Glamorous Grit

This afternoon I was working with my macro lens. I was finding all kinds of objects to photograph around the house. I knew that I hit gold when I went into the garage and found some old dirty,rusty wood bits. I placed them on the bottom of an old pan and they looked well.. gorgeous. Glamorous grunge or grit if you will. I just loved how it looked. It was my favorite image of the session. Sometimes you just never know what will work. God's light and love to all, chris

Playing With Peppers

This morning I decided to photograph some peppers I just purchased for making tacos and Chili Verde.I grabbed one studio light and a reflector. Then I propped up a black tagboard sweep to set the peppers on to photograph them. I added a large softbox to the studio light placed it off to the side and I was set. I had a great time creating images of peppers. I even threw in an onion for good measure. Those go well in Chile Verde too! After processing them I made the decision to put the peppers in a triptych. They look pretty good together. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Plenty of Deer to Go Around

Yesterday morning I went out looking for Blacktail Deer. I found quite a few near to where I live. I discovered one fawn that was starting to explore the world by getting further and further away from its mom. I also found a pretty nice buck, a five by three. Five antler tines on one side and three on the other. He was regally standing in the forest bending down to feed on acorns under the Tan Oak trees. There was also a small two by spike lying off in the forest taking it easy. Lying down and resting seemed to be popular activity for a number of deer I spotted. I photographed one doe in a group of three spending her morning that way. What a great way to start the day spending a few hours searching for deer and photographing them. Thank you Lord for a beautiful day. chris

The Fawns are Losing Their Spots

This morning I went out specifically to photograph some deer. Mainly because I haven't done that in awhile. I found quite a few but the one I liked the most was this curious young Blacktail fawn. When I got home and I was processing the images I noticed a few things about the image I hadn't picked up on when I was creating it. The end of summer is coming up pretty fast. The fawns are losing their spots. The spots are slowly fading to brown and aren't as distinct as they were before. The poison oak is turning red and has white berries. All signs of the ending of summer and moving into fall. That reminds me I still need to finish staining a few spots on my deck. God's love through out the seasons to all, chris

Never Stop Learning

One of the things that I really love about photography is that it is always changing and there is always something new to photograph. I never stop learning. One of the photographers that I follow is Mike Moats of Tiny Landscapes. I love his work because I like doing macro photography as well. He often will post "How To" articles on his daily blog.He did one fairly recently on photographing water drops on glass. You can take a look here, http://tinylanscapes.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/glass-rainx-flower-water-and-shoot-2/ by cutting and pasting this into your browser. He is a fantastic photographer. Here are a couple results from my second attempt at it. The distance the flowers are from the glass is really crucial. I found that with my macro lens a distance of about an inch and a half was just about right.It was another aspect of photography that was fun to learn. Now how to manage to get my cat to stay that same distance under the glass for me! God's blessimgs to all, chris

The Sky is Falling

Yesterday I got clunked on the head by something that fell from the sky. I was standing next to the car when suddenly something hit me on top of the head, bounced to my shoulder and fell to the ground. It was an acorn from a nearby Tan Oak tree. They are starting to fall right now and will be providing food for many species of animals in the upcoming months. Watch your head and God's blessings to all, chris

White on White

Today we drove up to Arcata,Ca to drop off Jay at college. Along the way we stopped at a store in Eureka to buy some supplies for his apartment. It's amazing what you can find in the parking lot of store. Last year I photographed some Irises on a beautiful day in the same lot. Today the fog was pouring in off of the bay. I decided it was the perfect setting to try something different and photograph the irises with a bright, foggy background. I got down low looking upward at the blossoms with my camera. I opened up the F stops on my camera to compensate for the bright light from the fog and sky and created several images. This one was my favorite. I loved the white on white look. It was just beautiful. God's love and blessings to all, chris

They Go Down to Sea in Ships

Yesterday afternoon I went out to the coast to pick up a kayak from Liquid Fusion Kayaking (http://www.liquidfusionkayak.com/)in Fort Braggs Noyo Harbor. Cate and Jeff who own and run the business are great people. If you are looking for a trip for your company or a nature tour they offer a wide variety of trips from mild to wild. After picking up the kayak I did a little iconic photography of the boats moored in the harbor. Yes, I know it's been done before but it sure is a lot of fun! It was an incredibly beautiful day. The ocean was flat as glass. It was pretty amazing for the Pacific Ocean to be so calm. God's love and blessings for all, chris Psalm 107:23-28 Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters; They have seen the works of the Lord, And His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, Which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; Their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, And He brought them out of their distresses.

