Wooden Boat

Keep Out!

OK, so the actual translation is "Private," which is more polite than "Keep Out!" And if the message weren't already friendly enough, how about surrounding it with a berry and twig filled metal thing?This was on the door of the rectory adjacent to the Bruges Cathedral in Bruges, Belgium.

In Bruges

Bruges (aka Brugge) is a beautiful small town in Belgium and Deb and I visited it a few years ago. In my quest to find a photo to post today, this one called me. I had abandoned it because it was overexposed in the brightest spots and way too dark in the darkest spot. But with the amazing power of Aperture (photo processing software) and the inherent wide dynamic range in a raw file, I was able to resurrect it - more or less.I harp on focal points and making sure that our photos draw the viewers' eyes in my teaching and I'm really not sure that this photo does a good job of engaging the viewer. But here is it anyway. . .

Majestic, Too

It looks like I'm in to looking up trees' trunks given this and yesterday's post. And I guess I am. . .This is a tree that our family named "Big Boy" over three decades ago. It lives on our cabin's property line in the Black Hills. It was old all those years ago so it is now Old + 30, I guess.Recently, Deb and I made the pilgrimage up the hill to see this venerable giant, in part to see if there is any evidence that Big Boy had fallen victim to the tree beetles that are killing trees all over the Black Hills right now. His boughs are green and he stands tall, though there was sap leaking out a hole a few feet up his trunk.We walked down the hill hoping that this huge pine tree wouldn't let a few small bugs bring him down.

Majestic

What I liked about this tree was that the leaf canopy was so far above ground - at least 25 feet. Frankly, this would be a better photo if the dark green leaves from an adjacent tree weren't spilling into the upper left corner. I would have also like a pure, blue sky as the background.Yes, I could have Photoshopped the photo but instead I offer it here as I and the camera saw it.

Still On the Vine

We visited Brian and Katie this past weekend in St. Paul and this morning I felt obligated to go out and wander around for a while with my camera. I was looking for something other than fall color, and I found these little purple grapes on the wall of a townhouse not too far from Katie and Brian'sI like the color of the grapes contrasted with the brick wall behind. I also like the way the early morning light helps give dimensionality to the grapes. Finally, I like the way the depth of field gives depth to the photo. It is the combination of the blur and the good light that help the grapes stand out in this photo.

Leafscape II

Here's another backlit leaf showing texture and character. Once again, I worked to compose this photo so that the lines in the leaves run slightly counter to the frame of the photo.

Luminance

These bedraggled flowers represent the last color that survives in my wife's beautiful flower garden. Though they represent the end of summer and the eventual arrival of winter, there is still splendor in their blooms.

Sailing Magazine - October, 2011

Welcome to those who might have arrived at "A Photo A Day" because A)you were looking for photos of sailing on Lake Oahe in South Dakota or B)you read Heather Steinberger's article on her excellent site. Here are a few links. Thanks for visiting!Heather Steinberger's web site and the "Inland Love" profile in the October, 2011, issue of Sailing Magazine.Sailing Photos (mostly from Lake Oahe but as far away as the Swiss Alps)Missouri River Photos (you may find some redundancy here since many of my photos are tagged "Sailing" and "Missouri")Lake Oahe Photos (same warning about redundancy)

Black Hills Gold

I was waiting for for a traffic light to change at a road construction site on the road between Hill City and Keystone. I rolled down the window and snapped this photo just as the light turned green. I'm a nature paparazzi.

The Same Old Stream

Yes, it's Iron Creek again, which I call "the same old stream" in this post, though this capture tends to feature the same old rocks more than the stream.Frankly, I was surprised to see so much water flowing through the creek this late in the season (October 9). But even though there was pretty good flow, it took an 8 second exposure the get the smooth, fluid look that the water has.I love this place and will probably never stop photographing it, though I suspect I don't need to post any more photos of the place on this blog.And I should say that sometimes my photography has less to do with the result than it does with the act.(Watch the screencast on how I "made" this photo here.)

From Another Era

We happened to be driving from the Hill City, SD, back to our cabin and we encountered the second to last run of the Hill City to Keystone 1880 train. It wasn't a great day for photos as it was raining pretty hard but It was a good chance to try to get a photo of what might be the only passenger train in South Dakota.We intercepted the train four times as the tracks meandered through the Hills. My idea of a good shot involved curving tracks and billowing steam and this photo was the best I could do.