Been A While…
Wow. It’s been quite some time. A lot has happened. Initially, I was unemployed for a little bit, and anyone that has ever been there knows that priorities change. The internet had to go. Time was spent looking for a job, pounding the pavement, rather than walking the streets looking for photographs waiting to be taken. Money got tight, gas prices rose, and activity in my life ran down to a minimum.
But I’m back. I’m working, making money, and putting my camera back in hand, and priorities back in line. So by way of a re-introduction, here’s just a few random shots that have helped pass the time…
Zayne and Great Basin Gophersnake
My son and his girlfriend hunting for petroglyphs in the Volcanic Tablelands.
Goldfinch
Zayne enjoying Hot Ditch. Natural reflection from the water cured backlight shadows nicely.
Random front yard flower
1982 Shovelhead Custom Rigid. She will be mine. VERY soon…
So…yea…just a few shots to say, I’m back. And things are getting better. Thanks for stopping by!!
One of My First Shots
A long time ago, or so it seems, I took the plunge and invested in a mid-range DSLR camera. My best friend John was thrilled. Within 2-3 days of getting my box in the mail, John took me to one of his favorite locations in The Alabama Hills to try it out. Those first few images were rightly crap. Poor composition, no subjective connection, and only moderately acceptable exposures. But on that first day, I learned and re-learned some fascinating aspects of photography that were forgotten in the maze of years.
I went back through the files from that first day, and actually found one that was fairly reasonable. So I took it into Photoshop CS4, and reprocessed the original file…
Southern Inyo Mountains
I was feeling a little nostalgic, and missing my recently deceased best friend, John. I’m always gonna miss him, but he will always guide my feet and my exposures in this gorgeous little valley that we both loved so much. Thinking back on that first day shooting, I couldn’t help but process this one with a little sense of nostalgia, and an antique flare of it’s own. It was only a few years ago, but it really does seem like a lifetime…
Thanks so much for taking the time to look!
Backyard Macros
So…I’m in the process of moving out of my tiny-ass apartment, and in to a large house. For the past 4 years, my daughter and I have shared a 2-bedroom apartment with a room mate, which means I have been sleeping on the couch for longer than I care to remember. We are finally moving in to a large 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house with my girlfriend and her daughter. What a fantastic change!
However…this leaves me very little time to go out and shoot. So…backyard “wilderness” will have to suffice…
Western Longnose-Rhinocheilus lecontei
Make A Wish
Looking at the world through a Fly's Eyes
The Nucleus
One more great aspect of our new house…PLENTY of open habitat to explore. I haven’t walked around too much to explore the property in depth, but I know there are about 1,000 acres or so of public land surrounding us. I also know that I received 3 different rattlesnake removal calls from this area last year, and all 3 were very nice Panamint Rattlers. Rarely are removal calls actually for rattlesnakes. Most of the time, they are big gophersnakes, occasionally a kingsnake, and even a few garter snakes. But in this area, they have all been actual rattlers, and that makes me very happy, contrary to what one might think, considering there are 2 young girls running around. But my daughter is well trained in identification, and my girlfriend’s daughter is quickly learning…
Thanks for taking the time to look!
Someone Likes My Stuff…
Check out this blog page–
http://www.photography-colleges.org/50-amazing-nature-photography-bloggers/
I’ve been getting hits from this place for a few weeks now. Someone actually liked my stuff enough to list it among the top 50 nature photography blogs currently active.
Wow. That is incredibly flattering. Thank you SO much to whomever researched and compiled the list for including my little corner of the photographic blog-o-sphere. Very flattering, indeed…
The Orton Effect
The Orton effect was first used by Michael Orton. Using color slide film, he would take 2 shots of the same subject, one over-exposed and blurry, the other in focus. He would then sandwich these two slides together and the effect would have a very surreal, almost dream-like quality to them. I have heard it referred to as “painterly”, “artistic”, and “dreamy”. Whatever you choose to call it…it’s pretty cool.
It can easily be applied digitally with today’s editing software…
Creating the above image was really quite simple. I use Corel’s Paint SHop Pro Photo 12, so this “tutorial” may not be helpful to those of you that use Photoshop…
The first step is basic processing of the base image. I make brightness/contrast, high pass sharpen, and clarify adjustments to get a solid base image to start with. Than I copy this image, and paste it as a new layer.
I make the top layer invisible, so I can see the bottom layer, and increase the brightness a bit, than apply a Gaussian Blur. I typically use a 15-25 pixel radius, but I have used higher. Be warned…you CAN overdo it.
