July 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper #desktopwallpaper #photograph

Since most of the USA is in a heatwave, I thought it might be nice to sit down at your computer and visit a little bit of the "coolness" that we have here in Washington, USA near the foot of Mt. Rainier.  When it is clear, it is a beautiful sight, majestic and glorious, rising high above the landscape.  I hope you enjoy July's Desktop Calendar Wallpaper.

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If you would enjoy seeing more of this mountain you can on Google+ here and here.

Photographing Smoke for the first time. #photog #technics

Life- It's not all smoke and mirrors

So, it was night.  Dark and foreboding.  I have never attempted photographing smoke, strictly as smoke, but I did believe it would be best if I photographed it in the dark and used a light source to highlight it to bring out the variances found in the transparency and drift that is produced.   Because of the low light I also knew that I would need my tripod, and to use a timer or a remote shutter to help reduce camera shake.  So I gathered everything that I needed:

One regular flashlight , two of the energizer light on demand sticks (I can’t find the exact type of light this is but it is a very white light-I’m thinking it is halogen,)  one votive candle, one long wooden match stick, my Canon 5D Mark II and my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens on my tripod.    I cleared the table and set it against a plain wall so there was no background noise.

It Must Be Angel's Wings

I put my camera on my tripod and on either side of the votive candle I put one of the light sticks and kept the third light in my hand lower than the table and pointing upward toward the ceiling /smoke.  “Was this going to work?” I wondered.  It was time to light the candle and I tried to focus; this part was not very easy actually.   The smoke moves so fast and is so transparent.  So I tried to focus midway to my set- up to keep the smoke in focus.  I concentrated on the wick first in manual focus and it seemed to work fairly well, although my smoke source was the wooden match, not the candle.  The aperture chosen by the camera was 2.8, which is always fine by me, so I stayed with shutter priority and a 0.5-.6 second shutter seemed to work the best to catch the smoke with all its twists and turns before it dissipated.  I set my camera to the 10 second timer and did bracketing exposure of -1/3 to +1/3 (on the timer it allowed for three quick shots making catching the smoke in three different forms much easier.)  

Petals of Smoke

The candle was lit, bringing in a quiet light; flashlights in position and turned on and I touched the long wooden match to the fire to get it burning, then dropped it lower than the candle so the candlelight would also be a light source.  I would press the shutter then point the third light upward,  and with practice blew out the flame of the match at just the right moment for the shutter to click and catch the smoke.   This took practice and I missed as often as I hit it just right at the beginning, it got better the more I practiced. Shooting straight on to the rising column of smoke also proved to be the best way to catch the smoke, although I did try to shoot it upward from below and it wasn’t very successful.  You can begin to swirl the match or do other things with it to produce various effects with the smoke.  It became great fun when it all came together and started to work. 

 

I found pre-planning this shoot was as important as actually shooting the smoke.  Once you understand all the things that come into play, it becomes much easier, not only for planning but for shooting.  It is worth the experience in every way and I just may find reasons to shoot it again!

As always, for me though, it is about how the photograph makes you feel.  When the colors are good, especially subtle color variances, it is even better.  So which ones touch your soul?  And how do they make you feel?

 

June 2012 Desktop Wallpaper- Okinawan Pathway

When I visited Okinawa last year I toured Okinawa World and discovered this lovely pathway, strewn with a few leaves and old flower blossoms.  I wondered where it went.  There was a sign posted saying no one was allowed to go further along the path from where I stood to take this photograph.  I'm so glad life is not like that.  We have so many choices in life!  We have so many options and paths we could take. We make lots of choices.  Some of those choices will be good and some may not be as good and perhaps even one or two might be darn right awful.  But if we can learn and move forward with new tools and be better equipped for the future, it becomes a choice well made, it isn't wrong, it isn't awful, just a way to learn and make better choices next time.  Where is your pathway leading you this Summer?  Where will you go?  What choices will you make?

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So where does your pathway lead? 

Be certain to join me on Google Plus and Facebook or visit my website!