Still Loving the Layers

I woke up late this morning just a little before nine. Wake up sleepy head! I'm glad that I didn't sleep in too much later because the clouds and mountain layers were just beautiful due to the smoke and fog. In particular I loved a ridge down in the valley below that was topped with trees and fog. Later I had a quick breakfast and then I played around with a macro set up. That didn't go as well as planned and I'm going to try it again later. Have a blessed day, chris

Waiting for the Moon

Last night there was a "Blue Moon". Normally the definition of a Blue Moon is that there are two full moons in a single month. There is an older definition which is that the full moon is called a Blue Moon if there are more than three full moons in a season. In this case there are four full moons this summer. So tonight's full moon is also a Blue Moon. Now back to the photography. First thing I checked out was whether I would be able to see it rise from my house using a program called "The Photographer's Ephemeris"or TPE. According to TPE it would rise at 7:37p.m. at 99.8 degrees. The program even showed the direct line of sight from my location to the horizon on a Google Earth Map .After picking up a few local landmarks on the map I was able to see exactly where the moon would rise. Then it was a matter setting up my camera and waiting. Things don't always go according to plan. While I was waiting I created some images of the layers of the Mendocino Mountain Range. Then I waited and waited. There was some pretty heavy cloud cover on the horizon so it took the moon almost twenty minutes to rise above it. When it rose it was much higher than I expected above the horizon and it was pretty dim from the cloud cover.Then it brightened as it got higher in the sky. Sometimes you just have to work with what you are given. Enjoy the moon and God bless, chris

W. F.L.

Yesterday afternoon I was able to photograph one of my local backyard critters. I have been seeing it all summer around the pond and the fire pit. It's not very nervous. Being so young and small it probably has little fear of humans. I photographed it on the flagstone (sandstone) from above just because I wanted to really capture the beauty of it's scales. Normally I prefer photographing lizards at ground level because it's a more interesting point of view. In this situation from above it really worked. Oh by the way in case you are wondering the W.F.L stands for "Western Fence Lizard". One of the most common lizards in California. They are also found in parts of Nevada, Oregon and Idaho as well. God's precious love to all, chris

Atmospheric Distortion

I was looking through my images of last nights sunset when I came across some excellent examples of atmospheric distortion caused by the atmosphere. The earth's atmosphere closest to the horizon acts to flatten the circular shape of the Sun. Because the Sun's disk is about half a degree in diameter, light from the bottom of the Sun passes through more of the earth's atmosphere than does light from the top of the sun's disk. The lower portion of light is refracted upwards by a greater amount than at the top, causing squishing or flattening. This occurs more often when the atmosphere is smoky,cloudy or foggy. In last night's case there was a lot of heavy smoke in the air. God's love to all, chris

Sunrises and Sunsets

Sometimes things that start out easy become rather complex. This morning was like that. After last nights smoky sunrise I figured that the mornings sunrise would be quite smoky. I got up early and set up my camera well before the sunrise. I created some beautiful images of the layered silhouetted mountains to the east of us in the Mendocino Range. When the sun slowly rose it was a giant red orb. It was spectacular. The trouble started when I downloaded all of the images to my computer. Some images wouldn't download from the CF card. I tried several times with no luck. Thinking that my hard drive was full I off loaded all of my excess images to an external hard drive. That didn't help either. I decided to fix the problem by using data recovery software. I haven't used it in awhile and it was out of date and of no use what so ever. Of my! I had to go online and download some new software to recover my images. Now I need to find out why this happened in the first place! Enjoy the sunrise and God bless, chris

Sunset Silhouette

Today it was hot! It 107 degrees F when Lenore and I drove home after working in her class room this afternoon. The skies were clear when we got home and then later the smoke began floating in from a fire. Perfect conditions for a sunset silhouette. Close to sundown I walked down our road and I captured the sun going down behind the firs and redwoods looking out towards the coast. I stayed long enough to watch the sun sink down into the Pacific and the mosquitoes began attacking me. God's blessings to all, chris

Miscellaneous Macro

With the exodus of all of my house guests most of today was spent putting the house back in order. That didn't stop me from grabbing my camera this afternoon and playing with a macro lens in the backyard. I found a few welcome subjects around the pond. I pursued a Skipper Butterfly, Garter Snake and a Honey Bee. I also chased an Abalone Shell though it was quite a bit easier as it didn't move. I'm really enjoying the summer weather. God's blessings to all, chris

