"No Photos"

Arts In The Round

Taking pictures of the Fine Art and the displayed photos of the photographers in the many booths on the grounds was not encouraged. Most had "No Photos" signs prominently displayed!  So be it!

As the perimeters were walked I noticed this reflection in the round glass of an event building. Nary a "No Photos" sign in sight!

Must say! 

In no way did the "No Photos" signs take away from the wonderful Art that I was privileged to view. The photographers work is a sight to behold! The bar seems to be raised each and every year I visit. Just Amazing!

Tragic Storms

Sunday and Monday of this week Central Oklahoma was the target of devastating Tornadoes. Sadly there was a large loss of life. Whole neighborhoods of homes were literally blown away. Lives were changed as many lost everything but the clothes on their backs. As I listened to the interviewed survivors one theme came through; All were thankful for surviving, and all asked for prayers for others. I will Pray for all!

Island Time

 

An old bridge near the Lahaina harbor on Maui.

 

Mai Tai time.

Into the storm with the P7700

 

This is a shot of the storms building over Oklahoma this past weekend. The photo was taken at 36,000 feet at sunset with the Nikon P7700 through the window of our plane.

I'm thinking too!

In the past few days I had an opportunity to test out a Canon EOS-1D X with 800mm f/5.6L.  These pictures are straight out of the camera no PS work.  I hate to say that this camera is better than a new Nikon D4.  Canon have but a new sensor version, and upgraded processing channels from 8 to 16 into this monster.  I did not test out the video on this camera, so I'm not sure it better than Nikon D4 or not.  There's couple things I like about this camera is that the auto focus, and the colors rendering is better than D4.  The frame rate on JPEG is about 4 frames more than D4, this is a plus for sports and wildlife photographer.  After I have played around this camera, I think  I'm going to do the inventory on my Nikon gear to post on ebay, and excuse myself from this Nikon blog.  lol.

That Time of Year Again

Hope everyone has been safe with all of the severe weather here lately. I took these after a line of severe weather moved through Kansas tonight. I was  shooting  the back side of the storm as it moved east towards the Missouri and Kansas state line.

I'm thinking...

I'm thinking it might be time to break down and mow the lawn... Ha ha! 

Moody Spring weather

Typical Spring weather over here on the West Coast, wind and rain one minute, sunshine and rainbows the next...
Took this picture a few days ago at the Keltic Cannery  in Port Hardy.

Photoshop fun

Just playing around a couple of days ago with an adjustment in Photoshop called "Threshold". Photoshop threshold divides the photograph you are working on into two colors, black and white and allows you to adjust the dividing point between the two colors. This works pretty good on a photo with lots of contrast. The bottom photo I went one step further and used the "Replace Color" command and turned the white background red.

Looking For A Breeze

Kinetic Art

Usually finding a breeze is no problem here in the plains of central Oklahoma. On this day of the OKC Arts Fest wind was in short supply, leaving this wind catcher motionless!

Front yard flowers

Blue Peter Rhododendron

Red Azalea

Blue Bells

Pink Rhododendron

Columbine

Set the aperture to f/16 and took a few pictures of the plants blooming in the front yard this week. I think I used a bit of fill flash with most of these pictures also.

Where Eagles Soar Part II

 

These three shots were taken with the D800 and the Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm and cropped about 50%. As much as I hate to say it, the D800 seems to be better suited to static subjects and not moving subjects. The 36mp sensor really picks up on any movement at all so you have to use a very fast shutter speed to keep the images from showing that slight fuzziness to the edges of a subject.

 

Cheryl and I are headed to the Gulf coast for a few days of R&R so I may not be posting anything for a couple of days.

Flaps full...

Flaps full, throttle down, landing gear down and locked... Squadron of Canadian Geese coming in for a landing on a grey morning at the head of Rupert Arm. And fortunately no flack from the ground!

They're right.....

 

The earth IS round!

 

My world through a Nikon 16mm fisheye lens and a sepia filter from photoshop.

 

I'm looking forward to taking some good and some wierd photos with this lens!



Floating Into Summer

As the temperatures begin reaching the ninety degree range and the lakes and rivers warm up. It is almost time to air up the inner tubes for a lazy float. Tubing helps to beat the heat!

Sitting on the fence...

Unlike Ron's point and shoot birds from yesterday this one held still long enough for me to take it's picture. I'm thinking it couldn't decide what to do... Ha ha! (Sitting on the fence, get it?)


Curious to know where the expression "Sitting on the fence" came from I looked it up and found this on Big Site of Amazing Facts

During the Revolutionary War, a prominent New Jersey jurist, Judge Imlay, hadn’t yet committed to either the revolutionaries or the loyalists.
So when Washington encountered one of Imlay’s slaves he asked him which way the judge was leaning. He replied, “Until my master knows which is the strongest group, he’s staying on the fence.”
Washington was so amused by the response that he retold it enough times for it to become part of our language.

Who would have known?

Point and Shoot

 

When Aaron and I were trying to get photos of the eagles we kept getting buzzed by these little fast moving swallows. Try as I might, I couldn't follow the swallows in the viewfinder of the camera because of all of the quick turns and dives they were doing.

 

Being a little bored at the time I decided to just hold the camera up and try to follow the birds in flight while holding down on the shutter release, not even using the viewfinder. After 8 different 16 shot bursts with the D700 I ended up with two frames that had a bird in focus and that is what you see here.

Mother's Day Surprise!

Stephanie, Jake and I went for a walk on a local beach this afternoon. Took a few pictures of this and that along the way, same old things I always take pictures of... Then in the last 10 minutes of our walk surprise, surprise, Killer Whales! A Mother's Day treat for Stephanie who almost never has the chance to see them in the wild.

Not the best Killer Whale picture but the best picture of the day, there are three Killer Whales in this shot.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

American Avocet

While waiting for the eagles to come closer, we had a few smaller birds fly by from time to time. This is a American Avocet, also known as the blue shanks, due to its blue legs. He wasn't shy at all and flew within 20 feet of us, and did some fishing. Usually the part of the lake we were at has about 5- 10 feet of water in it, but due to the drought we have been experiencing the water was only a few inches deep, which made for easy fishing for the shore birds.

Where Eagles Soar

 

Once again we were foiled by the dreaded distance problem. Aaron and I just couldn't get close enough to the eagles on Saturday and neither of us had enough zoom to make up for it. These shots were taken with the Sigma 150-500mm lens at 500mm and cropped about 70%. Definitely not the best shots in the world.

 

It's time to start gathering the pennies, lots of pennies, for a Nikon 600mm F4.