Prairie Home
He's Been Framed!
Alte Pinakothek
in Architecture, Europe, Travel
Avalon
in South Dakota
This sailboat is owned and operated by Steve and Kitty. It is a Tartan 32 (?) and it lives just a fews slips down from Wandering Star. It the kind of boat I wouldn't mind moving up to some day. Yes, I have boat envy. What would Freud say?
Standing Out
in Nature
If you saw yesterday's post you might recognize this flower. Is it really the exact same tulip that Katie is holding? Only the tulip knows.But, like dandelions, this tulip is a genetic clone. It is an exact duplicate of all the other lavender tulips that came in the package of bulbs my wife planted. That's what you get when you have self-pollination and asexual reproduction. Humans, on the other hand, are a rich and varied species. Human duplication (I'm trying not to use the word "sex" here) is a little less convenient but the results are worth it.Which is to say that I'm glad I'm not a tulip. . .
A Bit of Color
I generally don't like selective coloring, which is what this photo illustrates. It's done in Photoshop. Compositionally, this is very simple photo but the software processing wasn't - I ultimately had 6 different layers in this photo. A goal was to emphasis the flower, which would have been the focal point even if I had done nothing to the photo.But I also wanted to soften the skin texture in Katie's hands, blur parts of the photo but keep the detail in the bodice of the dress.
Fairy Tale
This is not your every day walk in the park; it's Brian and Katie walking in the park. Overdressed? I don't think so.
Mirror With Shades of Pink
in Nature, South Dakota
As if to prove my point about redundancy (or obsession, compulsion, practice, repetition, etc.) here's a morning cloud shot.To be honest, though, when the sun rose high enough the morning I woke up in this back bay on Lake Oahe, this is the first thing that caught my eye: narrow, nearly pink clouds reflected almost perfectly in the calm, dark water of the bay. I also liked the silhouette of the land, which is almost black and nondescript.But enough words. . . Just imagine the cool, quiet calm that I was wrapped in when I took this photo.Or this oneAnd this oneAnd finally, this one
A Little Coffee
in Photography
I took this quite a while ago using an iPad app I had read about called Photo Soft Box. You set any number of patterns on your iPad, find a dark room and an object that has interesting reflectivity and then take photos. I think it's pretty cool and a creative eye might find interesting things to do with this tool. Maybe sometime soon I'll give this app the time it deserves.
I Am No Claude Monet
Nor was meant to be. (As TS Elliot might say.)*But just as Monet painted canvas after canvas of haystacks in different light, I seem to photograph clouds at sunrise fairly regularly. Redundant? Just as it was with Monet, for me it's not so much about the subject; it's about the light. And the place. . . .*No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;Am an attendant lord, one that will doTo swell a progress, start a scene or twoAdvise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,Deferential, glad to be of use,Politic, cautious, and meticulous;Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—Almost, at times, the Fool.Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Saturday Regatta
If you look at the sails of these boats, you will notice a "Y". That identifies them as Yngling class boats, which is an international classification. You might also notice the "USA" on the sails. If this photo had been taken in Switzerland, you would see "SUI" instead. Or in Sweden "SWE". And so on. Additionally, the number on the sail indicates the hull number. My boat (which is a Catalina 250) has the number 639 on the sail, which means that it was the 639th Catalina 250 to be built.I'm sure you're thrilled by this information, but being an educator, I feel obligated. . .What you are looking at in this photo isn't just any Saturday Yngling class regatta. You are looking at one of the races in the North American Yngling Regatta, which was being hosted by the Okoboji Yacht Club on Lake Okoboji in Iowa. They had a brisk NW wind to sail in and we just happened to be cruising the lake in a powerboat when the regatta started. I wasn't planning on taking photos of a sailboat race and if I had known this was happening, I would have brought my good telephoto lens with me. :-)