The Alphabet, 2006, Part 1 (A-E)

In October, 2006, I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix L3, just to see if I liked the process.  Long story short, I liked it so well, that for Christmas, I bought my first digital single-lens-reflex camera, a Nikon D80--at that point pretty much state of the art.  I also joined an on-line photography group, The Photographer's Workshop, which allowed members to post one photo a day for the group's enjoyment.  Something gave me the idea to work my way through the alphabet, and I started out with A is for Apple.  Every day I would post a new photo, but it wasn't until I got to L that someone actually caught on and asked if I were going through the alphabet.  When I concurred that I was doing exactly that, they started asking, "What are you going to do for X?"  I replied, "You'll just have to wait and see.

Well, it's been over eight years, and I just got a new camera, a Nikon D7100.  I've had it less than a week now, and I absolutely love it.  Figured it was time to challenge myself again, and so come up with a new alphabet.  But first, I'd like to share the 2006 work with my blog readers.  This will be the topic for the next five or six posts, so hang on and let's get going.  By the way, I put the whole work together in a self published book.  Unless otherwise indicated, what follows are the pictures and texts from that book.  Also, with this "edition," I've added the photographic information.  Unless otherwise noted, all images were shot in JPEG format, and finished in Photoshop Elements.  Clicking on a picture will open it full screen in a new window.

A is for Apple

Taken October 26th, 2006, in Smith River, California, using a Nikon Coolpix L3.  Focal length is 19.2 mm, ISO 50, f /5.3, 1/60 second. 

There are four apple trees in the back yard at 344 Brookings Avenue, Smith River, California.  They start producing edible apples in August, and I continued to pick apples off the trees into December.  One of the trees is a Gravenstein.  I have no idea what the other three are.  Mother always made applesauce, but I prefer making pies, juice, or just eating them.

B is for Berry

Taken November 8th, 2006, using a Nikon Coolpix L3.  Focal length is 19.2 mm, ISO 50, f /5.3, 1/100 second.  

Wild Blackberry vines, which the locals call Himalayas, grow everywhere [in the Smith River area].  They're a weed, in fact, but I still like to put them on my Cheerios, or make a pie or even ice cream with them.  The picture above is of unripe, or "green," blackberries and was taken in November 2006.  I was intrigued by the fact that the leaves were turning with the season, but the new berries kept coming on.

C is for Cactus

Taken November 22nd, 2006, using a Nikon Coolpix L3.  Focal length is 19.2 mm, ISO 50, f /11, 1/60 second.

Mother had three "Christmas Cactus" plants growing behind her kitchen sink.  I'd never really paid much attention to this type of plant, although I've always liked them.  The bloom shown here began to open Thanksgiving week, and was at its full glory on November 25th, the day Momma died.

 D is for Darlingtonia

Both pictures taken September 4th, 2006, in the hills above Smith River, California, using a Pentax Single-Lens-Reflex film camera.  No other information available.

These peculiar insect-eating plants grow in a relatively restricted area in northern California and southern Oregon near the coast.  Usually they grow in dark boggy areas, and there is a botanical wayside on US 199 just east of Gasquet, California.  The ones pictured here, however, were growing on a wet rock cliff above the South Fork of the Smith River, about 14 miles off US 199.  Notice how they're sticking their tongues out.  I submitted both of these pictures to the Workshop, albeit at different times.

E is for Elk

(And yes, I know the proper term is Wapiti.)

Taken November 25, 2006 in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Redwood National and State Parks, using a Pentax Single-Lens-Reflex Film Camera.  No other information available.

There are herds of Roosevelt Elk all along the north coast, including just south of the town of Smith River.  The most visible herds, however, are the ones in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.  They are often found alongside US 101 in the park, and are considered a highway traffic hazard.  They can also be found on the beach at Gold Bluffs and Fern Canyon in the park.  It's rather disconcerting to be walking through the beach grasses and suddenly find yourself face to face with a bull elk.

More elk

Both pictures taken November 25th, 2006, in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, using a Nikon Coolpix L3 camera.  Focal length 19.2 mm, ISO 63, f /5.3, 1/30 second.

Come back on Friday for F through I.  And feel free to leave comments here on the blog.

Even more adventures in HDR and other work

It's so nice when all the kids fit in the frame and look at the camera

Out the front door

February 13th, 2015

In anticipation of the arrival of my new Nikon D7100, I've gone back to working on my own skills, trying to make myself worthy of my new toy/tool.  Primarily, I'm getting out almost every day, camera in hand, hoping to learn from my own mistakes, and then using the advice of others to improve my work.  The shot above, for example, came as a result of lots of photos I've taken of deer in the yard, usually when it's too early to get a good light on the scene.  To get this photo, I used a tripod, increased the ISO to 400 (when I normally use 125), and put on a telephoto lens (my old Sigma 70-300 lens) set at 170mm.  I posted this photo in the Expert Photography Action Takers group on Facebook, and got several very positive comments, but one suggestion that I should use the "Pet Eye Removal Tool" to get rid of the unnatural shine in the eyes.  Well, the version of Photoshop I have (CS5) does not have a "Pet Eye Removal Tool," but using Google, I found several ways to "fix" the eyes, and the version above shows the image after I "doctored" the eyes in Photoshop.  It's not an easy fix when you have 8 eyes looking at you, but it can be done.  If I wanted to take the time, there's more work I could do here, but I'm happy with the result as is.  Especially at this resolution.  Blow it up and let me know what you think.

Yesterday, Kevin had an Emergency Services meeting in Thompson Falls, so I rode along, then took the truck up Blue Slide Road to take some pictures and find some geocaches while he was in his meeting.  Turning off Montana Highway 200 just west of town, I drove up Blue Slide Road then took the cross road to the bridge at Birdland Bay.  There's a geocache hidden on the bridge, or so they say, but I didn't find it.  Due mostly to my own vertigo, I found standing at the side of the bridge, looking down into the water while feeling along the bridge supports for a hidden magnetic key holder, just upset my system no end.  That plus the fear of dropping my new Garmin 650t into the water, and I gave up.  It wasn't worth it.  But the area is very photogenic, so I grabbed the camera and tripod and starting snapping away.  The picture below shows the bridge in all its glory, as a composite three bracketed shots merged together using Photoshop's HDR merge feature.

