Do you have a "Dream shot"?

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As a photographer, there is this "dream shot" that I've hoped for some time to capture. 

(and this isn't it)

 A few years ago, I didn't carry my camera (to the annoyance of my family) everywhere, like I do now. Too bad. That's when I missed "the dream shot."

 It all started on this weekend where my wife & kids went with her mom to visit her sister a few hundred miles away. For whatever work-related reason, I stayed behind. This left me with the increasingly rare opportunity to have a weekend alone to do whatever came to me. I packed up some provisions in my backpack and launched my jet ski from Pirates Cove, (in Alabama on Arnica Bay) and rode to the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola for an overnight solitary camping excursion in the back country areas near the abandoned Ft. McCree.

 I spent the night in peace and witnessed the most amazing "moonrise."

The light playing off the waves, the moon somewhat tinted by atmospheric hues while the light danced around this unspoiled beach area. It was the most amazing and transformative sight and I didn't have a camera to capture the many nuances.

 In my mind's eye it is something like the fantasy beach in the movie, Contact.

 Since that time, a few years ago, I've dreamt of getting back out there, this time with a tripod and DSLR. Admittedly, when I signed the paperwork on my 33 year old 29" sailboat, the thought danced in the back of my mind that this would be a considerably safer transport medium for my DSLR than that old Sea Doo.. 

 (that wasn't the ONLY reason I went with the Sailboat, though..) :)

 Our family plans for Veteran's Day was to embark about lunchtime and sail to the general vicinity of Ft. McCree to watch the final Blue Angels show of the season from the water the next day. I hoped to squeeze in that "Dream shot" of the full moon peaking up off the horizon on the Gulf on a cool winter night.

 It wasn't meant to be.

 It was cold, choppy, we didn't get off work until an hour before Sundown, the kids, wind & universe did not cooperate in a manner consistent with traveling this relatively small distance by sail. We did have a pretty good time staying in a Bay, streaming Netflix movies for the kids and freezing our butts off. Ah, roughing it :) 

 The next day the wind was perfect but my wife had committed us to a kid's Birthday party on Saturday. I knew I could sail there in a few hours but getting back, into the headwind in time to honor that obligation would have been dodgy, at best. 

 Trey Ratcliff, in a recent Google Hangout, said jokingly that children's birthday parties should be illegal. I happen to agree with that sentiment now.

 I stood on the bow of the boat in choppy waters and 20 km winds and snapped this very high ISO, somewhat motion blurry handheld of the moonlight playing on the water. And.. of course.. I've doctored it considerably in such a way that it isn't even a true capture anymore. More of a franken-image from multiple shots.. I can't get the moon right but I figured I'd share this as a 60% approximation of what I'll hopefully one day get to capture!

 But, this is all I have until the opportunity presents itself again to capture that moonlight beach shot :)

 Do you ever do this? Piece together an aspirational shot that looks ahead to one you plan to capture for real, in the future? What about your dream photo capture, have one in mind?

Where this started..

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Step into my Delorean, throw some PBR into Mr. Fusion and travel back with me to May 30, 2010.

With my wife's family in town, we made our annual trip to the beaches for Memorial Day weekend. My brothers-in-law and I piled into the truck and launched my (single) Honda Jetski on Big Lagoon near Pensacola NAS in Florida. (But, um, to be clear - not exactly Pensacola Beach on Memorial Day. ;) ) However, I'm sure 1 fat-short dude (me), 1 tall-big dude (Jr.) and 1 skinny-tall dude made an adorable sight putting across the no wake zones of Big Lagoon towards Johnson Beach. 
My brother in laws jetted off down the beach for some sightseeing and waves I hung back to chill-ax on the beaches with plans to meet more family who would later come by car with coolers, tents, gear, food and important to me -- my DSLR which I felt was unwise to include in a jetski ride.

The boys were gone for quite some time, apparently the sights were very good. I was enjoying the down time when I was caught unawares in a crazy summer lightning storm that often pop up in the South - especially the Gulf Coast.