Once my bottom layer is nice and blurry, I switch to my top layer, and increase the sharpness using High Pass Sharpen once again. Than I decrease the opacity of the top layer, until I can see the blurry layer underneath. Than it’s a matter of taste, adjusting the opacity of the top layer to achieve the desired amount of blur and “halo” from the blurred bottom layer.
Once I have the desired amount of blur and sharpness, I flatten the image, and continue processing, as necessary. For the top image, the processing ended at merging the layers. For the above image, I boosted contrast a touch and clarify just a bit after merging to bring out some of that texture in the rocks.
And that’s really all there is to it. Play around with it. I have found that the images most suited to the Orton effect seem to be those with lots of leaves, trees, or water. These tend to make a really neat dream-scene using this effect.
I hope you enjoyed this, and Thanks for reading!
Bishop City Park
I went to the park with Annette and Rose today. It was a pretty nice day, and Rose is quite the camera-ham, though she pretends otherwise at first…
Reflection of Change
Pond at the Park
Thanksgiving Cottonwoods
Rosie Posie
Rosie
Thanks for coming along!
Round Valley Relic
The storm clouds rolling in while taking my daughter to school this morning were simply incredible. I was racking my brain the whole way to school and back home, trying to figure out where I could go, close by, and get some decent shots. Than I remembered this old, rusted, gutted, half of a car out behind Kaylee’s mom’s house…
And my favorite shot of the morning…
I really like this last shot. I actually took 3 exposures from this angle, intending to make an HDR photo merge, but when I got the files uploaded, I realized I didn’t need it, so I discarded the other 2 files, and processed this one as normal. I think it came out fairly decent.
I will be going back here, after a nice dusting of fresh snow hits Round Valley…
Thanks for looking!
Trying Something New
So…I picked up a photography magazine the other day. Can’t remember which one, but it’s around here somewhere… Anyhow… It had this article on creating a really neat optical illusion. You take a normal photograph, and make it look as though the viewer is looking at a miniaturized model of whatever your subject is. So I tried it out…
Desert Diorama
Tiny Sabrina
Paradise, CA and Mt. Tom
I don’t know…it’s pretty neat. I suspect it will be over used and become cliche fairly quickly, but…it’s a neat trick, and can make an interesting image from something you might not otherwise even process.
Let me know what you think, and if you want to know how…I’llbe happy to explain. Or I can find the magazine and tell you what it was. Wish I could remember…
Thanks for reading!
Something Different…
Back in the days of darkroom processing, and long before color film became widely used, photographers would sometimes play around a little with colorizing. Most of the time, the technique would consist of literally hand painting a B&W print. The print itself would take care of clarifying the subject, while the paint used, usually a thin watercolor, would add a semblance of color to the image. Sometimes the effect was quite stunning. Most of the time it was mediocre at best. Sometimes it was just plain horrible. But when it worked, the effect was quite interesting.
In today’s digital world, this technique is all but forgotten. Fear not, there is a way to accomplish this with Photoshop, or whatever you use. I use Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo Ultimate 12.5. It’s a good program for basic editing and intermediate manipulations, but not as deep as CS4. Anyhow…
Colorized Round
Colorized Cross
Both of these were shot in monotone, and processed as per my normal workflow, adjusting brightness, contrast, sharpness, and clarity to suit my taste…just like a B&W print would have been. Than, I copied the image, and pasted it as a new layer. I “colorized” the original shot using my Hue/Saturation channel, and selectively erased the monuments from the top layer, to reveal the colorized layer below. I did add a heavy Gaussian blur to the B&W trees in the green cross… The effect is similar to what a B&W print hand painted with watercolors would look like.
Depending on your desires, you can really make some interesting stuff using this technique. I’m not that artistic and I remain very basic in my manipulations. But there is no reason why you couldn’t use as many layers of color as you wanted to create as deep an image as possible. The potential is really limited only by your imagination, so…go play!
Thanks for reading!
Another Random Post…
I know I’ve been doin’ this a lot lately, but I just haven’t been getting out to shoot the way I should be. So I’m mostly falling back on going through older shots from earlier in the summer, and finding the gems that were lost in the shuffle previously. I’ve come up with a couple more…
Sweet Innocence
Invisible Summits
Mt. Tom and Wheeler Crest
This last one is a color conversion using the Channel Mixer that I took earlier tonight. The lighting never really got good, but this one came out OK…at least…I think it did…
Thanks for stopping by!
