What Can You do in Half an Hour?

We are getting ready to head off for the Fourth of July Parade. Probably one of the biggest to do's in the small town of Willits all year. I took three images this morning in the span of less than a half of an hour before we head out. So here they are.

God's blessings on our country,

chris

Death Valley

I spent a little time this week going through some of my older Medium Format film work that I photographed using my Pentax 6x7 camera. The clarity of the transparencies from this camera are just phenomenal. The images just jump right off of the light table at you.




There is a joy in looking at this work that just cannot be repeated in photographing with a digital camera.You have to work at a slower pace and have an infinite amount of patience in waiting to review your work while it is being developed. No instant gratification or chimping here.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Sunlit Grasses

Haven't done very much photography the past few days. There is a balance that is often needed between home life and the obsession of photography. Far too often I lean into my art and end up leaving the other parts of my life out of balance and in neglect. So it was this week when I needed to stop and take a break and catch up on some things that were out of kilter.
Tonight I just spent about a half an hour photographing some grasses and dandelion that were lit up by the late evening sun.




God's light and love to all,

chris

Serendipity

I had planned on creating a few more dragonfly images this morning out at the Burris Ranch. God had other things he wanted to show me I guess. I did take a few dragonfly pictures but there were so many other things to look at before it was warm enough for the dragonflies to be up and flying about.





First there were the quail and then the wildflowers. Then the horses showed up for their morning drink. One of the colts even nervously came over for a pat on the nose before he left. Best of all though was the horse with the bird on her back. She got something in her mouth she didn't like and it made it look like she didn't like the bird on her back.













It was a beautiful morning out in God's creation

Sincerely and God bless,

chris

What No Studio Lights?

Today I came up with a challenge for myself just by random chance. I was cleaning up my office and I found a pair of sunglasses. Wow, these are pretty cool I thought to myself. I wonder if I could sell them on Ebay. One thought led to another and I thought about photographing them with my studio lights.
Then it occured to me. What could I do with just one L.E.D. flashlight? Now there is a challenge! So I set up a sweep of green reflective wrapping paper on the kitchen counter. I turned off the lights and painted light over the sunglasses as I made my exposure. The effect was pretty cool.



Later in Photoshop I went in and cleaned it up and added my own name to the side of the sunglasses. The overall effect is pretty good for not using any studio lights.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Chasing Dragons or Provide a Perch

This afternoon I trekked out to the Burris Ranch in pursuit of dragonflies. Last time I was out there I discovered that a small pond above the ranch house had a lot of dragonflies. When I walked up there they were buzzing all over the pond but rarely landing on anything as there weren't any perches. So I walked up onto the hillside and found a few branches and stuck them into the mud for for them to land on. Within a few minutes they were using the perches to land on.






I had a great afternoon going from perch to perch making dragonfly images. It was a lot of fun.

God bless,

chris

The Challenge of Flight

Today I set out to photograph some insects in flight. I parked myself in the back yard by a flower bed and and photographed butterflies,bees and bumblebees to my hearts content. Believe me when I tell you that photographing insects in flight isn't all that easy to accomplish.











Later on in the afternoon I went out to the Burris Ranch and tried my hand at getting some images of dragonflieson the wing. I will say that the dragonflies were far more challenging.





God's light and love to all,

chris