Dandelions Close-up

Dandelions Close-up
Dandelions In Black And White

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011

City Skylines

October 21, 2011


I have always enjoyed photographing skylines, whether it was Seattle or any other West Coast City Scape.
The trick to shooting this subject is finding that perfect place where the iconic local attraction meets with your creativity and camera knowledge.  If you haven't been to a particular city before then you will have to do some scouting.  Yes, you will find the usual tourists traps and you will want to shoot these subjects too but you will want to put your own personal artistic perspective on it as well.  What I look for when shooting skylines is first and foremost light and then, will my composition give a true sense of the place where even the locals will say, WOW.  Every once and awhile I achieve that mark. I use a tripod on all my skylines and stay away from special effect filters.  Straight shooting does the trick for me. I shoot sunrise and sunset light most of the time.  There are times when the air is clear and the sky this unbelievable blue that I can't resist taking daytime images of cities and their attractions.    










Sunday, October 9, 2011

Out My Backdoor

October 9, 2011


One of my photo buddies was working down at the Grand Canyon as the Park Department's official photographer years ago.  He was in photo heaven.  One day he was sick and in bed and he looked out his window and he saw these wonderful cumulus clouds in a perfect blue sky.  Well, he forced himself to get up and set up his 4X5 and shoot them out his back door.  He took 2 frames and went back to bed.  As it often happens in stock photography those simple, easy images to make become best sellers and the cumulus cloud image he took was one of his all time big money makers.  I have always remembered that, it doesn't always have to be an elaborate set up shot that can make you money sometimes keeping it simple can do the trick.  I often now step out on to my back deck (at all times of the day) to take cloud images when they look good.  And sure enough some of these have sold.  Not huge amounts but enough to keep me shooting these subjects ever chance I get.