landscapephotography Archives - Page 13 of 17

May 16, 2018May 16, 2018

Other People’s Ideas

Monday night after the rain stopped, I drove over to a little park that I recently heard about through a hot tip. It’s one of those parks that are known only to the residents. We seem to have a lot of those hidden gems in the area. Nevertheless, it quite often affords the kind of view ordinarily reserved for waterfront properties.

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Other People's Ideas — From Rose Park in Bradenton Florida

Here I’m posing with the help of a ten-second timer, which was barely enough time to get into position. My first attempt caught me in mid-stride. I thought that adding a human element to the drama of the scene worked well. I got the inspiration from New Zealand photographer Mike Langford whom I met on a trip there a few years back. Here is a link to his photo on Pinterest and here is his website.

my portfolio

To tell you the truth, I get inspiration from a lot of different photographers, too numerous to mention. I spend a lot of time looking at their work and then when the situation arises; I’ll incorporate an idea into my photo. Sometimes, I even come up with ideas of my own. And then, ten years from now someone will say the same about me. It’s all just good energy going around.

May 14, 2018

The Takeaway

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve had some fantastic sunsets down here in Florida. I’ve been busy but managed to get to the beach on Saturday for a few shots. Not that that’s the only reason I go to the beach.

Today’s Image

The Takeaway — From the dunes at Manatee Beach

The real reason is for the air, the sound of the waves and sights. They quickly take my head out of whatever state of mind I’m in and clear the cobwebs. Telling myself I’m going for photography gets the wheels moving, being there gives me a whole lot more.

One takeaway here is that this image uses focus stacking. That’s a technique where I take one photo focused on the foreground, and another focused on items further away and then blend them. This way everything appears in focus. The results are pleasing for landscape photography where you want to see as much detail as possible. It’s also great for printing because everything is in focus.

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Anyway, while I’m doing all those fancy techniques, I’m at the beach, walking along the shore and having fun. In retrospect, that’s the real takeaway.

April 27, 2018April 27, 2018

Memories Fade

This photo may be my favorite of the bunch from that day at the beach. And it sums up the chill mood of the people that were present at the time. As for myself, I was pretty happy also.

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Without photos, memories fade. Life goes on and, we do not think about the details of that day. But when we look at pictures, the feelings, sights, and smells come back. That’s the thing about images; they’re drug-free memory boosters.

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Our recollections are a quantum leap beyond what computers do. But that’s changing; AI is closing that gap. But one thing they’ll probably never do is appreciate a sunset. That’s is something only we can do, assuming we don’t forget to go to the beach.

April 26, 2018

All Worth While

This idyllic scene is from the beach on Anna Maria Island. Florida has a lot of islands and this, to my mind, is one of the best. Regarding beaches the sand is pretty amazing, it’s a white powdery substance more like sugar than sand. But I digress, this is about the photo, not the sand.

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All Worth While — Days like this make all the other seem worth while

Anyway, now and then I get lucky, this is one of those days. I couldn’t take a bad picture if I tried. That makes up for all the other times when I show up and clouds obscure the sun. The success rate of a sunset photographer (such that I am) is disappointingly low. But this was a good day, so all is forgiven.

check out the new sunset gallery

A “sunset photographer” sounds like a great job, doesn’t it? Imagine getting paid to take pictures of the sunset. You show up to work about an hour before sunset, take photos for about an hour, and then you’re done. In reality, I do things other things than this, but I must say, sunsets, especially good ones, make all the other stuff worthwhile.

April 24, 2018April 24, 2018

Jungle Scene

Every now and then I need to get away from the urban chaos. I was feeling that and jumped in the car to drive here to Myakka River State Park. It was after a rainstorm; in summer, storms come almost daily. As the runoff overflowed the banks the scene resembled that of a jungle.

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This is at a trailhead and I was standing on the path in about six inches of water. Beyond this, there is a path that parallels the creek. It was a few inches above the water, so I walked along it until I heard the telltale sound of a bullfrog, which in reality is a nearby alligator. I thought better of it and walked back to the car.

more landscapes in the gallery

The reason I came here was to capture the lush vegetation and flowing water. The foreground grasses give a hint of the current as it overflowed the path. Also, the reflections create a natural symmetry that completes the scene. Speaking of reflections, I just created a little study of reflections here, be sure to check it out.