Birdland Bay Road Bridge over the Clark Fork River

West of Thompson Falls, Montana

February 12th, 2015

Once I had my fill of photography, I set off to find caches along Blue Slide Road.  This is the original U.S. Highway 10 Alternate which runs on the north side of the river from Thompson Falls to just past Trout Creek.  I was on a time schedule, as I needed to get back to pick up Kevin without making him wait, so rather than drive all the way to Trout Creek, I went as far as Cougar Peak Road, near where our friends Mike and Norm lived when they first moved to Montana from Memphis.  My GPS was not cooperating well, refusing to go into portrait mode, and in landscape mode, the last word on the cache description was partially hidden.  It told me that the cache was hidden in the "sign..." which I read as signal, even though there was nothing remotely like a signal around.  When I was finally able to get the orientation changed to landscape, I learned that the hidden word was "signage," which made a lot more sense, and sure enough there was the cache.  Score one No, one Yes and on to the next.

The next actually meant turning back toward Thompson Falls and stopping at Graves Creek Road.  That cache was very easily found, as was the one just a few hundred feet on down the road at Steep River Ranch Road.   The last cache I looked for was titled "Squaw Creek," but in all the times I've driven Blue Slide Road, I've never seen a Squaw Creek.  I know it's not politically correct to use the word Squaw, and I'm sure that's why the highway sign no longer calls the stream that.  Instead there is a sign I've always wondered at, telling all that cross the bridge that they are at "Squaylth-Kwum."  I leave it to my Salish speaking friends to tell me what that means, if anything.

Pat's Knob at Twilight in HDR

Plains, Montana

February 11th, 2015

On Wednesday I stayed home all day, fighting a head ache and mild nausea, but did take advantage of our beautiful location to go out on the deck and shoot some pixels.  The scene above is an HDR composite shot of Pat's Knob, the second highest peak in the Coeur d'Alene range, across the valley from us.  I feel the need to point out that the Coeur d'Alene range is the group of mountains, part of the Bitterroot Mountains, that separates our part of Montana from northern Idaho.  The mountains behind us, and in whose foothills we live, are the Cabinet Mountains.  The highest peak in our area is Baldy (and the road from which our driveway leads is Baldy View), but Baldy is in the Cabinets, not the Coeur d'Alenes.   To get that vintage post card look, I used a program called Photomatix to merge the three exposures and then "tone-map" the image.  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, even though it's not at all in keeping with modern photographic standards.  But it does look like a post card from the 40s or 50s, wouldn't you say?

Tuesday Kevin was in Missoula all day for a meeting sponsored by the Montana Department of Public Instruction on how to keep your schools safe from terrorist attack.  I can't quite picture Al Qaeda operating a cell in Sanders County, but you never know.  Kevin said that every school in Sanders County was represented at the meeting.  I took advantage of him going into town to spend the day sight seeing, eating good bread from Le Petit Outre bakery and good raw fish at Asahi, and trying not to fall asleep in the comfy chair at Barnes and Noble.  I did pick up a couple of books while at the latter, one a very readable guide to the Nikon D7100 written by a photographer who spends part of the year in Montana, and also  The HDR Book by Rafael "RC" Concepcion.  Kevin was a bit taken aback when I told him that latter book cost $45, but that's what happens in the arts--and believe me, this kind of photography is definitely an art form.  I'm working my way through the book and its accompanying website, which is what led to the two HDR images above (and the one immediately below).

Maclay Bridge over the Bitterroot River

Missoula, Montana

February 10th, 2015

After my sashimi bento box at Asahi, I stopped at Goodwill and found a small, but serviceable, covered clay baking dish, and then I headed out to Blue Mountain to try for some good scenery shots.  The road up Blue Mountain was ice covered, so I turned around and went to Maclay Flats instead.  I got some interesting shots there, but I was most pleased with the shots I took at Maclay Bridge, the one-lane bridge crossing the Bitterroot River on the western edge of Missoula.  The image above is, once more, a composite of six exposures merged and tone-mapped in Photomatix.  Not realistic at all, but I really like the way it turned out.  By all means click on the image and view it full screen and see if you don't find it intriguing.  Looks like something a painter from the Impressionist School would come up with, should Monet have visited Missoula.  At least that's what it looks like to me.

And that clay baking dish I bought?  Well yesterday, I took some sweet pizza dough I had in the fridge, formed it into a round loaf, and let it rise a bit before baking it in the new dish.  Here's how it turned out.  Not bad for a first attempt, but I'm going to have to try with fresh dough and see what happens then.  The "oven spring" was so successful with this dough that the bread actually reached the clay lid and stuck to it in one place.  Unfortunately, the bread didn't bake all the way through and there was a dough pocket in the center.  Guess 1 hour at 400 degrees just wasn't enough inside that little baking dish.  What did bake tasted pretty good though.

Sweet Pizza Dough baked as a loaf in a covered clay baking dish

Plains, Montana

February 12th, 2015

More Adventures in HDR and other Photographic Games

The view out our living room window

February 2nd, 2015

I've gotten back to playing with my camera.  Several years ago, I was introduced to HDR  (High Dynamic Range) photography, and I tried it with mixed success.  I even wrote a blog post about it back in 2009 which you can read here, if you wish.  But eventually, I tired of the procedures involved and put them aside.  This past week, the sun was shining brightly here at home, and it was the last day of January, so I decided I should get out of the house and get some good landscapes--oh and while I was at it, find a few more geocaches.  Loading up my Garmin Montana 650t with caches from west of Thompson Falls to Clark Fork, Idaho, on both sides of the river, I jumped in the car with GPS, camera, a change of lenses, and tripod, and took off down the road.  I had gone just over a mile when I met Kevin coming home.  When he asked what I was up to, and I told him, he asked if I would like him to come along.  Well, duh.  Yes, I always enjoy his company on the road.

