Amana Colonies, Iowa

Here are some new photos from a recent trip to Amana Colonies, Iowa.

There were some great subjects in these old rural settings. Some images have the contrast or colors tweaked, but the flat lighting and old wood made for mostly low contrast images and few highlights or dramatic colors in the outside shots.

The close-up shots of blue spools of thread were shot while the spools were in a large cardboard box, and my eyes keep the colors true, but the reflected brown fill light inside the box left me with photographs of spools looking almost gray, so I pushed the blue colors back in with Photoshop.

The one other "photoshopped" image, (of brightly colored woolen mittens from the Wool Mill), was a slightly blurry image, so a Photoshop filter effect and enhanced colors has helped save a shot otherwise destined for the "out-take" bin. It was fun capturing the "ordinary everyday world" in someone else's world, that became a great photo-playground in mine!

Many basic or complex shapes and colors everywhere...!

Here's some more shots, featuring color, line, or form, as much as balloons. I must give credit for my picture numbered -02067, to our family friend, Ellen C.*, who met us in ABQ for this event. In the Balloon Museum, I didn't see the opposite side of the silvery balloon mock-up shown in my earlier shot, number -02060, until Ellen showed me her shot of it on her camera's viewer. I was compelled by her excellent shot, to walked back around the balloon and frame up one also. What you see is a view of the balloon sliced in half to show the interior of the combination helium gas/hot air filled balloon and structure of the "Bud Light Spirit of Freedom" balloon, which set various world records, including for solo round-the world flight, by Steve Fossett, back in 2002.

*(Full name to be release with permission).

Balloons! Fiesta! Fireworks! And even more ballooning sights.

Winds were up too much for Balloon Glow events on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 3rd , but that didn't stop some fireworks from adding to the festivities. These shots, basically in sequential order too, include sunset, moonrise over the Sandia Mts., fireworks, a light-rope-(like from Christmas-time), -on-a-pole. Sunrise over the Sandia's the next morning, with mountain and cloud shadows being cast over the Albuquerque area from the sunrise, then moonset photos, with balloon shots taken from on the upper balcony of the Balloon Museum, which was also an awesome vantage point and foreground setting for the balloons and mountains. Balloons are awesome, but having good foregrounds or backgrounds to frame up the balloon pictures is important too. (Look for another of my "framed" balloon shots on www.weather.com/photos, in the "travel" catagory).

The Balloon Field provides for many strong graphic design elements too!

Strolling among the many balloons and launch field related places and events provides for many strong graphic design elements too! Whether it's part of the balloons themselves, or the juxapositioning of so many shapes and color patterns, or the myriad of things in the surrounding vendors tents, there lie a countless array of pictures waiting to be captured.

Contact Sheet 2-Balloons, and "Zebra's", etc.

Here's mostly Balloon Fiesta pictures, with the first bit of direct sunshine starting to light up the field and balloons, and one of the "Zebra's", who are in charge of keeping some order to all the balloons taking off. There is one shot of the traditional area architecture for one of the nice homes of the ABQ area, (possibly the Unser home, of racing fame, but I'm not positive).

Sunlight makes a ton of difference in defining the shapes and shiny textures, in addition to the bright colors of all the balloons and surroundings.

"Contact Sheets", due to quantity of pics taken on trip...

Since I shot over 900 pictures, (digital), and 2 rolls of film, plus some video on my recent trip to Albuquerque, NM, for the Balloon Fiesta, I've uploaded only "contact sheets" to start with. (night-time glowing "Intel" balloon in the air is first set of shots).

I'll put up some higher rez photos as I can.

Two of the photos of one of the balloons (in mid air), show a black and color striped balloon that looks a bit collapsed while in the air... That's because it crashed into a vendor's tent on the edge of the field, followed by one person falling out and the balloon rapidly ascending. The pilot must vent air to avoid crashing into any balloons above it, (which, if there would be one there, the pilot can't see it from in the gondola), and then the balloon falls rapidly.... This one fell from about 300 feet, and fortunately the pilot was only slightly injured, and the ejected passenger suffered only a dislocated hip, in this mishap.

