 Where was I on May 21, 2008?
Watching a bear cub nap. Is there a better thing to do? I realized today I had a few photographs that I had not reviewed and graded for archiving. Talk about day dreaming in color! The photo above was taken with my 600mm lens at about 60 yards. Mom was about 40 yards further. The little guys are so active that it is pretty difficult to compose. I remember the weather, odors and who was with me. A great memory and a better photo to back up the memory. The net is a very large number of shots. About 40GB just with this adventure with mom and cubs. It's very important that all your photo's are graded, archived and backed up. Since the passing of my friend Preston nobody has been encouraging me to back up of my photo's. This past weekend a hard drive with 1TB of storage was added to my existing TB. I ordered another 1.5 TB today. All this space is to take the externally loaded pictures and back them up internally. Then I will add a large external to back all up and take off site. I would dread turning the corner and seeing 15k of photo's going up in smoke. Or to turn on my computer and have a blank blue screen. This is currently occurring at work. Many have lost all the information on their drives. I have committed to keep an extra copy of all my photo's away from my home. Then I will always be able to view the cherished shots of my family, my grandsons, travel photo's and my extended family (those incredible wild life). Make sure your doing the same.....
 Just about when I thought winter was in it's last hours of nighttime ready for morning spring, back it comes! Though the calendar shows spring is here, it will be a while...yet. Green trees, naps on the grass and most importantly that incredible pine odor as I lay in the aged needles watching my favorite wild characters. It's like...enough with the scenics, abstracts, and attempts to stall for that ultimate shot in the outdoors. JUST KIDDING! I do look forward to those times with the big game. This has been a great year though. Shooting different perspectives and subjects will do nothing but help with my photographic skills. Since launching my web site last year I have committed to looking beyond the "norm". Attempting new visual subjects and compositions. The photo above was taken two weeks ago. As you can see Jackson Lake is still frozen. Winter is beautiful there, I do however, prefer spring, summer and fall. The Teton Park is at least a two month's before the big game is frolicking in the open space. I hope to get to the north entrance of Yellowstone before the park officially opens. There has been many opportunity's up through Lamar Valley. Stay with me and please leave comments on all the blogs you feel comfortable doing so. I look to those comments for support and ways to improve.
 1/800 sec. @ f/6.3, 150mm
What a fun afternoon. I love assignments! Framing. Like the photo above there can be a very simple way to framing a subject. The flags and the pole framed the shadow of the subject. To me this photo is quit busy. The framing works OK.  1/180 sec @ f/8.0, 34mm
Ok How is this framing? Lines, dots, circles, and a walker? Get out of here! When looking for framing shots I saw this as a framed shot. Let's talk. The circles (manholes in the concrete) create an imaginary line. Especially with the newly grouted crack between them. Just above the walker is foot prints of a girl that had just played in the fountain and left wet footsteps. She is just out of the frame. So we have a line with circles and a line with the wet footsteps. The cracks (expansion joints) cross just under the walker. The combo of these items frames her in the photo. Or maybe I saw the potential for a fun photo and took it.  1/750 Sec @ f6.3, 200mm
This boy in the water was just too easy to pass up. The water frames the boy. (really?). The afternoon was very enjoyable. All the photographs were taken with the Nikon D-200, an 18-200mm lens, all exposures were lowered by -0.33. A continuous ISO of 100 in all of them.
 Nikon D-3, 24-70 f/2.8 lens, 1/500s @ f/22, ISO 800
ROCKY.......Mountains. Ok I couldn't resist with the rocky and mountains. Our assignment is FRAMING! Yes! An easy assignment. Hold on a minute! Easy for who! Not me! Here we go again, scene's are recorded by someone in a camera with a hopeful out come. With some experience using camera equipment, light, composition, and etc., can't just anyone take a shot that utilizes framing? Here's the test....what is the subject in the photo above? Wait..... Wait...... Ok the poll says - all ten of you have different answers. That's the beauty and the difficulty of it! What I see as a nice well exposed, well balanced, pleasing photograph another may see as scrap paper. So here is what I saw, see and hope is expressed to you.
The photo is framing the Wasatch Front. A part of the Rocky Mountains. Or literally ROCKY MOUNTAINS. I wanted the rock to be a bold statement in the photo. The rock's grain is in direct conflict with the framed subject. The curves, texture and the size of the rock give it an interesting, bold, hard, and immovable feel. Most critics would not like it I believe. Too flat, too much rock, uninteresting, etc. My point is that it made me think about a specific assignment and eventual photo. I feel that my goal was satisfied. Artistically, well you will have to decide for yourself. For that alone it was worth it! Shot at ISO 800 because I wanted to flatten/compress the image a little and - the lens was at 65mm, the aperture was at f/22. I needed the full depth of field. I was hand holding (forgot my tripod)(Bad photographer!). Workflow - photo was edited in NIK at Infrared Black and White.