On the way to Thompson Falls, I asked Kevin to pull over, and I took a few pictures of Badrock Canyon.  This is the narrowest part of the Clark Fork Canyon between here and Idaho, and if you know where to look, you can see the marks left by the rush of Glacial Lake Missoula, as it poured down this canyon and across Idaho to scrub the landscape of eastern Washington.  The amount of water, and the speed with which it flowed left marks on the rock sides of the canyon that enable scientists to estimate just how much water went through here.  They say that the water came through the canyon at 9.46 cubic miles per hour, or 60 times the flow of today's largest river, the Amazon.  

Badrock Panorama

January 31st, 2015

While taking a few pictures, I noted an electric pole right in the middle of my shot.  I adjusted my stance, and took two pictures, one with the pole on the right, and one with it on the left.  I knew it was possible to "stitch" photos together to make a panoramic image, but I'd never done it with my DSLR. Back in the truck, I noted that our blue sky was disappearing as we headed west.  It was also quite cold and windy.  Not a good prognosis for more picture taking.

Long story short, we continued on west, eventually stopping just a few miles east of Trout Creek.  I grabbed ten new geocaches along the way, but the weather really wasn't cooperating, and I had hit some button on my GPS that stopped it from giving me the information I wanted.  In frustration, I suggested that we return home, and that's what we did, stopping at Simple Simon's in Thompson Falls for a pizza dinner.

Back at my desk, I transferred the images from my camera's memory card to my hard drive, and opened up Photoshop.  It turns out that in CS5, it's very easy to make a "stitched" panorama.  I was amazed.  I had expected to have a great deal of trouble making such an image, but the computer did almost all the work and I ended up with the Badrock Panorama posted above.  If printed at its normal resolution, that image would measure 1 foot tall by 40 inches wide.  I've found a new way to play!  By the way, the image at the top of the page, if printed at full resolution, would measure 1 foot tall by five feet wide!  And I created another image that would actually print out nine feet wide, if I really wanted to do such a thing.

Self Portrait in HDR

February 1st, 2015

The simplicity that CS5 made of "stitching" together panoramic shots, made me take another look at HDR images.  Accordingly, I set up the tripod in the living room and took three bracketed self-portraits, which I combined to create an HDR photo of my face--with every possible line and wrinkle in plain view.  I posted this image on Facebook, and one of my artist friends commented that she'd really like to take that portrait and copy it in oil.  I've never had someone want to paint my portrait before.  I'm tempted to let her.

The next day, I tried the self portrait again.  This time, I did not sit in my recliner, which left me back-lit by the picture window, but rather moved to the couch which faces the window.  Unfortunately, I did not move the chair from the background, so I ended up with Mickey Mouse ears, but I like the portrait so much that I made it my new Facebook profile pic.  Another FB friend suggested that the picture looked like someone had taken a black and white and hand colored it.  I'll let you decide.  Just for comparison, I'm including the same photograph processed as a single image so you can see the difference between a "normal" photo and a three-layered HDR shot.

Second Self Portrait in HDR

February 2nd, 2015

I've also tried some HDR shots through the window, looking at the trees and the deer in the fog.  They have an interesting look, but when I take the image and process it as I normally would, I think I prefer the non HDR version.  In any event, I've certainly found a new way to occupy my behind the camera time, and I look forward to more sunny days along the river and lake.

Self Portrait as a "Normal" Photograph

Don't you like the HDR version better?

February 2nd, 2015

Retirement Blues

Fog in the trees

January 30th, 2015

I like to say that being retired means that I have no one to answer to for the way I spend my time.  But of course, this isn't strictly speaking true.  Ultimately I have to answer to myself.  I set myself some goals, just to make sure I don't sit around all day and get nothing accomplished, but lately, all that seems to do is make me depressed.  For instance, I wanted to make sure I had something new to say every Tuesday and Friday in this blog.  That hasn't happened for a couple of weeks.  So I ask myself, if I don't really have anything to say, isn't it best just to shut up?

I promised myself that I would work on my photography every day, but even there I sometimes find that I'll take one more picture of the trees outside the house, just so I can say I kept my promise by clicking the shutter.  This isn't helping me learn anything new, nor is it improving my skills.  It's just one more set of pixels, or mega-pixels, on a memory card.

The Moon in late afternoon

January 29th, 2015

Finally, I said I would get back to weaving and do at least one project a month.  There's the makings of a lovely project on my main loom, but it's moving very slowly, and I'm having a hard time motivating myself to actually sit at the loom and work.  I know that once the loom is completely dressed and ready for me to weave, the weaving itself will go quickly and provide its own motivation.  But I'm not there yet.  Today, just so that I could say I had actually completed a project in January, I grabbed the first loom I ever had, and also some yarn.  I'm not particularly proud of the open weave mug rug I made, but hey, it's a weaving project, and it did give me a somewhat jaded sense of accomplishment.

My first loom

(As a child, I used sock yarn loops to make pot holders)

January 30th, 2015

The one thing I have been keeping up is my reading.  I set a goal to read seventy-five books in 2015, and so far I've completed twelve.   That means that I'm almost a whole month ahead of myself.  But reading has always been my first love.  I have no doubt that I'll easily read seventy-five books this year, so I've added a challenge to myself, one suggested by my dear friend Vaun Stevens.  I'm doing the Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge, so at least twenty-four of those books won't be the light and frivolous mysteries I can read in one day.  One of the suggested challenges is to read a book of poetry, so at present I'm reading Guillaume Appolinaire's Alcools which collection contains my all-time favorite poem, Le Pont Mirabeau.  I should finish the collection on or before February 1st, then it will be on to something else.  Who knows what just yet.

Green wool mug rug being taken off the loom

January 30th, 2015

But I know I have to stop being so hard on myself.  Just go with the flow and what gets done, gets done.  What doesn't, doesn't matter.  There's always tomorrow--at least until there isn't.  And tonight!  Ah, tonight!  I'm going to the Llano Theater to see Into the Woods with Meryl Streep as the witch and Johnny Depp as the Wolf.  (After all, all good fairy tales take you into the woods where you usually have to deal with either a witch or a wolf, right?)

