I'll have to admit that I was trying to channel Ansel Adams when I made* this photo. Of course, Ansel used a view camera, filters and elaborate dark room magic to make his great black and white landscape photos. In the digital realm, all of those things are done using software.
I had taken my Black Hills Photo Adventure participants to the Needles Highway in the Black Hills and when we arrived at this vantage point, low clouds were skimming over the Spires, though you can't see it is this photo. It was the perfect moment to be at this place and I'm guessing that even Adams would have found it worthy of a photo or two.
Incidentally, what made Ansel Adams so good was that he didn't see the landscape that he photographed as geologic architecture. Instead, he worked hard to show the landscape as an environment. I try to do this in this photo, but I would say I fall a little short, though there is plenty of texture in this photo. And texture is a hallmark of Adam's work.
*Adams said, "You don't take a good photo. You make one."
This portrait of Nicole was taken in the Black Hills at my July "Black Hills Photo Adventure." I took quite a few photos of her and she was a great subject. I teach that the eyes are one of the most important parts of a portrait and yet I have her looking away from the camera. Why? Well, we were working on a pose that showed her relaxed and seemingly unaware of the camera's presence. In the next frame, Nicole is looking at me but I ended up liking this one best.
Even though I've posted stargazer lilies here and some would say, "If you've seen one stargazer, you've seen them all," I feel obliged to post photos of these beautiful flowers again and again.
In keeping with my "Working Photographer" theme from yesterday I post the second in a series. This time, the photo is of more mature subjects then Glenyce J. The subjects: Patricia, of Monterey, CA and Nicole of Houston, TX. The setting: Lakota Lake, the Black Hills, South Dakota.
A concern I have about retirement is that as I transition from my "normal" public self to my retired life, some people will start to think about me in the past tense. An even bigger fear is that I might show up somewhere and someone without proper social filters might say, "I thought you were dead!"
Anyone driving along the forest service road I used to get to this photo location would have wondered why a man was lying prone near an old, dead tree at 5:45 am this morning. But nobody else was likely to do that. In fact I could lie prone for the whole day and not be seen.
This blog has be AWOL much of the summer but I guess I have been, too. As of the 17th of July I think I have been home for a little more than 10 days since the third week of May. I have also had little access to wifi. So that's my excuse.
My brother in law Scott took my son Brian and me to the Ingersoll Mine, not too far from Keystone, SD. I'm not exactly comfortable prowling around in mine shafts and photographically is not a great location - there's no light to speak of except for beam of a flash light.
I was back along Iron Creek scouting locations for the upcoming Black Hills Photo Adventure when I saw these two trees forming an interesting sort of "bridge" across the creek. Of course, neither was make for transportation but they were made for the photographer.
This is the doting great mother and namesake of our new grand daughter, Glenyce Jane. And GJ is worth doting over. :-)