visit to the bathroom then tossed and turned for the next hour. I finally turned on the desk lamp and opened my journal in an attempt to find out what was stirring inside. Finally, around 4:15 I jumped in the shower,dressed, grabbed the camera and tripod and headed east to meet the morning sun. It’s then I realized it’d been a while since I went in search of the morning sun. I think that was the reason for waking early and much needed for the soul. No radiant colors but only the subtle pink glow of the low lying clouds.

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  • leaves,  Plants/Nature

    Fallen Leaves

    October 2, 2011
    Environmental Learn Center, Colorado

    “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

    Henry David Thoreau

    I confess to spending most of my youth with a lot self doubt and insecurity. The view of myself was not healthy as I did not like how I looked, hated my name, felt I had no talent. All of which are a sign of how much I always lowered myself compared to others. In spite of my low self perception I was able to accomplish many things in life. I succeeded in a decent career. Who I am today can be attributed to encouragement from good people in my life, finding courage to try and accepting failure (even expecting failure), and moving away from all comparisons. My failures, if you can even call them that, were much needed in my life. I compare that to dying to those false views so I can have realistic views. I’ve also come to know the dreams I’ve envisioned can and do come true. I may not attain the expectations of these dreams because some have exceeded expectations. Each Fall we witness the dying of the season in preparation of the new life to come, same is true of us.

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  • clouds,  landscape

    Ominous CLouds

    October 1, 2011
    Looks Like Rain

    For those who live east of the Mississippi River or in the Northwest coast of the United States, scenes like this are not often seen. While those who live west of the Mississippi River do not see the lush green foliage of the forests, the abundant plants that thrive in wetter soils, the many colorful birds of the east. Just to give you an idea of the size of this scene I need to let you know the buildings along the horizon is a large farm with three large feed bins.

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