These Rams Aren't Made By Chrysler

Check out the latest posts from Yellowstone by one of the country's best nature photographers, Laurie Excell.


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Memory Card Speed

I have been searching for fast memory cards for my DSLRs and my Point & Shooter. the reason is twofold. 1. I want more than 2 g of space on the card in my little Canon SD780. 2. I will probably be going to Haiti soon to shoot stills of the efforts of our biggest client, DRC, in removing bodies and debris from several sites and I want cards with high capacity AND fast writing speeds. Before leaving on such an assignment I always charge up all the batteries involved but this time I want to be able to shoot even more rapidly than usual. I'll probably be in and out in one day and want my shooting to be as efficient as possible. If you've ever looked at your LCD to see a shot you just took and seen the word BUSY on the screen then you've been waiting for your camera to write the files to your memory card. I'm hoping a high speed card will allow the camera to write those files a quickly as the camera can.

Words From Ansel Adams

He's not the only great American photographer but he's the most widely known. Here, once again courtesy of Marc Silber, is Da Man explaining his idea of visualization.

The Son Of The Master

Getting it right in camera simply means getting the shot that can be developed in to the picture you visualize. Whatever you got in camera still has to be developed correctly or creatively or you have nothing but potential. Learn what I learned in this interview with Ansel Adams' son, Michael.

Thanks to Marc Silber for sharing his great series on You Tube and Darren Rowse of Digital Photography School for his post leading me to Silber's series.
Tomorrow we hear from "Da Man" himself.

Good Basics

Tamron, the lens company, has launched TamronVids. They're instructional videos on the basics of DSLR operations. I use Tamron lenses and you've seen what they can do in this space.

Harsh midday sunlight can make good shots pretty tough to get. Here's an article from PopPhoto.com with tips for shooting in harsh ligh

Post Playoff Proofs

Jury duty beckons but I want to quickly post 3 pictures from Sunday's playoff experience.

This was taken with the Canon SD780 IS compact set on AUTO. No time for settings.

Great Moments In Lily History

Thanks to exercising with Adobe's Photoshop CS4 I frequently see my wonderful granddaughter, Lily, in the most unlikely places.

Did you notice her in that reception photo from the White House? Me neither.

Fire And Ice And Other OPs

Another great gallery from The Big Picture, this one contrasting photographs of Fire and/or Ice.

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Helping Old Photos, pt. 2

Just a revisit of yesterday's 3 steps on an even older photograph. Yesterday's was from 1976. Today's also has a color cast but was originally shot as a black and white.

That's my dad on the right and his brother, Ed. I think this was 1941.

3 Steps For Saving Old Photos

I'm loving my old family photos but I want to make them look a little less ruined by age. I'm not talking about making an old photo look new, just making it look a little less damaged. Here's one of my favorites.

This is my daughter, Rachel, pushing my nephew, Mickey with my mom strapping Mickey in back in 1976. Rachel and Mickey were 1 yr. old then.

Hodge And Podge

New Orelans photographer Frank Relle produced a great gallery of post Katrina photographs. Here's one from Telemachus Street published on 100 Eyes Photographers.

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Shooting In Rain

As much rain as we've been seeing lately you may have been hesitant to take your DSLR investment outdoors. Most have some resistance to rain but, given that they're full of delicate electronics, why take a chance? Because you can get some great pictures.

Further Adventures Of Photo Man

I continue to work with my new Canon Powershot SD780 IS to see how to get the most out of it. As you might have expected, I've found the "Auto" mode to be unsatisfactory. I'm convinced that people who program devices to do everything automatically have no idea what we really want the devices to do. Here's a shot taken at my Thursday Rotary meeting with the SD780 set on Auto.

Fabulous OP's

Just discovered Robert Mekis thanks to Rick Sammon's tweet.

Another discovery through tweets, Theodore A. Stark.

A gallery of photographs from Haiti's earthquake aftermath from the Big Picture.

Play "Real or Fake" with LIFE on line.

BW Experimenting

Digital capture and the associated software let us have so much fun with developing techniques it's almost unfair to die hard film shooters. (yes, they're still out there) We can just move some sliders in software and it's like changing film.

This shot of two cruise ships docked in Grand Turk looked like it might be nice in BW.

