Category: Photography

Dogstar Thursday – vol 6

Dog days are never over

Last week I shared an image of our youngest dog, Dora Bean that captured about a year and a half ago.  This week, I’d like to share another image from the same photoshoot…

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Sweet Pea

Meet Sweet Pea, the Pea of Peas, Dog of Dogs.  Sweet Pea owned one of our friends, as humans never truly own a dog. At the time of this photo, she was a very old dog.  Sweet Pea’s human asked that I do a photoshoot of her, as she didn’t have much time before crossing the Rainbow Bridge.

We found this great spot at the Skowhegan Fairgrounds, where Sweet Pea could stretch out comfortably and pose with those looks that only she knew how to throw.  What resulted was a touching reportage of Sweet Pea being her essential self, filled with the zen of doggitude.

Sweet Pea crossed the Rainbow Bridge about a month after this image was captured, leaving us richer for having been in her presence.

Technical Details

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mk III using a 70-200mm f/2.8L lens.  At 1/400 second with f/4.5 aperture at ISO 400.

Thoughts of Spring

Flowers, wherefore art thou?

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Soon!

When daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh! the doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
—
The Winter’s Tale (4.3.1-4)
William Shakespeare

***

This lovely tulip may not be the flower of choice for Shakespeare, but I look forward to her return, as the lovely season of Spring gets ever closer!

What do you enjoy most about Spring?

Wednesday Wonderment – pt 6

Leaf power

Today, I am going back to Nature for this installment of Wednesday Wonderment, as she is a source of immeasurable variety, beauty and amazement.

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Structural Integrity

This amazing leaf was in a tropical greenhouse at the Botanical Garden of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.  This botanical garden is both a fantastic exhibit to visit and see plants from a variety of biomes, and a research facility for the students of the University of Technology.  During our visit, a group of students was working with a professor to study soil characteristics, which was interesting to watch.

One of the aspects of Nature that continually grabs my attention are the structures that make up plants, leaves and trees; the distribution of strength in support of the energy production machinery is sheer perfection.  Even today, when I look at this image, there are little details such as the feathering of the lamina between the lateral veins; it might be indicative of the flow of energy and fluid through the leaf.

Each of these details have evolved over the ages, as successful function edged out other variants by the thinnest of margins.  It would be amazing to see the entire book of variations over the ages, as that would provide insight beyond anything that we have ever possessed.

Technical Details

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mk III and a 24-105 f/4L lens.  Settings were  f/5.6 at 1/320 second with ISO 1000.  The image was processed using the camera’s HDR capability.

Hope you enjoy this leaf, as much as I do.

A Yoga Tree Moment

Every sunrise is a story

As I feel that there can never be too much Yoga Tree coverage, I want to share this moment with you:

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Morning greets the lady

There’s always a story.
It’s all stories, really.
The sun coming up every day is a story.
Everything’s got a story in it.
Change the story, change the world.

– Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

***

The Lady of the Fields gazes across the remainder of the corn crop, as the Sun rises up to greet her.  In this moment from 2014, balance exist between earth, sky and tree, as the universe connects all.  Her story is unfolding that day and beyond.

 

Monday Superfood Fix

Red and green

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Superfoods!

Strawberries and kale are both superfoods, as many of you know.  Both are full of antioxidants, have cancer prevention properties and strawberries have anti-inflammatory benefits.  Plus they are both delicious, so what could be better?

Hope you enjoy them or do you prefer other superfoods?

Technical Details

This is an image that I took a couple of years ago, when I was taking a food photography class.  My goal was to achieve a simple, timeless image that had lines and colors working together.

Lighting for this image was done with a single studio strobe and a reflector to lighten the shadow.  Camera for this shot was a Canon EOS 5D MkII with a 24-105mm f/4L lens; F-stop was set to f/6.3 at 1/100 second.

A Day at the Beach

Frozen desert (not dessert)

As Winter is beginning to reliquish its grip on New England, a look back at a beach visit from last year.

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Desert Oasis

In 2015, the end of January was particularly cold and snow-filled, which made the last day of the month a perfect time to go visit the beach.  There were many wonderful snow images, but this one stood a bit apart for me.

