Landscape, Nature and Travel Photography

One thing over the years that I’ve learned is to never keep your eyes too far off into the distance when trying to get your next photo. While photographing seascapes in Monterey, California I was rock hopping and paused to see what exactly I was hopping over. I was pleasantly surprised to see sea anemones in a rather small tidal pool. With a nice overcast sky I took the opportunity to switch out my wide angle lens for my macro lens and photograph them. Fortunately for me they were very cooperative subjects unlike the sneaky surf that caught me in a later photo (more on that later).

Sea Anemones & Pebbles

For the techies who read every word of my posts I should add this is one of the first macro photos taken with my Canon 1Ds Mark III. The detail in the full size version of this photo is mind blowing. If curious I can post a 1:1 crop later to give an example of the detail captured.

Update: See below for the 1:1 crop of the image above. The detail captured from the 21MP sensor in the 1Ds Mark III never ceases to amaze me. The native image resolution is 5632 x 3750 pixels. Enjoy and do take advantage of clicking on the image to enlarge it.

Click to enlarge

Technorati Tags: anemones, tidal pool, pebbles, photo, photography, stock, California, coast

Early morning light breaking through the trees revealed this beautiful sight while traveling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Arctic Lupine (Lupinus Arcticus) wasn’t the most common flower seen during my travels but there was a beautiful spread of these flowers in a small meadow shaded by a stand of Balsam Poplar trees.

Arctic Lupine (Lupinus Arcticus)

Technorati Tags: Arctic Refuge, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska, Arctic Lupine, Lupinus Arcticus, macro, photography, photo, stock

I’ve recently put together a collection of iPhone photos in my gallery. Photos included are from MacWorld 2007 in San Francisco and some recent studio photography work of product shots. Read more… »

I’ve made my way through yet another month of image processing for my Photo A Day project from last year. I’m pretty embarrassed that I’m so far behind, but at least there’s progress being made. Below are a couple of photo highlights. Check in to see the rest of the months images from last years Photo A Day project.

Technorati Tags: PAD, Photo A Day, photography, project, San Francisco, nature, pet, wildlife, Blue Angels,

Michael Brown at “Macro Art In Nature” is running a “self critique” photo blog project for images falling into the theme of “Flora/Foliage (Up close)”. I’m not a dedicated macro photographer, but I do enjoy experimenting in this area. More than anything I’m looking forward to seeing what others who read his blog submit as part of the project. For your viewing pleasure…

click here to enlarge

Although I find floral macro photos to be among the most beautiful genre of images, I seldom take advantage of opportunities to capture such images. This image is one of two images that I feel represents my best floral macro photograph. What attracted me to this subject is the story of new and old as well as the flower structure. The contrast of bloom cycles for the Dalia and flower color is what helps provide the photos visual impact. I’ve also been told that the title resonates with viewers adding to their enjoyment of the photo.

Taken on an overcast day for even lighting this might have been improved if had used a diffuser to minimize the glare at the top of the Dalia bud in the foreground. I didn’t focus on this component of the image as much as I had focused more on the composition and selection of depth of field. One major flaw to this image was dozens if not a hundred spots, mostly small, from a dirty sensor. Spotting this image was a major chore and if I were to do this again I’d clean my sensor before the shoot. Hopefully I didn’t miss any spots.

Having recently printed a 16×12 of this image the detail and sharpness is spot on. This high level of detail and sharpness is something I had aimed for when preparing this shot. Looking at this image online or in print I’m continually fascinated by the emerging petal structure in the bud. Dahlias are a fascinating flower and I look forward to experimenting with them more in future macro shoots.

Technorati Tags: project, self critique, Macro Art In Nature, macro, photo, photograph, photography, dahlia, flower, flora, foliage

I’m pretty certain that my mother isn’t a subscriber to this blog, but none-the-less I wanted to not just wish my mother but every mother a Happy Mothers Day.

Technorati Tags: Mothers Day, flower, dahlia, macro