The completed mug rug

January 30th, 2015

Star Gazer and the Swan

Trumpeter Swans on the Flathead River

12/11/2014

Near Perma, Montana

She'd her apron wrapped around her
And he took her for a swan
But oh and alas
It was she, Polly Von.

To hear Peter, Paul and Mary sing this beautiful Irish ballad, click here.

We seem to have a large population of Trumpeter Swans in our area this fall.  At least I'm assuming they are Trumpeter Swans, the largest bird native to North America.  They are known to live in both Ninepipes and Pablo National Wildlife Refuges, both of which are close to us, just to the east of Sanders County in Lake County.  They could be Tundra Swans, which are slightly smaller.  All the guides I consulted said that it is hard to tell the two species apart.  As a very amateur ornithologist, with at best an 800 mm lens set up on my camera, I was could not get a clear enough shot of the birds to be able to detect whether they have a red spot (Trumpeter) or a yellow spot (Tundra) on their bills--but apparently, even that distinction doesn't always apply.  In any event, I set out yesterday to see what I could find, since I usually see the birds on the river when Kevin is driving and I have no chance of getting a decent shot of them.  In my sightings, they range from the reservoir at Thompson Falls in the west almost to Dixon in the east, and are most commonly seen in the area around Seepay Creek, west of Perma.  That's where I saw these birds yesterday, and I crossed a barbed wire fence, trespassing on someone's land, to get the picture shown above.

In actuality, I set off yesterday to do two things I dearly love, geocaching and photography.  Last spring, I had the opportunity to use a Garmin Montana GPS unit, and while I found it somewhat frustrating--being handed an expensive and complicated tool with no instructions on how to use the thing--the more research I did, the more I felt that I had to add one of these to my own arsenal.  Accordingly, when Kevin asked what I wanted for Christmas, I had no trouble coming up with a response.  Kevin ordered one on-line and it was delivered Wednesday afternoon.  I debated whether I should open the box, or wrap it and put it under the tree, but in the end, I followed my doctor's orders (I had asked my Facebook friends what I should do and my physician said "Go definitely," so I went.)  Most of the rest of my friends who responded agreed that I should start using the thing immediately.  After all, life is short and we have no promises for tomorrow.  Right?

Pat's Knob as seen from MT Highway 28

12/11/2014

Near Plains, Montana

I got started geocaching back in 2006, while I was in California during the last year of my mother's life.  I bought a Garmin eTrex Legend and thought it would be a good tool for measuring how far I was hiking through the redwoods each week.  Turns out, the overstory in a redwood forest is generally so thick that the satellites can't penetrate the foliage, and the unit was useless for my purposes.  It was, however, ideal for searching out geocaches.  And if you don't know about geocaching, I recommend visiting geocaching.com to learn more about this passtime.  The best description I've seen is "I use multi-million dollar US Government equipment to find Tupperware containers in the woods.   What do you do for fun?"  Geocaching got its start in the Portland, Oregon area, and has grown into a world wide hobby.  At the time I started, there were over 1,500 caches hidden within a 100 mile radius of my California home, and as that home sits three miles from the Pacific Ocean, you have to figure that at least half that circle is under water.  By comparison, there were only about a hundred or so caches within 100 miles of Missoula, Montana in 2006.   To show how much the hobby has grown, there are now 6,178 caches within 100 miles of Plains, Montana.  I don't want to do the math.  You can see the exponential growth for yourself.  Suffice it to say that there are plenty to keep me busy for the rest of my life, and that's without leaving home.  Caches are hidden world-wide from Afghanistan (250) to Zimbabwe (188), and recently a cache was taken into space and placed in the Russian section of the International Space Station.  I don't think I'll be finding that one any time soon.

The Flathead River at Koo-Koo-Sint Fishing Access

12/11/2014

Near Paradise, Montana

I enjoy combining geocaching with photography, and the camera around my neck is a good excuse for me to be out in the open, searching around for something hidden.  Who knows, maybe I just lost my lens cap and that's why I'm down on the ground digging around the base of a tree.  It's handy to have such an excuse because you really want to protect the cache from "muggles," as non-cachers are known--people who might move or even destroy a cache should they become aware of its existence.

Armed with my Christmas present, I set off yesterday morning in search of a couple of caches that had been eluding me.  I figured it would be a good test to see just how much better the Montana 650t is over my old eTrex Legend.  And oh my, I have to say I fell in love with the new toy, er tool.  Workers at the Clark Fork Valley Hospital have placed four caches on the hospital grounds, and I had been unable to find two.  (I hadn't even attempted the other two.)  With my new unit in hand, I drove to the site of the first cache, and walked right to the cache.  I can't explain why I was unable to find it before as it seemed very obvious this time.  What I do know is that using my eTrex Legend, the coordinates appeared to be all over the place, and this time, with the Montana 650t, they stayed fixed in one location--the place where the cache was hidden.

Well now, if that was so easy, what about finding another cache that had successfully resisted my efforts.  Montana Highway 28 runs 47 miles from Plains at the southwest end to Elmo at the northeast.  There are 19 geocaches along that route--all but one right alongside the highway.  I had previously found 16 of the caches, avoiding the one that was two miles off the highway and not attempting one where major construction was being done at the time.  But one cache, appropriately called Spam, had stayed hidden even though I went back three times, and even took Kevin with me to try to find the darned thing.  I used my eTrex Legend.  I used the geocaching app on my iPhone.  I knew I was in the right area, but again, the co-ordinates were all over the place.  I could stand in one spot and be told that I was 4 feet from the cache, but if I circled around and came back to that same location, I would see that I was now 28 feet from the cache.  Frustrating doesn't begin to describe the situation.  Yesterday, with my Montana 650t, I found the cache--if not immediately, then pretty quickly.  And in fact, the new GPS led me directly to the cache.  It's my fault if I didn't see it right away.

