Postcard from Bisbee

I am back from an extended weekend visit with my son Eric and his wife in Yuma. Didn’t take any pictures there, although I wish I could have photographed the incredible monsoon I drove through on Friday morning. It took me 20 minutes at 70 MPH to get through a blinding rain storm complete with lightning and thunder. Many of the lightning strikes were close-by…straight down into the desert…one was perhaps 500 feet from my car. No photographs though as I was too busy trying to keep the van on the straight and narrow.

Moving on to today’s photo, this is one of my artistic endeavors from Bisbee, AZ, one of my new favorite places in all the Southwest. It is a digital version of a Polaroid Transfer technique, an imaging tool used by some artists and photographers because of its unique rendering qualities. As I’ve written here before, one never knows what one will get using this technique. I simulate it here with a digital filter inside of Photoshop.

It is a simple composition, showing only a table, chairs and a plant. Sometimes the simple things make the best photos. I think that this can best be described as an atmospheric picture. I found this tiny area outside between two buildings, both hotels as I remember it. There are a couple more tables off to the right. It is used by hotel guests for relaxing with their morning coffees. A very relaxing atmosphere…and a nice place for a simple picture.

Postcard from Ephrata

Ah yes…back home again in good old Ephrata. I enjoyed my 16 years there. Life in a small town. I miss a great deal of Ephrata, even though I have a very good life here…albeit totally different.

This photo is from the garden of the home I occupied all those years with my friend Susan. She really knew how to make her garden grow. She and I both love roses and I shot these climbing roses after a little rain storm. It was a nice garden and I miss it.

I show you this photo as I just completed another new section of my Web site entitled “Northwest Flowers.” I invite you to drop by there sometime and take a peek. The Pacific Northwest has a great variety of flowers, and I by no means captured them all. But I did get some good ones… especially the Iris, some of which you have already seen here.

I am enjoying adding more and more photos to my site. Soon I will add some of the flowers I’ve photographed here in the Southwest. I think you will find them interesting also.

Postcard from Tucson

Sometimes you just have to do something crazy and different…and when the opportunity shows up, you just grab it and run.  So it is with this abstract image. 

This is not one of my paintings and was not done in any painting or artsy software. It was done totally in Photoshop with a little help from some of the software’s built-in controls...taken to the extreme. 

I should probably let you guess what the original image is, but I will tell all. It is a small, unusual flower I photographed up-close with a green background of mostly grass. I am sure it was taken near Leavenworth, WA. I am sorry I don’t know the type of plant, but it is quite unusual.

I won’t explain the process I went through to get this, other than I accidentally tweaked a wrong control slider and liked what I saw. So I continued playing for a while till I settled on this final image. I like it, but you may not. It was just fun to do something totally different and a bit off the wall. Your comments are always welcome. 

Postcard from Chicago

After several days of work, I completed the new Web site section about Chicago. It has 40 of my best and most favorite photos from the Windy City. It was a bit of work as I had over 700 photos to chose from. Most of the final 40 have not been seen in public before now, so I invite you to take a peek.

This photo is one of the 40 and shows Chicago replete with spring flowers and blossom. It was taken near the Chicago Institute of Art and looks north along Chicago’s famous Michigan Ave. If you kept walking north, you would shortly be in Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile.”

As I said here before, Chicago is a wonderful city and it took me totally by surprise. The downtown area is quite large and is exceptionally beautiful.  And the people there are so friendly. I so look forward to another visit there in the near future.

For now, my photos and good memories will have to suffice.  I hope you have time to take a look and would be interested in hearing your comments.  What is next for my Web site, you ask? Have not made up my mind yet, but am thinking about flowers from the Northwest. Lots of Iris, to be sure.

Postcard from Sedona

I just finished updating the section of my Web site for Sedona, AZ. There are new and updated photos there now, including some photos from my latest December trip.

This is a new image from the December trip that I like very much. You see some of the red and white rock mountains of Sedona along with some drifting clouds and some lovely trees in the foreground. 

But if you look closely, you will see my friend and fellow photographer Dave Forester in among the trees, setting up to take a photo. I know it is difficult to see him in the small size, but he is there.

What I like about this image is you see how small a man is compared to the world he inhabits…or, if you will, man juxtaposed against nature. Sedona is such a beautiful place that it just overwhelms the senses, much the same way that Yosemite and Zion do. We are so tiny compared to the world that surrounds us. And here is this man, trying to capture one small piece with his camera while a world of beauty and grace surrounds him on all sides.

Please check out the rest of my photos from Sedona on my Web site.

Postcard from the Northwest

It’s Autumn in the Northwest. The air is cold and crisp. Frost is on the Autumn leaves. I am bundled up in a coat and gloves and my breath is visible in the air.

Of course, it is not Autumn…and I am now in the Southwest, not the Northwest. But, when its 106 outside, I can dream. I sure as hell am not walking outside with my camera!

I love this image and others like it that I have taken over the years. In fact, in a couple of days, I will have a similar picture on my Web site that I took in the Southwest last December…not in Tucson, of course, but up in Sedona.