North Lake
Went for a quick walk around North Lake this morning, and snapped a few pics. So…come along!
These little blue butterflies were flitting about everywhere. They were erally pretty, and it was quite windy. So when they landed and had good purchase, they hesitated to fly off again. It made it much easier than usual to get a decent photo.
There was a TON of wildflowers all over the place. Little purple daisey, big yellow daisey, small white puffball things, Paintbrush, Lupine…TONS of different wildflowers around. It was a nice afternoon.
This is the view of North Lake if you come up the right trail. It’s a really pretty lake backed some very majestic mountains. I love it up there…especially when it is 103*F in the desert and only about 85*F up there…
Thanks for coming along!
Completely Random
The curse (or gift?) of every photographer…a whole bunch of pictures that somehow get lost in the mix only to be found later. We then ask ourselves, “Why didn’t I post these?” Well…that’s where posts like this come in to play…
Daisey Patch
Perfectly Imperfect
No Idea. It was hanging from a planter outside of a restaurant...
And of course…I have a couple more pictures of baby snakes that hatched out yesterday…
Ghost Motley sticking his nose out to say "HI!"
Anery Motley (left) and Ghost Motley. Siblings ffrom the same clutch.
So…yea…a random scattering of photos that I’ve taken and processed..but never posted. So…Not better time than the present!
Thanks for looking!
Where’d you get your license!?!
Well…some of you know and some of you don’t. Some might have been able to discern through my posts that the past month has been incredibly stressful and frustrating for me. I haven’t really talked about it until now because, well, frankly…because I wasn’t sure how everything was going to work out. But it’s coming to an end, so I can let it all hang out…
Early this year, I picked up a car that I have wanted for a very, VERY long time. When I was in High School back in the ’80′s(I know…ancuient history, right?), sports coupes were all the rage. Well…after I graduated in ’91, I desperately wanted to get my hands on a Chevy Beretta GT…but never had the opportunity and the money at the same time.
Earlier this year, I came across an incredible deal. 1993 Chevy Beretta GT…in my price range. The guy was asking more than I had, but after looking at the car…I offered him every penny of cash I had, and he came down in his price to hook me up. I LOVE this car…
This car is the BOMB! 75,000 miles on a freshly rebuilt V6 engine. New radiator, thermostat, water pump, and hoses. Brand new AC unit and compressor. Aluminum Alloy wheels with brand new Toyo Touring tires, and everything a 30-something kid could hope for in a sports coupe. I got my car. And my daughter was thrilled because it is blue!
Flash forward to May 2, 2009, approximately 9:30 pm…
My good friend John and I decided to go cruising for snakes. We went to a deserted road I knew about 100 miles from home, where I had recently found a Desert Rosy Boa. The night started off good with a beautiful little Mojave Glossy Snake that was a baby from last season. This was a lifer for me…it was gonna be a good night.
We drove to the top of the road, flipped aound and headed back down. I saw a beautiful Sidewinder on the left side of the road, so I pulled all the way over, getting my driver’s side off the road and into the dirt, right up against a berm and some sagebrush. John and I got out to photograph the Sidewinder.
Let me set the scene…
The area I am parked is at the top of a gentle downhill slope that is arrow straight for roughly 2 miles from my car to the highway. ARROW straight, with nothing to block the view from where we were all the way to the highway. From where we were parked, I could count the people going in to the convenience store 2 miles away, or the number of cars in the Rest Area on the other side of the street. There are no trees, only desert scrub brush and cactus. There are no sudden dips or turns, just a straight line with an even, gentle slope.
I am laying on my belly in front of the snake getting some decent pictures, and I hear a car coming. I stand up, and this car seems to be coming straight at us, about a mile away. I call to john, and he stands up and we watch this car. Now…my car is running, headlights on. John and I both have camping headlights on our heads, illuminated, and this car keeps coming straight for us.
We get out from in front of my car, and as we are jumping up and down screaming at this car to stop, slow down, or ANYTHING…shee veers entirely off the road, runs over John’s foot, and smacks my car, driver’s side headlight to driver’s side headlight. My car go flying back in to the middle of the road about 40 feet back, ripping blacktop up out of the road as she knocked me out of the recessed shoulder and back in to the road.