The Perma Pictographs

12/11/2014

Near Perma, Montana

Driving back toward Plains, I stopped at the site where construction had stymied me last Spring, and quickly found the diabolically clever cache hidden there.  I also took the first of yesterday's photos, the view of Pat's Knob shown above.  Pat's Knob is the second highest peak in the Coeur d'Alene range of the Bitterroot Mountains, and I have written about it and my trips up the mountain several times in the past.  John W. Patrick was one of the earliest white settlers in the Plains area, and the Plains Chamber of Commerce explains the mountain's name on their website.

After a quick lunch at Subway, I headed east on Montana 200 in an attempt to find more of the caches hidden in this area.  The first place I stopped was at the Koo-koo-sint Fishing Access on the Flathead River.  David Thompson is the most important person in the northwest you've never heard of.  At least that's what I believe.  Thompson is the man the British government sent out to beat Lewis and Clark and thus solidify Great Britain's claims to the Oregon Country.  He didn't succeed, but in the attempt, he did more to map the Northwest than anyone else.  His name lives on in Sanders County through the Thompson River, the Little Thompson River, the Thompson Lakes, and of course the Sanders County Seat, Thompson Falls.  Because of his habit of going out at night, sextant in hand, the Salish people living in this area called him Koo-koo-sint, or Star Gazer.  Two locations in Sanders County bear the Salish name, the other being a hiking trail between Plains and Thompson Falls.  Thompson has become one of my heroes, and I heartily recommend that you learn everything you can about him.

Just east of the fishing access, Highway 200 enters the Flathead Indian Reservation.  This is the only place you can cross into the Reservation without seeing a sign so stating.  According to a friend and former Tribal Chair, James Steele Jr., the tribe got tired of constantly replacing the sign and no longer notes the change in jurisdiction.  I picked up a couple more caches along Highway 200, one of which was at a beautiful spot on the north side of the river, west of Perma.  This is a sacred site for the people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and one should approach it with reverence.  Unfortunately, that has not always been the response of visitors to the Perma Pictographs, and many of the scenes have been destroyed.  I have to admit, that I was unable to see any writing on the rock walls, but the location itself is so beautiful and so peaceful, that I can see many returns in the future.

All told, I added seven new caches to my list of those found, bringing me to a lifetime total of 295 finds.  My goal for 2014 is to pass 300.  With only five to go, and with this great tool now at my disposal, I don't think that will be a problem.

Camas Creek entering the Flathead River

12/11/2014

Perma, Montana

If there were witchcraft--redux

A rainy day at Depoe Bay, Oregon

12/27/2011

When I started this blog, I named it for a song we used to sing around the campfire at church camp. The way I learned the song, there were two wishes, "a winding road that beckons me to roam," and "a blazing campfire to welcome me when I'm returning home." Driving back from Portland a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I'm living pretty much my ideal life. I'm traveling more than at any time in the past, and I have a beautiful (if very cluttered) home to return to--sans blazing campfire. Put another way, as long as I have a good atlas, my camera, and a book or several, I'm a happy camper.

Today is March 20th, 2012. In the past five months I've traveled to Los Angeles, the Oregon Coast and northern California, Las Vegas, Calgary and the Canadian Rockies, Miami and south Florida, and Portland. That's six relatively major trips in five months. That doesn't count the various road trips around western Montana. Not too shabby for someone who loves the open road. And I've always had my beloved Missoula home waiting for me on my return.

Since we closed our business December 1st, my one concern has been money. Closing the business ended any income, but, unfortunately, didn't stop the expenses. I'll be honest. We're struggling right now, as are many Americans. The trips have all been tied into attempts to raise funds, find business partners, sell assets, etc. As I write this, I'm in the office in Missoula, while Kevin just called me from Plentywood, Montana, in the northeastern corner of the state. He's on a trip looking for work in the Bakken oilfields--the only place in our region right now where the jobs and money aren't scarce. Work in the Bakken is plentiful and pays well, but the living expenses are high and the hours are grueling. It's a young man's world, and I fear Kevin is too old to keep up the pace. I know I am, which is why I'm not even looking.

But enough of that. One of my gurus, Marsha Sinetar, wrote a book: Do What You Love: The Money Will Follow. I'm out to prove her right, for what I'm doing now I truly love. When we closed the business, we were locked into a lease on the retail space in downtown Missoula. I asked Kevin if I could turn our space into an art gallery, and he agreed. I now have a place where I can display my photography and weaving, and I have a loom set up in the space so that I can weave during slack times. I'll not kid you. All the time is slack right now, as almost no one has found my Sharrott Creek Gallery. But that can change. I have a good location downtown. It's just a matter of getting the word out.

Vegas from the Convention Center

1/11/2012

Missoula has long had a First Friday Gallery Walk on, surprise, the first Friday of each month. I submitted the information, and the Missoula Cultural Council put us on the list for March 2nd. I prepared a show of photos I'd taken in South Florida, some twenty-one different images, most of which I printed on my new Epson Style Pro 9900 printer, a mammoth beast capable of printing images up to 44" wide on any one of a number of media including glossy photo paper, matte paper, and even canvas. The printer was one of the benefits of attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, as was our new association with Anvy Digital of Calgary, Alberta. The PMA (Photo Marketing Association) was holding their annual conference in conjunction with the CES, and while Kevin was hobnobbing with the communications geeks, I was wandering through the photo booths. All of this I wrote about back when it happened, so if you're curious, just run back to my January posts.

I've written up all the details of the current exhibit on our Sharrott Creek Gallery website, and there are links to the photos on display on that site. Setting up the gallery's website has been fun, and I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out. We viewed March 2nd as our Grand Opening, and I sent out some fifty invitations in addition to the promotional work that the Missoula Cultural Council did. While we didn't have a large turnout, and made not a single sale, I consider the opening a success. Eleven people visited the gallery that evening, five of whom were not on my invitation list, and three of whom were total strangers. We can only grow from here. (To put things in perspective, one gallery owner told me that he has often had three people show up on First Friday, and on March 2nd, as he was showing the work of eight artists, he was expecting sixteen. On the other hand, the event is quite popular, and established galleries downtown entertain throngs.)