I found shelter under this walkway, which runs between this solitary road on this nearly abandoned beach on the Lagoon. I rode out the storm with a pretty freaked out family from Idaho and thought enough of this makeshift shelter to snap this photo when the camera joined our little beach party.
So, why the long story for something so trivial?

This photo was my first attempt at an HDR photo and it was at this moment I decided to release a photo-a-day via Flickr from my own experiences and vision of Gulf Coast life. This shot actually hangs in my living room on canvas, it serves as a great reminder to me of the cool experiences that await me and my camera as I take time away from my indoors software dev after-hours tendencies to get out there and explore.

 

1st Attempt @ Film HDR

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Sharing a (sort of) failure with you:

A few months back, I rediscovered my old, sorta cheap but trusty Minolta film SLR in the closet floor. So on a whim I decided to grab it and take it out for some attempts at doing HDR with film. Or, at least.. tone mapping with bracketed film results. 
Since it was on a whim, I couldn't find the best of film. In fact, 200 Fuji was all I could locate - even after visiting a local Calagaz. 
So, armed with my junky 200 Film and a camera I haven't shot with since my newspaper days, I headed out at sundown and shot this shot of one of my favorite piers. I then, sent off the film to have it developed and negative scanned. $40 and a few weeks later I got my picture CD and negatives. It was nostalgic to hold negatives in my hand again, being that in a past life I was a darkroom good at a newspaper.

Here is the result:

As you can see, my first result really sucks quite bad! Way… too noisy.. And this is AFTER noise reduction. Oh.. and just for added fail, there was a piece of hair in the image as well. :) So.. a good cleaning, some better film, I may give it another shot when I feel like wasting another $40.
And.. for posterity.. Here is the same image (mostly) shot at the same time with a DSLR and processed identically.

 

 

Bayside Park Photowalk, An Eye Opener

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The thing about photo walks is, they often open my eyes to things I don't always observe or haven't been "aware" enough to appreciate.   Be it wildlife, vistas, nature at large.

 
This photo walk was an eye-opener of a completely different kind.   Walking at the Daphne, Bayside park, it was extremely-extremely cold.   (by our standards anyway -- 5-10 degrees with a brisk wind off the bay)
On a walk back from my perch on the bay capturing (or .. trying to..) capture some wildlife, I encounter a man and woman walking towards me on the nature walk-path.    I'm naive, apparently but not THAT naive.    I know I'm carrying a significant value in camera equipment so I'm usually also carrying a significant value in appropriate weaponry.   On this day, my Kimber 1911 .45.   Besides, the demographics of mugging, how many are done by man and woman on a nature walk? 
The man, pays extra attention to me and as he gets closer in the failing light, his facial features light up to reveal someone I.. barely.. know.   His body language is exuding all sorts of nervousness, with special attention to the 300mm zoom lens on my camera.  We say our niceties, his walking partner doesn't pay me much attention -- and I go to part ways.   
He pulls me aside into what I call "drug deal" mode.  That is, the mode where two people are entirely too close to each other, trading words in low speech.  He begins to explain to me why he is here with his current, um "walking partner."
Ya know, up to that point, it hadn't occurred to me to care who he was with or to even question it.    He offers a nervous explanation that I not inform his.. umm.. significant other and reassures me that "nothing is going on here."
Talk about cool under pressure :)
We trade assurances that I don't really care even if he is engaging in impropriety and that I'm not here to photograph his outing, just funny squirrels and hungry birds.  
As i walk back to the parking lot, with this on my mind, my eyes are opened to other activities in the parking lot.
 Things like two cars parked near each other and two people of opposite gender occupying one of them.    Or… a car with the driver's window down and a "customer" at the window.
it makes me wonder how many times I've been to this park, walked around with my little camera doing the nature- and-wildlife bit and completely unaware that this is apparently the place to be for cheating spouses and recreational pharmaceutical activities.     
… and here I was always just worried about someone taking my camera...

 

 

Walking Pneumonia and Fairhope Pier

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Going back, re-doing content from earlier walks in the year -- making better images and releasing shots I never put out..

