A Walk Along the Creek

I awoke still feeling not so great today. Lenore implored me to get up and look at the incredible sunrise and I'm glad I did. It was such an intense red that didn't last very long as it gave way to bands of light and fog. After everyone headed off for school I decided to go for a walk along the Par Course Trail. It is a wonderful loop trail that loosely follows Willits Creek.The trail dips down through a nice Redwood Grove. It is probably the most used trail in our area and it gets a lot of users. This morning though I pretty much had the trail to my self as I only saw three other people.This morning I found most of my images in the Redwood Grove. There are just so many things to look at you have to keep focused and look for things that capture your eyes. I had a wonderful time. Let me know your thoughts on it in the comment section below.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Into the Spiders Lair

Yesterday on my journey around the valley I stopped at the Burris Ranch to pick up my photo blind before the elements completely destroyed it. As I was picking it up I saw a number of spiders webs that looked interesting. It dawned on me that I haven't photographed a spiders web for quite a while. I put the thought into my head that I would give it a try tomorrow.




This morning I went to one of my favorite meadows and there were plenty of webs to behold. Finding the right one took a number of attempts. It had to be accessible and have a background behind it that's not too cluttered. With a lot of perserverance I was finally able to walk away with one image that I was pleased with. Now if I can just get over this blasted cold and sore throat.

Let me know your thoughts on it in the comment section down below.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Trees in the Valley

Still not feeling great but I felt the need to get out of the house. I drove a loop around the Little Lake Valley just looking for trees to photograph. Plenty of trees mind you. Just looking for ones with the right combination of light and fog to make them interesting. When I was done I found a number of them that i really liked. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Thank you and God bless,

chris

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