The Banff Springs Hotel

Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

1/21/2012

The trip to Calgary included a meeting with the folk at Anvy Digital, another CES connection. Anvy Digital has produced a line they call Image Style which involves printing art on an adhesive backed canvas paper. Once printed, the image is applied to a hard surface, which is then mounted to a frame using velcro. The whole process of taking a digital image from memory card to framed print can be done in less than an hour. The advantage of mounting the image using velcro is that when the customer wants to change decor, you pop out the old picture and easily install a new one in the same frame. As framing is a major cost in any art endeavor, this has major benefits for the consumer. As the only place offering this service in western Montana, Sharrott Creek Gallery is positioned to score big. If only I can get the word out. The image I used to showcase the ImageStyle line is a photograph I took in Miami Beach, one I call "Hotels and Umbrellas."

Hotels and Umbrellas, Miami Beach, Florida

1/31/2012

So let me return to my opening theme. I am a happy camper. I sit in a lovely spot downtown, surrounded by art that I have created. I have the time and ability to travel and see new sights, camera in hand. I return home to turn those digital pixels into beautiful wall art. I meet new people regularly, and share my experiences with them. If you're in the area, drop by. I've got a coffee pot and hot water for tea. Let's sit and chat. If you have memory cards full of your own images, images you'd like to see on your wall instead of inside your phone, your camera, your computer, bring me the memory card or e-mail me the file and let's make your dreams come true. Mine are.

The Epson Style Pro 9900, at home at Sharrott Creek Gallery, Missoula

3/20/2012

Sharrott Creek Gallery

401 W. Broadway, Suite C

Missoula MT 59802

406-728-1490

sharrott-creek-gallery.com

Shameless Self Promotion

Umpqua River Light House
Taken from Pacific Coast Lighthouses Calendar

Hark the Herald Tribune sings
Advertising wondrous things!
God rest ye merry merchants
May you make the Yuletide pay!
Angels we have heard on high
Tell us to go out and buy!
--Tom Lehrer

To hear Tom Lehrer sing "A Christmas Carol," click here.

Note please that clicking on any image will open a full-screen view of that image in a new window, and clicking on any link will open a new window.

I warned those of my readers on my e-mail list that the next installment of this blog would be a piece of shameless self promotion. So you have no one to blame but yourself.

As many of you know, I am a member of the Red Bubble art group on-line. Red Bubble is a site where artists upload their work and make it available in various formats for sale. You can upload scanned drawings, paintings, photographs, digital art, writing, and can produce t-shirts and calendars for sale to the masses. I have been involved in the photo/digital art end for about six months now. There is a link on the right side of my blog that shows my most recent work from Red Bubble.

Coquille River Light House
Taken from the Coastal Views Calendar

While I have not produced any Christmas cards (but there are several of my pieces that would make lovely cards), I have put together five (at this point) calendars which could make wonderful Christmas gifts--see that's the shameless part. I have personally ordered three of these calendars and can attest to the professional quality of the finished product. I'm not talking about the imagery, I'm prejudiced there, but I have had calendars made up in the past and was not happy with the way my images were reproduced. That is not the case with Red Bubble. This is top-notch work that anyone would be proud to have hanging on their wall.

Rattlesnake Creek in January
Taken from the Heart of Montana Calendar

The five calendars are:

Heart of Montana--12 views from around the Treasure State

Coastal Views--12 images from the southern Oregon and northern California coast

Pacific Coast Lighthouses--most of the lighthouses on the Pacific Coast from Yaquina Head at Newport Oregon to Point Arena in Mendocino County, California.

Flowers, Wild and Tame--which should be self-explanatory

and Welcome to Port Orford--13 scenes taken in or near the town of Port Orford, Oregon

Boats docked at Port Orford, Oregon
Taken from the Welcome to Port Orford Calendar

You can check out any and all of these calendars at my Red Bubble site, www.redbubble.com/people/mtbearded1 and who knows, maybe you'll find a card or even a framed photograph that you just can't live without.

The work is produced when ordered, so there is a time lag--but Red Bubble assures us that anything ordered by December 13th will be delivered in time for Christmas.

There, that wasn't so bad, was it?

Hugs, and watch this site for my annual Christmas Letter--coming up next.

Appleblossom Time
From the Flowers, Wild and Tame Calendar

Squash--a Photoshop Odyssey

Amapola, my pretty little poppy
You're like that lovely flower so sweet and heavenly,
Since I found you, my heart is wrapped around you
And loving you, it seems to beat a rhapsody.

--English language lyrics by Albert Gamse

To hear Andrea Bocelli sing Amapola in Spanish, click here.

Why do I bother I don't know
I'll turn off my radio
Day after day
The airways are awash
With songs of ones in love
And those who are out of
There's just not enough songs about squash

To hear Darren Hanlon sing this, click here.

But at night i'd had these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat
Not zucchini, fettuccine or Bulgar wheat
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat

To hear Jimmy Buffett sing Cheeseburger in Paradise, click here.

ISO 125 50mm f /13 1/90 second

Okay, okay, enough with the songs already. Geez, we normally only get one song and here there are three. Well, yeah. But there are also five pictures that are almost identical unless you look really closely. What's going on here?

Well first off, let's talk about the songs. When I began thinking about this post, I had a set of shots of a yellow squash blossom...12 shots, to be exact. The first song that came to my mind was Amapola, which I remember hearing as "Amapola, pretty little flower...." And certainly, this squash blossom is a pretty little flower, or a pretty not-so-little flower. But when I went to look up the lyrics for Amapola, I learned that 1) Amapola refers to a poppy, not just any old yellow flower, and 2) the lyrics as written on the web actually say "poppy," not "flower." Hmm.

OK, so let's do a search for "songs about squash." That brought up the Darren Hanlon song, "There's not enough songs about squash." Well, I could certainly agree with that statement, and the song is fun, even if the squash it's talking about is the racket-ball game, not the vegetable.

Finally, what pops into my mind but Cheeseburger in Paradise. The only problem here is that the squash in question (or in the pictures) is not a zucchini, but rather a hard winter squash. So, you get three songs, none of which actually fit the bill. But they're fun songs so enjoy anyway.