While wandering around the beach, I noticed that there were some areas where the receding water had left some rather interesting formations in the sand.  Striations in the sand combined with the semi-solid salt water from the cold, created this wonderful view from a low angle (I laid down to get this angle).  To my eye, this felt like looking over a sand dune toward the edge of a desert oasis, an interesting juxtaposition to the extreme cold of the day!

Hope you enjoy it as well!

Technical Details

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII using a 25-105mm f/4L lens at 105mm.  Shutter speed was 1/60 second at f/10 and 250 ISO.

Saturday Morning Mood

Ever present in the moment

As Saturdays are very much free form, and I will be having a nice Scottish breakfast in a little while, here is a bit of mood lighting…

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The Weather is Perfect!

This scene presented itself to me in late October a couple of years back, while I was taking a short stroll on this farm conservation land.  I was struck by the depth of color, against the sky’s blue and lovely clouds, which lead me to creating this little tableau.

Scenes along these lines are moments of meditation to me, as one cannot help but be amazed by the beauty and balance that surrounds us, as long as we take the time to focus on our breath and be present.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Technical Details

This image is courtesy of my iPhone 5S using the standard camera app and a bit of sharpening within Instagram.

Friday’s Travel Photo – vol 2

Picturesque Scotland

A couple of year’s ago, my wife and I visited Scotland for an all too short 12 days.  It was a wonderful vacation that afforded us many great things to see and experience.  One of these locales is in the next couple of photos…

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Harbour Street, Plockton

As we were leaving the Isle of Skye toward Inverness, it was recommended that we take a detour to see Plockton.  This picturesque town, that looks to belong in a much more temperate zone than the highlands of Scotland.

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View of the harbor

Of course, it helped that the weather was absolutely perfect for the end of May, which gave us beautiful blue skies.

Plockton is very much a tourist attraction, because of its beauty and palm trees; it was used as the backdrop for the BBC Scotland series Hamish Macbeth, about a local police constable in the fictional town of Lochdubh.

As you can tell from these photos, the detour was well worth it.

Technical Details

Both of these shots were taken with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII and 24-105mm f/4L lens.  I used the in-camera HDR processing capability for each of these shots.  They were both taken at f/14 and 1/500 second at 400 ISO.

Hope you enjoy these images.

Dogstar Thursday – vol. 5

It’s the Bean!

A lot of my dog photography has been of dogs in action and to this day, a lot of people still know me for this part of my work.  Portraits are a bit rarer in my oeuvre, so here’s one that I enjoy…

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Dora

The dog in this photo is our youngest Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Dora aka Bean.  Her full name is White Raven “Salute of Innocence”, Dorothea Lange.  Dora is now almost 3 years old and has quite a sense of humor, which is not a bad thing in a cute dog.

She stays busy with duck and sheep herding and agility, which means that she has something on her schedule most every weekend.

It is not coincidental that this little love shares her name with my favorite photographer.  As I got to pick her registered name, “Salute of Innocence” was an easy choice, as it is one of Dorothea Lange’s most poignant images of Japanese American children saluting the flag during the pledge of allegiance.

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Salute of Innocence – Dorothea Lange

This image is from Dorothea Lange’s time photographing Japanese Americans in internment camps in 1942; a dark period in American history that we should ensure to never repeat.

Wednesday Wonderment – pt 5

The magic of the stones

Travel allows us to get to interesting places, which can provide us with a sense of wonder about nature, the universe or mankind…

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Lochbuie Stone Circle

This week’s Wednesday Wonderment mixes a little bit of all these elements.  This image comes from a trip to the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland.  Mull is a wonderful place to vacation, where we spent a couple of great days.

In my research, I had found out about a beautiful walk that would lead us to a circle of stones known as the Lochbuie stones.  Originally, this stone circle was comprised of 9 stones, and, even though it is no longer complete, there is still palpable energy running through the lines created within this site.

The walk over took us along the shore and then in-land through some marshy land toward the stones.  Notable was that there was a second site of power along the route, which I didn’t find indicated anywhere, but could feel with surprising strength.  Scotland is replete with locations that radiate power from a variety of sources, which enhances the experience of the landscape and great people to an amazing level.

The photo shows the Lochbuie Stone Circle with Ben Buie in the distance; the weather was not what one expects from Scotland at all times.

Technical Details

I took this image with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII with a 24-105mm f/4L lens.  Shutter speed was at 1/125 second at f/18 at 400 ISO.