The First Day … 1-1-22
Looking ahead … uncharted … untracked … the possibilities are what we make of them.
Snow Wings … Hidden Haven
The old branches shrouded the stump, looking like wings of snow. Almost angelic to the bunnies or birds that could have hidden beneath, protected from cold or predators.
“Who has wrapped up the waters as a cloak?”
Potpourri of Possibilities … Photo 3 Ways
Just a gathering of Christmas … cones and nuts and dried flower buds … in a crystal bowl setting on a polished wooden chest. Above is the original image.
I tried black and white, but it didn’t seem to have good lines and contrast. Instead, de-saturating colors other than green and then shifting the hue toward blue did offer pleasing lines and contrast. The next phase was increasing the mid-tone contrast to enhance the highlights of the cut crystal. The last edit was cropping tight to the bowl’s rim.
For the third version, I headed to the “Fun Edits” option to play. To the original, I applied the Pop Art/Poster tool until the image’s colors danced. I cropped to eliminate the wood trim along the right edge and recenter the bowl.
Which do you like?
Trail Ghost
We rounded the curve in the trail and there, ghostly, rising, floating, dripping “drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist.”
Last view of November
On the trail or on the rails? Which way? Last photo on the DSLR.
The first sign of Christmas shall be the last photo on my cell. As my daughter lives 3,000 miles away, we decorate together by sending cell pics to each other. My mother bought this Nativity set in 1963. Remembering setting it up and turning the key to play its music brings her back to me. This year, looking at the old box’s splitting seams, I noticed the sticker for the first time: Einneitspappkasten? Hachstgawidt? “Made in Germany.”
Needled snow desktop
“Have you entered the treasury of snow?”
Wishing for snow … maybe if I envision it … snow will fall and I will enter its treasury … “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!” I live just below the snowline, too low to ever shovel but high enough to reach snow in 30 minutes. Several years back, I captured this close-up of the Ponderosa Pine 20 feet from my deck after a rare snowfall at our home. Seeing it on my desktop always makes me winter happy.
Sky Painting
Whatsoever is lovely … (as XingfuMama suggests) is worth savoring. This morning’s dawn over the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Architecture … Basically
Wrapped in scaffolding, before the final facade, framing the architectural interest for Sacramento.
Was the architect playing tic-tac-toe while designing this Seattle skyscraper?
San Francisco arches create a portal to the sky.
Lens-Artists #173 — Interesting Architecture
Heavy, chiseled columns dress up an outdoor shopping mall (originally posted in December 2012).
Fall into Winter
“He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.”
The week before, the trail was clear, and the aspen leaves blocked the sky overhead. What a change a bomb cyclone has made. This day, the snow was 8 to 12 inches deep, and golden leaves dotted the crystalline carpet.
Tuesday Twice: Sky Dancer on Pointe
In the world, above the world, not of the world
This is one of my first posts, from 2011. The sky was shot with Kodachrome 64 at the ranch where I lived. With her company, the dancer rehearsed on a black stage while the lighting technicians played with the lights. The ballet company granted permission to shoot without any flash to distract the dancers. There was no telling when the spotlights would change in location, color, intensity or spread. Using 400 ASA black and white film (pushed to 1000 in processing), listening to the music, watching the dancers’ movements in hopes of anticipating peak moments (when the dancers’ movements only seem to stop), I shot over 120 frames. Perhaps year after that, in the darkroom, I laid the negative of the dancer on top of the slide of the sky to make a print. Many more years later, I scanned a print of that result and created my post.
Of course, photography has evolved since the days I shot film, Kodachrome or black and white … since the days of stinky, chemical-laden air of darkrooms … since the hours laboring to correct blemishes on film or print. So, too, has my blogging technique … periodically, on Tuesday, take a look back to some of my earliest efforts at digital photos in the blogosphere.
Seed’s Eye View of Blue
and of the sky over the neighborhood meadow. From this perspective, the grass is as tall as the cottonwood tree.
Falling Water Water Everywhere
Big falls … “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls” Burney Falls
Resting falls … “‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters’”
Little falls … “He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.” Fordyce Falls Creek
Red Sun Mourning
“Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” Red sun rising … the bright sun red burned out to white as the camera tried to see through thick smoke from 4 wildfires. Normally, the Sierra Mountain ridge, about 60 miles away, stands sharply visible below the eastern sky. This morning’s smoke from those wildfires hid the ridge. Above is the unedited original. Below are Elements 14 (Photoshop) edits.
First, on the left, I matched the photo’s sun to the red sun my eyes had seen. Selecting and filling the selection was easy peasy. Oh yes, I cropped the top and bottom edges.
Then, on the right, I applied the haze removal tool.
The left is the same version as the above right. But now, on this right is a solarized iteration of the version with the burned out sun.
Which version do you prefer?
The Squirrel Chase One-two-three Photo Processing Challenge–August 2021
Looking down on myself … last chance
Before Heading Out — Last DSLR
Looking down on our barbecue … hoping
The owl who came to dinner — Last cell
Squared Trees in California — #3
Southeastern inland: Mammoth Mountain Dead Forest … where the CO2 gas seeped up from below to kill the trees. Posted warnings tell parents and pet owners to keep little ones away. (See https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-81/Intro/facts-sheet/GasKillingTrees.html)
“And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down”
Fisheye view of the lift in the sky
When you can’t ski down … pull up a seat! Summer at Northstar
Squared Trees in California — #2
Inland Northern trail near Mt. Shasta, laboring up the dusty trail, hot and sweaty. But look up, where “… over everything the glory will be a canopy.”
Shutter’s on the World 