My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
“When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don’t give a hoot in hell about it. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself. And that is no mean function.” – Edward Steichen
Yes, this is a manipulated image. It is composed of three images and run through HDR Efex Pro and then processed with Silver Efex Pro. No plants, clouds or sky were touched. I did remove about a half dozen dust spots.
Sunrise from a couple of weeks ago and worked in HDR Efex ProI. My parents have been out visiting and I sure enjoyed the time with them. They are headed back today so I pray for safe travels. I do hope everyone has a great weekend.
We awoke to a light rain this morning. Refreshing rain. If we could just have one morning a week where it would rain lightly in the morning for a couple of hours then bring out the sunshine for the remainder of the day. Now that would work for me. This image is one of the abandoned buildings at the Arapahoe Bend Nature area and is an HDR image composed of three images. A little too much but we must try different things.
It’s my belief passionate photographers have a voice inside that suggests ideas for images. These ideas randomly present themselves at the strangest moments: driving the car, taking a shower, dreams in the middle of the night, scrambling eggs, reading a book, etc. Some we remember and some fade off in the darkness of forgotten moments. Some inspirational moments are to motivate us, make us take action. The above image was just such an inspiration.
The inspiration came to me on a Saturday afternoon. The Idea was for a Sunday morning sunrise shoot. I knew about where on County Road 13 I wanted to setup and what time I needed to be there. Other than that I did not have any specific vision. I knew there were trees and fence posts that I could include in the image. I would not know what I’d come home with but I needed an image. It was also about experiencing a morning sunrise not. Probably more importantly, I needed to take action of that voice. As these small trees are on private land I needed to shoot from the bar ditch or road. I walk up and down the dirt road for places to setup. The temperature was a warm 34 degrees compared to the single digits we had the previous week. The cold was invigorating even though my fingers were aching when I finished. It’s not an image I will print but it was just what I needed. I followed the inspiration.
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”― Edward Abbey
Not so sure about his promise but I can sure relate to the rest of what he says.
“Landscape photographers should have a sense of adventure. Get out there yourself and explore. Stay off the beaten path and be instantly better by being different than the rest. Creativity can’t be taught by someone. It comes from doing, observing the results, analyzing them and doing it all over again, dozens or even hundreds of times.” Dan Jurak
A few years ago I coached in a midget football program for 5th to 8th graders and had a blast. Our goal was to teach them the basics of the sport: stance, blocking, tackling and sportsmanship. But one of the most interesting aspects was the difference each individual had in learning. There were those who had it the first time, those who were not going to get it and those who were going to need hundreds of times. I learned I belong in the later category: hundreds of times?
Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
Wendell Berry
Evening sunset taken a couple of weeks ago on County Road 19, just east of Fort Collins.