Roof Lines

This is one of several amazing structures on the Temple Grounds in Kyoto, Japan.

The Skeleton & the Man In the Moon

I was out chasing the moon and the sunrise a while back and I captured this. I'm not sure I like the composition. Or the title for the blog post. But I do like the purple-hued sky. And I like the full moon, of course, which has faired better over time than the windmill.

Place Setting

My mother-in-law meticulously plans and sets her Thanksgiving feast. I am always fortunate to have a place at the table.Canon 5DII 1/640s f/1.2 ISO500 50mm

Product Placement

What am I thankful for during this Thanksgiving season? Family and friends, of course, are most important. But high on my list are the great, baked sweet potatoes my mother-in-law makes.I especially like the "special sauce" that goes in to them.

Gig Harbor - One More Look

Gig Harbor has to be one of the more photogenic towns I have visited. I would love to go back again.

Red

Somebody gave my wife a dozen roses, which gave me a photo opportunity. Did I buy the flowers? Nope. Kim did.

Fall Reflections

I was looking at some photos I took while staying overnight in a picture perfect town in Washington named Gig Harbor. I had passed this one over, in part because out of the camera it looked a little drab. But, thanks to a little help from my friends (Aperture and Photoshop) this photo is filled with color.

Backroads Bavaria

This is a photo I took a few miles west of Rothenburg O.D.T, Germany. The crops look like crops you'd find in South Dakota. But you wouldn't find a road like this because traffic safety officials would never allow the trees to line the road.My observation about Europe is that one difference is that from time to time aesthetics will trump safety - as in this great road. (For those wanting to see this photo in geographic context, go to "Backroads Bavaria" on my Panoramio site. If yo zoom in on the satellite map view, you will even see the trees from the satellite's point of view.

11-19-11 Melissa

Melissa looks a little sad here but she was one of the more ebullient subjects I had the pleasure to photograph. She was a dancer and actively involved in theater and made posing very simple. And she had many great looks.Here, we are in an abandoned building in Gary, SD, in 2002. I had found a broken window that faced north and told her to pose by the edge. I got beautiful wrap-around Rembrandt lighting.Incidentally, one rule of thumb in portraiture is that you should avoid having the subject show the back of his/her hand to the camera and I break that rule here. Frankly, I didn't know the rule 10 years ago. I did use the "Burn" tool in Photoshop to make the hand a darker shade than the face. Why is there a rule about this? Well, partly because the back of the hand is fairly nondescript and also because any other bright object in a portrait competes with the face. And generally, portrait photographers don't want that.

John

This is a first in my photographic career: I tried taking photos of a child in the studio. But this is not just any child; it is John, son of Kelly, one of my second year photo students.At first I thought John was going to be a tough customer but thanks to Holly, another one of my second year students, John managed to look my way and give me a great pose. I'm not sure that this was a life-changing experience for me but would love to have another chance to take photos of John.

Darcie

I took this portrait the first year I was serious about senior portrait photography. That was almost 10 years ago. The camera was the Canon 1D, which was a groundbreaking digital camera. It cost $5500 and had a whopping 4.4 megapixel sensor!I had a lot to learn about photographing people back in 2002 but I did get a few things right in this photo. First, how could I go wrong with Darcie? I was lucky to have the opportunity to photograph her. While I can take no credit for her good looks, I will take credit for finding the right light and the right moment for this portrait.We were at Terrace Park in Sioux Falls and I knew that the morning light was best for this particular location. That meant we had to leave Watertown pretty early to get to Sioux Falls by 9 am.As for "the moment," I will say that I had no book learning on this but that even from the beginning I had a bit of an intuitive sense of when to press the shutter button. On this particular day, I had already taken over 50 photos of Darcie and so by the time I took this one, both of us were relaxed. And anyone who does this kind of portraiture knows how important that is.(NOTE: This photo was originally posted as a color image but the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. So I have revised my post with a black and white image that does have a little "glamour" applied in Photoshop.)Canon 1D 1/125s f/4.5 ISO250 91mm

Bullet Points

When I hear "bullet point" I think PowerPoint. But this is no PowerPoint presentation, of course. It is, however, a sort of a self portrait.Is the photographer trying to say something? Is there are dark meaning in this capture? Does it violate the rule of thirds? Are the lines and composition pre-meditated.Who knows? No. Yes. And certainly.