Welcome to My View

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer.

Over on The Mindful Eye Photography School, we’ve posted our 2011 Workshop Schedule. I invite you all to view the workshops and join us in 2011.

A couple of weeks ago, I visited Perry’s Water Garden in Franklin, NC with the Focal Point Meetup Group that meets in my area. Several of us drove up from Atlanta early on Saturday morning, August 7. As we drove up into the higher elevations, the oppressing heat of summer in the city began to dissipate. We even found ourselves turning off the air conditioners in our cars and opening the windows to the 65-degree temperatures that greeted us when we arrived. As we got out of our cars, all we wanted to do for a few minutes was to stand and enjoy the cooler temperatures.

Soon, the beauty of the water gardens called to us and we grabbed our gear and spread out over the acres of water lillies, lotus blossoms, water irises, cattails and many other water or near water plants. We shot for several hours before the heat of the day began to creep in on us. Then, many of us retreated to picnic tables under tall shade trees and brought out the lunches and cool drinks we had packed before leaving home. After lunch, we shot for a little while longer before packing up and heading back to the city. It was a great way to spend a summer Saturday.

This image is a triptych of the same lotus blossom at different distances from the blossom. It was made with the Lensbaby Composer and the Lensbaby Fisheye optic.

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.

Lotus Triptych

Perry’s Water Garden
Franklin, NC
August, 2010

Canon 5D Mark II, Lensbaby Composer with Fisheye Optic, ISO 200, 1/500 second shutter speed, hand held.

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I hope you all had a wonderful July 4th Weekend.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend the long holiday weekend in Colorado, visiting a good friend. It was a relaxing, not doing too much of anything requiring heavy lifting and enjoyable kind of weekend. I did manage to get a few photographs, some of which I will process and post here soon.

I returned home to Atlanta just in time for SUMMER to make it’s full appearance. We’ve had some hot temperatures already, but being away in a cooler environment for a few days spoiled me. I came home to temperatures reaching into the high 90s this week. Along with our infamous humidity, these temperatures cause one to slow down, sit under tall shade trees, drink lemonade, chat with the neighbors and try to breathe.

In my mind, summertime and magnolias go hand in hand. Once those large creamy blossoms begin to form on those giant trees with large, dark green waxy leaves, we know that hot humid days, damp blouses and pitchers of cold lemonade are not far away. And, now those days are here with us for the next few months.

I managed to get myself so busy in June that I did not get out and photograph those lovely, giant, creamy flowers hanging low on the spreading branches of the magnolia trees before they faded away until early next summer. But, I did find one that I photographed a few years back.

Wishing you cool breezes, tall shade trees and cold glasses of lemonade for the rest of the summer.

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.

Heart of the Magnolia

Roswell, GA
June, 2004

Canon 10D, Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/350 second shutter speed, mounted on Bogen tripod, with Bogen 2047 head.

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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 Evening,

This is the 5th image in my portfolio of the Holland, MI tulips from the Tulip Festival earlier this year.

This image is one of the larger, and more open, tulips that I saw in the fields in Holland, MI in May. The softness of it’s color grabbed my attention, causing me want to shoot it in a way that emphasized the softness I felt when gazing on this lovely flower.

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 #5 – A Softer Side

Holland, Michigan
May, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens, f/4.0, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100, handheld

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Good morning!

This is the third image in my portfolio of the Holland, MI tulips this year. This image is a horizontal flip of the original shot. Even though the flow of energy in this shot starts on the lower left and rises toward the upper right (instead of flowing down from the upper left to the lower right, as we see things in the west), I liked it better. The link to the original version is below. I would love to hear your view on the way you see the energy flowing for this red and white tulip.

I hope you are enjoying the images of the beautiful tulips in Holland.

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 ##

Holland, Michigan
May, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, f/3.5, 1/1500 sec, ISO 100, handheld

To see the original version (not flipped), please click here.

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I’m posting to My View a couple of days early this week so that I can enjoy the Memorial Day Weekend with family over at Lake Logan Martin in Alabama.

This second image in my portfolio of the Holland, MI tulips this year is a different shot of the same soft pink tulips. This was taken from a lower angle (flat on my back in the dirt directly under the tulips) and includes more of the tulips in focus. It is a combination of two images, using a split focus technique. I focused on the front tulip first and took that shot. Then, trying not to move the camera, I focused on the back tulip. In this way, I got the specific tulips that I wanted to emphasize in acceptable sharpness, but still allowed all of the surroundings to quickly fall out of focus.

I hope you enjoy the images of the beautiful tulips in Holland.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and please remember those who fought and died on battlefields throughout our history, as well as those still in harm’s way this weekend.

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.

UPDATE:

Based on some of your most appreciated feedback, I went back to this image and tried to do two things. First, I brightened it a bit with a curves layer. Next, I tried to clean up the muddy color using a selective color adjustment layer. Please let me know what you think.

Second Post Holland Tulips #2:

First Post Holland Tulips #2:

Holland Tulips #2

Holland, Michigan
May, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, f/3.5, 1/1500 sec, ISO 100, handheld
Combination of Two Images

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In mid-May, I had the pleasure of visiting Holland, Michigan with my sister during the 2010 Tulip Festival. This small town is known for the beautiful tulips it produces.

Over the next few weeks, I will offer a portfolio of the images that I took during the two days that I was in Holland. Some of these are macro, some abstracts and a few “straight shots”. Yes, I am capable of producing “straight shots” on occasion.

This first one is a macro of a lovely soft pink tulip, whose name I did not get.

I hope you enjoy the images of the beautiful tulips in Holland.

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 #1

Holland, Michigan
May, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, f/2.8, 1/750 sec, ISO 100, handheld

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Hello and welome to My View for April 2, 2010.

The spring workshop season for The Mindful Eye is underway!! Craig Tanner and I have been on the road with our Inspirational Weekend seminars since mid-January. Our first full workshop was held in late February on Jekyll Island, one of the beautiful barrier islands off the coast of Georgia.

On the morning before the workshop started, I walked down to the beach behind the hotel to watch the sun rise. The image today is a motion blur of that sunrise, using my Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 zoom lens, zooming for 2 seconds. I noticed — after I captured this image — that I caught a flock of birds exiting the frame to camera right.

We do not shoot for ourselves when teaching workshops, so this was a great way to get myself started for the Jekyll Island workshop.

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.

Jekyll Island Sunrise

Larger view

Jekyll Island, GA
February, 2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 16-35mm 2.8L lens, ISO 800, f/22, 2 seconds, handheld

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Hello and welome to My View for January 10, 2010.

Welcome to the first My View Post of the New Year

As the new year and decade are now underway, I searched my files for an image that might be appropriate for a fresh start. And, I found one.

Back in September of last year, I had the pleasure of visiting friends in Wisconsin and hearing a band that was new to me — although not new to my friends. Their son is in this band. The band is Fresh Cut Collective and I heard them play in Milwaukee one night in early September. Although I did not consider myself a huge fan of hip-hop music, they managed to win me over after just a few songs. The energy this group brings to the stage is highly contagious.

I chose an image of my friends’ son that I hope shows the kind of energy this young band exudes.

Wishing you all fresh new ways to look at your everyday environments as we go forth in this new 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.

Fresh Cut Collective #1

Milwaukee, WI
September, 2009

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.4, ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/90 second, handheld

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Just a reminder to check out our Inspirational Photography Weekends coming to a city near you. Discounts are available for groups.

Hello and welome to My View for Tuesday, December 29, 2009.