Early Spring Rain

A couple of days ago I returned to Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge after a soft spring rain to capture the clouds as they moved off from the storm. I always love the effects of this weather - the smell in the air, the reflecting puddles, and of course the light that can be captured right after a good rain. Here, a road that bisects part of the plain at the refuge had just been plowed and the rain left several nice puddles in the texture of the mud. I wanted to capture the road with the sky to give the full effect of the weather on this landscape so I used a vertical composition to elongate the road and accentuate the feel of the distance.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/11, .4 sec., Singh-Ray 2-stop hard ND grad
Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska

Bark Abstract

Some images lend themselves to abstraction. There is some debate in the photographic community of what constitutes an abstract photograph. Some believe it needs to not be recognizable, while others say it must simply be patterns and shapes that can lend itself to imagination. Frankly, I am in the latter. If you can recognize it, yet still enjoy it for the patterns, shapes, and colors without it relying on the subject I believe that an abstract photograph can succeed. Today's image is that of tree bark with some moss for color. It could have also been an image of cliffs and valleys from high above the earth, or broken rocks on a shore.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/9, 1/80 sec.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska/Iowa

Focus on Feather

This weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge on a beautiful almost 60 degree day in February. I drove around and managed to see several hawks, a bald eagle, and numerous geese. I also got out and hiked a bit and came across this feather. I found a fallen tree that had begun decomposing and I liked the pattern in the wood. I laid the feather across the grain in such a way that the pattern of the feature was perpendicular for some visual interest. The dappled light created by the trees added a nice effect on the composition as well.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/32, 1/25 sec.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska

A Wintry Day in May

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days trekking through Alberta on my own. I went during the last couple days of May and the first week of June and on one of those mornings I arose to some heavy snowfall. I decided to wait it out and so I went back inside to the warmth for a good couple of hours until the snow slowed. Later, I ventured out to the beautiful wintry landscape. The snow was especially wet and sticking to everything. I only took a few photographs in these conditions, but what came out was some images that were very conducive to being converted to black and white.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 17-40 f/4l @ 40mm, f/11, 1/50 sec.
Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

One thing that Nebraska has had this year is some spectacular storms. This has led to some pretty awesome sunsets. This evening I traveled north to Herman, Nebraska as this was the path of the storm, not knowing it was going to hit Omaha equally as hard. I witnessed this rainbow, and you can make out a bit of the double rainbow, right after the hard rain.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 17-40 f/4l @ 18mm, f/14, 1 sec.
Herman, Nebraska

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Spring Warmth

Yesterday evening I went hiking in Platte River State Park to explore the eastern side which is mainly used for horseback riding and mountain biking. I had never walked this section, but enjoyed the peacefulness of my surroundings. As the sun began to set, the rays came through the forest and I stopped to capture this image along my journey.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 17-40 f/4l @ 22, f/18, 1/30 sec.
Platte River State Park

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Spring Blossoms (Spring Is Here)

It appears that spring has made it to Omaha, Nebraska, and just in time for Earth Day. As a result I went to the arboretum with my macro lens to capture some blossoms in bloom. I used a shallow Depth of Field to capture a dreamy look to this bud.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 50 CM lens + extension tube, f/3.2, 1/1600 sec.
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Field of Trees

This past weekend I delivered 38 of my framed prints to DeSoto National Wildilfe Refuge to be on display from April 12-June 7. While there I took the opportunity to drive around the refuge and to hike a little. The patterns in this particular grove of trees has always interested me and I took some time to stop and photograph them. After processing this photograph I used the nik "Monday Morning" filter to give it a more surreal appearance.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/9, 1/100 sec.
DeSoto National Wildilfe Refuge

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

The Dark Road

Today's image was taken at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. There was a section of the road that passed through a tunnel of trees and it was a very foreboding type passage. I used a smaller depth of field in order to intentionally blur the foreground to force one's eye down the road. To accentuate the uneasy feeling, I converted the image to black and white, tinted it with a little red, green, and yellow, and then I used the nik "Midnight" filter. This creates an even more ominous environment.

The original photograph:

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 70-200 f/4l @ 200, f/5, 1/1250 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Dreamy Leaf

Today at the arboretum, I continued to explore the textures on the logs and trees. I found this fallen leaf that still had some pigment and I liked how the leaf contrasted with the design on this recently wet log. Since the day was very overcast I have very little light and no tripod so I had to use a shallow depth of field. When I reviewed the image I liked the dreamy effect that was created. I increased this feel by utilizing the Orton technique.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 50 CM lens, f/7.1, 1/100 sec.
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Intrinsic Patterns

After a short spell, I finally made it back to the arboretum. The very first hints of spring are just arriving in Omaha and little bits of green are appearing, albeit among some remnants of snow and dead leaves. I took a walk through the mostly wooded portion of the park, stopping to look at some of the interesting patterns on the trees and within the leaves. I have walked by a particular dead log countless times, but for some reason it has never caused me to pause for more than a few seconds. Today was different. As the sun ducked in and out of the clouds, patterns emerged on this log and coupled with the intrinsic lines created a scene I felt compelled to record.

Technical Details:

Canon 5d, 50 CM, f/32, 1/125 sec.
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Cold Surroundings

Today's black and white image is reminiscent of my older images from when I was in college and shortly after. I used to photograph nature items almost exclusively in black and white. Back then I used a Pentax all manual camera (including focus), first a k-1000, and then later a ZX-M. I would normally use Kodak Tri-X 400 or T-MAX 100 film. After this phase I moved onto carrying two cameras, one with black and white and one with saturated slide film like Fuji Velvia and Provia and for a long time that is what I shot with. In January of 2005 when I bought my first digital SLR camera, the praised Canon 20d, one of the largest selling points was the ability to set a Black and White mode on the camera. I would often go out and shoot both and see how they would turn out. The Canon 20d even had the ability to simulate yellow, red, or orange filters which I used to carry everywhere. It was like 2 cameras in one! Since then I have tempered my use of the function since Photoshop has excellent conversion utilities for black and white. I still shoot images I plan to convert later and this is one such example.

This particular photograph was taken on an overcast day at the OPPD arboretum in Omaha, Nebraska. I wanted to focus on the contrast between the trunks and the snow so when I converted this image I wanted to make sure the snow was as white as possible without blowing out the highlights. Additionally, I processed this so that the tree trunks maintained their darker density.

Technical Details:

Canon 20d, 50 CM lens, f/18, 1/250 sec.
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Coming Together

Continuing with my work from the local arboretum, I went on Friday with the intention of using just my macro lens with an extension tube. The extension tube is a nice addition since it allows a closer look at the world without the loss of any optical quality since there is no glass which also makes it relatively inexpensive and light. Additionally, it works with any lens, so it is very verstile. Today's photograph was an extreme closeup of the end of a branch of a pine tree.

Technical Details:

Canon 5d, 50 CM, Extension Tube, f/5.6, 1/100
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Nature's Hug

Recently, I've been visiting the local arboretum. I have an exercise where I like to walk around with only one lens and try to see the world through that lens. The lens I choose on February 15th was my 50 mm compact macro lens which allows me to get fairly close in on intimate nature scenes. The weather has been fairly uncooperative with negative temperatures and little snow making for a nice brown frozen muck. So, I've set my sights a little higher and found this single leaf caught in two branches in a tree. The light on the branches was dappled which gave the needles an extra element for the composition.

Technical Details:

Canon 5d, 50 CM lens, f/6.3, 1/100 sec.
OPPD Arboretum, Omaha, Nebraska

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.