That brings us to the pictures themselves. This started out to be an exercise in HDR processing. The sun was shining brightly, a bit too brightly perhaps, on one particular squash blossom, so I got my camera, fitted it with the Sigma 50 mm macro lens, put the whole thing on my tripod and knelt down to snap away setting the bracketing to 2 stops plus and minus. If you remember my previous post about HDR, the process involves taking three (or more) shots at different exposures and then letting Photoshop merge the shots together to form one. For this to work, it is crucial that there be no camera movement between the various exposures. Unfortunately, my tripod, even with the legs splayed as far apart as possible, kept my camera at too great a distance to take a macro shot at 50 mm. I'm back to holding the camera by hand and hoping for the best. My best wasn't good enough. Even with a camera capable of taking 3 shots per second, my ability to shake the camera during that second was even greater. So much for HDR with this image.

ISO 125 50 mm f/11 1/125 second

These days I shoot entirely in "raw" format. If you don't understand what that means, you can think of "raw" as being the rough equivalent of a film negative. An image shot in "raw" cannot be used directly, but has to be processed and changed into a different format, usually TIFF or JPEG. I'm not going to go into those formats here. Suffice it to say that the purpose of a "raw" image is, and here I quote Wikipedia, "to faithfully record both 100% of exactly what the sensor "saw" or "sensed" (the data), and the conditions surrounding the recording of the image (the metadata).

ISO 125 50mm f/8 1/25o second

Once you have downloaded your shots from camera to computer, you can load them into Photoshop's Camera Raw processing dialog. In my attempt to play with HDR, I chose to shoot each set of photos using a different aperture and shutter speed. Usually for daytime shots, I shoot in aperture priority mode, which means that I set the aperture and let the camera choose the shutter speed automatically. Under similar lighting conditions, every time you change the aperture, the shutter speed will adjust accordingly. The smaller the aperture, the more time will be required to let in the appropriate amount of light. If you look at these pictures, you'll see that as I opened the aperture step by step, the shutter speed increased. The top photo here was taken with the aperture set at f /13, which required 1/90th of a second to get what the camera considered the "proper" exposure. The second set of shots was taken at f /11 which required a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. For the third, I opened the aperture even further to f /8 and finally to f /5.6, which caused the camera to use shutter speeds of 1/250th and 1/500th of a second respectively. The idea here was to find what difference there would be in the amount of detail obtained. As a rule of thumb, the larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. Since I was working with a macro lens, trying to get as close as possible to my subject, there isn't a great difference in the depth of field required.

ISO 125 50 mm f /5.6 1/500 second

In the end, I used HDR processing for one group of images, the second group. I then went back and took the "standard" exposure from each group, and brought them one at a time into the Camera Raw dialogue. In an effort to reduce variability, I used exactly the same settings for each image. In Photoshop CS4, Camera Raw allows you a great deal of latitude and many ways of processing your images. As I'm just learning, I stuck with the "Basic" tab which gives options for adjusting the "white balance," the "temperature," the "tint," the "exposure," "recovery," "fill light," "blacks," "brightness," "contrast," "clarity," "vibrance," and "saturation." You also have the choice of clicking on "Auto" to let Photoshop set these ranges, or "Default" which will take you back to the way your camera set the image in the first place. At some point in the future, I'll go into greater depth on each of these various adjustments. For now, I'll leave you with the task of trying to determine if there is, indeed, any visible difference in the five images. I look forward to your feedback.

Photo #2 above processed as an HDR image

An Answer For Ed

The Jonquils as they looked this morning
Taken 2/11/07

My internet friend Ed, in Columbus, Ohio, is the one person in my life who forces me to think about what I do when I shoot or edit pictures. Lots of people tell me to darken skies, straighten horizons, increase the color saturation, but only Ed asks me what I’m thinking when I select a particular scene. I’ve never met Ed in person, but I know that he has a background in Art History and has worked as a professional photographer. The type of questions he asks are the kind I would expect from an Art Historian. They are similar to the questions we asked in my literature classes at UC Berkeley.

Recently he responded to an image I sent him entitled “Homage to O’Keeffe III.” He was very complimentary concerning the Photoshop enhanced photograph and my skills, and I thank him for that, but then he started talking about composition, technique, equipment, and the “rules” of photography. I never responded to his e-mail, but I will do that now. And if any of you are interested in what goes into my submissions, please feel free to read over Ed’s shoulder. I’m sure he won’t mind.

As I get deeper into photography, I find that there are four different areas that intrigue me. The vast majority of my shooting involves landscapes or seascapes. I shoot a lot of birds. Architectural shots fascinate me, but I’m growing to love the art of portraying flowers—hence my Homage to O’Keeffe series. In my mind, flowers, birds, landscapes and buildings require four different approaches, both in shooting and in editing. I’d like to address each of those areas separately.

Architectural Photography

Jacksonville Oregon Presbyterian Church
As printed and scanned from original negative

Back in the 1980s I was struck by the Judith Basin County Courthouse in Stanford, Montana. Judith Basin County has 2,300 people crowded into 1,880 square miles. By my reckoning that’s not even one and a quarter people per square mile. Yet their courthouse, built in 1925, is a three story structure with a rotunda. It’s a very grand building for such a small place. As I traveled around Montana, I kept noticing how much money and effort went into these governmental buildings, most of which date from the late 1800s and early 1900s. I conceived of a project to be tied to Montana’s statehood centennial in 1989 where I would photograph each of the fifty-six county courthouses and put together a coffee-table book on these magnificent buildings. Unfortunately, I had neither the skill, the time nor the money to complete the project, but I did get a lot of interesting courthouse shots from around the state.

