Field Trip

Here's a candid photo I took as Deb and I strolled around in Bruges, Belgium.

Shattered

Here's another photo from what I am now calling my "Rural Decay" series. It's the little Metro van pictured yesterday. If you missed yesterday's post, check it out here.I've been doing a little research and have learned that the Metro was produced by International Harvester from 1938 to 1975, which is a pretty long run for a vehicle. It is a "step" van, and was designed for delivery of things like milk and bread. The milkman who used to deliver milk to our neighborhood drove a little van and I'm wondering if it wasn't an IH Metro. I have fond memories of doorstep delivery of fresh milk and the man named Bob who delivered it.This blue and white metro has a license plate that dates back to the 70s, though I'm guessing the van was manufactured a decade or so before that. This little van represents an interesting piece of history and I wonder how it ended up on a farm north of Watertown? Was it "put out to pasture," so to speak? Did it have a function on this farm? Or was it simply abandoned here by some city dweller who no longer wanted it?You can invent your own story. . .

11-02-11 Country Metro

A little delivery van with a name like "Metro" seems like a paradox as it sits surrounded by decaying farm buildings 15 miles north of Watertertown. This is one of those photographic subjects that called me over and said, "Photograph me!" And so I did.I told my students yesterday that I am more inclined to take photos of peaceful landscapes, blooming flowers and fall leaves than I am to photograph things with bullet holes in them. Though now that I think of it, as I drive around through our rural landscape, I see many things that have been shot. And, as a photographer, I sometimes "shoot" things that have been shot. Like this Metro.Check tomorrow's post for more about this little van.

Rural Relic

This is another example of an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo. In fact, there are two photos here - one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the dark side of the old hulk of a car. This photo is fairly realistic, though the rays that are visible in the sky aren't something you would normally see in a photo taken at this time of day. The HDR photo accentuates the contrast in the sky and you see the rays.

10-31-11 The Photographer's Ghost

Yes, the man in the chairs is me. (I struggled hard with the grammar of this sentence.)What you are looking at is my rudimentary first attempt at light painting, which uses a long shutter speed and a flashlight of some sort. I didn't paint my head because it was very early in morning and I hadn't fixed my unruly hair yet. Plus, this photo looks better without faces on me.Happy Halloween!Canon 5DII 30s f/6.3 ISO800 24mm

Aspen Leaf

I was out in the backyard looking for HDR (high dynamic range) opportunities. I was looking for subjects that had a broad contrast from very bright and very dark. The first thing I saw was an assortment of aspen leaves, which had just fallen during the night. I liked the how the backlighting accentuated the textures of the veins in the leaf and the blades of grass that surround it. It had frosted during the night, which adds a little more character to the bokeh in this photo.Canon 5DII 1/320s f/3.5 ISO200 100mm

Late Summer Along Lake Oahe

This was taken on September 4, 2005. I do believe that in 2005, central South Dakota was dryer than "normal," though that doesn't necessarily mean much. I do know that the reservoir was very low in 2005. Maybe the Lake Oahe historians can help me on this one?

Leafy Contrast

Green Waves

I was going out to get something from my pickup truck when I noticed that the hosta leaves in a little garden patch outside our front door were backlit by the low sun. So, I forgot my original mission and went and got my camera. I think I took 30 photos but this one, after I cropped it, seemed to offer a good mix of the abstract with the real.By the time I was done taking photos, I had forgotten why I was heading to my truck! Is this evidence of genius or senility? Perhaps neither. . .

Out By Lonesome Lake (LATI Festival of Trees Choice)

One of the good things about my job is that when I give a photo assignment I often go out and do the assignment myself. Such was the case this past weekend. My particular mission was to shoot an HDR photo or two. I have spent about 10 hours on this task and, of the 300 photos I took, I've ended up with one HDR composite that I like. That's not bad for a day's work!I have posted an HDR (High Dynamic Range) to this blog before but I thought I'd do it again. In simple terms, an HDR photo is really one or more photos of the exact same subject with varying exposures layered on top of each other and adjusted so the whole photo is well exposed - from the very bright to the very dark.In the case of today's photo, if I had exposed for the beautiful morning sky, the grass in the foreground would have been barely visible. And if I'd exposed for the foreground, the sky would have been washed out. I must admit that the way I've done HDR so far has an element of the surreal in it. And I like that.Incidentally, this photo has been selected as this year's choice for my LATI Festival of Trees donation. It will be among many things that are donated and offered during the silent auction for the annual LATI scholarship fundraiser on November 18 at the Ramkota.Finally, if you are still reading this, you may be seriously interested in HDR. If that's true, go here to see a YouTube video I made on this subject.

A Quiet Morning On the Canal

Here's another one from Bruges, Belgium.

NSFW!!!

I don't know what you see when you look at this photo, but I see Belgian chocolate. Titillating Belgian chocolate. And the big question I had was, "Do I want white chocolate or do I want dark chocolate?" I have read that dark chocolate is good for the heart, the brain and the joints so I guess that's my choice.And if you didn't know it, "NSFW" means "Not Safe For Work." I hope you didn't open this at work. It might just make your co-workers crave chocolate!(In case you are curious, this is a window display. I didn't cut and paste body parts in Photoshop. That would be a little creepy, don't you think?)