May 2012 Spring Blossom Calendar Wallpaper

April showers bring May flowers and therefore this month's wallpaper is that of beautiful crab apple tree blossoms.  Download the one that best fits the resolution of your computer and enjoy!

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Please enjoy and if you would like to purchase this print or any other please feel free to contact me.  I have additional photographs and pastel paintings currently on my website or Google + or Facebook.

April Showers...April 2012 Calendar Desktop Wallpaper

That old saying goes, April showers bring May flowers.  This month I chose a photograph with water droplets.  Please enjoy the luscious colors and magical droplets all month!

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Hopefully this year's showers will spring forth the glorious color of Summer to be shared next month!  Happy Spring!

March 2012 Waterlily Desktop Wallpaper #desktopwallpaper #photograph

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March 2012 Desktop Wallpaper taken at Hartley's Crocodile Adventures near Cairns, Australia.

When the ordinary becomes extraordinary. #Indianapolis #photog #photography #tog

How much do you see?  What do you see?

I am not usually fascinated by architectural structures or for that matter, most man-made things; I like the sensual and expressive lines you find in nature, the patterns, colors and changes that occur.  

flaming!!

I went to Indianapolis to cover my nephew’s Eagle Ceremony and take photographs of the event.  Prior to the ceremony I visited the church where it was to be held.  The sun was brightly shining that day; it was rather warm for an early February day in the Midwest.  I first walked into the small chapel at this eclectic European  influenced building finding beautiful stained glassed windows lining one side of the chapel, on the other side were a few other stained glassed windows and one in the front above the altar. 

Stained Glass Beauty

Let the Children Come

Teach Us to Pray

 They were beautiful in themselves but became exquisite as the sun lit the chapel like a fantasy where the light danced in bright colors across the floor and into the atmosphere, on the walls and anything else it fell on.  It played like little fairies dancing here and there throughout the room.  What I thought would be something quite boring became a treasure of fleeting moments only there for the afternoon dancing in partnership with the sun shining in from the outside.  As I began to study how the light played and fell in the room, I could barely stop framing the intimate details dancing before me. 

Let the Light Shine

Attention to the Light

It's Becoming Clearer

My macro lens was on my camera and the wide aperture afforded some beautiful bokeh enhancing the experience and letting me carry that to those who viewed my photographs from this day.  As I let myself be consumed by what I was seeing, certainly not what I was expecting, but allowing myself to see the intimate details and fleeting moments in time before me outside the normal parameters of my expectations and thoughts it opened a whole new world to see and love.

Visions of Color Danced In Her Head

More than a Window

By allowing myself to see the ordinary in a new way, it opened the door to taking with me a new experience and the photographs to allow others to partake of the beautiful scenes I found before me.  It made me enthusiastic to explore the remainder of the church and as I did, I allowed myself to see beyond the structure of architecture but the details and beauty in the light and reflections, the detail, the textures, the shapes, values, line, form and color, not as a building but as pieces of a whole.  

Rosette Window-Second Presbyterian-Indianapolis, IN

Ceiling Rows

In the Cross-hairs of Seeing

With eyes wide open, I looked.  I squinted, I lay on the ground, I stood on benches, I squatted, I stood up tall.  I looked down, I looked up, I looked in front of me, I looked behind me, I seemed to spin in circles to breathe it all into my soul and take away something new from an experience I thought would be mundane and ordinary and cold; instead I discovered life in the light and structure.

Sanctuary Reflections

Columns of Light

Walking Through Light

Falling Colors

And They Shall Mount Up with Wings as Eagles

I let myself feel and experience the excitement and the excursion, letting it breathe new life into the experience and the ordinary became extraordinary and lovely.

Light Sparkles

Second Presbyterian Church-Indianapolis, IN

 How much do you see?  Do you let yourself see when circumstances change or let yourself and your plans become altered when you look and see and feel and experience what you encounter?  Do you let your expectations be altered?  What do you see?  What do you allow yourself to see?  How will your day change today because of it?