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.

"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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

Corny!

Because I am going home for the long weekend, I am posting a picture of my grandparent's farm. I have spent many a happy hour roaming these acres, and plan to spend a few more here shortly.


I am lucky to have been born into a gifted and camera-crazy family. Both my father and my uncle are crack photographers, and both have taken many wonderful images throughout the years of their time on "the farm". I cannot tell you if the vintage shot below was taken by my uncle or my father, but I do know that a neighbor took one look at it and said "Corny!".

Carved in Stone

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is well known for the many stone dwellings that cling to its cliffsides. Surprisingly, these are the only petroglyphs the public can readily access. The meaning behind these symbols is ultimately unknown, although modern-day tribespeople have made interpretations. Their permanence intrigued me; they've lasted for centuries.

What words and ideas are important enough that you would carve them in stone?

A Change of Pace

Since I have been bombarding you all with mountain vistas, I thought I would take a break and look at something very closely :)


I think this is jimsonweed. It is a noxious plant but the blooms are quite pretty. I shot this in macro mode. The lens was more or less inside the flower, accounting for the shadowy edges and backlit center.

Here it Is!

I had to scan in a page from a scrapbook to get this picture - this was well before I went digital! This is Pilot Peak in Yellowstone. It supposedly got its name because pilots used its distinctive shape as a landmark in the old days. I read in the guidebook that it looks somewhat similar to the Matterhorn in Switzerland. I don't know whether either fact is true, but this remains my favorite mountain :)

It is at the beginning of an abso-frickin-lutely beautiful drive called the Beartooth Highway. I would highly recommend it to anyone.