Everything else went well, other than some events getting cancelled... (Note some of the photos of flags standing straight out in the winds. Not conducive to balloon flying!

Albuquerque is awesome! The Balloon Fiesta is awesome! The Sandia's are awesome!

(As Arnold says, "I'll be back"!).

NOT so Itsy-Bitsy!

I just had to capture a shot of this spider, much like it has just captured it's next meal! (It looked well-fed already though, with its body the size of a large grape or cherry tomato)!

I saw this auspicious arachnid while I was cooking steaks out on the grill a few nights ago.

While my steaks were sizzling, the auto-focusing assist beam helped me to zoom in and focus on my spider, isolated nicely against a dark night sky, while he prepared his own meal in his web up near the edge of my patio roof.

I suppose he enjoyed his meal about as much as I enjoyed mine, but he may have had to endure the after-effects of a blindingly bright camera flash in all eight of his eyes! I wonder if spiders get headaches when they fall prey to a little macro-photography?

Coldwater Creek

Coldwater Creek, near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, at Fort Bellefontaine Park. Here, naturally and neatly broken limestone lines the banks of the creek and contrast its gentle curves.

Change Houses, Fort Bellefontaine Park

"Change Houses" built by the WPA, (Work Projects Administration), in the 1930's, at a park on the site of Fort Bellefontaine, where Lewis and Clark returned to spend the last night of their return journey to home, from on the Louisiana Expedition.

Deer and Fawn

This is a shot from the car, as I pulled into a park recently. The adult deer showed up first, and patiently waited for me to grab my camera from under the car seat, get it out of the camera case, attach the telephoto add-on lens, change the menu options to recognize the attached telephoto lens, and then it struck a nurturing pose for me as her fawn bounded into the scene! (If I could just keep the camera turned on and ready ALL the time... (f/8 and be there)... but batteries die,and cameras are now designed to protect themselves too!

Maybe it's time to get that Cyborg EyeCam installed...

Understated colors

  At first glance this picture may look like a black and white image, (depending on your monitor settings and room lighting). But in a second look, you'll see it shows slight color, in the trees and railing.  Compositionally, the lighter colored railing pulls the movement of your eye from the foreground, allowing it to pass into the middle and background of the image through the opening in the railing.

 When your composition pulls or directs ones eyes to flow through the picture, your image is lively and interesting, not static or "boring".  This motion saves this image with its bleak sky, which mirrors the white of the snow and shares the curved line of treetops.

 The tree line also divides the horizon asymmetrically, with a gentle curve, which almost duplicates the line of the railing, to reinforce those primary lines in the photograph.

Sundogs are the bright spectral flares that show up at 90 degree angles on each side of, and above and below the sun when ice crystals are shaped just right and suspended in the higher clouds of the atmosphere. The solar pillar streaking up from the sun, is like Heavens funeral prye, in honor of my Dad's funeral, the day before I took this picture. (F/8 and be there, even while behind the wheel, but use extra care).

"F/8 and be there"

  This Photo blog site is in honor of my Dad, who passed away on the first day of this year, 2009. He started honing his photography skills as an Army Private in Occupied Japan, working in the darkroom, developing pictures and prints of the Japanese War Crime trials.

 I first became serious about photography when I began using his old TLR, (Twin Lens Reflex), Rolliflex 2-1/4" square format camera. I hope the images you find here are a motivation for you to go out and take pictures.  Share your "minds' eye", with the world. Photography is such a cool way to show your views of the world around you, and see how others see their world.

  One of the best pieces of advice I was given in a college photo class was to use the photojournalists rule: 

"F/8 and BE THERE". It means, if you're going to get that once in a life-time picture, you need to always have your camera with you, have the shutter speed set to 1 over the closest number to your "film speed", (1/125 for ISO 100 film, 1/250 for 200 ISO, etc.), and set your aperture to f/8.  This is your baseline  for "normal daylight exposure".  Then if lighting or shutter speed need to be adjusted for cloudy, or bright snow, or beach, or indoors, or fast action, you've got your starting point for any film speed you've loaded. Most digital cameras allow "ISO speed" adjusting, (+/- exposure), so you can still change your light meter sensitivity in a similar fashion to changing film speed in a film camera.