It had been a long day. I'd been at the Fairhope Pier at sunrise to try catch some favorable shots. Jeez was it cold. in the 20's (which is odd for the Gulf Coast), plenty of breeze and I apparently had a touch of walking pneumonia to top it all off. 

I went home that morning, in defeat. Woke up at noon, chills gone, some Sopa de Pollo at my favorite Mexican dive and then back out for one of my most productive photo walks this year. I had been nestled around the pier for the usual shots when some pretty snobby professional photographer types came out with flashes roaring to shoot some 20-something, ostensibly with something important going on in her life.

I was annoyed and retreated to the hilltop in time to find this shot. I wish I could have gotten a tad higher to change the composition of the trees on the pier but at this location, there is no higher without involving flight!

One of my few shots that actually made it on #HDRSpotting !

 

 

The Long Climb..

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For Hump Day: A Story on Social Networking

 Ya know, I had planned this post for today but couldn't have planned the story to go along with it. So, I try to post things on Flickr and G+ and a Blog frequently. I don't want to say Daily because if I don't have something worthwhile to show, I'd prefer to not dilute the stream.  

..and since we humans are cause and effect observing creatures... It goes something like this..
I upload the post. Type what I'm feeling... Hit submit and go off and do some other task. Then, throughout the day from my Phone, Work PC, Tablet I obsessively click refresh a billion times to see if one other soul out there, saw the post. 

Given my station here on the intarwebs. That's usually two or three +1s and maybe a comment or two at most. Occasionally I get circled by a visitor. Cool! That interaction is thrilling to me.
 
So, today I see a photo on +Thomas Hawk 's stream (the handbra) and I make a silly comment about it. (Really fun shot!)  It's ironic that I got more Circles on my profile from a mammogram witicism than probably two months worth of photography. ;/
So in chat observing a live Google Hangout with Trey Ratcliff , RC Concepcion, Gino Barasa , Keith Barrett and a host of my other, frankly photography heroes, I make this comment in response to one of the Q&A guys that these folks are in a way, the gatekeepers to get noticed. If you get shared by Trey, man - you've arrived.
...and that discussion got really more play than I'd have preferred and maybe wasn't received with my intent.

Which sucks cause I really enjoy following these guys work and respect them all deeply.
So, today's photo is for those of us at the bottom of the social networking, follower count ladder. We have nowhere to look, but up! I know there have got to be 10's of thousands of fantastic photography artists out there that just.. never get seen. Wish we could find a way to get em' all an audience, ya know?

So much cool content to be discovered on this internet monster... ;)

oh... and about this shot specifically. When my son was born, I lost my home office so I use a small, very very old sailboat as my photography processing getaway. Actually got a little time to sail her and snapped this with a little mirrorless DSLR. 

Happy Hump Day! ;)

 

Minimalist Beauty

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 For Tuesday:  Minimalist Beauty

 Sometimes, when capturing a photo, I find myself getting a little tunnel vision. Or maybe it's viewfinder-vision :)

 I was driving down the beach road in Gulf Shores @ sunset when I saw this image.  I was so preoccupied with pulling off the side of the road to capture it, I was somewhat unaware of cars around me.  It could have went poorly, but thankfully the nearest car was far enough away to just see me as a crazy-driver and not one that almost hit them.

 In my tunnel vision, I payed little attention to the "Authorized Personnel" only sign and walked down a stretch of beach to get at this angle.
Authorized Entry: As a G+ friend said, "A Classic Suggestion"
 
There is such a simple beauty here and I'm still a little torn as to the best way to present it.  I have so many captures, from light-to-dark but I sort of like this one in the transition between the two.    

The three palm trees and their silhouettes sort of reminds me of the three crosses.  As you stand in awe of another of God's sunsets, the parallel isn't hard to make.
Happy Tuesday, Friends

 

 

Somedays, You Just Have to Get Away..

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For Sunday, a break from the Halloween theme.. 

Sometimes balancing, dad, husband, programmer, photographer -- something gets slighted.  Last week it was programming.  I was really, super-extra, way-behind on some tasks for that, my real job.

