Yellowstone Red Fox
I saw a few cars parked along the roadside, so I stopped. This little guy was walking right along the road. The prior day I saw him on the other side of the road at about the same time of day.
Wild Grizzly and Stupid Man
This is a wild Grizzly! Notice the head of a man in the lower right corner of the photo. This stupid man was out of his car blocking the way between the grizzly and his intended direction across the road. Notice how the grizzly is looking at him. A few leaps from the grizzly and the man was a “goner”! Note: I had a 960mm equivalent lens/camera combination. I was at a safe distance!
It is unbelievable how many people disregard nature. The poor grizzly was running along the hillside trying to cross the road. A string of cars with people hopping out of them was prohibiting the animal from going where he wanted to go. The animals have the right of way in the park, not visitors!!!
Yellowstone Grizzly
I traveled to Yellowstone to practice my wildlife photography. I was not disappointed. We first saw this grizzly running along the Lamar River at a distance. He ran across the road about a mile from where we first saw him. We drove down the road and saw him on the hill side above us. There was a big traffic jam, so I pulled off and watched him running away toward a ridge. Just before he got to the top, he turned around and looked straight at me. Click … I got him. What a sight !!!
Salt Collecting Rocks at Lapakahi Historical Park
I was walking along a path in a historic Hawaiian Village when I saw this face looking back up at me. I couldn’t resist stopping and capturing an image. See the eyes, nose and mouth.
These small hollowed-out stones were used by the Hawaiians to collect salt. Sea water was poured into hollowed-out stones like these. Sun evaporated the water leaving pa’akai (salt crystals. Salt was used to preserve fish and season food.
Onomea Falls Water Color
I recently visited the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens, near Hilo, Hawaii. My mission was to photograph creatively. I did not focus on the overall beauty of the environment around me. My focus was on separate scenes, small vignettes, and macro detail while using creative photographic techniques.
For this image, I took multiple exposures covering the range from the bright water and sky to the dark shadows. When I brought them together into an HDR, all the tonalities were captured. However, I lost the feeling of the dense tropical rainforest setting. So I decided to play a little with Topaz’s new ‘Studio” software. I used the watercolor effect to create this image.
I haven’t given up on the natural presentation of this image yet. It will require a lot of luminance masking with layers to get the natural image that I saw in my mind. I will do this at a future time when I am in a very patient mood.
Water, Rocks, and Moss
The textures and shapes of this little stream against moss-covered rocks caught my eye. I blurred the flow of the water to capture the soft feeling of this little stream. Color was not important, in fact, it detracted from the feeling I had. Converting to black and white made the image for me.
Flowing Grass Abstract
I saw some soft flowing grass with different colors and shades. I thought it would make a good abstract. I did a diagonal pan along the shape of the flowing grass. In post processing, I added a little contrast and softened the image.
The textures of the various plants, moss, and rock caught my eye. The hardness of the rock, the softness of the moss, the glossy smoothness of the the blade-type plant coupled with the variegated shades of the three-leafed plant attracted me. I converted to B&W to focus on the various tonalities and textures. Just experimenting …
Snow Mountain Ranch – Dark Cloud Starkness
As the afternoon progressed, dark clouds started to come in. The atmosphere of the day changed from bright wildflowers to stark dead sagebrush. It was a sign to start heading back to the trail head. It was a very special day, a day of seeing, a day of reflecting. I look forward to future visits.
Sagebrush Swirl
As I look at things, an urge to play sometimes comes over me. I couldn’t resist, the devil made me do it. I simply did a slow shutter speed circular swirl to capture this interesting abstract. I tend to see these abstracts when I notice an object with at clear center point and things radiation out from the center. This sagebrush provided an interesting opportunity. The following is the sagebrush from a normal perspective.
Sagebrush – Normal Perspective
I enjoy play!