A little bit of autumn color to brighten up a wintery day:
This was on opportunistic shot I took on a lunchtime photowalk some months back.
Bloomin’
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Ridin’ and shootin’
Another fun shot from the 2012 National Western Stock Show — this one from the Cowboy Mounted Shooting event:
Honestly, I’d never even *heard* of Cowboy Mounted Shooting as a competitive event before. But when we showed up at the stock show ticket desk, we could definitely hear it! We wandered into the arena to see what all the noise was from — and found this fun little event going on.
Getting this shot was a bit tricky, though. The arena lights are relatively dim, and the horses move pretty quickly — so I had to let the ISO get up to 2500 in order to get a reasonably fast shutter speed. At times like this, it helps to catch the action when the horse and rider are rounding a corner — so they’re moving as slowly as they’ll ever be. Oh, and put your camera on “continuous” shooting — catching sparks in mid-air is a game of chance…
All hat, no cattle
Seen at the 2012 National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado:
Blue kaboom
An oldie but goodie from Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington:
Hope everybody had a fun and festive holiday break! It’s almost hard for me to believe now that I took this with my first DSLR nearly four years ago…
Treekeh
A little seasonal bokeh from our front yard:
Sorry about the thin posting schedule lately, writing photo guidebooks has been absorbing my every waking moment — but the end’s in sight!
New (free!) eBook from Craft and Vision — a review
Craft and Vision just came out with a new eBook — 11 Ways You Can Improve your Photography. It’s a pretty impressive little eBook — and best of all, it’s free!
But before I send you on over to the Craft and Vision website, let me give you a quick rundown of what you’ll get in this thing. Nine of Craft and Vision’s writers contribute eleven tips on how you can improve your photographic skills, and none of it requires buying gear. 69 pages of useful and thought-provoking material, and it won’t cost you a cent to read or put into practice.
Definitely a good thing in the middle of the obligatory holiday shopping binge!
I won’t spell out what the 11 tips are, that’d completely spoil the surprise for you. But I can summarize. A few tips are pretty basic — so, particularly good for beginners. Others are much more profound, and delve into the reasons and rationale behind our photography, and the use of photographic composition as a storytelling device. Good for everyone, but particularly useful for those who have mastered the technology of their cameras and have moved to a more contemplative place with their photography.
So all-in-all, I think this is a wonderful eBook — particularly when you consider the price! So go and get it!
Seed head
A spur-of-the-moment shot from a solo photowalk a few weeks back:
I have no idea what kind of plant grew these seeds, but I liked how the swirl of the seed head mirrored the feel of the bokeh background. It’s just one of those things I don’t really have words for, you know?
Maya Calendar 2012
Why worry about the end of the Maya calendar in 2012? You can just buy another one when it runs out!
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Pretty much just for fun, I’ve made up some 2012 wall calendars at Lulu featuring images from ancient Maya ruins in Mexico and Guatemala. You can pick from two styles — “standard” (11″ wide, 8.5″ tall, costs $15), or “tall” (13.5″ wide, 19″ tall, costs $25). This batch features U.S. and Canadian holidays — please drop me a line via the contact form if you’d like me to put up a different version for where you live.
Just the thing to chase away any end-of-an-era blues!
Looking back at Autumn…
…from the start of Winter:
A shot from a lunchtime walk about a month back, before the season’s first big snowfall wiped out the colors.
House of the Cenote
At the ancient Maya ruins of Tulúm, México:
This was a tricky shot to get — bright sky above, and (dark, cave-like) cenote below. It didn’t turn out well as a multi-image HDR, for some odd reason — but tweaking a single image and running HDR on that did the trick. Amazingly, the structure at the top still has some of its original (500+ year old) plaster, in spite of being close to the cliff’s edge and the Caribbean.
Want to know more about photography in Tulúm? You might want to check this out…