 
The smartest construction guy I know (friend, associate and a very old man), seems interested in my first attempt at Square Foot Gardening. The guy that started it all is Mel Bartholomew. To see more look here. I am looking forward a bumper crop this year!
Dang it!!! I was so disappointed when I got home and put the photo up on my 30" monitor. It looked good in the camera, looked good on my Epson. There is usually a short period of time to decide on exposure, aperture, etc, when shooting a Griz mom with cubs. In this case I bet wrong. I was OK with the composition. Shots like this I can anticipate a crop to create a panorama look. My aperture was wide open at f/4.0. I really wanted as much detail as possible so I kept the ISO as low as possible at ISO 400. The cubs were really active. A lot of motion, wrestling and play. Should have pushed the ISO and closed down a little on the aperture. If you look close the cubs are slightly out of focus. The actual plane is in front of mom Grizzly. The depth of field tells it all. Could have done a lot better. It was a learning experience for me. The light left quickly and so did the bears. This was the best of the shots of these bears that day. Yes I was back before sunrise the next day!
  
Who's that guy with the camera laying at the goal? Grandpa's will do anything to get "that" picture. When 4 year old kids play soccer the rules are a little mushy. Close enough to the goal to block shots was this sports photographers position (at least at this game). I have not given up the wildlife thing. It's March and the best wildlife are in acapulco on vacation. Thank goodness my grandson is becoming the next Pele (spell check really does not like this word). You know the famous soccer star Pele? It was a short game. Good thing I only shot 16GB of pic's. Hey he's worth it!
Can it get any weirder? I really like this photo. I mean the un-photoshopped one. It's one that anyone else besides me would look at it and say "what's the subject?" But now it's an abstract it needs no subject. It was shot in full daylight. A little bit of a tough exposure considering the snow and shadows in the photo. I exposed for the highlights (no little blinkers). The temptation was to attempt an HDR process. I passed on that mostly because I was hand holding. To get the abstract above I enhanced the color balance to the gold side. Added some grain (not sure why). Then the weird thing happened. I sized the background wrong (WxH ratio was backwards). Hey an idea! Stretched the photo from a square format to an eight by thirteen. Weird, different, deep six material, and as that mean judge (Simon?) on IDOL always says "it will be forgotten in five minutes". That's Ok I learned a couple of things along the way. If my full length portrait is ever captured I now know how to thin me out!
 Nikon D-200, 600mm, 1/690 second @ f/5.6 - ISO 800
I'll bet you did not know that Big Horn Sheep Yodel. At least in this photo it looks like it. I had been following these sheep for a while trying and waiting for that great shot. The best shots came from the little ones. Not often will I set up for a shot and have wild life walk into it. Although many times I prepare for this. This photo was the exception. Several sheep walked past this ledge much higher than where I was. I keep the camera position the same hoping one would stop and "pose" for me. Not only did it pose it sang to me. You have to appreciate Baahhh as a lyric. Hey, I'll take any song if they will pose while singing. The light was not the best. It was late in the day. It was all shadows. I pushed the ISO so I could keep the low aperture. The low depth of field helped by isolating the sheep from the busy rock behind it.
 It's old, very old.
For 33 years one path I have beaten is a road around Bear Lake. With a house there my family can call it home away from home. The drive from Jackson/Afton Wyoming to home takes me past this place - Bear Lake. The path driven today has been beaten for 33 plus years. I probably could drive home from here with my eyes closed. Today I had an awakening. A stretch of road so familiar I usually check my eye lids for holes. There it was standing like a Las Vegas mega sign. This incredible house. Did someone move this here since I was here? For whatever reason I had to stop and record this beauty! Incredible character. Colors that seemed to be just painted on. Aged perfectly! I think I shot well over 500 frames. Notice in the photograph above the mouse trails in the foreground. Both shots required almost a full stop and a half under exposure. The white on the house and the clouds created some highlights problems. It turned out OK because it helped the colors POP. The upper photograph required a a lot of depth of field. It was shot at f/32. The photo below was shot at f/8. The exposures varied a little. What a great time with this antique. Was a fun end to a couple of black and white days.
