Blackberry blossom

The insect on the blackberry blossom was not a bee or wasp and not an insect I recognize, never the less it was doing it's part pollinating this years crop of blackberrys.

Handheld shot with Nikon 18-135. This lens has always produced sharp clean shots close in like this. The majority of pictures I take are with this lowly kit lens that originally came stock on a friends D80.

ADVENTURE TIME

The " Long Hot Summer " is finally showing signs of weakness. One Hundred Degree Temps giving way to the 90's. Cleaning and making ready of the trailer is this weeks agenda. Next weeks will be clothes and stocking the pantry. Last, but not least , will be the food for the fridge and freezer.

I am sure I heard the light knock of Fall, or maybe felt is a better word, three mornings in a row! Either way I want to be ready! Even the Elk in my favorite mountains will begin to bugle soon!

Camera and Lenses cleaned ( check), batteries charged (check), tri-pod loaded , for Quynh Le, (check) ! All thats left is the paper plates and plastic money! Hook the truck to the trailer and lets go! It's " Adventure Time " !!

Holberg Inlet

Spectacular views can be found on the old logging roads carved into the hillsides high above Holberg Inlet and the Straggling Islands.

Balancing act

Across the Bay from Coal Harbour is a "Conglomerate" formation. As long as I have been around this several ton rock has been sitting where you see it. In the past I've never thought to look for other clues nearby but there is that story about William Quantrell and the hidden gold coins...

San Francisco Bay

I shot this photo with a warm filter. The weather around this place is very unpredictable. Therefore, I just want to take advantage the lights reflecting from the fogs.



I shot this photo on road just before the Golden Gate Bridge Visitor Center. As you can see the background covered with fogs.

Hopefully, you guys will enjoy these photos while drinking your coffee on Monday morning.

Growing up

These twin fawns were born this past Memorial Day and I usually see them about once a week. I stopped to take a photo a few days ago while they were playing.

Turkey Vulture

At first when I saw this bird flying I thought it was a Hawk. After it landed I saw it's ugly red face and realized it was a Turkey Vulture! Acording to the bird book I have this fellow dosn't usually come this far North, must be "Global Warming".

Took this with the Sigma 120-400 using a Monopod. I am finding that the "Auto White Balance" on the D90 almost always makes pictures noticably "Warmer" then they really are. I wonder if this is just a D90 thing or if all Nikons are setup this way, anyone else notice this?

Reflecting

Today my intention was to do a proper job of taking a landscape photograph...

First rule: The picture has to have a subject.

Second rule: Keep rule of thirds in mind when setting up photo.

Third rule: Try to use leading lines whenever posssible.

Fourth rule: Keep horizon level in photograph.

Fifth rule: Use smaller aperteure setting to get foreground and background in focus.

Sixth rule: Use exposure delay mode so mirror flipping around in camera doesn't cause bluring.

Seventh rule: Use your tripod! I think I recall Le Quynh saying something about this several hundred times!

Sure are alot of things to keep in mind for one silly photograph LOL!

Rainforest sunrise

A few steps out my back door the rainforest begins. As I headed out this morning the sun coming through the thick forest canopy caught my eye.

By comparing the camera's rear display with what I could actually see I was able to get the light level just right in the photo by adjusting the EV setting.

Way Up There

This first photo isn't the greatest in the world but I mainly took it to give some context to where the building is located. You want to look at the top of the mointain for the two peaks. The haze in the photo isn't haze, they are burning again and that is smoke. To give you an idea of how much they are burning the smoke was coming from a fire over ten miles away!

This is the shot I was going for but it's not as impressive unless you know the building is located at the top of a mountain on a long and winding road. I worked on it a little in photoshop to take out a railing that went across the front of the building. I also took this photo on a different day than the first photo. I wanted the blue sky in the background and not the smoke.

Welcome to my world

This is the original entrance into the refuge. It's no longer used but they left it standing for people to see. Had I taken a better photo of it this would make you think you were entering Jurassic Park. Really, it would! (I'll have to work on that!)

Don't quote me on this but I think this entrance was originally built in the 1920's.

SILHOUETTE'S

Found this Turkey Buzzard sitting on a fence post finishing a delicious morsel of Road Kill, ( Possum on the Half Shell ) or Armadillo as it is better known.

The sun had gone down and it was raining off and on. There was very little light to work with and I couldn't seem to pull any color into the bird. So I decided to just go with what ended up being Silhouette's against a rainey background.

