Sunday, September 30, 2007

Susquehanna Sunburst

We are heading for New England this evening, so I will leave you all with a parting shot ...


I can't take credit for taking this picture, but I can for the editing. Justin's camera seems to get better sunburst effects than mine. I wasn't going for a realistic result, just something that looks interesting. I may do a blog from the road, but if not, I'll catch up with you all on Monday!

Just a Little Guy

Not your normal warm & fuzzy critter, but he held still long enough to get a few good macro pictures, so he made the blog :) The little guy was hanging out on the road by my parent's driveway. He was probably about the size of a dime. Mom & I were excited by some Myrtle warblers in the neighbor's poplar trees and could've easily stomped the spider underfoot. I'm glad we didn't! I was surprised, because he was "facing off" with the camera lens, instead of turning tail and trying to hide.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Content As Can Be


Although I like dogs, I am a cat person at heart. Nothing embodies relaxation like a cat sacked out in a sunny window on a summer day. Cats can cause a lot of trouble, but I love 'em anyway. Even when one falls asleep on the paper I need to edit. Fortunately, Ansel was much smaller and easier to move then than he is now.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

"The plane, the plane!"


I'm not posting either one of these pictures because I think they are of outstanding quality. I'm posting them because there's something really cool in them :) If you look closely at the top photo, you'll see one white speck and one black speck in the sky. You have to click on the top photo to see the specks at all. Below is a close-up. I believe its a B-2 bomber with a companion plane. These two flew back and forth over Death Valley several times one morning. I think they were following the mountain range in the far distance.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Handiwork

I live in an area famous for its large Amish population. My uncle, knowing this, wondered why I hadn't posted on this theme yet. Two reasons: One, most Amish find that being photographed is a violation of the Biblical restriction against graven images, and two, because tourists pester them constantly and I feel guilty adding to an already serious annoyance. We were in the southern part of the county, in the car, when I took this picture. The Amishman was not inconvenienced by this shot, and remains unidentifiable, so I feel relatively guilt-free over this photo.
Because farmland is scarce, many of the younger generation of Amish have gone into woodworking. Most still work with their hands, using traditional methods and hydraulic tools. Some even work for regular "English" construction crews. ("English" is the term used locally to mean non-Amish folks.) Many congregations allow the use of modern technology, such as cellular phones, computers, calculators, and other electronic equipment, as long as the item is a tool needed to do a job. Such items are always prohibited in the home, and cannot be used outside the context of work. Needless to say, how the Amish deal with the modern world is fascinating.

For more information on the Amish and photographs, go here. For general information, here is a good start.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Hint of Fall

Although I took this picture in August, already a leaf had turned red and fallen into a pond in Caledonia State Park. I liked the leaf in the water, a floating punch of color. But then my camera autofocused on the surface of the water instead of the leaf underneath, and a new picture formed, all by chance. The watercolor effect superimposed on the reflections of leaves still on the tree attracted me, and here is the end result:

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Progression

On the same day that I took the dewy daisy shot, I captured the picture below. I loved how large some of the dew drops were, and how many there were.


But I was disappointed in how the largest drops got lost in the jumble. Thinking that the picture simply had too much going on, I cut it down to get a stronger, simpler composition. I tried a few different crops, but I think the one below is the best. How did I do?


I wanted to have a little fun with this picture, too. I've never experimented with selective color before, but I've been playing with Photoshop and figured keeping color in one drop would be within my skill set :) The picture becomes surreal and takes on an entirely different mood.


This crop is so tight that the resolution is really not up to par. But it seems to be okay for web-viewing purposes.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Not a Morning Person

Last weekend, I took a page out of Salty's book and went on a morning walk. And voila! A beautiful dewy daisy crossed my path. Morning was working its magic, but mostly on the grass. This was the only dew-encrusted posey I found.

I'm not normally a morning person, but I certainly don't regret dragging myself out of bed early on this particular day. This walk was a reminder that breaking routine has its benefits, in photography and in other aspects of life.