Off Limits

Nikon F4s, Nikkor 35mm f2.0, Fuji Superia 400

--Warren

Falls, Kings Canyon NP, California

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

Hi Everyone,

I am asking for some feedback for this image. Please study this shot for a while. I would appreciate if you would tell me what emotions or feelings that it invokes from you. It's perfectly fine and okay if you tell me that it does not invoke any feeling at all. I would also like to invite you to suggest an appropriate title for this.

If you want to, you can also give me a "real" critique if you feel up to it.

On another subject, we are closing in our THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! We are up to 982 posts and counting! I wonder if we'll make it to 1000 posts by our anniversary?

I want to thank everyone for joining me in the fun. As always, I would appreciate any ideas for some fun or challenging themes to photograph. If you suggest something, you are obligated to participate!

If you can please drop a comment here to let us know that you're still around, and let us know what you're up to, both photographically, and just in general.

If you are just visiting, please drop us a line just to say "hi", if nothing else.

--Warren

low light portraight p&s f30 iso 800

uncropped, but exp. adjusted in picasa (and reduced in size/quality)

Slo-Mo

Another "Wild Kingdom" photo shot during a recent trip to the Marlyand Zoo in Baltimore.

This is an especially nice-looking Spur-Thigh Tortoise (Geochelone sulcata), probably weighing over 200 pounds (they can grow to 240 lb, according to the Zoo.)

Ol' Spur-Thigh's usual stomping grounds are the southern fringes of North Africa, a band that goes all the way across the continent.

Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel (D300) Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel (D300) mounting a Sigma 70-300mm Macro II zoom lens racked all the way out to 300mm.

Brockville Farm

A rusty wheel from an ancient farm implement guards the door of a long-unused barn in Brockville, Ontario.

Taken last week while visiting my wife's cousins in rural Brockville, an area full of beautiful farms south of Ottawa.

For this photo, before snapping the exposure, I envisioned that the textures, shapes, and shadows suggested a black-and-white treatment. Shot with a Canon Digital Rebel and Canon EF-S 18-55mm zoom. Back in the electronic darkroom, I applied a gradient mask in photoshop to produce the B&W version.

Pour Les Oisseaux

I don't know what it is lately, but my best photos over the last few weeks have been for the birds. Well, of birds, that is.

I met this handsome fellow on the deck of the ferry from Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE the other week. We were returning home after having seen the Rain concert in Atlantic City the night before. Atlantic City, in our humble opinion, is dumpy and depressing, but the ride down the Jersey Shore to Cape May the next morning was anything but - one handsome beach town after the other.

Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel (D300) mounting a Sigma 70-300mm Macro II zoom lens.

Solo

Nikon D100, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D

This was taken yesterday at the Burlingame Art & Jazz Festival.

--Warren

Puttin' on the Schvitz

Welcome to August in Baltimore!

It's hot...it's humid...I'm talkin' serious schvizten here.

The other day, I stopped thinking about the weatherly misery just long enough to catch some boys just ahead of me, crossing a bricked patch of street adjacent to my Light Rail stop.

Out of the camera, the image had the boys almost, but not quite, in silhouette. Using the Levels layer in Photoshop Elements 4, I darkened the shadows further. Then I slid the midtone control quite a ways to the right (dark) side. This darkened the image overall and made the bricks more prominent, but it also surprised me by resulting in a sepia-like tone.

I had planned to add a gradient layer to convert the image to B&W, but at this point, I decided to leave well enough alone.

Meanwhile, we only had a temperature-humidity index of 100F today, down from a "feels like" 110F yesterday.

And the sun sets in the west

It's been very foggy out here by the beach. On a rare evening, one can catch a good sunset. This was near the Cliff House.

Rain - The Beatles Experience

It's Real Love

Yes, we did see the Beatles, live, last Saturday night in Atlantic City! Or about as close as it's possible to do so since August 29, 1966.

These four American lads sing, play, and even move like the real thing. Actually, without trying to be heretical, in many ways, experiencing Rain is better than the experience you would have had at an actual Beatles concert in the '60s.

At their last live concert at Candlestick Park in '66, the Beatles played for all of 33 minutes. They had only released Rubber Soul that March and were in the middle of their Revolver project; over 100 songs, including some of their very best, had yet to be written. And had you been there, you wouldn't have heard them anyway, what with those puny amps and all the screaming girls.

On the other hand, at Saturday night's Rain concert, they played for 1-1/2 hours. The songs were a smorgesbord, sampling every era from the Sullivan show to Abbey Road, complete with three costume changes. You could hear each note, and each note was perfect.

I can't say enough about Rain. If you are a Beatles fan, you will definitely find it worthwhile to see them.

As for my photo for this post - well, stage photography certainly is not my forté. I just set my Canon A620 to ISO 400, pointed, and hoped for the best.

On the other hand, you can see some great stage photography by young Torontonian Carrie Musgrave at delineated.com. You can pick out some concert photos by scanning the archive list, but it will be more than worth your while to take a half-hour or so and enjoy her entire portfolio.

Sneaky Spidey...

This spider was actually a surprise to see. I had no idea it was there when I took the pic.... I was busy enjoying the bright colours! lol...

And as you can see, he's got a few food items in the web.

Jay in the Wild

Nikon F4s, Kodak E100GX (slide film)

I recently processed a roll of slide film and found a few interesting images in there. Ah, the joys of shooting film, it's always fun to get a roll back from the lab and see what surprises are there.

We came upon this blue jay while walking in Carmel. This picture is cropped a bit from the original slide.

--Warren

Old and New

Nikon L35AF, Fuji Reala

A sculpture in front of the new De Young Art Museum in Golden Gate Park. The tower of the new museum has been compared to the superstructure of an aircraft carrier.

--Warren