 Nikon D-200, 18-200 lens @168mm, 1/500 sec @ f/16, ISO 100, -0.67 EV
Three foot deep snow and most wildlife don't mix well. In the Teton Valley there was a lot of haze/smog and lots of snow. It makes shooting scenics difficult if your looking for the clear and sharp wall hanger. Photos can turn out milky and not very sharp. And the snow is unattractive to most wildlife here. To compound that, it was just after noon (mid day light..YUK!). Trick after trick still gave a mediocre outcome (above). A polarizer if at ninety degrees can help. In the digital darkroom breaking down the color cast helps. A small increase in contrast and a little sharpening pushed the limits. The best shot of the day was this little bird. He was asking what I was doing here so early in the year. I ask him the same. Cute little guy. Just ran the photo through NIK and converted to black and white. Our little visit lasted only a few minutes. We both felt a little lonely with no obvious wildlife nowhere to be seen. The fact that I am talking to birds should be your first clue that I need some camera time with wildlife!!!!!!
 Nikon D-3, 200mm, 1/20 second @ f/14, ISO 100
Back on the road in eastern Idaho.
Traveling the roads of Idaho for work assignments just happen to get me fairly close to the back side of the Tetons. With almost no color it was black and white start to finish. Driving just before dusk to find something to help with depth and to simplify the elements I found this location. The Tetons are like a top model, easy to photograph. Their beauty is really breath taking. Other than turning into a Norbest turkey in the sub zero temps it was great to witness the area again.
 This is what I would call an abstract photo. It relies on real elements but has been altered by unreal filters and adjustments. I overexposed the photograph by one full stop to eliminate most of the details in clouds etc. Next I turned up the saturation by about 30% (about 29% more than I ever have before). Lastly I ran the photo through a "funky" filter. Sorry I don't remember the filter. It was just cool. I have looked forward to this assignment because I am a bit of a purist. Very little or no enhancement. Definitely no cutting or pasting. Absolutely no weird angled, sunburst, milky shots (that ones for you lindsay). This photo was fun. The directives of the assignment let me run a little "amuck".
  
Shapes, lines and shadows. Abstract's may be obtained by just about anything that the photo-taker sees as abstract. By definition this is not true. All rules can be broken. I took the liberty to use architectural elements to complete the first of my abstract photographs. OK, I have construction in all my veins. Though the warm fuzzy really fires up when I'm around large construction equipment. It's just much easier to create abstracts with architecture than a D-11 CAT. Black and white was the order of the day. It was overcast and gray. Doesn't keep me from getting out after work. Life is good again!!!!!!
 Nikon D-3, 80-200 lens at 200mm, 1/125 second @ f/32, ISO 500
The challenges of creating a silhouette are numerous. First what is creating the type of light enabling the silhouette? How do you insure the subject retains enough information to make the photo successful? What and how do you expose for? How is the subject to be composed in the photo? I used to always love the outcome of my sunset silhouettes. For the most part it was an accident. But mostly it was fairly easy to establish the exposure. Just point and shoot. If the subject is a minor portion of the frame and the majority of the photo is a much higher exposure, then the camera's automatic process works great. Excluding spot metering and some other minor considerations the out come should be great.
The challenge is what if the light source is the sun? The light source needs to be almost directly behind the subject. Or at least at an angle to creating a high exposure in the majority of the area around (behind) the subject. If the sun is in the photo it will dominate over the subject like the photo above. Unless the subject is outlined by the sun. The rule of thirds is still my guide. One thing I found that I have to be careful of is to always remember to leave items in the photo to give it depth. Silhouettes notoriously flatten a photo. I have been the king of flat photo! In the photo above I think the sun was too hot. It's hard to take your eye away from the sun. If I shot wider the size of the sun shrunk but the subject (plane) did also. My next attempt will be to change the way I see the exposure. Use the camera more and depend on the light source a little less.
Another crazy day. I planned my day around getting out and shooting the assignment-silhouettes. Then I looked at my calendar. 9:00 a.m. - attend square foot gardening class ( kinda messes up the early morning shots). 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m - plan, purchase and assemble planter boxes (I did get the parts). Calendar was wrong (my Bad) the class was at noon. 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. - go see movie with my wife and son (as promised). 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Hoping to get out before sundown (trying to finish planter boxes). 5:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. - Dinner ( a photographer must eat). 5:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. - Finish first planter box and clean up ( 4 hours to build a planter box?).