Open spaces in Florida are becoming urbanized, but I am thankful for protected parks like this where nature can still be experienced with just a short drive from home.

April 19, 2018April 23, 2018

Pining to Go Back

Here is another image from Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. I cannot fathom living eight-hundred years. Imagine the stories these trees could tell. After that length of time, I suppose the stories would go on and on.

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After looking at these images, I am pining to go back. Knock on wood I’ll have a chance soon. Short of that, I’ll just have to lumber along here in Florida. Forgive me dear blog reader, you do not deserve to be pun-ished this way.

other images with trees

One good thing about living eight-hundred years is that the statute of limitations is on your side. Whatever you did in the last century is forgotten, unless, of course, you’re a tree. In that case, your neighbors know your business. Do trees forget?

If you’ve found this blog post informative, then I’m clearly not doing my job today.

April 18, 2018

L’Hérault, France

This is the Hérault river in Southern France. We stopped here for a brief rest on our way back from a visit to the mountain village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert. There are a lot of rivers running off the mountains here and many have ancient bridges or structures alongside.

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L'Hérault, France — A quick stop on the road to Montpellier, France

Just off to the left are a set of caves that, had we not been so tired, we could have explored; something to add to the next trip I suppose.

European Gallery

If stopped at all the good spots for pictures I would never get anywhere. This is especially true in a new place, but even at home, I’m in the habit of scanning. Unconstrained, I could go to the store for milk and come back days later, still thirsty but with a lot of pictures. That’s why I don’t bring my camera when grocery shopping. Even though sometimes I think I should.

April 11, 2018April 11, 2018

Old Photos New Software

This is an HDR image full of fall colors that I took four years ago in New Zealand. It was the first morning of a five-day workshop with Trey Ratcliff. In the southern hemisphere, April is in Autumn so the leaves were turning.

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Old Photos New Software — This is an old photo I processed with Skylum’s Aurora 2018

I had recently purchased the Sony A7R and now, four years later, I’m still impressed with the images. Since that time Sony has created two new generations of that camera so I now use the third generation A7R III. Also, since that time Trey and Skylum introduced HDR software known as Aurora HDR. Now Aurora is in its second or third generation as well. As a result, I’m revisiting these old photos with the new software. The software has improved to the point that it’s very easy to make old photos look amazing.

New Zealand gallery

Four years seems like such a long time, I would go back in a heartbeat. For a photographer, New Zealand is a dream. But I did take thousands of photos while I was there so even if I don’t get back right away I still have these photos to look at and enjoy.

April 9, 2018

Rare and Endangered

This is from Cathedral Grove in British Columbia. It’s a relatively small area filled with Douglas Fir and Red Cedar. Some of the trees are 800 years old and 250 feet high. The forest is considered rare and endangered, the trees are prized by the logging industry. You can find out more about that here.

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Rare and Endangered — The Red Cedar is endangered due to logging

Having walked through it on a couple of occasions I can say there is a special feeling you get. There aren’t many places like this remaining on the planet, so I hope we can preserve it and the forests around it.

Fluid Dynamics

This is Ocean Beach from Point Lobos in San Francisco. My wife and I were having dinner at the Cliff House restaurant when the colors started changing and, as usual, I had to excuse myself from the table. There’s no getting around the fact that the spouse of a photographer is long-suffering.

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It’s interesting how the people on the beach are evenly distributed. Have you ever notice how crowds of people seem to mimic fluid dynamics? Here they’re evenly dispersed like little water molecules on the sand. You can see this phenomenon when you view crowds from a distance. At a certain level, people follow the laws of physics. We observe the same behavior in traffic patterns which is then used to model highways and ramps.

see my favorites from the portfolio

In a previous post and similar picture from this beach, I compared the grains of sand to stars in the universe. It seems that whenever I look at this scene I’m reminded of the order of things, and how that order repeats regardless of the scale. Food for thought from someone who can’t sit long enough to eat.