Photographing large buildings presents many challenges, not least of which is finding a point from which to capture as much of the building as possible. And since municipalities tend to frown on people tearing up shrubbery or removing signs, you get to deal with various distractions, most of which are going to end up on film or in the digital medium. Fortunately, photo editing programs are designed to handle such “distractions.” As an example of what I do, I offer two versions of the same shot of the Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Oregon. Driving through this historic town I was attracted by the design of the church and especially by the bright red tree on the corner of the church’s lawn. By the time I found a place to park, the moment had passed, the sun had moved on, and the lighting just wasn’t as compelling as it had been when I first saw the church. Nevertheless, I got out the Pentax, both lenses, and my Nikon L3 digital point and shoot. The top photograph shows the result (well, one of them). This is the unedited photograph taken from across the street. I dislike intensely hiding natural landscape elements, and rarely remove man-made objects from my landscapes. In this case, however, what I wanted to show was the church (and tree), and not a lot of pavement, wires, parking signs, etc. The first thing to do was to crop the photo to eliminate the expanse of street visible in the photograph. I also chose to “clone out” the wires crossing the front of the building and the parking sign directly in front of the church. All of these are distractions, and the wires especially tend to draw the eye away from the building itself. Finally I changed the lighting to approximate the scene that had first caught my eye. Whadda ya think? Is the image below more appealing than the one above? Maybe I should revisit the Montana Courthouses idea.

Jacksonville Presbyterian Church
As submitted to The Photographers' Workshop

Landscape Photography

In the case of landscapes, and by extension seascapes, I’m not as willing to eliminate the distractions. My first task is to frame the shot in the camera so as to avoid distractions. Shooting the sunrise on Friday I walked a couple of blocks to get a view of the sky unencumbered by power lines. If I cannot remove such elements in the photo shoot itself, then it feels dishonest of me to remove them in an editing program. Wires, for good or ill, are part of our environment now. They’re ubiquitous and it seems to me unreasonable to expect to see pristine landscapes when such no longer exist. Were I trying to recreate an historical period, it would be different, but if I’m showing you the Ship Ashore on US 101, you’re going to see the trailer houses, electric wires, and street signs that are a part of that particular landscape. As an example I give you the McCullough Memorial Bridge at Coos Bay, Oregon.

McCullough Memorial Bridge, Coos Bay Oregon
As downloaded from digital camera

I’ve posted this picture before in my blog on bridges, but here you get to see the original shot as well as the edited version. As you can see by looking at the two, there’s very little difference. I’ve adjusted the lighting and the color saturation. That’s all. I didn’t crop the photo, even though there’s a lot of water in front of the bridge, and I didn’t remove any elements by cloning or airbrushing. There’s a lot of water in Coos Bay, and it seemed appropriate to me to show that when preparing what is essentially a landscape shot that happens to have a bridge in it. This is the way I approach almost all of my landscape and seascape shots. The main exception is that if there happens to be a weed that popped up at the lower edge of the photograph, or if a tree or rock on one edge spoils the symmetry, I’ll crop or clone it out, depending on the image. But for the most part, all I do is lighten the shadows, darken the highlights, and add some color saturation so that the image presented comes closer to what I saw before lifting the camera.

McCullough Memorial Bridge
As Submitted to Eyefetch

Birds

I treat birds completely differently. Birds, as a rule, are so small that they rarely fill the frame. Furthermore, not being Audubon, I don’t feel free to kill the bird and then pose it the way I want it to appear. (Audubon did that—check your history.) So I’m faced with the problem of finding a bird in the wild (or in the wilds of my own back yard) and then trying to make a presentable image with what I’ve shot. This usually requires lots of cropping, enlarging, and even cloning so that the bird is presented in a natural way, but free of major distractions. I will say that some birds make this relatively easy. Gulls tend to congregate in parking lots where there aren’t a lot of distractions. The scrub jay seen here was not that cooperative. In this pair of images, again two versions of the same shot, you see the original of the jay high up in the bare beech tree in my back yard. Thank goodness for long lenses and lots of megapixels. I was able to discard virtually all of the original shot, leaving only the jay and the twigs immediately surrounding him. We expect to see birds in trees, shrubs, on power lines, etc, so I can crop most of that out and you’ll still have an honest shot, in my opinion. With mammals, on the other hand, I feel the necessity to leave some of the surrounding landscape. When I photographed the elk for my Alphabet 2006 book, I felt the need to leave the pasture land visible as well. (E is for Elk, don’t cha know.) It was what I’ve heard called an “environmental portrait.” As elk can be found in pastures, as I did, or in forests, or around here even on the beach, I felt it necessary to show just where I did find my wapiti.

Scrubjay in Tree
As downloaded from digital camera (above)
As submitted to Eyefetch (below)

Flowers

That brings us to flowers. I’ve been shooting flowers since the early 70s. You’ll find black and white 8 x 10 glossies of lilies, daisies, etc. in my first portfolio—pictures taken for a UC Berkeley Extension class in photography back in 1974. Flowers in black and white. Hmmm. Since I’ve been in Smith River I’ve been amazed at seeing flowers blooming every month of the year. You wouldn't think I grew up in California. I guess thirty plus years in Montana has made me forget that there are places where winter means the rain is cooler. Flowers have drawn my camera on an almost daily basis. As I organize my photographs by date, you’ll see roses, fuschia, pansies, azaleas, etc throughout the images I’ve taken over the past year. When the calla cluster in the back yard first drew my attention, and made me think of the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, I started learning photo manipulation in earnest. In “About Myself,” which O’Keeffe wrote in 1939, she talks about how flowers are so small that people don’t really see them. “If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself—I’ll paint what I see—what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it—” O’Keefe’s One Hundred Flowers has become one of my favorite sources of inspiration. Looking at her interpretation of these dainty and delicate blossoms, I’ve honed my photoshop editing skills, working to extract the essence of the flower and then make it big. There is nothing dainty or delicate in O’Keefe’s flowers. I’m leaning toward producing the same effect.

Calla Lily
As Downloaded from digital camera (above)
As submitted to Eyefetch (below)

The first in my Homage to O'Keeffe series

So, Ed, I hope that begins to open my mind to you. I know I haven’t addressed all your questions, but I think that this is enough for now. Thank you for making me think about what I’m doing and why. Please keep on challenging me, pushing me, making me respond. I cherish your honesty and friendship. Should I ever have the opportunity to start shooting male nudes, I’ll be thinking of you as well.

Oh by the way, I’m heading east the end of March to visit family in West Virginia. Hope you won’t mind a visitor who’s passing through town.