After finishing my study tonight for the class I teach tomorrow, here I sit. The planned photo excursion still dancing in my frontal lobe. It's going to be hard to sleep tonight. Today was gorgeous! Tee shirt weather. Spring is getting closer. Gitty (spell check does not like this word), anxious, eager and down right silly is how I feel when I think about getting to higher ground with leaves on the trees. The photo above was taken at Yellowstone Lake. Shot with a 12-24 lens at 24mm. Bracketed six increments of three stops. Surprisingly the exposure I liked was only one stop below the meters best guess. Post shooting I brought it in through Camera Raw. Raised the fill light slightly. Increased the contrast just a "tich" (another bad word for spell check). Dodged the small rocks along the waters edge. And finally placed a subtle soft focus over all the photo. I added the soft focus to add punch to the highlights. Even-though I did not get out I still had a few minutes playing.
 Oregon in the early AM is beautiful.
Tonight my family performed at City Hall. My blessings abound because of the people who surround me. First my family. My friends. My friends/associates at work. Friends in the neighborhood. GARY and Kathy are my idols. In particular is a man that has a PHD and the man he reports to at work. They took time out their Friday night schedules to support me and my family. Not to lessen the fact that everyone there made sacrifices to be there. There support really means something to me and my family. And then there is that wonderful currency that's married to a saint and her daughter ms. "M". I am sure ms. "M" was dragged by her mother kicking and screaming to the concert. Friday nights for teenagers are reserved for people with similar interests. And especially not spending time alone with "OLD" people. I have so many friends. Lucky I guess. Even the Ball and Chain I hung out with today came over. What a guy. Couldn't have two better people like he and his wife that I could associate with and call a friend. It was just a dream room full of people that I hope I can see often, eat lunch with, home teach, wave at, pray with, cook for, photograph with, ride bikes with, play trucks with, cry with, learn with and LIVE with! What a wonderful night. Tomorrow it gets real serious.....silhouettes. Can't wait.
 Still a little moody.
Spent some time in photoshop tonight looking for an image that I can push. Cedar Breaks, Utah was the location and the photo. I have come back to this photo many times. I took it hoping for an "artsy fartsy" outcome. Tonight I ran it through NIK software Popped the midnight filter. Kinda explains my mood for the last couple days. The next assignment is silhouettes. I am not doing the sunset silhouette. Many, many beautiful silhouettes are made at sunset. I hope to push the limits of this assignment. Hoping to get me back on track!
 Lost a friend this weekend. Photo enthusiasts see each other as pals! Little more joy is had than sharing experiences and techniques with fellow photographers. Preston was a true enthusiast. TWIP was a common topic of conversations. He loved to talk about the "lens baby" and lenses and cameras and everything photographic. He would ask me regularly when the photo classes would start. Regular chastisement came my way because of my not backing up my photo's the way he suggested. He did know his business. The best IT guy I've known. Many nights when on the road I would call him at home for help. Never a complaint. He encouraged it! One of the last conversations we had was about the current photo assignments, i.e. focal point, depth of field, etc. Preston you will be missed....this ones for you!
People say that once you've ridden a bike you never forget. I want to set the record straight. For most of my life I have enjoyed bike riding. A ride to Bear Lake from Bountiful City (126 miles over two mountain ranges) was one of many trips on two wheels for me as a teenager. I loved to ride. My friend Dan and I would ride to SLC just to ride up Apricot Avenue. Supposedly the steepest road in Utah. It was not unusual for Dan and I to leave in the morning and return late the same day with 80-100 miles under our seats. But now I am 54! It's been four years since I crashed on my mountain bike, broke my nose and bruised some ribs. Tonight I climbed on and headed west. The bike seamed to be creaking more than usual. My memory of how to ride was right on. At least mentally. My brain remembered. Soon I found that my lungs, heart and legs forgot about that 25 mile and hour clip I'm used to. Not sure how fast I was going tonight. The first clue came when a lady (about my age) passed me....running! Good thing I had my Boy George makeup on. The sun glasses and scarf should have helped to not give my identity away too. A little humiliating. Thankfully about a mile later I was at Bountiful Pond. The temperature was about 40 degrees. Perfect for riding. No wind. The lake was beautiful! Even when gasping for air and wheezing on my bike I take my camera. My hour ride was refreshing, humiliating and invigorating all at once. By summer I should be able to keep up with the old lady runners.
