Seasons
On this first day of December, I offer you a photo of something that Hawaiians would never see. Lest I give Hawaiians an inferiority complex for saying this, there are plenty of things they could photograph that South Dakotans couldn't find at home. Active volcanoes, rain forests, black sand beaches, plumeria trees,f and the Pacific Ocean are a few that come to mind.
When I wandered out into my wife's dormant flower garden, I noticed the cornflowers first, mainly because they are still standing. Bare and brown, they still shout, "Look at me!"ALF is an acronym made popular by a sitcom that Robin Williams starred in a long time ago. It means "alien life form." And that's what I see when I see these cornflower hulks: they look like something from another place. And close up, they remind me of the evil Death Star in the Star Wars movie.Such is the nature of my imagination when I put the camera to my eye. . . .
I set the way-back machine to 2007 to retrieve this snowy image. No, it hasn't snowed this much yet in South Dakota but who knows what the future holds?This table, by the way, has been featured in a warmer looking post from a while back. I like that picture better.
Canon 5DIII 1/160s f/2.8 ISO320 200mm
There's something about a sunlit field of pumkins along the highway that says, "Stop and take a photo or two!" And that's what we did. Unfortunately, highway 212 west of Minneapolis isn't the best place to stop along the side of the road. Worried that I might get a ticket, I worked fast - pumpkin paparazzi.Canon 5DIII 1/4000s f/2.8 ISO200 200mm
I guess I'm back to fall things after a brief visit to Lisbon. This photo was taken as part of a high key assignment I gave my students. Generally, when I assign something, I try to do it myself. I guess it's good practice.The gourd on the left was featured in a solo photo a while back. But now he/she has a companion.Canon 5DIII 1/125s f/8.0 ISO200 100mmJoin us for the first ever Watertown Worldwide Photo Walk. Register here. We will meet at 9:30 in Uptown Watertown and spend a couple hours wandering the streets of Watertown looking for great photos, communing with other photography enthusiasts and learning a bit about photography.
The little stone bird was purchased by my wife on a trip to France a few years ago. The bird sits quietly for months at a time on a little table outside our front door. It was the original object of a photo shoot that led to other things a few days ago. So I feel obligated to picture the bird today.
By the end of the day yesterday, our driveway was covered in leaves from the two ash trees in our front yard. I had run some errands around town last evening and returned just as the sun was going out of view between our neighbors' houses across the street. I turned back to look at the non-descript jumble of leaves on the driveway and noticed a patch of sunshine lighting up a very small area.I got my camera, which still had the 50mm 1.2 lens attached from yesterday's table shoot, and looked for a suitable subject for the ray of light. Knowing that I had only a minute or two, I quickly found a single, yellow maple leaf. I knew that if I arranged it just right, the gentle backlighting of the setting sun might bring it to life.And it did. You might think that I did something in software to enhance this photo. But aside from a few minor tweaks, the color and contrast you see here are what the camera recorded. Critics might suggest that the leaf is not properly focused, and I guess I would agree. But I think that the shallow depth of field and soft, unfocused parts of the yellow leaf lend to a feeling of decadence.This photo is yet another example of the importance of being in the right place at the right instant. But it is also an example of what it means to be a photographer: seeing things that others might not otherwise see. A child might lie prone to study a single leaf. And so would some photographers.
I took 83 photos to get this. The creative process was fairly typical for me. First, the photo wasn't premeditated.I was walking by this table outside our front door with a handful of stuff I was taking into the house when I saw leaves on it. Then I took a photo of a little stone bird my wife had placed on the table. Then I put more leaves on the table and took more bird photos. Then I got the ladder and shot from above. Then I saw the three distinct planes of focus in the aerial shot. Then I set the lens to f1.2. Then I got rid of the bird. Then I got the hose and sprayed everything with water ("Rain"). Then I edited this photo in Aperture and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.Then I had my photo.Canon 5DIII 1/400s f/1.2 ISO100 50mm
It looks like I'm going to be a "fall color" theme for a few days. I've been to Sica Hollow State Park near Sisseton, SD, two days in a row and there is plenty of color there.Want to see more? Click here.