I really thought this worked well in black and white with the reflections and the trees. This is from a wildlife sanctuary right in the middle of the city of Irvine. It is only 2 blocks from the 405 freeway, it is surrounded by high rise offices and condominiums and apartments. Yet this site is a sanctuary for all kinds of bird life, waterfowl and even including bobcats. Nice to walk around and get away from society even though it is in the background. Enjoy.
Well just a few more weeks left of this year, and a fine year it has been. Here is a shot that I recently processed from my trip to Yellowstone and Montana. This group of aspens was quite nice but I was quite happy with this shot. Fuji X-Pro 1 camera. Hope you enjoy it too.
At the beginning of October I took a trip with my wife to Montana and Yellowstone National Park. We were a bit late for fall color but there were some areas that had some still hanging around. It was quite cold there and winter was rapidly approaching. Here are few of the fall color landscape shot from the trip. Enjoy.
Hard to believe how fast this year has gone by…seems like it was only summer a few days ago… Well we have been having some rain, but I did not let that stop me, on the way home from work I stopped at a park in Orange and got out and stretched my legs. Even though it was drizzling a little I decided to take my camera, the oaks were in the process of turning color and dropping leaves and strolled past all the dead leaves I noticed a single green leaf among them. I liked the contrasts. Fuji X-Pro 1 and Fuji 60mm f2.4 macro at f2.8.
Here is another fall color image, taken with the X-Pro 1 and the 18mm lens. This was taken on a week long trip to Montana and a quickie visit to Yellowstone. We had a great time visiting some friends and doing some photography. I am woefully way behind on my editing but I hope to have that done pretty soon and the images up and posted. I hope you enjoy this view of some fall color in the Lamar Valley.
Well I thought I squeak in an image at the end of the week here, a quick picture of some fall colors, although I did convert it to black and white. I walked by all these sweet gum leaves on the ground and noticed the cool looking roots and this just called out to me in monochrome. So here it is, shot with the Fuji X-Pro 1, and the 35mm f1.4 lens. Enjoy
Well hope you are not tired of sunsets, I love watching them, the pastel colors and setting moon caught my eye. Watched a pod of dolphins swim by, on their way somewhere, very relaxing after a day at the job…. Fuji X-Pro1, 60mm macro. Enjoy.
Well at least I am getting closer to being on track, this weeks image is kind of different. I call it a “water color”. This is how it came out of the camera with only some contrast adjustments and a slight crop to get ride of some distracting leaves. The painterly look is completely natural! This is a reflection of a pond at Descanso Gardens, the water was being stirred up by some rapidly moving koi carp, the waves caused by them caused the reflections to blur if I lowered the shutter speed at bit, so a natural abstract. Take with the Fuji X-Pro 1 and 35mm lens. Enjoy.
Portraits of Earth is the new ebook from David DuChemin. David is a photographer who has been known for taking people portraits and showing the human side of events, so what is he doing writing a landscape photography book? Well, like David mentions in his ebook, landscapes are really just portraits of the Earth. They can inspire as well as inform the viewer, emotions can come into play and just the sheer beauty of nature is something to share. This ebook is not so much about gear, but about looking for the possibilities and crafting your shot with more care to complete your vision. He also gives some tips for gear, and how to use it to capture the light that you see when exploring new vistas. He talks about filters and how they can enhance an image and the best ways to use them. He also talks about some general gear, like tripods and other useful items. He also goes into details about how to handle specific types of scenery, like fog and snow. Also there are some nice tips for some processing techniques and can give you some ideas to try in your own images. The book is filled with pictures from his travels around the world, visiting places most of use are not going to see, I know I wish I could go to some of these places. So does that mean you have to travel to exotic locations? No it does not, but he does show you through examples of how to apply leading lines and to use light to tell your story and capture your vision as well as composition topics and some discussions on why and how he made the images as well as the exposure information. 
So why should you consider this ebook? Well for me I like the way David writes, his writing style is easy to read and understand and you feel that you are having a conversation with him, he explains his motivations and tries to not make it too technical. Photography is a an artform that requires some technical knowledge but it also requires the artist to “see”, so there are fuzzy concepts to go with the geek. You can purchase this ebook for a very low price of $5, however if you click on the link and use the code EARTH4 before Sept. 9, 2012 you can get it for $4, Click here for Portraits of Earth While you are on the Craft And Vision site you might want to check out their other ebooks. I have personally found the following titles to be very useful, The Power of Black and White, Light and Land, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Close to Home, all of the ebooks on the site are well written and informative, and if you want to get several ebooks use the code EARTH20 for a 20% discount on 5+ ebooks, this code also expires Sept. 9, 2012. So get some good, cheap, informative ebooks and inspire yourself to get out use what you learn. I know I have.
Well another glorious sunset this week, taken in Laguna Beach. The clouds started building in the afternoon and as it got closer to sunset they were not disappearing, so grabbed the camera gear and headed out and took this shot. Just before sunset there was a nice large rainbow. Shot with the Fuji X-Pro 1 and the 18mm lens on a tripod. Enjoy.