Putting aside the weather for a second, I love the Autumn colors in this photo, both in the foreground and background. The Northwest is so special for photographing Fall’s beautiful displays. There are good places down here also for colors, but not like the Northwest. But, of course, on the day I photographed this image I was bundled up to stay warm. If I had been in the Tucson that same day, I would be in shorts and a t-shirt.  There are trade-offs. 

Postcard from Yosemite

There is an old expression, “When in doubt, go back to Yosemite.” Actually, it is not that old as I just made it up. But I came across this photo and realized I had never shown it here in this blog.  Strange, as it is one of my favorites. I actually have 24x30 print hanging on the wall of my hallway.

The photo was taken in the Spring of of 2006, a year that had a melting snow pack 25% higher than normal. In the foreground is the Merced River flowing fast and high.

To the right is El Capitan, the largest single piece of granite in the world. It soars over 3,000 feet above the valley floor.

And to the left is Ribbon Falls, a lovely waterfall that only flows in spring. If memory serves, it the largest single drop waterfall in North America.

This photo works because of the myriad of colors displayed, and, of course, the beautiful subject matter. It was taken in late afternoon so you get a little more red light in the image than if it were taken in midday.

I would love to get back there in the Spring again…in fact I would love to get back there at any time of the year.

Postcard from Kodachrome Basin

This weekend, I finished up a new section of my Web site…photos from Kodachrome Basin in Utah. Last November, I wrote about my visit to this unusual park, just west of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Here is one picture that did not get into that blog…one of several pictures of the unusual rock formations you find throughout its landscape. Kodachrome Basin contains many multi-colored rock formations of red, yellow, pink, white and brown, as well as massive sandstone chimney spires, called “Salt Pipes” or chimneys.

As I said a year ago, geologists believe Kodachrome Basin was once similar to Yellowstone National Park with hot springs and geysers, which eventually filled up with sediment and solidified. The name comes from the original name given to it by National Geographic photographers who came through there in 1948.

I promised in my original blog I would tell you when all the good pictures from the park would be posted to my Web site…and I finally have completed the task. Please have a look if you have some free time.

Postcard from Mt. Rainier

As I continue the massive makeover of my Web site, I just completed revising the section from Mt. Rainier National Park…I posted it yesterday.  In reviewing past editions of this blog, I realized I never showed you this image…and it is one of my favorites from the park.

This is Christine Falls, which is a simple short hike off of the main highway. When the light is right, you get this golden glow off of the rocks at the bottom of the falls. The same can be found at nearby Narada Falls.

I used a slow shutter speed to achieve the white flowing artistic glow of the falls. But, because of that, the leaves in the foreground show movement as it was windy that day. But, frankly, I like that effect in this image. I mean, leaves do move when it is windy and it adds to the motion of the water. It is a more realistic effect.

The photographs in the revised Mt. Rainier section of my Web site were shot nearly five years ago on a three day photographic expedition. It was my first outing with my then brand new first digital camera. I learned a lot on that trip about the differences between digital and film. But, would you believe that in the 15 years I lived in Washington State, it was my one and only trip to this beautiful National Park?

I wish I could have gone more, especially with my newer Nikon camera. Maybe someday. I invite you to look at more Mt. Rainier National Park photos on my Web site.

Postcard from the Grand Canyon

This photo was taken on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I spent about an hour out at Bright Angel Point trying to get some good sunset shots of the canyon. I recall the wind was blowing quite ferociously that afternoon making life difficult...and the sun was playing peek-a-boo with the many clouds that dotted the sky that day.

Finally after taking all the photos I could (hoping I would get one good one) the sun disappeared for the day. I walked the rocky trail back toward the North Rim Lodge and came across a few interesting trees silhouetted against the partly cloudy sky. This was one of them: a slightly crooked tree at a 45 degree angle, hanging over the canyon.

I thought it was a good image, especially with the lit clouds behind it. In post processing, I added the dreamy filter to the image that I mentioned here recently. Besides a dreamy effect, I think it adds some ghostly qualities to the picture that I really like.

It’s another one of those images that you must always be on the lookout for. I realize that places like the Grand Canyon can overwhelm you with its beauty, but don’t forget to look for those smaller photo opportunities that you find everywhere you go.

If you would like to see a couple of the other trees I photographed on this sunset walk along the Bright Angel trail, plus some other spectacular views from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, please head over to a new section of my Web site that I just put on line today. 

Postcard from the Grand Canyon

I believe I mentioned previously that I am adding new images and new categories of photos to my Web site…almost on a daily basis. Over the weekend, I worked on images from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Although I had several pictures from there already on line, I took them all down and started over. I only want the best of my images available for viewing.

That Grand Canyon South Rim section is now finished and available for viewing. Twenty-five of my best images from there now on line. This is one of them.

It is a side canyon off the main canyon, but further east from the main section of the Grand Canyon that most people see. It was taken in Autumn of 2007 on my very first trip there.  I love the two trees in the foreground set against the red rock of the canyon in the background.

Today and tomorrow, I will be finishing up photos from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and will add a new section to my Web pages just for them. Stay tuned.