And I can hear the rattlesnake buzzing like crazy…luckily he wasn’t hit. Unluckily, he was very angery, very close, and very well hidden. Have I mentioned that I usually wear sandals when road cruising? They are good luck for finding rattlesnakes, but don’t help much when an angry, hidden rattlesnake strikes from a bush after a car accident…
This is my car:
Actually not too bad, considering she hit me at 55mph, and knocked my car back roughly 40 feet or more. Some body damage, but no leaking fluids, and the engine still running. I even drove it the 2 miles to the gas station. Heck I even drove it from my house to the body shop in town for an estimate. It drives great…didn’t even knock the alignment out of whack.
Here’s her car:
This fiberglass P.O.S. exploded on impact, sending pieces of plastic and fiberglass everywhere, and raining green and red liquid all over the place. This car is destroyed. Take that, Bitch!
The problem is…she smashed my headlight, so my wiring harness is frazzled…comlpetely shattered. No healights. No taillights. No blinkers. No brakelights. Illegal to drive it.
Now…I can’t find parts. I recieved a generous settlement check from her insurance company, and have spent the past month scouring the Western United States for parts but…can’t find any. Found some in Wisconsin, but the shipping would be twice the cost of the parts.
So I took my settlement check, and I am getting a beat-around pickup truck. It’s a decent little Nissan Pickup…low miles for an ’87, and some minor repairable issues, but it runs like a champ, and can get me and my kid around until I can get the parts for my car to be fixed. Plus…I need a 4wd pickup anyhow. I mean…the Beretta is a great car, but frankly…I won’t drive her on dirt roads, and she just can’t get me to a lot of the places I want to go. The pickup can. And the price is right. I can get it and beat the shit out of it until I either fix the Beretta, or break down and get a new car next year.
So…that’s it. My stress, my life. I miss my Beretta. But at least I’m picking up some wheels this afternoon. Not ideal, for sure but…it will work. And I’ll fix the Beretta. Slowly…but surely…
Thanks for bearing with me!!
Afternoon Strollin’…and a bit of a rant…
I’m in a shitty mood. People piss me off, my car situation still isn’t squared away, and I HATE being played for a fool. All you people that think you’re so smart with your games and your lies…just realize that you aren’t getting anything over on me. Y’all can say and do whatever the fuck you want to make yourself feel better. Just don’t be foolish enough to think I believe your bullshit…
Anyhow…whenever I egt stressed or angry…I grab the camera and take a walk. So I took a stroll through town this afternoon to see what was goin’ on…
The pond at the Town Park had lots of algea blooming…but very little active wildlife…
And of course…any time there is cloud coverage behind the church on Main St., it makes a great subject.
Otherwise…there wasn’t a whole lot going on today…
Black and Whites
Took some monotone images of my daughter playing around yesterday afternoon. Thought I would share…
Simple Portrait
Deep in Thought
I love taking pictures of my daughter. She knows how to pose, without anyone telling her. She’s truly a natural, and she makes it easy to take good photos.
I hope you enjoyed looking at these!
Random Photos
Well…I’ve taken several photos over the last few days, and I don’t really have anywhere to place them, so…Here’s a “Random Photos” post. My gift to you… 
Glossy Snake-Arizona elegans candida
Another Prtty Sidewinder
Thde prettiest young Panamint I've ever seen
GIGANTIC Desert Hair Scorpion
And that’s about it. See? Just some random shots taken over the weekend. Hope you enjoyed!
Goin’ Outta Town
I’m heading out of town for the weekend. I’m going to see my bestest friend in the whole world, and we’re gonna play with hawks and vultures, and look for snakes, and have a wonderful weekend.
I won’t be posting while I’m gone, but I hope to come back with 16GB or more of wonderful photos to share.
See y’all in a couple days!
Self Portrait
Thought I would share a recent Sepia-toned Self Portrait I did…
And a B&W one…
I know…my face isn’t visible in either one. I planned it that way. I hate having my picture taken, and I don’t enjoy pictures of myself. So these are as good as it gets…;)
Thanks for looking!
Lucky Capture
I was snapping pictures of the parrots at work the other day, and managed this lucky catch of Bailey, the Blue and Gold Macaw, dropping a piece of almond shell. I didn’t even notice the little piece of shell in mid-air until I uploaded it to the computer…
Thanks for taking the time to look!!
Sunset Desert Paintbrush
A friend of mine and I decided to go for a quick road cruise last night, to see if maybe, possibly, by some streak of incredibly good luck, the warm weather over the last couple weeks had brought the snakes out of brumation.
We were walking around in the rocks, flipping cover, looking for rattlers in an area where I found over 15 baby rattlers last fall, and a group of rock climbers informed us that they had seen a baby rattler earlier in the day.
