Cabin Fever

My cold/sore throat has gotten worse. This morning when I got up I began to feel trapped after spending most of yesterday basically sick in bed. I went for a short walk just to escape the confines of the house. I took along my camera just in case something caught my eye. I took off into the woods with no particular destination in mind. I looked for mushrooms for a while and I found one that was way past its prime and rotting. Finally noticing that I was sweating I headed back uphill towards home. The lighting at this point was really contrasty and blown out. I noticed however that the tan oak trunks deep in the forest looked really interesting all lit up by the sun that was bathing their trunks. I tried several compositions but ended up only liking one of the many images I tried to create.It is a very minimalist . Let me know your thoughts on it by leaving me a comment below.

God's blessings to all,

chris

An Image in Mind

I have been feeling sick for the last week. Hence I have I done very little photography. This morning I lay in bed and read a book that Annika wanted me to read called “A Mango Shaped Space” about a thirteen year old girl that could see the colors of sound. The book was fictional but apparently there really are a few people that are born with this condition. Wow, that must be an amazing experience to be able to see colors from sound. The condition is called synesthesia.

After reading the book I started looking through some old photography magazines. In one of them was an image of a woman cutting through a power line with a pair of shears. Something in the description of how the image was created caught my eye. The sparks around the shears were created from separate images from a metal grinder. Immediately light bulbs went off in my mind as I visualized an image in my mind that I wanted to create. So I jumped out of bed and set to work on it.

I went out to the garage and grabbed my shop grinder and carried it into the kitchen and set it up next to the sink. Then I grabbed some black backdrop material and set it up behind the sink. I closed off the outside light from the window with another piece of black backdrop. Following that I grabbed a metal wood screw, some safety glasses and my camera which I set to manual mode.

Holding the camera in one hand to compose and the metal screw in the other hand against the grinder to create sparks was pretty challenging. I was able to get some excellent images of sparks coming off of the grinder after a few dozen tries. The effect was very cool.

The next part in the creation of this image was to combine several of the spark images into a circular pattern by layering all of them into one image. With a little bit of clean up it looked awesome. After that I looked through some of my marble images. I chose one to place in the very center of the final image I had in mind.

Please let me know what you think of it in the comment section below.

God’s blessings to all,

chris

Leaves,Rocks and Water

This morning didn't start out well. I awoke with a slight headache that seemed to only get worse as I went downtown for my work out. When I finally got to the gym I decided it wasn't worth it and decided to go for a walk along Willits creek instead. The sounds of the creek running over the boulders were welcoming as was the sight of the bold yellow colors of the fallen big leaf maples that had drifted amongst the moss covered rocks. I only walked to the first creek crossing before I decided to head back down the trail.I stopped in numerous places along the way to create a few images. It was a much needed change to working out although my headache still hasn't gone away.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Magic of Marbles

Marbles have always fascinated me. They come in such an incredible palette of colors, clarity and designs. As a child I was part of a group of kids that played each other for marbles at lunch. We played “mano a mano” and you lost your marble to the opposing player when you lost. So it got to be very competitive. Needless to say I had quite a collection of my competitors marbles. It was always a good idea to only play with your run of the mill marbles if you didn’t want to lose them to another player. The fancy ones you left at home.





About ten years ago there was a minor resurgence of marbles in our area and both of my kids were a part of it. So they amassed a small collection of some really cool ones. Yesterday Jay dug out the collection for me and I had a great time photographing them last night and this afternoon. Marbles when exposed to light take on a magic all their own. They are magically delightful as well as beautiful.



God’s blessings to all,

chris

In the Land of Elves and Dwarves

Have been really busy of late catching up on digital files and work around the house. This morning was spent capturing the fog in the trees at on of my favorite overlooks for photographing sunrises. I was there much too late for sunrise but there still was a lot of fog. The trees and fog reminded me of a place where elves and dwarves would live and flourish with the foggy mists flowing in around and over the trees. It made for an ever changing landscape as the wind and temperature changes pushed the marine layer around. I always seem to find beauty in it and so it was today. Though I did include one image from a couple of weeks ago that fit in with todays selection as it was also taken at this location.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Sharks

I spent a good amount of time sorting old images this morning and I ran across some of my shark images from Moorea and Bora Bora in French Polynesia. On Moorea Annika and I got to go on a shark feeding trip with just she and I and the Polynesian guide Calex. We were supposed to just go and feed the sting rays but Calex asked us if we wanted to do something special. When he told us it was feeding the sharks we readily agreed.




We moored the boat in about two feet of water on a white sandbar just off a motu. Next to us was a deep blue channel running through the coral out to the ocean. Calex had brought a can of chopped up batfish with us. He began tossing small pieces out into the water. Immediately Black Tipped Reef sharks began streaming out of the channel and grabbing the fish bits almost at our feet. Sometimes two or three sharks would come by us at a time.



Lowering myself down into the water with sharks racing by less than four feet away was frightening and a bit uncomfortable at first. But once I realized that I wasn't on the menu it proved to be exhilarating. The sharks would dart up out of the channel and then race by grab a piece of fish all in one quick motion. It was incredible how fast they could turn and bite. Some sharks just sat close by and seemed to be waiting for the bigger pieces. It was a bit disconcerting to look at that their eyes.



Calex eventually ran out of bait and the sharks mulled in tight circles below us. One bold shark came right up to Calex with its mouth open heading right for his midsection. Calex promptly rapped it on the snout with his bait container and it sped away.
It was an amazing experience. We swam two more times with the sharks on the trip but they were done in a very controlled way and we were with large groups of people so it wasn't nearly as exciting.



The majority of the sharks we saw were Black Tipped Reef sharks which are not usually known for aggresive behavior towards humans. We also got to spend some time with some Lemon Sharks in an enclosed lagoon. They were well fed and not the least bit interested in us. Though Lenore had one inhale a yellow angel fish directly in front of her as she was snorkleing along!
I photographed the sharks in all three situations but he time spent with Annika and Calex was the most memorable to me.

God's blessings to all,

chris!

Playing in the Yard or Bracken Ferns and Leaves

Late this morning I puttered around the front yard looking to see if any fungi have popped up after the recent rains. Instead of fungi I found some Bracken Ferns and some Tan Oak leaves on the ground that looked interesting.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris