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Peering past shield-shaped petals and though veils of soft pink to the inner most parts of the tulip, those that are responsible for the very survival of the species.

This is the 6th image in my portfolio of the Holland, MI tulips from the Tulip Festival earlier this year. After today, I will put the tulips away for a while, perhaps to bring them as a surprise at some moment in the future, and move on to other images.

Thank you for being here with me as I attempted to showcase the lovely tulips from this delightful little town in Michigan during the Tulip Festival in May of this year.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

Holland Tulips #6 – Into the Heart

Holland, Michigan
May, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/1500 second shutter speed, mounted on Bogen Neotec Tripod

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Good morning!

This is the 4th image in my portfolio of the Holland, MI tulips.

Of course, I had to put in an abstract, made by moving the camera while the shutter was opened, into my collection of the tulip shots. This image was made by moving the camera upward in a very quick, but small, motion, during the 1/6 second that the shutter was open. As Iwas not concerned with defraction in a this motion blur, stopping down to f/22, and using my lowest ISO, was a way to achieve the shutter speed I needed.

I will post one or two more of the tulip images from this year’s Tulip Festival in Holland, MI, before moving on to other subjects.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

Holland Tulips #4 – Flaming Tulips

Holland, Michigan
May, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens, f/22, 1/6 sec, ISO 100, handheld

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Hello and welome to My View for Monday, November 9, 2009.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are enjoying a beautiful autumn.

I apologize for being away from My View since July. It has been an extremely busy and hectic time for me. First, I want to thank all of you who sent good healing intentions for my friend, Wes, who had by-pass surgery back in September. He is doing very well and will be attending the Big Bend National Park workshop with us later this week.

Since Wes’ surgery, I have taught three workshops with Craig Tanner — Grand Tetons National Park, Next Step in Savannah, and Zion National Park. This week, we are preparing for the last one of 2009 in Big Bend National Park, November 14-20. In addition, we’ve announced our 2010 workshop schedule and began registering participants for those workshops.

Today’s image was taken on the Grand Tetons National Park workshop back in late September. The colors were really lovely late in the week in the park and we went out one afternoon to shoot back lit trees. I was demonstrating a technique to a few participants that I use often to abstract a scene. I moved the camera while my shutter was open, bottom to top, to follow the upward direction of the trees. There were several fires in the park this year, as well as a rather large one in southern Yellowstone Park, just up the road from where we were in Jackson. The amazing back light on the stunning trees reminded me of a more beautiful use of the word “Fire” — the fire in the color of the leaves.

Thank you for your patience with me during the last few months, for your good healing thoughts for Wes and for all the sentiments sent to me on the loss of my two canine companions so close together this year. You will never know just how much those thoughts mean to me.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

Teton Fire

Grand Teton National Park
Jackson, Wyoming
September 2009
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 50mm 1.4 lens, ISO 100, f/22, 1/3 second, Hand held.

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Hello and welome to My View for Wednesday, July 22, 2009.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are having a nice week.

Today’s image is one taken of the marsh area on the other side of the footbridge near the pier on Jekyll Island. I had been out shooting after the Jekyll Island workshop was over. I made my way back across the footbridge after the sun had set. There was still just a bit of ambient light in the sky and the lights had come up on the pier, and the surrounding area.

I was “playing” with moving my camera to capture an abstract view of the marsh. It is a long exposure, so I made very small movements with the camera, stopping for a second or three between movements.

As I was searching for something to post this week, I came across this image again. Not only do I like the total abstraction, but it reflected my mood this week as I had to say good-bye to a dear companion.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

Blue Marsh

Larger View

Jekyll Island, GA
April 2009
Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 28-70 f/2.8 L lens at 62mm, ISO 1600, f/6.7, 30 secs, Bogen Neotec Tripod.

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For more information about canine cancer and research, please visit the National Canine Cancer Foundation.

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Hello and welome to My View for Sunday, June 14, 2009.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend.

Today’s image is from one of the marsh areas on Jekyll Island. It was taken late in the afternoon as the sun was getting to be low in the sky. The image was created by moving the camera as the shutter was open. I converted the image out of a RAW file in both daylight and tungsten white balance and blended the two conversions.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome.

Colors of the Marsh

Jekyll Island, GA
Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, ISO 100, f/22, 1/3 sec, handheld.
Composite of two RAW conversions of the same file

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Hello and welome to My View for Monday, June 1, 2009.

Hello Everyone,

Today’s image is another from my almost two-month long road trip this spring. This one was taken in a favorite spot in Savannah for breakfast, the State Street Cafe just off Telfair Square. I love this place for a lot of reasons and one is the bright colors with which the interior is painted. It can cheer you up on even the stormiest of days.

As I was waiting for breakfast to be served, and contemplating all that had happened in the last few weeks of my life, I was staring at a table in a corner by a window. As I stared, my eyes began to lose focus of the scene in front of me. It seemed a great metaphor for my mood at the time — losing focus on all that that was around me for just a while. I took three shots of the image — one in focus, one just out and one way out of focus.

Losing focus on our reality happens from time to time. By the end of the long road trip and five workshops, I’d really lost focus — mainly due to exhaustion and the “Savannah bug” that caught me twice. With proper rest, sleeping in my own bed, and getting rid of the “bug”, I’m back in focus once again and ready to tackle the world.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome.

Losing Focus

Savannah, GA
Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, ISO 1600, 1/20 sec, f/4.0, handheld.

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Hello and welome to My View for Tuesday, March 11, 2009.

In a Moment, Everything Changes

Hello Everyone,

I apologize for my long absence from My View. Since I last posted back in January, I have been extremely busy and much has happened.

First, I have been busy with The Mindful Eye as we launched our 2009 workshop season with the Death Valley National Park workshop in late February. We had a great group of participants and, once again, a great workshop in this exotic and other worldly place. I will show some images from this national park in the next few posts to My View. I’ve also been working on getting us ready for the rest of our spring workshops coming up. And, I’ve started a series of tutorials, posted on The Mindful Eye, for the beginning user of Lightroom.

The image today is not from Death Valley, but is an image that I took from the valet parking area in front of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, where we stayed on the night before we flew out of Las Vegas on our way back to Atlanta. I had the Lensbaby Composer on my camera and the moon was just over the hotel on the horizon to the left of a spot light that was beaming up from the hotel. The blue of the background night sky and the yellow of the part of the hotel that was in my image made this such an “other worldly” image and seemed most appropriate after coming out of the other-worldly Death Valley National Park. It is always a bit of a shock to me to drive out of Death Valley and back to Vegas where one’s view of reality changes in just a few hours.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome.

Altered View of Reality

Outside of the Luxor Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada
Canon 1Ds Mark II, Lensbaby Composer with 2.8 ring, ISO 1600, 1/15 sec, handheld.

Another change to my reality came last Thursday morning when my American Eskimo Dog and loyal friend and companion of nine years was killed in an accident in front of my house. Everything changed in an instant. I felt as if I had been hit by the truck that took my Riley’s life. After a few days, the earth has stopped shaking so violently, but my reality has been altered and I’ve not quite adjusted to it yet. This image of Riley was taken a while back as he slept on one of his favorite places, the back of my sofa. I so appreciate all the messages of support that I received from my family, friends, neighbors and those posted to The Mindful Eye community.

Go hug your family, including your pets, today, let them know how much you love them. Everything can change in a instant.

My Riley

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Hello and welome to My View for Thursday, December 12, 2008.

I missed posting an entry to My View last week because I traveled to Tucson, AZ where I had the opportunity to photograph the holiday performances of the Tucson Desert Harmony Chorus, an award winning chapter of Sweet Adelines International. A very good friend of mine sings with the chorus. The chorus needs some new publicity photos and invited me out to capture their two holiday performances. Meeting these ladies and hearing them sing was an amazing experience. If you live in or around the Tucson area, you should definitely try to catch a performance.

The day after the performance, my friend took me out for a bit of sight seeing. We went down to San Xavier del Bac Mission in the Santa Cruz Valley south of Tucson, on the lands of the native Tohono O’odham (or Papago) people. We had passed this mission going back and forth to Tubac on several of my trips to Tucson in the past, but had never had time to stop. The mission is being restored at the moment, but is still a beautiful sight in the midst of the desert. Most of the outside of the church is normally brilliant white and it is know as the White Dove of the Desert. I did not get many images that I really liked of the outside, with the restoration going on, but did photograph some “small scenes”.

This particular one is of the candles lit at one of several alters inside the sanctuary of the church. The warm glow of the candles in the darkened sanctuary created a peaceful and quiet feeling within me.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They serve to help make me a better photographer and a better person.

Thank you for visiting My View.

San Xavier Alter Candles

San Xavier del Bac Mission, Tucson, Arizona
Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.4L lens, ISO 3200, f/2.5, 1/1500 sec, handheld.
Combination of two images

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Hello and welome to My View for Sunday, November 30, 2008.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the United States. I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Here in the north Georgia area, we have had a spectacular fall. The leaves have been prettier than they have been in a number of years. This last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the cool rains moved in and the beautiful leaves are turning brown and falling. The weather is turning cold tonight and the remaining leaves will soon be all over my driveway, yard and roof.

As a last celebration of this colorful and lovely time of year, I found an image that I took a couple of years ago of the reflections of fall leaves in the north Georgia mountains. The trees are reflected in a small pond just off a trail. With gratitude to this beautiful fall that brighten the Atlanta area this year, I look forward to winter and the holiday season.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They serve to help make me a better photographer and a better person.

Thank you for visiting My View.

Autumn Reflections

North Georgia Mountains
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200mm 2.8L lens, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/180 sec, tripod mounted.

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Hello and welome to My View for Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

Today is a day of change in the United States as record numbers of our citizens turn out to vote for the next president of this great country. No matter what your political leanings, or who is elected, it is a time of change for all of us.

The image today represents change — a change in seasons from summer to fall. This is a shot I took last fall in my yard in a place where I enjoy meditating. I looked up one afternoon to see all the brilliant colors of the leaves on the oak trees overhead. What I saw was washes of color.

The image was captured as I moved my camera just slightly during a 2.0 second exposure.

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Change in the Air

Roswell, Georgia, November, 2007
Canon 5D, Canon 28 – 70 mm 2.8L lens at 63mm, ISO 200, f/22, 2.0 seconds, handheld.