Rejuvenated and excited, we hopped in the car, and headed down the road at a whopping 20mph, looking for snakes.
We found one…a baby Panamint Rattlesnake, crushed and completely flattened by passing cars. A horrible sight, in itself, but ion the context of being the first snake spotted for the 2009 herping season…incredibly invigorating and exciting to see.
Regardless…this flattened little baby was NOT photo worthy, and would not even be identifiable to someone unfamiliar with the species in the area. I only knew what he was because I know what is there.
But not far from the mangled little snakelet was this gorgeous Desert Paintbrush, just starting to bloom. The sun was setting behind the Sierras, and the light coming across the plateau just made this little flower shine!
f/5.6; 1/80; ISO 100
As always, thanks for taking the time to look. Keep watching…the snakes are starting to move, and I’m determined to get some wonderful photos of the local herpetofauna this summer…
Night Shots
I took a walk down Main St. tonight with my camera and tripod, looking for some decent long exposure shots. Ironically enough…I actually found a couple, what with all the drunks wandering around for St. Patrick’s day, and such…
Anyhow…I learned that High Schools can look creepy at night, Big Rigs and long exposures can learn to play nicely together, and 60 seconds is a long time to hope that the wind doesn’t blow and move your subject.
f/22; 60 seconds; ISO 100
f/22; 40 seconds; ISO 100
f/22; 20 seconds; ISO 100
The above street shot is the best one, in my opinion, but these ones aren’t bad, either…
f/22; 25 seconds; ISO 100
f/22; 20 seconds; ISO 100
f/22; 20 seconds; ISO 100
Hope y’all enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them! As always, thanks kindly for taking the time to look!
Shitty Day? Take Some Pictures!!
Man, did I wake up a grumpy old shit today!! I hate the world and everyone in it today, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea why. Just a rotten mood, I guess…
But I can’t think of anything that helps me feel better than getting a few good pictures, so I spent lunch at the park again, and even managed to get out for a sunset shot.
f/11; 1/1000; ISO 100
f/9; 1/60; ISO 100
f/10; 1/640; ISO 100
f/5.6; 1/250; ISO 100
f/7.1; 1/320; ISO 100
All in all, I really shouldn’t bitch. I live in an area where I am able to go outside for a half hour or so and find perfect photo opportunities, and I can reliably shoot beautiful sunsets every week. Couple that with the fact that I managed to make it through the day without getting an Assault Charge, and my shitty day wasn’t really all that bad…
Thanks for looking!!
Lunch in the Park, Part 2
Took my lunch to the park again today. My focus today was trying to catch birds in flight. There is a hawk that lives in the park. It is either a Sharpshin or a Cooper’s…I don’t know. My raptor identification is not up to par. They have too many legs for my taste. Doesn’t matter…I didn’t see him today anyhow. But I WILL get pictures of him flying and, hopefully, hunting before the end of the summer…
I did manage to catch a crow and a seagull in flight. There were some other more “odd” flying creatures at the park today, too…
f/5.6; 1/800; ISO 100
f/9; 1/800; ISO 100
f/9; 1/400; ISO 100
f/9; 1/400; ISO 100
And one of the more strange flying creatures in the park today:
f/6.3; 1/500; ISO 100
Thanks for taking the time to look, and as always, your comments are welcome and appreciated!
Black & White Film
I’ve always loved black and white film pictures. Even with the new digital cameras and photoshop you simply cannot get the same depth of shading that you get from black and white film. In high school, I was lucky enough to have the privilege of a black and white photography class complete with darkroom and processing.
After high school, I lost my “roots”. Actually, what I lost was my old Olympus OM10 SLR film camera, which greatly impeded my ability to take photographs. I still love and miss that camera.
I had an opportunity to buy an old Olympus OM10 in 2002 for the price of $25. I jumped at it, and immediately went out and bought a couple rolls of Kodak B&W film. I didn’t have the ability to develope these photos myself, nor did I have the chance to work with them in the processing dark room. They are “as is”, so to speak.
Of course, I scanned them into my computer, added the neat little frames and my name to them…but otherwise, they are the way I took them. Hope you enjoy them!
Rock and Dead Trees...one of my favorites...
Nice canyon view with soft, summer clouds.
I just like the contrast in these flowers.
Long exposure at night...almost a full minute.
Random Rock. A little washed out, but still decent contrast...I think...
Random stump with nice textures and contrast.
Just an old, dead tree in the woods that caught my eye.
Thanks for taking a look. As always…your comments are welcome and appreciated!