 
I have a tech-zen-sort of hang out near the Gulf that I'll often escape to when I really need to be super productive. [ As a hint, it has sails and is older than I am.. :) ]
I worked for about 36 hours straight with a few 1 hour naps, lots of Redbull and other unhealthy food.

I did take a dinner break with a sandwich and a camera as a beachside walk at the public beach in Gulf Shores.

 

Cemetary

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For Friday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge Day #5

 
Spooky Photo Challenge
Cameras were out this week… So I've been releasing some photos this week for halloween by processing some photos in a creepy way. 
Day 5 of 5:  Cemetary
 
I decided to go the other way with this one.   Take something that is by itself pretty creepy and try to make it beautiful.   I released a similar shot to this earlier in the year but I've worked it over a little differently this go-around.  
Have a great weekend!

 

Haunted Mansion

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For Thursday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge Day #4
Spooky Photo Challenge

Cameras being professionally cleaned… I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week for halloween by consuming these "leftovers" in a creepy or macabre way..   I'm aware this isn't my forte, thus the growth experience.

Day 4 of 5:  Haunted Mansion

As a departure from yesterday's gory submission, I'm going to cheat and use an easy one. I thought we'd take a transition to the realm of "fun scary"

This is a not-that-great shot of Disney World's Haunted Mansion.

On this day, it had been raining.  The interesting thing about fake fog and rain is that the fog tends to get heavier and cooler, then hang around lower.  I stepped out of the queue to try to get this shot.  I don't like the angle on the mansion but based on the queue awnings, I'm not sure the better angles are photo accessible.

If you ever wanted to know about how some of the special effects are accomplished, check this fun site out:

Where Siri Dumps Her Bodies

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Spooky Photo Challenge

Cameras being professionally cleaned… I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week for halloween by consuming these "leftovers" in a creepy or macabre way..   I'm aware this isn't my forte, thus the growth experience.

Day 3 of 5:  Where Siri Hides Bodies
On the www.thisismynext.com technology podcast, Joshua Topolsky inquired of Siri on the iPhone 4S, "Siri, I nee to hide a body."   "She"/It will come back with a list of categories for probably locations to hide a corpse.   I'm not sure if it will suggest a pier. However, I was watching a Dexter re-run recently and it seemed to be a good location for one of the antagonists to stash their victims remains..

I realize that his is terribly overcooked and weird in so many ways.  But that was the challenge.   Edit it until it gives me the willies..

..and it does..

 

 

Descent

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For Tuesday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge Day #2

Spooky Photo Challenge

Cameras in the shop… I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week for halloween by consuming these "leftovers" in a creepy or macabre way..

Day 2 of 5:  Descent: Ft. Creepsville

It was a very clear, cool January afternoon.  What's awesome about the Winter in a beach town is that you can often find local tourist locales completely abandoned.  As was the case on this spur-of-the-moment after-work trip to Ft. Morgan, Alabama.  It was cold and I only had a few hours before the Fort was to close but.. as was said in this fort's wartime, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" 

A lot of the architectural details struck me about this Fort's era, as did the history of the Battle of Mobile Bay. The masonry here is.. just breathtaking in places. The overall scale of the grounds is especially chilling when you are absolutely alone on them in a cold afternoon near sundown.  

However, in keeping with this week's theme of creepy places, I was also abundantly aware that many young men's lives had likely come to a violent end, here.

Look, I'm not particularly worried about ghosts and ghouls, aliens and zombies.  I'm quite aware of the many real dangers in this world than to occupy my limited brain cycles on such things.  That being said, I descended into the small catacomb-like entrance pictured here (to the right and down from center) for some exploration.

As I descended the very steep stairwell into the lower areas there was a disorienting blackness like I've seldom experienced. There, in the cold, you could almost hear the gunfire, smell the powder and hear the orders to fire being shouted to young men on shore guns.   Again, I'm not one to really put stock in hauntings and the like but I do tend to feel that different locales have a palpable "feel" or "energy" to them.   One particular room in these lower areas led me to believe it was time to leave.  