 My travels today took me to the eastern edge of Utah. Dinosaur Land! This time of year there is little to see in the way of color. Hours of fences, dry fields and strange old buildings. The small one person building above is still functional. It had all the niceties of a 5 star hotel potty. A toilet seat, space to stand and turn around and a functional door. Nothing like the great outdoors when in deep concentration (remember the "Thinker" statue?). If someone is approaching to take advantage of this amenity, no need to knock. They can easily see through the vertical ventilation of the Potty. Or likewise the person looking out can comment on his or her position. Genius don't you think?  Almost to my destination the sky was keeping my attention. An incredible cloud formation covered a big portion of the sky. Never seen anything like it before. A great desire to photograph the cloud and sky overwhelmed me. Not much help from the landscape! Eventually I dove from the truck when I noticed a few cat tales. Cat tales in Vernal? It's like a space heater store in downtown Phoenix. This type of image can never replicate the actual live image. The cat tail silhouette did the job of blocking that awful direct sun hotspot. Traveling back a different route tomorrow. Crossing my fingers that I come across more photo opportunities.
 Think what you want but there are angels everywhere. Assignment - Focal Point is in full swing. I would not recommend following me in my vehicle when I'm on assignment (work and photography). Heading to SLC this morning I almost did a nose end endo in my truck when I saw the photo above. It was like live daydreaming. Bet you can't do that. Just another painting waiting to be put to pixels. Contrast is one of my favorite methods to enhance the focal point or subject. In this case I lucked out. A ton of things to force a focal point on the viewer. Shapes. The building that's well lit is in sharp contrast to the building in the background. The angel is shaped dramatically different than everything else in the photo. The building in the background gives the photo some depth. Then there is the light. That early morning light! Can't beat it. Some call it rim lighting. I call it angelic lighting. Kinda fits here huh? Workflow: Shot at -1.6 EV. If not the angel would have looked more like a ghost and the background building exposure would be to hot. I was contemplating HDR here. But the contrast in the photo is much closer to reality. The photo was run through Nik Color EFX. Filled with the B&W infrared filter (to add contrast) and erased the angel to keep his color. Never want to lose gold anything or anywhere. Sharpened the angel very slightly to enhance the subject. Only got 15 minutes of shooting in. Better than a kick in the butt.
I poured all the ingredients into this first attempt! Focal point. Almost an infinite way to create a photo to accomplish this. My mind went wild. As usual I went to simple. Ten millimeter lens to distort the distance of the flower from the cameras film plane. Depth of field was narrow to insure subject presence. Shot wide open. Last thing was in workflow. Sharpened flower only. And lowered exposure by about one full stop. Then dodged back in the just the flower and some of the leaves just above the flower. Next will be the attempt at something a little more difficult. Hey it was still fun and took little time.
 Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus
The bird previously known to me as the American Kestral. About 20" and up to a three and a half foot wing span. Subtle differences between male and female. Food - mice, snakes, insects, small birds and stupid photographers that have been calling them Kestrals.
 Pied Billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps Some people just can't be trusted. Today my major purchase was a book - Birds of Utah, field guide. A copy can be purchased here. Boy do I feel stupid. When someone standing next to you is telling you that a bird flying by is a(n). It's best if you do a little research before attaching a bird name to a photograph for all to see. Oh that's an American Kestral. That's a so and so. Mr. know it all. Can't believe everything you hear. Best to just study it out for myself. So I did. The little diver I described last night and shown again above has all the attributes and markings of the name shown. Except a black ring around the beak. So in reality he may just be a GREBE. My previous picture of the American Kestral is really a Northern Harrier. I did get the Bald Eagle right. Thank goodness! More homework to come. My self assignment this week is depth of field. D.P. your on... get me your assignment. I like the heavy load of two. Gets me out shooting. Or at least dreaming and or planning.
This little guy has guts. While photographing Eagles, Swans, Pelicans, American Kestrals, Seagulls (Utah's State Bird), and other named birds this little guy was front and center. Dodging the much bigger birds. His life seemed at risk. At least he acted as though it was. Kind of a nervous Nelly if you will. By count this bird was more successful than all the others at getting meals. He did not wait for the pickings. Nor did he rely on floaters. Not to be confused with those things in my drink after my grandsons take a sip. He's a diver. Swimming around checking below the surface he would suddenly dive. Upon surfacing this little Jacque Cousteau took a breath and munched on his delicacy. Actually he would swallow it whole. Never the less he was good. No other bird thief would rob him of his meal. Must be some kind of little big man, ninja, or marshal arts master. Even the big boys kinda ignored him. I guess I was the one making him nervous. Not sure what the birds name is. No not his name! The bird name, like eagle or sparrow or whatever. To show respect I plan on finding his name. He deserves the respect.
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