11-21-12 Primavera (Near Fort Randall)

When I say "primavera," you might naturally think of pasta. Or, you might think of the famous painting by Boticelli. But primavera also means "spring" in many Romance languages, including Italian. And, because this photo shows the first blush of green on the bluffs above the Missouri River, I've given it a bit of a romantic title. It's not a photo of apetizing food and it doesn't feature women in diaphanous clothing. But does picture a serene and beautiful place in my home state.Incidentally, it occurs to me that as winter arrives in our state, I start to looking for photos that are dominated by green. What does that say about me?Did you know you can subscribe to my blog by going to the bottom right hand part of this page and simply typing your email address in? How convenient! Fifteen people are already doing this. How about being the 16th?

10-08-12 Bad Land? (HDR)

This one turned up after heavy duty "dumpster diving." I think I had abandoned it because I thought it was boring. Thus, I didn't practice what I preach in class: don't try to save bad photos with cool (but over the top) filters. I tried to save this one with an HDR filter. :-(

09-24-12 Winter Eclipse

This is was shot in minimal light a few years ago. Having heard that there was going to be a total lunar eclipse on this night, Deb and I went driving to find a good locale to see and photograph the moon. I finally found this four trees posing nicely in front the waning moon.

09-18-12 Ready and Waiting

There is an adage in photography that says that you should first find a good photo opportunity and then turn and look behind you because the best photo is often something you don't see at first.This picture is a good example in that what caused me to stop my truck along the gravel road in Iowa was the photo I took yesterday. After getting what I wanted there, I turned and looked across the road. And this is what I saw (click). It wasn't all that special, was it? But inspired by one of my student's great soybean photos (check out Lindsey Fowler's photo), I decided to move in. And this photo is the result. And it stands as a good example of the tremendous power photographers have: we get people to look at things they would probably never taken the time to see.By the way, I like Lindsey's photo better. :-)Canon 5DIII 1/320s f/4.0 ISO320 182mm

09-17-12 Golden (HDR)

I was cruising the backroads of Iowa with my good friend BZ looking for one of my favorite subjects - an Iowa cornfield. The cornfield wasn't hard to find, of course. What is a little more challenging is finding other things that make the corn a little less run-of-the-millIn the case of this photo, the sunrise helped and so did the built-in HDR processor my Canon 5DIII has. I shouldn't point this out, but I think there is a compositional flaw in this photo in that I think it would be better if A) the sun lined up with the rows of corn or B) I had given a little more room to the right of the sun when I framed the shot. But, as they say, "It is what it is." And, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, "It's only a corn field but I like it."Canon 5DIII 1/25s f/18.0 ISO320 200mm

80-30-12 Variations On A Theme

Yes, another sunflower shot. They are looking east, incidentally, away from the setting sun. And, yes, they look east all day and all night long. When I was a kid someone told me that they actually turned so they always faced the sun. That would be a form of heliotropism, so my high school biology teacher would say.But sunflowers aren't that ambitious.Canon 5DIII 1/80s f/7.1 ISO100 200mm

08-14-12 Hand County, South Dakota

This is another HDR (high dynamic range) photo that is actually a combination of two photos. I'm not sure I like the dramatic "rays" that seem to be streaming to the ground from the clouds because I didn't see them when I took the photo. And they look a little unreal.But they are real. The HDR process only enhances and demonstrates what the camera "sees." As I was looking at this photo, wondering whether I should post it, it occurred to me that light is to a good camera what the high pitched dog whistle is to a dog: the camera and the dog perceive things much differently than humans do. And though cameras are tuned by humans to show us what humans normally see in terms of color, brightness and contrast, software processes allow us to see an alternate reality. In this case it is an HDR photo that shows us what shadows under clouds look like.On a side note, I took this photo where I did to pay homage to my mother- and father-in-law. Years ago they had a painting hanging over their couch that was a winter scene showing a prairie that was table flat and that stretched out to infinity. My mother-in-law said the picture reminded her of home, which was Hand County, South Dakota.Though it isn't winter yet in this scene, the landscape is certainly table flat.

08-13-12 A Return To the Painted Trees

This is not the first post of these trees. But this photo offers a slightly different view and treatment. "Do they really look like that?" you ask. Well, I studied and taught philosophy just long enough to be confused by that question. So I'm not answering. . . .

08-08-12 Ten Trees

08-04-12 Reflections

I have photographed clouds reflected in this same water before. But I am a sucker for redundancy. This photo started out as a 5DIII picture but I imported it into Instagram and published it as the square, over filtered photo you see here. Some would say it's cheating to do Instagram photos with a camera not built in to a phone. And so I guess I cheat from time to time. :-(

08-03-12 Dawn

Here's another HDR photo taken from the bluffs overlooking the northern leg of the Little Bend on Lake Oahe. In the shot I posted a while back I was looking east into the rising sun. In this shot, I've moved my tripod, the sun is behind me and I am looking off to the northwest towards the Cheyenne River.I don't know about you, but when I look at this photo I see the pure white of the popcorn clouds. Then I see the sea green sage and, finally, the distant, dark water and long line of the cloud covered horizon. (And if you are paying attention to words here, I hope you appreciate my alliterative attempts. Opps, I did it again. :-) Or did I? Actually, "alliterative attempts" is an example of assonance. Sorry, but I was an English teacher long before I started to call myself a photographer.)

08-02-12 Good Soldiers

This is my last sunflower photo for a while, though maybe I need to go back to this field in a week to get the soldiers in full bloom.