Beauty in the Details

Surprisingly photography hasn't been high on my list of priorities the past few weeks. Between relatives visiting and getting the house ready for winter there hasn't been many large blocks of time to be devoted to it. Today when I was doing some clean up out in the yard and I picked up this small white shell. I was intrigued with the natural beauty that the spiral of the shell presented to me. God has made such wonderful things for us to marvel and photograph. I hope you are having a beautiful day. God bless, chris

The Fog Came Rolling In

We spent a glorious afternoon at the coast. It's amazing how fast the weather can change on the North Coast of California. After a dazzling, warm and sunny afternoon the fog rolled in and blotted out the sunshine. Within minutes the temperature dropped fifteen degrees. On our return trip home we stopped to photograph the beautiful Village of Mendocino from one of its iconic view points. God's love to all, chris

Cute Little Beast

Today my daughter Annika got a new cat. The best way to really put it would be that we got a new cat. She will be doing most of the care for the little monster but we will be having to watch out for it as well. Her cat Mr. Mango was really unhappy with the new arrival and greeted it with a lot of hissing and growling. So far we are not off to a good start. The dogs took it in stride with a lot of sniffing from Badger. Lance the Labrador was not impressed and he just ignored the little ankle biter. I was on cat sitting duty most of this afternoon. Taking a picture of it was the most logical thing to do. Hopefully things will improve. Annika has decided to call her "Miss Papaya"! God's love and blessings, chris

Interesting Information to Know and Forget

I haven't been posting much this past week because I was busy with visiting relatives and hosting a family reunion.We had a great time socializing and playing Ultimate. I felt a bit sore the day after! Now on to other things. I have one of those weird minds that tends to remember little scientific obscure facts. One of my friends used to kid me that I knew a little about everything but not a lot about anything. Here is one of those scientific facts. This is an image of "virga". Virga is the meteorological term for rain that is falling that evaporates before it hits the ground. This is some virga that was seen east of where I live looking towards the Mendocino Mountain Range.This is a fact to know and forget. God bless, chris

Serendipitous Sunset

Sometimes images fall right into your lap when you least expect them. While on our vacation we went to a street market in Oceanside, California. Shortly afterward while walking along the road next to the beach I spied the sun going down behind the pier. I thought. Hmmnn... that would make a nice image with all of the people lined up on the pier watching the sun go down. Then I spotted the bicycle and I realized it would make a much stronger image. Such a beautiful Southern California sunset. God's love and blessings to all, chris

It's a Grand View

Today the clouds passing overhead where I live were spectacular. Which is pretty unusual for summertime. We rarely get clouds like that. As a result I was really looking forward to a phenomenal sunset. However long before the sun even came close to setting the fog came rolling in from the coast. Well, so much for that idea. My plans for the evening were foiled by the fog. On to editing images. I found a really nice image from Southern California of Grand View Beach late in the afternoon to take its place. I hope that you like it. God's blessings to all, chris

Fiery Sunrise

Every morning for the past week the morning sky has been filled with smoke from the forest fires in Oregon. The smoke has been streaming southward down to us blocking up the skies each day. This was yesterday's view of sunrise over the Mendocino Mountain Ranges east of Willits, Ca. God bless , chris

Editing

I would probably spend a lot more time doing photography if it wasn't for the editing! The more photos I create the more time I spend in front of the computer screen editing images. I have been slowly wading through all of the images our family trip to Southern California. Here are a few Jellyfish from the aquarium in Long beach. what a beautiful place! God's love and blessings to all, chris

Time for a Honey Bee

Most of today was spent cleaning up the backyard and power washing the flagstone patio. At some point during the day I spotted some Honey Bees feeding on the Cone Flowers in the front yard. I quickly ran back inside the house and grabbed my camera and a macro lens. I sat down next to the Cone Flowers and waited taking a quick break from my yard cleaning duties. It wasn't long before a Honey Bee returned from the hive and started feeding on the flowers. I ended up making some beautiful Honey Bee images. God's sweet love and blessings to all, chris

Stock Image From a Day Off

I took yesterday and today off. Well actually I didn't take today off because I spent a good chunk of the afternoon processing the last of some wedding images. Yesterday Jay and I spent an absolutely gorgeous day at the coast rock fishing. I caught two really nice rockfish and one really small one the size of a minnow and tossed them back. The weather was perfect and the surf was extremely small for the North Coast of California. The biggest waves were less than a foot high! Here is one stock image from the drive over. I have wanted to make an image like this for some time now. A flagman looking away at the highway and one image created by Jay while I was trying to pull a rockfish up off the bottom and it didn't want to budge.Fishing for rockfish on light tackle is a lot of fun. God's love and blessings to all, chris