Super Panoramas, Moving Photographs

These are the best panorama displays I've seen. You can zoom in or out and pan around through 360 degrees. If you have a good monitor go full screen.  360 Cities


You can go to a full world map and pick a place on the map and then pick the pano from a group of thumbnails. Have fun in the Grand Canyon.

Warm Scenes For A Cold Day

Here's a slideshow of my favorite photos from our recent cruise. You can hover your cursor just under the images to get controls.

first Impressions Of Canon's SD780 IS

I new before I bought this little wonder from Best Buy that I was getting the smallest camera Canon had available and one of the smallest ever made. If it were any smaller I wouldn't be able to operate it.

Fun In Review

While we're all busy thinking about the year ahead let's take a brief look back at some of the most amusing (stupidest?) pictures I've seen, photographic or photoshopic(?) in the last year.
If I somehow include a picture that you've created I apologize for any suggestion of criticism or lack of respect this post may imply about said picture. If, of course, your picture actually looks stupid, you'll just have to live with that.

Ansel Adams In The Dark Room

First make a note that this Saturday Evening is another Strolling Art Event in the arts district of Covington, La.  It's a great way to while away some time and see the really amazing array of talent in this area on display at the galleries of Columbia St. That includes my work at Gallery 421.

Who Shot The Wright Bros?

Have you ever wondered who took the iconic photos of the Wright Brothers first powered flight? I have, you see, because I'm retired so I have time to think about absolutely useless stuff like who shot the Wright Bros. and with what. (as I've told many people, I'm busier now than ever but doing things I love at my own pace)

So I set out recently to find out who took this picture and the camera used. Setting out means I sat in front of the computer with a glass of scotch and fired up the search engine.

Cool Time Lapse With Nikon D5000

The thing I like a bout this time lapse is not that the shooter is driving around in his Mustang while taking the pictures, though that is cool, but it's the fact that the Nikon has the necessary settings within the camera and doesn't require a connection to a computer, as Canon does.

Adobe: It's Everywhere

I grabbed a couple of video clips from John Nack's blog for today. If you've seen a movie or TV drama in the past few years you've no doubt seen depictions of high tech video enhancement allowing law enforcement to pick out a detail from a shot that leads directly to the bad guy. At the risk of seeming to suggest that those depictions are exagerated (Hollywood exagerate?!?!) first up is a truly amusing compilation of a bunch of clips from movies, dating back to the wonderful Kevin Costner movie, No Way Out, in 1987.

Favorites of 2009, pt. 2

I warned you and, yet, here you are; back for more of my fondness for my own work. If I didn't like it how could I expect others to be even interested. 

Did you think I would look back on my favorite photographs of 2009 and not include a healthy selection featuring the one and only Lily? Hah! Silly you.It's my first and, I'm told, only grandchild so I'm just getting started and, by the way, so is she. A selection of my photos from her first year shows the development of a pretty cute little sweetie who's learning that her grandfather's is just a big sucker for her grin.

She's developed quite a personality and is slowly showing signs of recognizing her relatives.

You won't be surprised to learn that hundreds of photographs of Lily reside on my hard drive but this lucky grab still gets rave reviews from friends and relatives. When asked how I got this I just answer keep her happy and keep shooting.

She's good at entertaining herself so that increases the opportunities for  good shots.  I've had many chances to work on effects in the development stage, too. This picture is party created by my flash setup and partly by my layers and brushes in Photoshop.

 

You just can't hardly go wrong with a kid and a dog. I didn't do a thing to this picture except the usual sharpening I do on all my RAW files in Adobe Camera RAW.

This post will not be only pictures of Lily. Almost but not quite.

By this time next year she'll probably be charging me for her time or referring me to her agent. "Sure, Bapaw, have your people call my people and we'll set something up for next month. Love you much, Ciao."

I learned a few things while shooting the Junior Deaf Olympiks last April, about photography and about people truly caring for others. 

I got better at taking portraits and dealing with families and children while trying to take their portraits. People just love to see good pictures of themselves. I think it helps them feel good. 

I learned that wedding photography is even harder than I thought. I did manage to get some shots of my friends' wedding that I think are good and I might even shoot a wedding again, though probably not.

Happy New Year

Favorites of 2009, pt. 1

What self respecting photographer wouldn't start the new year by looking back fondly on his work of the previous year? Not me. I'm so fond of my work in 2009 that I'm going to look back on it in 2 consecutive posts. Today I want to look back on my favorite fine art pictures based on my preference and the comments of those who've seen them.