I'm Back...

Let's see if it lasts...

I love a good geyser....even if I don't know it's name.

I was helping my uncle get together a blog, and in order to do that created a new article. Picked this picture at random. It's of a geyser of course from my favorite place on earth, Yellowstone National Park (thanks Teddy). After a bit (a very, very little bit) of research I think this is Jewel Geyser in the Biscuit Basin, but don't quote me. I remember it to be a fun geyser. Very beautiful, mostly because of how the air took the steam (which is captured here.) I may have said before that one of my goals when I visited this grand park the first time was to see all the geysers. Well, that didn't happen, but we came as close as one can hope during a three day stint in the park. My dad thought all geysers look the same. Well they don't. They each have their own character. Their own unique attributes. I came back to this very spot three years later in 1997 to try to recreate this picture. The day was overcast and while the picture I took that day could have been something special on it's own.....I didn't do a very good job of working my equipment that day and ened up with a less than stellar picture. I like this one though. For years I felt this picture needed something to make it more interesting, to me mostly. Well a couple months ago I cropped it and I really like how it turned out. Hope you do to.

Hey Look.......A Wild Animal!!!!

I spoke on an earlier post about how I love taking pictures at the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and Sea World. I have read old curmudgeon photographers write and speak about how this is not "Real" wildlife photography. Anyone can do it. Well, that may be true. Taking a picture of an animal in a cage is not the same as taking one of an animal in the wild. I mean, the animal in the cage can't get away from you. I still believe though it is a great way to take pictures of animals for those of us who can't travel the world in search of the Green-Headed Topiary Spider Monkey of lower Peru.

But I do catch myself saying this when I am at the Wild Animal Park......"Hey Look......A Wild Animal!!!!!!" I have run across deer, road runners, snakes, and all sorts of other creatures just wandering through the park.....and I get excited whenever I see them. It is true; taking pictures of animals in a cage is not the same. I must admit that those pictures I have of animals in their "natural habitat" or more important to me then the ones of the caged variety. Probably because I will never be able to recreate that moment. It's there, and it's gone. This little birdie landed on a tree as I wandered through Condor Ridge at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. He a cute little fella (or fellet.) It was there just a moment. I snapped about 5 pictures as fast as I could. This is the best because I caught the eye (see previous posts).

Random thought. Do you ever wonder where the animals are now that you have taken pictures of??? How they finally met there end??? I do..........but I am weird that way........as well as other ways.

Enjoy

Random Thoughts

I have read the magazines. A lot of them. I have read the photo books. I have heard "The Rules" many a time. Nothing wrong with the rules, but don't stop there. They are good place to start, but from there make your own rules. Chart your own path. See things the way you see them, well photographically speaking. At the end of the day, when you are an amateur photo guy like me and not taking pictures for anyone else, the only person you have to please with your pictures is you. They are yours, so take the picture you want. I also think it's important to be a part of the scene. If you get out of the car and just start taking pictures, well the picture can come across as distant. On the other hand if you become a part of the scene you help the viewer become a part of the scene. Walk around, get into the surroundings, get your heart into the picture. I took this picture after walking around Joshua Tree for a while. It is truly amazing how different each of these trees are.

I love this picture. I hope you do as well.

NOW IS THE TIME!!!!

One of my favorite photographers, Galen Rowell, talked about pre-visualizing a picture. Seeing it before it happened. Seeing all the elements in your head before hand and then going out and making it happen. Well, you just can't always make the elements happen when you want, but when the elements are there, you are ready..........because NOW IS THE TIME!!!!! Many of my best pictures are ones I saw in my head long before I opened the shutter. Photos I saw in my brain long before I saw them through the view finder. Well, this picture is one of them. 3 years in the making it was. When I was just out of college, I was part of a college group that every summer would go down to Mexico and camp on the beach. For 3 years, I walked by this rock, knowing that I had to have a picture of it. 3 years I tried to make it happen, but it just was not happening. It wasn't what I saw in my head. That was until day 3 of year three. As I sat on a dune and ate dinner one night, I watched as the sun began to descend into the ocean. And then I knew..........IT WAS THE TIME!!!!!! I ran, I mean ran, full speed, grabbed my camera, and sprinted down a dune to the beach in order to capture this moment. The moment I had pictured in my head for 3 years had finally come. This is one of my most satisfying and special photographs. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Photoshop Trickery : What is Reality???

It's a fine line. Even more so now. We live in a world of amazing technology. But at what point do you have to ask the question "Just because I can does that mean I should?" I believe there is a place for all this cool stuff in photography. Photoshop and other items like it allow photographers amazing possibilities. We can take photos and add amazing new life to them. We can bring out all those elements that a camera at times can fail to capture. But at what point are we messing with reality. Above are a few pictures enhanced with something called "photostitch." An amazing way to put multiple pictures together to display the majesty of a landscape. Each of these pictures is actually three pictures stitched together into one picture. I think this is really fantastic as it allows me, the photographer, to show you what I saw as I took the picture. If you sat where I sat, you would have seen this. So what you see is reality. But what about when you replace a part of a picture with something from another picture??? What about when you take a face from one picture and put into onto the face of another picture. Well I suppose it depends on what your purpose is. I have seen some clever things. My head placed on the body of a member of "The Fantastic Four." Really funny. But of course no one would ever really believe I am a member of the Fantastic Four. But what about when you take a face from one picture and use it to replace the face from another picture in an effort to make it look like something that really happened. For example, what if I took a picture with some friends or my wife and in an effort to make it a "great" picture I take the head of one person from one picture and use it to replace the face of that same person on another picture to "create" the perfect picture. Well, I can't say this is wrong, but for me, that's a picture I wouldn't want because it represents a false reality. It is not real because it doesn't truly capture "The Moment." Like I said, if someone wants to do this, that is there business. It is their picture and if it works for them, then fine. But for me, I want what really happened. I want to see what I really saw. I want the moment.

It's a fine line.........

A Different Perspective

I think the thing many of us like about art is that it is more than just art. It is a perspective. Someones perspective on the world. Art says a great deal about the person who is doing the creating. A slight window into the soul. I love the sky. I love that big blue. Perhaps it is because I am a person who loves the possible. I don't really know. Anyone who spends anytime at all looking at my pictures will realize this is true. A blue sky on a sunny day........it's sheer beauty. I took this picture in, of course Joshua Tree. Devyn and I went walking along a river bend that took us beneath many a tree. Something about the way the sun shone through these branches made me stop and take it all in.

Enjoy
:)