Focus Photo Club Winners

Color - Theme (Hair) Honorable Mention

Black & White - Theme (Hair) Honorable Mention

Color - Open (non theme) Extended (can be digitally manipulated) 2nd Place

Camping Outing

This past weekend my wife and I went camping with some good friends, about 25 of us all together. I think all had a good time but it makes a good time better when you have Yoder, the 'magic' camper with you. Yes - Mr. Yoder has a gift of helping others.
With folks like him, the time is not just spent with friends, time is invested in friends. That is the mark of a true leader.
Even though this was not a photographic expedition, I did take some photos but mostly for private use. A few shots of nature, a shot of the full moon (a blue moon) and an old Chevy pickup truck was the only serious work that I did. I added those to my portfolio just today.
Portfolio - that's a good word. What if I call it an e-portfolio at my website? How would that sound? Would that be better than 'gallery' ?
Tell me what you think, okay?

Fort Boonesboro

A detour on a return trip from Berea, Kentucky took me to Fort Boonesboro. I saw a short movie, talked to a guy who showed me how they made fire with flint, a charcoal they made from fabric and a little bit of dried grass. It was almost as easy as striking a match. This same young man then demonstrated hatchet throwing. He made that look easy too.

While touring I thought how unfortunate it was that I had not brought my tripod. There were many things of interest to photograph but the strong sunlight makes for deep shadows, and the things in shadows needed a very still camera to properly photograph.

The wood grain of the logs and the color contrast of the milled lumber gave textures and colors that I wanted to capture. A tripod would have given me the advantage. I was only able to photograph a few things with quality. This small burlap bag sitting in the sunlight is intriguing. The color, the contrast, and the texture all seem to make this very attractive to me.

So, what's in the bag?

The Ohio River

The past few weeks have been extremely busy but I did take a break while driving through Cincinnati to climb Mount Adams and pay a short visit to the Art Museum there. On the way down I stopped to take photos of the Ohio River where it loops north.

I set the camera on full manual, made adjustments, and clicked off seven photos from left to right. The seven photos were stitched together forming this one panoramic scene of the river and Northern Kentucky on the far bank.

The sky was digitally redone to improve the fidelity. Curves in lenses cause slight deviations in light intensity and change the constrasts from middle of each photo to the edge. This had to be corrected because the sky appeared light and dark and light and dark and light again in a very unnatural way. To correct this I chose the lightest part and the darkest part of the sky as my two colors on my palette. Then I selected the sky and created a new layer in the photo. Then I filled in the sky with a fade from the two colors.

And this is the result. The original is printable up to 90" x 20" and maintain quality.

If you want a print, double click on the image.

The Memorial Tournament

Dublin, Ohio

The second day of practice rounds were on Tuesday, May 29th. Since they allow cameras on practice round days only, this was an opportunity I did not want to miss. I was able to get a few shots of two of the most famous and still living golf personalities, Jack Nicklaus (67) and Arnold Palmer (78) during opening ceremonies.

Mayapples

I first noticed Mayapples when I was very young and when I see them each spring, it reminds me where I was when I first took notice of them.

Very green, perfect, and there before the leaves on the trees. The first sign that warmer weather was here to stay - for awhile.

The Bride

I do not seek to shoot weddings. I tell people that I don't care to shoot weddings, but still I've done several over the past twenty five years. This is the bride from my most recent wedding project. She is beautiful and inspired me to get very creative in lighting and angles.

I had to lay on the floor to get this angle. The lighting was supplied mostly by three flash units; two umbrella and a camera mounted flash. We staged photos before the guests arrived to take advantage of natural lighting through the stained glass windows.

Chair by the Red Door

Now and then, when out on a mission there is something else that is easily missed. While photographing a building across the street, this red door and chair was right behind. I was focused on something big, and yet this very simple but attractive setting was right behind me. I turned around-- click!

I didn't miss this one.

The Castle

One of my favorite subjects to photograph is the Castle in Urbana, Ohio.

The Castle was Urbana High School at the turn of the 20th Century, and has since been changed to the Junior High and added on to the North. The new High School was added on to the South in the 1950's.

The building is very photogenic from many different angles. Taking advantage of the bare trees in early spring, I thought this angle might be unusual.

Trillium

We've had some hard freezes since the flowers started blooming. The Trillium, however, are plentiful at Indian Mound Reserve in Green County, Ohio. The reserve is on State Route 42 between Wilberforce and Cedarville.

Early spring hikes are great because there is color but the trees are still bare - allowing a great view of the surroundings. There is life and there is color once again.

Dreams

I like to dream.

When I go to bed I'm hoping to have some good dreams. Last night I had a pretty cool dream.

I was entering back stage where I expected to meet up with some friends who were about to perform. There, in the midst of my friends, getting into the zone and mentally preparing himself for the performance was Jerry Garcia. Of course I wasn't expecting to see Jerry for obvious reasons, but nevertheless, he was there. I was actally looking for his very close friend, his life long friend, David. Although David and I call each other friends, David and Jerry were FRIENDS for a long time.

David was kind enough to give me a picture of him and Jerry when they were still teenagers. David and I have known each other only for the past six years.

Anyway - Jerry was there, getting ready to play.

Billy Laymon, still recovering from Typhus and wasn't able to perform and Pete Sears wasn't able to make it. So guess who they wanted to play bass? Yep, yours truly. So, I had my '72 Guild and my B15 all set up and ready to go and was going over some of the cords with Barry Sless and Mookie Siegel. I was feeling extremely apprehensive when David finally showed up. We had been waiting for him to arrive before we started.

He asked me what I wanted to start out with, and I said I was feeling queasy so let's start with some 3 chord rock-n-roll to warm up. Jerry said, "Here's something to warm up with." And turned to me so I could see the chords he was playing.

I picked right up on it, and started playing. Sorry, I don't remember the song or if it really was a real song. But there I was folks, a fill in for David Nelson Band with Jerry Garcia, Barry Sless, Mookie Siegel, and a drummer I'd never seen before. Man, I just realized, where's Charlie?

The photo is one I took of David when we were in PA a few years back.

Eldean Road Bridge

Between Troy and Piqua, Ohio, visible from US 25 (County Road 25A) where it intersects Eldean Road, is the Eldean Road Bridge over the Miami River. Previous photos that I made were just before the renovation. It looked great - it looked old. Now it looks very nice but perhaps lost some of it's historic value.

It is a long bridge and to cross over the timbers in you car is safe, but it sure doesn't feel safe. I also tried out some of my panorama techiques while photographing from the side. Check it out at http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=2661970.