05-20-09 A View From St. Peter's

I have already posted a photo of the dome of St. Peter's from the inside. This is what you see when you stand on top of the dome. The climb up is a bit strenuous but well worth it. Though I would suggest you consider going up in the morning because you can avoid the heat and the crowds.

You can see two countries in this photo - Vatican City and Italy. The "border" is a white line at the open end of St. Peter's Square (which is actually an ellipse). The "square" and the colonnades that enclose it were designed by Bernini, who also designed the baldacchino visible in my interior shot.

What was I thinking when I got to the top? I was thinking that it's a good thing that there is a sign by the dome ticket window warning people with heart problems that the climb may kill them. I was also thinking that it's too bad Michelangelo, who designed the dome, didn't live to stand where I was standing. I wonder if Pope Benedict has been up here?

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Do want to view a narrated video of this photo? Try going here. (This is a bit of an experiment and it is clearly un-rehearsed!)

Canon 5D 1/640s f/5.0 ISO400 24mm

05-17-09 Maui Seascape

By Scott Shephard

We were at a road-side turn-out watching for whales when this very fast sailboat came into the picture. From the speed of the boat, I'm guessing it's a catamaran. Life is good on Maui!

Canon 5D 1/250s f/11.0 ISO160 24mm

05-16-09 Croatian Surprise

This little village is on the island of Hvar, which is part of Croatia. It was total serendipity that my friend Scott and I ended up spending two great days here. And it turns out that, according to one of the few residents who spoke English, we were the first people from the US to stay in this village. I am not a particularly adventurous traveler and get nervous when I don't have reservations for the night. But this place (down a 5-mile long one lane road!) was a great surprise. Click here to see this photo's location on Panoramio.

Canon 5D 1/20s f/4.0 ISO400 50mm

05-13-09 People Watching

I'm back inside the Art Institute of Chicago with this photo. I think I've admitted to a penchant for watching people look at art when I'm in art galleries. I was photographing this bronze sculpture (name? artist?) when I saw the gentleman in the background walk into the frame. I'm not the only voyeur in the room - the naked boy is watching, too.

Canon 1D 1/60s f/3.2 ISO800 35mm

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

05-02-09 Starfish Cactus - Hawaii

This photo was taken with a macro lens, which allows the camera to get within inches of the subject. The actual cactus is hard to see in this photo and the flower itself is less than 1" across. When my son, Jon, who lives in Hawaii, saw the photo, he said I was lucky to get this photo since they don't bloom very often. I wish I hadn't cut the tips off the ends of the star - I need to go back to Hawaii to get it right!

Canon 5D 1/30s f/10.0 ISO250 100mm

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

05-01-09 Japanese Garden

This serene lake is part of a beautiful garden outside of Kyoto, Japan. We visited Japan in 2004 and as I browsed through photos I had taken, I had the reaction I often have when viewing older digital photos: I want to go back and re-photograph the areas we visited. But this desire isn't because I have a better camera or a better lens, but because I think I have a little better eye and also because I'm sure I missed some great shots.

I have many strong memories of Japan but one of the oddest involves the camera I was traveling with - a Canon 1D Mark II, which was considered a state-of-the-art dslr in 2004. The Japanese are gracious and friendly people but many were especially friendly when they saw my camera. They would walk up to me and, though they couldn't speak my language, would point to my camera, smile and shake their head in an affirmative way. The Japanese love quality electronics - especially electronics made in Japan.

Canon 1DII 1/160s f/6.3 ISO400 115mm

04-28-09 Mysterious Path

By Scott Shephard

IMG_5323 POTD

Here's one of the 75,000 photos that I can distinctly remember taking. And it is, like many of my photos, a bit of an accident. I had been taking photos along Iron Creek in the Black Hills and was walking back to my truck. There had been a brief rain shower, which left the vegetation wet and shiny. And then the sun came out and almost as an afterthought I took a picture or two of the trail looking back towards the sun.

Without the sun, there would be no bright highlight on the trail and the little pine trees and the birch trees wouldn't be rimmed by back lighting. In the viewfinder, I didn't see this - it was only when I viewed the photo on the computer screen that I saw how interesting the lighting made this picture.

Discolosure: this photo is enhanced with a Photoshop filter called "Midnight." Altered reality? This isn't photojournalism - it's an art form and I guess you'd called "Midnight" "artistic license."

Canon 5D 1/30s f/6.3 ISO125 60mm

04-27-09 Building Facade - Chicago

I guess it may be obvious that I like taking photos of Chicago. To be honest, I don't remember taking this one, but it is my photo. I guess I wasn't feeling "flow" when this one happened, though I did take it in 2003, which is a long time ago. :-(

I wish I knew the name of this building. But I don't. Anyone?

Canon 1D 1/640s f/14.0 ISO400 90mm Lens unknown.

04-25-09 Lakeside Path - Croatia

One of the more photogenic places I have been in Europe is a national park in Croatia called Plitvice Lakes. This park consists of 16 lakes of various sizes connected by cascading waterfalls. Because of the high calcium content of the water in the lakes, the lake bottoms are milky white and the water is a milky blue-green.

In this photo one of the many winding paths leads through a tunnel of trees along the shoreline of one of the lakes . My friend and I started our park tour very early and we almost had the park to ourselves. Two hours later, the paths were crawling with tourists and, as I've thought before, I felt that Europe would be a lot more pleasant if it weren't for the tourists. But wait! I'm a tourist, too, aren't I?

Canon 5D 1/50s f/4.0 ISO500 105mm

04-24-09 Japanese Temple - Kyoto

Something just occurred to me as I was trying to figure out what to write about this photo: I have taken around 75,000 digital photos over the last 6 years and when I look at them, I can remember a remarkable number of details about the circumstances surrounding each photograph. Why is that?

My answer has to do with flow, a theory developed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. Flow "is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity."

In a crude way, my "focus" while taking photographs reminds me of golfers like Jack Nicklaus and other athletes and coaches who can remember amazingly precise details about every shot they hit or plays they made in games performed 20 and 30 years ago.

No, I am not Jack Nicklaus, nor was meant to be. :-) But I can get focused once and a while. When do you achieve flow?

Canon 1DII 1/80s f/1.8 ISO800 50mm (35mm eq:65mm)

04-22-09 The Drive Home

Yesterday, my "Missouri River Sunrise" photo appealed to some of my Facebook friends in a way that I hadn't expected. So once again I'm posting something that may seem prosaic to some but which is perhaps meaningful to others.

This one wouldn't exist if my friend Jack hadn't said, "You need to take a photo of those clouds" as we drove east across the state. I resisted -- in part because I was driving and in part because I don't like taking photos from the car. But here are the clouds. And here, also, are the rolling plains of central South Dakota, touched with a hint of green and the promise of another summer. (Jack steered the truck as I took two quick photos in very sparse traffic.)

Canon 5DII 1/400s f/10.0 ISO160 67mm (24-105mm f/4.0L)

04-18-09 Things Grow On Rocks There

In my home state, we have difficulty growing things in dirt sometimes. But in the Waipio Valley on the Big Island even the rocks are fertile nesting places. My son Jon guided us down into this valley. The road down is one of those that made my wife close her eyes. We had a similar experience driving to the top of the Big Island. Both drives, of course, were worth it, though as we drove I was worried about our rental cars and the contracts I had signed. Would they know we went where we weren't supposed to?

Canon 1D 1/30s f/4.5 ISO800 60mm Lens unknown