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  • Saturday’s Canine Companion

    Saturday’s Canine Companion

    This week’s edition is a special one, as it’s been a rather intense week for our featured canine (and for us as well). In last week’s installment of Saturday’s Canine Companion you met Darwin, the first of our Cardigan Welsh Corgis. If you think this week’s handsome boy has a lot of Darwin’s looks, you are right. It almost caused us not to choose him, but we’re lucky enough that he chose us to be his human companions.

    Here’s a look at this handsome boy…

    Stuff on the Couch

    When Stuff hangs with me in my office area, he loves to sit on the couch, so he can keep an eye on what I am doing. He always is on the lookout for a potential treat that might come his way.

    Stuff has had a rough week, as on Wednesday he lost control of his hind legs and was in a lot of pain. We took him to the Veterinary ER that evening and got him at least a bit more comfortable until we could see a specialist on Thursday morning. An MRI revealed a bulging disk in his spine, which was repaired surgically on Thursday afternoon. As Stuff had all the feeling in his legs, he has a good prognosis to recover and get full control of his legs again after sufficient time for healing and careful recovery. He is still with the specialist at the moment, but we were told that we can bring him home tomorrow, which is great news!

    During this entire ordeal, Stuff has been nothing but the loving dog that he always is; regardless of the pain, he seems to understand that all of us are trying to take care of him and make him feel all better again.

  • iPhone Friday

    iPhone Friday

    After last week’s installment of iPhone Friday with a panoramic view of Temples and Towers in Zion National Park, we’re going for something really simple! Just a simple iPhone shot from the winter of 2015 with some rather lovely sunlight.

    Here’s that view…

    Winter Sun

    Of course smartphone technology has advanced a tremendous amount over the past 10 years and a lot of the artifacts in this image won’t show up any more. Getting a Raw Max image from the iPhone 16 Pro Max delivers incredible results and fidelity.

    Enjoy your smartphones and be sure to take photos!

  • Throwback Thursday – 27

    Throwback Thursday – 27

    It’s been an intense day today, so a little tardy in getting my post on-line. In this one I’m going back to June of 2011, as I was sauntering along the port of Rotterdam with my aunt Marlies. We were simply enjoying the sights and company, as we were taking in some of the classic locales of the city of Rotterdam, one of which is featured in this post.

    Here’s that classic ‘kroeg’ along the Parkkade…

    De Ballentent

    This establishment is named De Ballentent, which was established just after World War II at this location on the edge of Het Park, which was noted in a Travel Tuesday post a while back. First of all, the name ‘Ballentent’ is what we call a fair attraction where one throws balls at objects for prizes. Also, this establishment is what in Dutch we would call a ‘kroeg’ or a pub in English. It’s one of those places where people sit down, have a drink and chat with each other.

  • Wednesday Window – pt 29

    Wednesday Window – pt 29

    We’re staying around the Mediterranean after last week’s excursion to Scotland in our Wednesday Window installment.

    Chiusdino Streetview

    During our trip to Italy in 2017, we stayed in a small town in Tuscany, named Colordesoli. When I say small, the town of Colordesoli has about 17 residents and is in the municipality of Chiusdino. This photo is from our first day’s exploration, as we needed some gelato, because we’re in Italy. Sauntering around Chiusdino we found a Gelateria and experienced our first bit of charm of the Tuscan hills. It’s just amazing there!

    This is my mid-week contribution to the Monday Window thread, a creation of Ludwig Keck. To read more about Ludwig, check this page.

  • Travel Tuesday

    Travel Tuesday

    After last week’s visit to wonderful Scotland in our installment of Travel Tuesday, it’s another opportunity to visit a warmer climate. This week’s photo goes back just over 9 years, when I had just started working for Red Hat. My first work trip took me to the warmth of the Mediterranean coast in Israel.

    Here’s a photo from that visit…

    Apollonia National Park

    As I was staying in Herzliya and had some time on my first day, I walked up to Apollonia National Park, which is just up the coast. This site has been occupied from around the Persian period (500 BCE) and prospered during Roman rule. The remains of a Roman villa were excavated in 1980.

    During the Crusader period, a fort was constructed, the remains of which are still evident across the entire site. It’s a great location and with the gorgeous blue Mediterranean Sea, you just can’t go wrong.

