The Alphabet 2006, F-I

F is for Fern

    ...  or possibly

                Fuchsia

Taken 11/25/2006 using a Nikon Coolpix L3 camera, ISO 125, f 4.2, 1/60 second.

I've been taking pictures of ferns for 30+ years, but this shot, taken alongside the Newton Drury Scenic ByWay (old US 101) in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, is the first shot I've really liked.  This is the shot I submitted to The Photographer's Workshop.

  

Taken 8/21/2006 with a Pentax SLR film camera.                 

Taken 10/25/2006 with a Nikon Coolpix L3 

camera, ISO 50, f /6.4, 1/60th second.

Taken 10/27/2006 with a Nikon Coolpix L3 camera, ISO 50, f /7.7, 1/60 second

 The fuchsias were all shot in the back yard of the house in Smith River.  Mother never cared much for cut flowers, seeing them as a frivolous waste of money.  Rather than fill her room in the nursing home with flowers, I printed my photographs on Post-It Note photo paper, and stuck them up on the walls by her bed.  The single blossom has been manipulated using Adobe PhotoShop's watercolor filter.  Momma liked it.

G is for Gull

(No information available for either photo)

I could not find the original of the immature gull I submitted to the Workshop, so the second gull here is a substitute.  The picture I could not find was one of the first pictures I took with my tele/zoom/macro lens fitted to the Pentax SLR.  It was taken at the harbor in Crescent City.  The picture of the light brown immature gull at the top was taken in a McDonald's parking lot in Brookings, with the Nikon D80 DSLR and a 50-200 mm zoom lens.  Of course, in my heart of hearts, I know that G is for Gypsy.

Taken 8/17/2006 with a Pentax SLR film camera in Smith River, California

H is for House

(No information available for this photo)

Driving the scenic Rogue River Highway from Grants Pass to Medford, Oregon, my friend Carl and I passed this house.  I hit the brakes, did a U-turn, saying, "That, my friend, is a photo-op!"  When I submitted the image to my peer review group, the only criticism I received was that the scene was too dark.  In the original book, I placed a second version of the image, having lightened it a bit.  The image above differs from both in that I re-opened the original image as a RAW format file, and then processed it as I normally would these days in Photoshop CS5.

I is for Island 

(No information available for either photo)

Castle Rock is a National Wildlife Refuge off the Crescent City, California shore--due west of Pebble Beach Drive.  For over 30 years, I've been intrigued with shooting this island and its denizens, but it would take a 500 mm lens at the least, and at the time I published this collection, I still didn't have the equipment I would need to to get the shots I want.  I can't complain about these sunset shots, however.  See if you can't hear the seals and sea lions barking.  (In the book, there was a third photograph, a truly stunning sunset shot, probably taken with my film camera.  I cannot find the digital version of that image today.)

I apologize for the lack of information on so many of these images.  Apparently, when I copied them from their original location to the file folder for this blog, Photoshop stripped all photographic information from the images.  I am not amused.