My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
A drive out east on County Road 15 showed lots of corn fields with some very tall corn stalks. Everything is green out there from all the irrigation with a coolness not found in the city limits. Kinda nice place to be. I’m off on a 3-day trip today, see when I get back.
Last Saturday I made a scouting trip to the Pawnee Grasslands. I wanted to see the campgrounds near Briggsdale and how find out how long it took to get to the Pawnee Buttes from the campground. The campground was much bigger than I expected and is setup for some larger RVs. They have several locations for bathrooms, which us guys over 60 need, water and fire pits. I later drove over the the Buttes scouting for photo opportunities. They are everywhere. I met a young man named Marty Witt who is from the Denver area. He and his wife own a framing and photography business. He had come up for an evening of shooting and camping. We walked along the western edge of the buttes, did the proverbial photographers talk on equipment, how we got started and where we are with it. Always interesting conversations. We’d stop talking every once in a while and listen to the coyotes howling in distance or watch the two kestrels circling above us or listen to the quiet.
Best wide-angle lens? Two steps backward. Look for the ‘ah-ha’.
Ernst Haas
I’ve had a bug in my ear to purchase a super wide lens for a couple of month, then I read the above quote. Still want one. Hope everyone has a good weekend!
In case you don’t know my name is Monte. I do reside or occupy a home but my name is still Monte. It is not resident or occupant. So I do not want my mailbox filled with junk mail that does not have my name on it. Any mail that says occupant or resident does not make it past the trash bin. Yes, you can call it a pet-peeve, a sore spot, a waste of paper, whatever but it causes the hair on my neck to stand up. This idea of flooding our mailboxes with advertisements makes me feel hounded. I wish there was a way to stop it. Anyway, here’s my Friday self-portrait.
Seems everyone has a phone and many of those are smart phones. For example at lunch the other day all six of us in the restaurant were on our smart phones either texting, emailing or checking our blogs. (I’m in the later category). CNNTech article states that , “45% of cell phone owners said that their phone is a smartphone. Also, 49% of cell phone owners said that their phone operates on a smartphone platform common to the U.S. — which includes BlackBerry.” And, most of those are owned by adults. I have one. They said in an article that the biggest growth in smartphone ownership was among adults aged 18 to 24 (up 18%); the next highest growth was among those aged 45 to 54 (16%). Other demographic segments with high growth in smartphone use include whites (15%); those with some college education (14%); and women, rural dwellers and those aged 25-34 (13% each). The article also stated “The slowest growth in smartphone use was among people aged 65” which means I have 3 more years to go before I have to put mine away. Of course by then I probably will be using the next generation of whatever it is. So, this morning I was doing as this young man, enjoying a mocha latte and checking your blogs.
Words fall short when expressing my feelings when I visit the Pawnee National Grasslands. There is this quiet. The only sounds are the wind, the birds, maybe a cow mooing in the distance, my footsteps and my breathing. None of the sounds of the city can be heard, the ones we are accustomed to hearing and are almost expected. The vastness of this landscape has a way of making me feel small and insignificant, yet I feel so much a part of it. It’s an ecosystem all its own, one many people never experience. This is a land where no plow has turned the soil. There is not much of that left in of the short, mixed and tall prairies. This is cowboy country where small dark specks in the distance are grazing cattle. It’s a place of quiet.
The second image is an HDR version of the first image using three exposures; metered and plus and minus one stop. The preset used was Landscape Balanced. This one is more appealing to me but not as true to what I saw when taking the image.
Portraiture is a window to the soul.
Anonymous
Ali and I were working a tirp together. At this hotel they provide a continental breakfast in an open area near the lobby. The room had windows on three sides and presented some really nice reflective light. With a little coaxing she let me take a few images. As you can tell she has both a physical beauty but inside is an even more beautiful soul. Thanks, Ali!
I had planned on sleeping in but the internal body clock went off around 4:15 am. Tossed and turned then decided to grab the camera and see what the morning sunrise would offer. The nature areas within the city provide some wonderful opportunities for quiet and wonder as the day begins. I headed for the Cattail Chorus Ponds as it’s been a while since visiting the area. A smile came across my face as a meadowlark greeted me when I stepped out of the car. As I walked to the ponds I could feel my pants getting wet from the morning dew. The last time I was out there was about four years ago so there was a lot more growth along the banks than expected. Never the less, I found a rock to sit on along the bank and take it all in. I waited and I smiled.
This is an HDR experiment. The image was taken with my D300 and a Tamron 17-50 mm f2.8 lens. The metered exposure was at 17 mm f16 @ 1/60. It is a series of nine (9) images exposed at 1 stop, then processed in HDR Efex Pro. I chose Full Scene Compression preset and lowered the tone compression then adjusted exposure and contrast/tone in Lightroom. I would like you to let me know what you like and don’t like about the image.
This is another reason I enjoy coffee shops. 🙂
