07-24-12 Depth of Field

07-23-12 Patterns

Last in a series of wheat photos.

07-22-12 Glorious

Sometimes, when I'm out at Lake Oahe in central South Dakota, I don't go sailing. On this particular morning, I woke up well before sunrise and at first light saw that there were some clouds off in the east that looked promising. So I packed up my camera gear and went driving. I ended up on the bluffs above the Little Bend area - an area I have been to many times before.It may seem obvious but a sunrise photo isn't about the sun - that looks pretty much the same every time. It's about the clouds, the terrain and the atmosphere. And in all of these cases, I got what I was looking for.This photo, incidentally, is an HDR photo, which means that it's really two or three photos sandwiched together into one. I experimented with a process that gives this photo a bit of a surreal look. Compositionally, this photo does what a landscape photo should do: there is something in the foreground, the middle ground and in the back ground.I wish you could have been with me when I took this photo. It was an amazing moment in an very special place.Canon 5DIII f/8.0 1/250 ISO400 19mm

07-21-12 Rain Drenched

I have been known to "fake" rain drops by spraying leaves and petals of my garden subjects. But these drops are real: it actually rained the other morning!

07-20-12 Star Gazing

It hard not to notice the star gazer lilies, which just bloomed a few days ago.

07-19-12 Amber Waves

4th in a series.

07-18-12 Golden Braids

This is third in a series of wheat, this time a close view of what comprises a generally nondescript golden field of wheat.

07-17-12 Spring Wheat

Some would say that if you've seen one wheat field, you've seen them all. And from a distance that's probably true. But I'm afraid my quest for good wheat photos yesterday didn't satisfy me. So I went out again this morning looking again for the perfect wheat photo opportunity. I was hoping for better light today and I got it. Generally, it was overcast but the sun was working to push its way through occasional soft spots in the morning clouds. And so I got the perfect back lighting from the biggest soft box on earth.I took over 200 photos during the 30 minutes I spent at this particular field. I'll admit that I was practicing a little "spray and pray" photography because a gusty breeze was causing the heavy heads of wheat to move around. And since I was using a very narrow field of focus (low f-stop number), I wanted to be sure I had some focused photos when I got home.Towards the end of my shoot, Bret H., the field's owner, drove up and stopped. I walked over to his truck with my camera and told him that I couldn't resist taking photographs of his amazing crop. He simply smiled. When I showed him a photo I had just taken and said, "You're not a farmer; you're an artist," he smiled some more.If you haven't stopped by a mature wheat field and studied the plant that in some ways was and still is the foundation of western civilization, it's time you did. The whispy "hairs" and the braid-like grains of wheat truly are a work of art.

07-16-12 Amber Waves

When I went driving this morning in search of something to photograph, I figured that the perfect wheat field would likely draw me like a magnet. I am fascinated by bare, black fields that turn to green and then to beautiful yellow-gold. And we can't help but notice the harvest of wheat because the huge red or green machines that work the fields contrast so distinctly with the mature crop.But who has the time or interest to park and take a closer look at the grain? I would guess the farmer would. And so does the photographer, who, as I've said so many times in this blog, has the power to get you, the viewer, to take a closer look. And it is worth the time. . .

07-15-12 Frank (Revisited and Reworked)

When I check the viewing statistics of my photo blog, I can see which photos are viewed most often and and what links brought people to my web site. Last week I noticed that my post from a while ago called "Frank" was getting the most hits, which were coming from another web site called Facepunch.com. Facepunch seems to cater to a broad set of interests, including the graphic arts.It turns out that a user who calls himself Bakyte had posted a reworked version of my photo that looks like this:And then the citizens of the forum were encouraged to fill in the blank.Before I reveal a few of my favorites, I would like to mention that all of my posts are shared through a Creative Commons copyright that allows for use as long as credit is given, no money is made and the original work is not altered. I don't want to sound selfish, but Bakyte violated at least two of those provisions. I did politely inform him of my concerns and he politely said he would try to remove the posts if he could.That aside, I enjoyed many of the modifications and will share four of my favorites:And last, one that was inspired by the group A Ha's song "Take On Me":And why not watch the A-Ha official "Take On Me" video? It was aired on MTV in 1985, won many awards and is a brilliant display of the animator's art. It also does a brilliant job of linking a fascinating visual story with a song that is otherwise insipid! In some ways, that's what MTV was all about in the 80s . . .The work of art, incidentally is called Frank, by Chuck Close. It is a photorealistic painting of a photo of a guy named Frank.

07-14-12 A Pre-Tourney Prayer

I am sorry to admit that I was so caught up in finding good photos that I have no idea what the prayer these fisherman were bowing their heads for said. I suspect it asked God for safety and good fishin'. The event was the Lake Oahe stop of the national FLW Walleye tournament. The fishing is high stakes - $60,000+ goes to the fisherman who catches the most big fish.

07-13-12 Justice

I have seen Justice exactly twice in the years that I've been sailing Lake Oahe in South Dakota. Liberty, on the other hand, is my next door neighbor at the Spring Creek Marina. What do Liberty and Justice have in common? They are both boats owned by Bob and Sara H., who live just down the road from the marina.I wish I knew more about this amazing classic Chris Craft. Even more, I wish I had orchestrated an actual photo shoot of this attractive boat and couple. Unfortunately, I did not assert myself and instead I got a bit of a snapshot as the boat sped by on a morning that was nearly perfect for a ride in a classic boat - little wind and nearly glass smooth water.