By Request

Paul suggested I try this shot in black and white so here it is. Not bad if I do say so myself! LOL

And yes, this was shot using spot metering, spotting right on the buffalo's forehead. I wanted to get his eyes to show up and I thought that might work. As luck would have it I did something right!

A small buffalo? I stand 6' 2" on two legs and this guy is that tall on all fours, I don't think I want to see a "big" buffalo!

Quyhn Le suggested I try the black and white conversion in Nikon's Capture NX2 and then adjust a little more using the Efex filter. Here is another version of the same photo. There are some subtle differences but I think I actually like this one better. I've got a lot of computer learning to do!!

Dry!

Quick snap shot at the pond near my house. The weather has been 100+ for the last 3 weeks, if the weather continue like this for another 3 weeks, I think my face going to look like this.

Totally busted!

I'm thinking this humming bird was on to my clever disguise... I was pretending to be a lawn chair on the porch!

Don't bother me while I'm napping

I guess there's one good thing about the heat, it brings the buffalo into the trees to get cool and it gives me the opportunity to take a photo from my air conditioned car!

Room with a view

Been going through a bit of a dry spell when it comes to photography lately. It's not from lack of taking pictures either, Lord knows I've taken lots! I'm so compositionally challenged...

Here's one that turned out to be interesting to look at. By it's self the beachfront home is no big deal but add the little row boat in the foreground and you have a picture.

Birds.

FIRE & IRON

While visiting the outside exhibits of this large and complex museum in SW Oklahoma I was drawn to

this young Smithy heating up his forge by forcing air over his coke & coal fire with this large bellows.

When the fire was burning hot and the metal at its right temperature from being heated in the fire, then he was ready to begin forging and coaxing the iron into his desired shape!

An oldie but goodie

No rain here so I have been digging through some of my older photos again and reworking some of them in photo shop and playing with the Nikon Capture NX2 software.

I hate new computer stuff! I was just getting used to thinking I knew what I was doing with photoshop and now I feel like a dummy again with the NX2 software. Hopefully in a few months that will pass. LOL

This photo is one of a series I took a year or two ago while in St. Louis, MO for work. The master will be pleased because grasshopper used a tripod! LOL

I climbed a tower across the river from the arch, which technically meant I was in Illinois, and set up about a half hour before sunset and just kept shooting and adjusting the settings on the camera and shooting some more until it was completely dark. About 100 photos later I came away with about ten I really liked.

This photo it was on CP filter at f/22.


This photo it was on ND filter at f/16.

Rain

June we got .8mm, July we got 5.3mm and today we got 4.8mm of rain. Roughly translated that is just under 1/2 inches of rain in almost 3 months. Big deal right? Well when you consider that the West Coast is a Temperate Rain Forest that's real dry! Last year in the same 3 months we had 191mm (nearly 8").

So this morning I took a picture of water droplets falling out of the trees into a puddle as it's been a bit of a rare thing lately!

Danger at Twilight

The wife and I went for a drive a few days ago looking for some locations where I could get some good sunset photos. As I drove by these prairie dogs you could hear them chirping up a storm and I couldn't figure out why.

Until I looked in the same direction they were. They were all worried about being Wiley Coyote's dinner. Of course I didn't have the 150-500mm lens or a tripod with me so I had to shoot on the fly. I guess I wasn't a good boy scout on this trip because I just wasn't prepared!

Sand Dunes In Death Valley

The bridge over river . . .

Just a little foot bridge across Medicine Creek

Look Ma, I'm walking on water!

OK, so there's a rock just under the water's surface. You have to really look to see it though.

MEDICINE CREEK STROLL

Along the banks of Medicine Creek, one ,or a couple, can either build or walk off an appeitite! Ample restaurants provide the fare!

The residents provide the stimulus for the conversation or picture taking, or both!

A laugh, Beep Beep! A fun loving crowd for sure!

After making room for desert, its time to take the road past Mt. Scott to the hidden camp at Doris!

Another Dam Photo

This one is in need of some repair, the dam that is and hopefully not the photo!

I shot this one through some trees and although I could have zoomed in I thought the outline of the foliage was interesting. I also cloned out a few things in the back ground.

Here is what the original photo looked like.

Ao Dai

Please don't ask me why I'm adding the frame on these photos instead the others. But, I will tell you how if you have Adobe CS4 or CS5.