  • Monday’s Spectrum Exploration

    Monday’s Spectrum Exploration

    Welcome back to another episode, as we focus on the Infrared part of the light spectrum once again. As I was going through a couple of images over the weekend, I figured I’d take another look at some of the shots that I had captured during post-torrential rain time in May of this year. You may remember that there was an incredible amount of water in both rivers and waterfalls for that time of year in the Northeastern US.

    Here’s another bit of raging water…

    The Connecticut

    The normally rather tranquil Connecticut river rages in this view in Turner’s Falls, Massachusetts. As a matter of fact, I have walked about a hundred yards into the river without getting my feet wet to a spot that is somewhere in the center of this image.

    This photo was captured using my Canon EOS 5D MkIII, converted to cut off at 720nm by Kolari. Adobe Camera Raw was used with a CLiR White Balance profile for the camera. In Photoshop, I used my Pink-Blue channel mixer and hue/saturation presets that I have developed over time. Vibrance was used to create a bit of extra pop to the pink and blue tones.

  • Sunday Serenity

    Sunday Serenity

    As we’re enjoying another lovely Sunday, I thought it might be nice to process one of the many landscape images that are still in my backlog (almost feels like I should project manage this backlog 🙂 ). This is from last November’s visit to Utah and Nevada, where Zion, Bryce Canyon and Valley of Fire were the featured parks.

    Here’s a sunny view for today…

    Natural Bridge

    This feature is along the wonderful drive that goes to so many great vistas. Its name is Natural Bridge, even though this is not a bridge, but rather an arch. Shooting into the sun for this one, I went for a bracketed sequence to increase the overall dynamic range.

    Enjoy your Sunday and the view!

  • Saturday’s Canine Companion

    Saturday’s Canine Companion

    Over the years I have photographed a lot of dogs competing in agility and also in relaxed settings, such as an occasional portrait. This has led to a collection of well over 300,000 photos, among which there have been some memorable ones. Over the next year or so, I’ll do some more work on creating a greatest hits list from this collection, which I’ll feature on Saturdays.

    Here’s the inaugural contribution with a photo from 2009…

    Darwin

    Darwin was our first Cardigan Welsh Corgi, aptly named Llanbryn’s Theory of Evolution. We first met Darwin when he was about 6 months old, when he ran to me for protection from the pack of aunts who liked to chase him around. After an eleven hour ride home (with stops) with us, Darwin was introduced to our mutt, Tonka, who loved him right away.Darwin wasn’t so sure, about Tonka, as she was more than twice his size. They became best friends!

    Darwin gained his confidence through my wife training him in agility and herding. He was our perfect introduction to the Cardigan Welsh Corgi breed, as he was forgiving of our mistakes and had an inner toughness combined with being a truly lovely companion.

  • iPhone Friday

    iPhone Friday

    There are some things that are pretty straightforward to do with our smartphones, but would take a bit of work to accomplish with a DSLR or Mirrorless camera. One example is panoramas. With a smartphone, we simply click a button, pan the horizon with a reasonably steady hand, and it’s all figured out. To do the same with our ‘real’ camera, we should first make sure that the tripod and camera are level, and then we take several shots. Once we have the captures, we then have to stitch them together in our favorite editing software, etc. A bit more work (definitely worth it for an amazing result!)

    Here’s the easy way…

    Temples and Towers

    This is an early morning capture of the Temples and Towers vista at Zion. Majestic, as the sun paints the towers and the temples on top of them. Definitely the easy way out, but not bad with a 40+MP image.

  • Throwback Thursday – 26

    Throwback Thursday – 26

    Photography workshops are a lot of fun! I’ve attended a fair share of them for a blend of reasons. It’s part exploring an area with someone who knows where all the great spots are. Part finding inspiration through learning new techniques and seeing how someone else approaches their photography. And also a lot of fun, as there are always moments of levity.

    Today’s throwback is from one of those moments…

    Abominable Merman

    During a workshop in the Chincoteague area with John Slonina we were slated to do a sunrise shoot at the beach. A great idea, as in November one doesn’t have to get up too early for that opportunity. When we got to the beach, it was fogged in to such a level that the sun was nowhere to be seen!

    As we were waiting to see if the fog would burn off (it never did), I decided to use this scene to do something a little different. I set up my camera, aimed it at the sea and dialed in a 10 second exposure. Remote shutter release in hand, I walked into the foggy ocean and released the shutter as I slowly trodded back toward the camera. It took about a dozen shots to dial things in, but it did create something a little different!

    Moral of the story: sometimes the foggiest idea is worth trying!