A week or so ago Debra, my shooting partner and friend called and said let’s go shoot. It was a warm day (and I don’t move fast on warm days) and I said slowly OK. I knew I needed to go out and do some shooting. It’s great therapy especially when you need to clear the mind. It was also one of those evenings where it looked like a storm could blow in any minute. So, we headed off and we had no place in particular in mind to go. Then I remembered a place my son and I stumbled upon a few years ago and using my iPad with satellite view I located the gravel pit and we headed there. The gates were open so we went in and we spent nearly two hours there shooting Debra went her way and I went mine. At one point when I was coming back from the dredging area Debra was standing on this old dump truck. So, I said pose and as Debra always does she struck a few unusual poses. I love this one as it just works on so many levels. I shot it with my iPhone, even though I had my big boy camera with me. I wanted to use the ProHDR app to capture the details in the sky and not lose detail in Debra. Damn, it worked great. I then took the image into my iPad and played even more adding border, grain, more dramatic light effects etc.. Man, this si so much fun. So, here it is. I think it is one cool, bad ass shot!
Month: August 2011
Columns & Doors
For years I have been enjoying time in a little lake town in Michigan, Saugutuck. It’s an artsy town sitting on the lake and is just full of charm. Slightly south of Saugutuck is a place called Sunrise Junque. I have been visiting this unique and one of a kind antique – junk store for years and will start to work on a book soon about this place. It is the definition of ecliptic. There are so many unusual and sometimes creepy things all displayed in odd ways at this place. The place is run by a very nice couple who have been doing this for years. Kind of left over hippies but really cool. I have bought a bunch of neat things here, but more than anything else I love shooting here. You’ll see lots of images from this great place in the future as I have a ton of shots and will be going through everything prepping for the book. Today it is columns and doors. Of course as usual I messed around the shot to make it even more fun.
Death Valley
Good day…This is a shot of the Dunes in Death Vally from the Stove Pipe area. I like the way the images have different layers. I also processed it out to a gritty (sand) and different contrasty look. a different way to see this great area.
Trumpet
While visiting one of my more favorite places – Saugutuck Michigan, I make a trek to the Sunrise Junqe store. This is an mazing place to visit and I have been going to this place for years. It is off the Blue Star highway south of Saugutuck. It is set up so it is like an adventure in antiques and junk. A photographers paradise to say the least. I now have enough images to start a book on this place. This image is just a close up shot like the springs from yesterday. I messed with it a bit on the iPad to come up with this feel. Lots more from this place and I’ll post more over time.
Springs
I like photographing all sort of things. This shot was made in Alaska at a train yard I had stumbled upon. I like the design and industrial feel of the image. I like ti isolate parts of things to see if I can make them look good. That is what I did here of springs on a rail car.
Stairs Mexico
While visiting San Miguel, Mexico I had the opportunity to visit a giant hotel that was under construction. Then one day they realized they were building this hotel right below a dam and if the dam broke the hotel would be wiped out. So, they stopped building the hotel. Thus her is this abandoned hotel just sitting there. My friend Michael and I explored this hotel and i found a number of cool shots. This one is clued stairs. I love the angles of the stairs and how the angles of steel (red) make the image.
Slot Canyon
Everyone has photos of Antelope Canyon, Page, AZ. I wanted to try to make mine different. These slot canyons are all over the place in the Southwest but Antelope is one of the more famous. Quite an experience to visit. Hard to photograph because of the tourists and it is very dark. I used a P45+ from Phase One and some of my exposures were over 10 minutes long. Patience is needed to shoot successfully and what you see in the picture is not necessarily what you see in the viewfinder. This is one of the most see places.