David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Image of a Yellow Prickly Pear Cactus flower taken just after an early summer thunderstorm. Unlike the White Yucca flowers, the deer don’t appear to be interested in the Prickly Pear Cactus flower.
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Yesterday was the first day of summer, and my backyard is full of fireflies. I set up a camera to take 25 second images, and then used the Startrails program to combine ~150 image (ISO 400) for the first image and then ~100 images (ISO 6400) for the second image. The D3s can see in the dark, and I didn’t take it all the way up to 100K ISO.
Last night I got an e-mail link to the June 2011 Newsletter from Tuner Photography. The first thing I noticed was the image of an old car in front of the Cow Canyon Trading Post in Bluff, Utah. I remembered taking a snapshot of this vehicle as we were driving by back in February 2008 as part of an Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) Photography Workshop I was attending with my father and brother. Ever since I have wanted to go back to spend some more time in Bluff. Since then based on Winston’s image it looks like the Cow Canyon Trading Post has added a Gallery. If you do a search on the Internet you see a number of images of the Cow Canyon Trading Post and this old car parked out front. Back to Winston’s Newsletter — How to be creative where many have (and/or are) taking images from the same location. I remember a session at Delicate Arch where it seemed that the tripod positions were so used that they were marked in the rocks.
I’ve attended several workshops with Winston, and recommend him as a teacher. As a new digital photographer, I learned a lot during his workshops, both out in the field and back in the classroom “after the click” processing the images. It is because of a comment he made during one of his workshops that I try to share at least one image a day (preferably one taken on that day). I started doing this on Facebook, but after dropping Facebook it morphed into my “Images of the Day” photo-blog. I do recommend that you also to sign up for Winston’s monthly Tuner Photography Newsletter. Some day I hope that I can attend his Balloon Festival Workshop in Albuquerque.
Below are two versions of the image I took of the old car in 2008. I admit it is a snapshot or “grab” as I was in the back seat of a van and we were moving when I took the picture. One in color, the other converted to B&W with Nik Silver Efex Pro. Is this just a historical picture from somewhere I have been, or something artistic. I am still digesting Thom Hogan’s 20-June-2011 essay “How Thick is Your Skin”
Back to the images of the old car — I think that it is a Buick from the mid-50’s but am not sure. If you can identify the make/model and year let me know.
Yellow Cactus Flower. I was reviewing image from previous years and realised that I may have missed the cactus blooming. I went out this afternoon and found that one was still blooming. Three images. The first “as is” from a Leica D-Lux 5. The next is from a Nikon D3x and 105 mm macro lens. The final is a composite from the Nikon D3x and 105 mm macro from 16 images combined using Helicon Focus. Let me know what you think.
I spent some time waiting for the doe and her two fawns to walk through the yard. They never came by, but this rabbit came out and slowly worked its way toward my deck.
