Photographs

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Moonset over Anchorage

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
The moon sets

The moon sets

Technical details: shot through the bedroom window as a 7-frame HDR on a monopod.  The monopod and the window account for the blurriness – not a single frame was sharp.  The colors came out nicely, though.

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Rainbow to the Right

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

A rare double-post for a day.  The reason:

Rainbow, the other side

Rainbow, the other side

This is my preferred version between the two…

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Rainbow to the Left

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

An image from last night, in HDR:

Rainbow, behind the house

Rainbow, behind the house

Click the image for a better view.

Update: the other side of the rainbow is here.

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The making of Sweet Tooth

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Sweet Tooth, detail

Sweet Tooth, detail

The pic above is one of many moderately successful photos that I made very recently.  The entire concept really came together pretty well, mostly courtesy of my wife. See, the original thought was to embed the tooth in a cupcake.   Click to continue »

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Real-life mermaids

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

When on the Big Island of Hawaii, I have always done boat diving with Jack’s Diving Locker.  Just a small lead in to some cool pics: search for the “Mermaids in our pool” pics (the direct link may not work – dunno?).

People who know me, know how much I miss the islands – the water, the sun, the laid-back approach.  Now I’m jealous – to have but a short opportunity to photograph with real mermaids.

Not gonna happen anytime soon, I’m afraid.

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Birch Tree, bark detail

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Birch Tree, Detail

Birch Tree, Detail

Look closely and you’ll see a long-legged creepy-crawly guy.  Just a detail from a bike ride on Saturday.

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A Spiderweb, some bokeh, and a point of view

Monday, August 9th, 2010
Spiderweb in the Golden Hour

Spiderweb in the Golden Hour

Yesterday I posted the spiderweb in the image to the right to Flickr. This particular photo is, perhaps, my favorite (self-made) spiderweb shot to date. I said that at the time, now I’ll give a bit of an explanation.

Typically I tend to *not* like spiderweb photos: they’re all the same.  Particularly the ones that I take – I see something & try to bring out that detail.  But I never quite… catch the beauty of what I see.

A week or so before going on this vacation, however, I re-read the first couple of chapters from Photography and the Art of Seeing. The author (Freeman Patterson) devotes one of the first chapters to “thinking sideways,” and specifically uses the example of a spiderweb:

Webs are so beautiful in their own right that they had kept me from examining them carefully, and especially from photographing them in a personal way…

…When you think sideways you will find new ways to see your subject matter, and you will stumble upon discoveries and happy accidents.  Abandon your normal premises , and go on a search for new ones.

This was in my mind when I first saw the spiderweb. But it was just a web at mid-day.  Nothing special, kinda dingy.  Later that afternoon, the light began to yellow, and the dinginess turned golden.  At this point I noticed it again, pulled out my camera, and started to circle the web. Looking up, down, climbing on a chair, squatting under it.  On a monopod, off the monopod, against the light, with the light…

… at some point, I found that there was an entire side that brought out the gold in the light.  It wasn’t the typical angle I’d normally look for, but I found the view more pleasing.  I kept working up & down, within the same basic area of light (and quickly, the light fades fast), playing with different depths of field.  I was finding the background to be better than the web.

The end result is what you see; the focus on this one wasn’t the spiderweb itself.  Rather, it was creating an abstract in the background, and then using the spiderweb to break up that pattern.

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One Year Ago, on Flickr…

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

…I posted this image:

Leaving Vancouver

Leaving Vancouver

It was one of my first images from an Alaskan (Vancouver to Seward) cruise.  How quickly time flies – it already feels like it was two or more years…

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Civilization

Saturday, August 7th, 2010
Campground Outhouse

Campground Outhouse

My Father-in-law visited once, many years ago, from overseas. While travelling around, he marveled at the rest and camping areas – so civilized, not even smelly. Shoot, even clean, with toilet paper that’s not immediately stolen!

Despite the worldwide recession, I’m finding that this is still the case. We must be rich – people aren’t stealing the TP (reality: it’s usually locked up pretty well – you’d have to be fairly motivated).

Last month, we went camping.  As usual, the restrooms were surprisingly non-smelly, and the exteriors were… surprisingly clean.  Of all the photos that weekend, this was my favorite.

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One Year Ago, on this site…

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

…I was on vacation, and had some pre-recorded images posted.  This one was the post at that time:

A sun-kissed tree

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