Oxherding Is Fun

I spent the morning yesterday volunteering at Art City Austin which became measurably harder than it should have been given the fierce storm that blew through the night before turning over exhibit stands.  The perk of volunteering in the before hours of the show is that you get to help artists and photographers without the [...]

“When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
- Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
When you read that quote, what comes to mind?  Is it a negative idea that starts to swirl as in we have to have destination or else we are lost?  We are driven to believe we have to [...]

jewels sparkle lit  ….like christmas lights    ……..hung by ozark squirrels
amber jade garnet emerald  ….and a turquoise sky  ……..wet diamond white refraction
pierces eyes unblinking — all is light and change — in the forest between the eye and the i

The late afternoon sun lights up an Ozark forest within Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas.

Just get your butt out of bed, pick up your camera and tripod, and catch a sunrise.  Need more help than that?  Go read “The War of Art” by Pressfield.

You say you live in the moment
but are you really measuring time
by what you have done
or what is to come?
Is your vision is tempered
by what your eyes can see
or what your mind tumbles into existence?
Within the mist
do you see the occlusion of vision
or floating ghosts of grey
playing in the realm of the imagination?
I wrote the [...]

Tried out a new technique for me with long exposure night shots with the timing of the full moon this month.  I saw this demonstrated by Eric Doggett at our latest CapMac Photography SIG meeting.  It is multi-exposure light painting.  With the image below I took the normal 3 shots for an HDR and each [...]

The Pedernales River at dusk gives up the day and turns from the violets of dusk to the blue of night.  The water easily reflects the bluing of the sky and the rocks themselves turn new colors.  The croaking of frogs deepens and the first stars twinkle their faint glow.  Night is upon the land.

Where does a sunset exist?  In the sky above the treeline?  In the water before a waterfall?  In the photographer’s eye of a father and son sharing an adventure?  In memory to be stored up for a rainy day? 

Light.   Direct sun, indirect, hazy clouded, sunrise, sunset, reflected, full moon-lit, and on and on…  It is the facilitation of all that is photography and the other visual arts.  Study it before trying to capture it.
I sat at this small pond a long while before I touched my camera.  The light changed the trees, plants, [...]

There are literally millions of images taken on this spot.  I am standing with camera atop tripod on Sentinel Bridge in the heart of Yosemite Valley.  There are couples beside me with their point-and-shoots and a few other “serious” photographers with tripods shooting pictures with Half Dome reflected in the still Merced River.  How do [...]