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2-13-08
Since work has been eating up every last ounce of my free time, I figured it was about time to add another entry to the site. To be quite honest, my interest is sort of plummeting as far as photography goes. Without picking the camera up for long periods of time, it's hard to stay focused. I feel as if I have lost all composition skills I once had. I have seen many sun dogs and solar halos this winter, but have had zero interest in photographing them. Last year around this time I would have taken picture after picture. I suppose priorities are getting the best of me. So, here are some of my favorites to date.
This first one is probably my most liked picture I have ever taken. This was after the December 1st snow storm of 2006. The following night the moon was shining so bright it almost looked like daylight with the freshly laid snow. I saw some snow drifts on the way home from work and knew I would be back the same night. This was shot at f/9, ISO 100 @ 80 seconds. There is some massive banding occurring because it was saved in a lower resolution for the web. I don't yet have a program to implement watermarks so I just decided I'd upload crappier versions of my pics that way I don't care if they get ripped off. The original shot has zero banding.
I laugh every time I see this next shot. This was back in 2005. My brother Josh and his family went to visit a petting zoo and pick pumpkins with their son and they invited me along. These turkeys were relentless. They'd pretty much try and eat anything they thought was food. This shot was actually taken with my Kodak CX7525. I love how out of focus he is since he's so close to the lens. He literally lunged at the camera while the shutter was depressed. I am VERY suprised there wasn't any damage to the lens since he absolutely NAILED it with his beak.
This one is from my set of auroras on December 14th, 2006. Again, there is some minor banding in this shot due to lower quality re-sizing. Also, in the direct center of the shot you'll see some rings. These are called Newton's Rings. I explained exactly how it happened on the entry I made. In short, the UV filter that I had completely forgotten was still attached to the lens interfered with the aurora "oxygen line". Either way, this was a very surreal site. I was all alone, way out in the country with few houses around and watching these curtains wave across the horizon. It was an incredible experience. Although by FAR not the best auroras I have witnessed, these were the first ones I actually got a camera on.
This lightning shot is from last March. There were quite a few staccato bolts which blew out, but this one came out just right. Actually, after viewing this shot on the computer when I got home is when I first noticed my pictures starting to turn "soft". They've progressively been getting worse. Of all my lightning shots (approximately 250 total), this one is my favorite.
This lightning shot isn't very good as far as quality goes, but I still love it since I know the feeling after it happened. It was one of those bolts that riveted bass in the chest. It was a bolt which lit up the entire landscape like it was noon. I remember jumping so high (so to speak) after it cracked that I rocked the truck pretty hard. It is the closest one I have to date.
This shot is probably the luckiest one I have ever snagged. But, it was on purpose. Lightning was very frequent on the morning I took this, but it was pretty widespread. They were very quick bolts so you basically had to hit the shutter at the exact time it struck. So, I attached the cable release, rested the camera on the glass, took three unsuccessful shots, then it happened. I pulled it off. I was pretty elated after this actually since I had been trying to snag a daytime lightning shot for a long time. I also liked the setting.
This is my 2nd favorite lightning shot, right after the first one posted above. Cloud to cloud lightning can be brilliant at times and the night this was taken was no exception. The only problem was...my camera was pointed the opposite way every time. I'd set it on the window mount, set it for 15 seconds or so, look behind me and see a brillant CC. I'd swing the camera back that way, look back to where I JUST had it pointed, and sure enough.... I finally learned to just keep it pointed in one general direction and it paid off. This shot is so amazingly clear when viewed in full. I was very surprised. I think the exposure is just about perfect also. It lines up perfectly on the histogram. It's pretty borderline where the main action is in the upper left, but it's just short of being blown out.
We had an extremely electric storm on the night this was shot. In fact, it was probably the most electricity I can remember. I parked on top of the I-88 overpass heading toward Barstow and slapped on the window mount. I shoot on this back road ALL the time. I probably have around 600 shots just from this one road. I've probably had about 30 outings on this ONE LONE ROAD. I think in all those times I've seen 2-3 cars. So, I get set up, get this ONE SHOT off, and what do you know...a car comes up behind me. Down with the mount and off I go. I was pretty torqued when this happened. But, I did get one shot and I happened to like it very much. This is actually my desktop background right now. The quality on this one is REALLY shabby. I don't have my external plugged in right now and I'm pulling all of these pics from my Flickr account. I only had a smaller one hosted on that site and the quality is pretty generic.
This sunset shot probably has more of a sentimental meaning to me so I decided to throw it on this page. This was taken over Becker Lake in Richmond, Minnesota. My family and I vacation to this spot every year. It is basically a week of complete zen, nothing else matters but rest and relaxation.
This was a shelf that really suprised me. I knew of some weak storms to my west but they were nothing impressive whatsoever. Apparently they did some lining out as I set off to the river to do a timelapse experiment of an updraft. Shelf clouds are a dime a dozen in the Quad Cities, but this one was the best looking one I can remember seeing. It even had some striations above the plow. It surprisingly became very windy as it passed overhead. It was still nothing, but it did make for a nice little surprise. Also, if you look at the river, there is a bunch of green algae covering it. This is actually a pretty rare scene. Once in a great, great while flood waters will wash out the back waters and flush everything downstream.
I know I have quite a few more that I would have liked to add to this page, but this will do for now. Hopefully in a few more years I will have collected much better shots than this so I can put together another favorites page. My 2008 chasing time will be slim to none also seeing as how I am stuck to a 60-65 hour work/week work schedule. I'm really hoping for some Sunday local outbreaks, otherwise this may be the last entry of 2008. If by some chance this does happen, I might as well shut the site down. Heck, I've been halfway debating it anyway since I hardly ever update it. Not to mention I get very few viewers. Maybe I just need to get "that shot" to attract more to this site so I can begin to think about starting to maybe sell some of these. Ahh, if only I had time. I definitely need to learn post-processing a lot better too so I can contend with the others that are out there.