Since I am new to this I am still learning the ropes to this gig. This is an older image of mine from the Olympic National Park in Washington. This beach is called Shi Shi .The area is known as the Point Of Arches at the northernmost post of the Western United States. I have provided the link just in case anyone is interested in this once in a lifetime beach.http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/shi-shi-beach-olympic-wilderness.htm

Good Morning!! ( afternoon, evening and night)

I was driving to work a couple of days ago and was feeling all sad because I had to work on a day when the fresh snow was decorating all the trees and fences and fields. I could have traveled the countryside from morning till night getting beautiful landscapes and rural photos, instead I was inside sanding drywall (not the kind of white powder I was hoping for). Ugh!!

I did stop for a minute to get this one. Hand held and in a rush, but I got one all the same.

Crocodile with Fish - Kruger National Park

When I started with G+ I posted very small images. I will be re-posting a few images in large size where the details and beauty in nature is worthwhile.

#Piantography
for all the city people have A nice weekend...

For #FlybyFriday by +Meg Rousher
#PhotoExtract
Rufous Hummingbird

Chicago from Above

Good morning out there fellow g+ ers. Hope y'all have a wonderful day.

Since the sun is rising so late in the morning these days, I hope to keep seeing great sunrises on the way in to work!
ISO100
1/4000 sec
f3.5 @ 50mm

Poets Walk Central Park

#blackandwhitephotography

The shot that almost wasn't. #photostory-dlb I'm looking for the backstory for this shot from 1993 that has kept me in business and why I almost never printed or showed it.

It along with a bunch of other prints got the "academic" treatment in a college textbook where many of my images were used to show photographic compositional theories ( many that I never heard of until way after the shots were done).

Now I know that book was scanned for Google... let me see if I can find it... I was aware of three compositional things going on when I took this shot with the view camera and one of them was very important. Tip: it was a view camera and a view camera can do things that a regular camera can't do. Although I think photoshop

Oh I found it. I'll put it in a separate post.

Ok: the backstory which I can't find. 1993 and I'm in a cold rain, waiting to take this shot and the film holders are starting to get wet, and I'm waiting for this couple to get down towards the end of the walk so that they'll give scale to the trees.

Eventually, I get the four shots home. I'm freezing and shivering and saying to myself that you need to be crazy to do this stuff. I often tell myself that when I feel tired or cold.

But anyway, the next day I process the film - one sheet at a time. I look at each one in the bathroom light, and based on what I see in terms of contrast, I add or remove some time to the processing which I'm doing in a tray. Or three trays to be exact.

And in the afternoon I pick a negative and make a nice big 16 x 20 inch print and it is very "pretty." But there's something about it that bothers me. Maybe it's too pretty. I had been going through a stage where I felt that my work was just too postcardy.

I showed it to a very critical (sharp with critiques) friend a few days later without saying whether I liked it or not or anything about it. He said: Wow. Fantastic. You could probably make a living just selling this one print.

But Harry, I said - this is such a popular view of New York. It is shot a million times a day. And besides, it's too perfect. No - I don't think anyone will want it.

And that's the backstory except for one thing: I began selling the print in 1993. I had one size that was a limited edition of 100. That size has sold out a while back. The Poets Walk print has kept me and the cat alive for many years. It has been used for at least four book covers that I can think of. It hangs in the corporate offices of BMW, or was it Mercedes? I don't remember.

But it is everywhere. And I wasn't going to sell it at all.

That - is the rest of the story.

http://www.beckermanphoto.com/poets-walk-central-park-new-york.html

Lightning bolt strikes the Sierra Buttes over Packer Lake during an evening summer thunderstorm, Alpine County, California

I just uploaded a bunch of new images on the home page of my web site http://www.enlightphoto.com, as well as updated my "New Work" Portfolio to show some of what I captured in 2011. Hope you can check it out. Feel free to share with others if you liked it. Oh, and please do let me know if you find anything that isn't working right, or something needs fixing.) Thanks, & TGIF. - Gary

PS: Shot with my #Nikon #D7000 - #PlusPhotoExtract

#PlusPhotoExtract
#wildlife #photography

Snow leopard portrait...

Zoe is a hero of mine. She is the wife of a deployed soldier in Afghanistan. I've never had the pleasure of meeting any military wives until this year and boy do I have such a respect for them. Thinking of their sacrifices fills my eyes with tears. We invited Zoe to have Thanksgiving dinner with us and during our sharing time, we honored her with some verbal gratitude. We told her how she represents a true hero and deserves to be acknowledged. She began to cry and said, "Nobody's ever said anything like that to me before." Zoe's been without her husband for nearly 2 years now, seeing him for only 2 weeks. She lives on a base with few friends and no relatives. It was our honor to become family that day. Since then, we've become closer friends and she gave me the honor of photographing her.

All of these images were using natural light with some reflector fill. Each image was slightly underexposed on purpose to get a richer color. I then selectively fixed them in Photoshop using masks.

Zoe is going to play the role of Tinkerbell for our next fairytale shoot. You can see some of our other shoots here. http://www.triplecord.com/ click on "Galleries" then go to "Fairytales."

Snow