So, I did just that. ;)

 

 

Sunk

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For Monday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge 

Both of my cameras out this week for semi-annual Sensor Cleaning 
(I use and recommend, http://www.cameraservicepro.comif you ever have the need.)
Spooky Photo Challenge

Sans Cameras.. I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week in celebration of our fun little candy-giving holiday by recycling some photos from throughout the year with the intention to make them spooky, creepy or macabre in some way.
So many of my shots are bright, fun and beach-y scenes so I'm not sure how this is going to work out but here goes. :)

Day 1 of 5:  The Sunken Boat: I've always found wreckages creepy..

Golden Hour

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Working from home this week, catching up on a long laundry list of programming tasks that I've neglected for one reason or another.   I have to be "in the zone" and uninterrupted to really get coding tasks done.  The uninterrupted part seems to be rare..

For my lunchtime bike ride, I was struck with just how much depth our clouds had today.   It was killing me to be stuck indoors at my home, 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.  I had set my mind that when my family got home we'd go to either Fairhope or Gulf Shores for some "Golden Hour" sunset photography.

 
As we were deciding our destination, a sea turtle-activist-conservation-expert, self proclaimed "turtle lady" that works with my wife called to say they'd be releasing a nest to the Gulf this evening at sundown.   Our destination set, we made it down a few hours early for a pretty productive photo session.

 
Didn't get the best of shots of the turtles, night-time, no flashes and all -- so didn't really even try.
This, photo, however - just sort of happened while we were waiting for the "turtle people."   Nope, it isn't HDR.   Just some contrast enhancements on a single exposure. 

This is why we photographers love Golden Hour. ;)

 

The Golden Years?

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When my wife and two children (6 and 2) went to the beach to observe the turtle release, we were the first ones at the beach. It was a great time to snap some photos of the kids and to explore a "new to me" section of Orange Beach, near "The Palms" and "The Turquoise" condominiums.

 
It is getting cooler so the kids played in the sand with their sand pales and shovels, my wife enjoyed the salt air and breeze and watched as her two smaller children played in the sand while her 32 year old child ran up and down the beach-line with a Nikon and Tripod.

 
The folks in this image showed up shortly after us, sat up next to the trench and unfolded their chairs to watch the sunset. One of the things that struck me was the contrast between their point in life and ours.
Two, younger retirees sitting on the beach at sunset, probably condo owners. Given their relative younger age, probably reasonably successful. What adventures have they had? Where have they travelled and where to next? What careers did they hold and how did they meet? Boxers or briefs? (okay, yeah that last would I don't really want to know.) Everyone has a story but I didn't have the opportunity to get theirs, unfortunately. I felt it inappropriate to invade their perfect moment with my weird queries but I did open up the shutter of my mystical light capturing device in order to forever imprison their binary doppelgängers on my DROBO.

 
Coming from my station in life as a photographer, then network engineer, then programmer, then manager, then successful programmer again - turned failing photographer; two kids, wife, mortgage, at least two jobs; this scene was encouraging to me. The current hectic pace of my life will hopefully one day yield to a quiet, reflective time like this with my own loved ones.
Lord willing.

 

 

Make Dad a Collage (with Video)

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Here's how I made this:
What the hell do you give your dad for father's day when there stands a high likelihood it could be his last?
I found out a few weeks before Father's day that it looks like my dad's battle with cancer has suffered some setbacks.  His diagnosis ranges from months to years.  After all, Doctor's are practicing medicine.
Skepticism for "hallmarky" commercialism born made-up holidays aside, one thing was certain this father's day: I felt inordinate pressure to try to find "just the right" gift. 
S
omething with the right balance of celebration, memorialization and a touch of "foreverness".
Regardless of your religious views, parents and grandparents can find immortality in that of their children and grandchildren.   My goal was to create a keepsake photo collage of some of Dad's favorite photos of my kids.    To add the lasting sense of "foreverness", I had this panoramic put on a Metal Print from Bay Photo.  
The result is better than I could imagine.
Looking for something to give Dad this father's day?  Why not dust off your photoshop skills and make him a collage of the grandkids or even of yourself.
.. and to make that print truly archival, I highly recommend metal prints from Bay Photo.    I printed this one through my smugug account.  Believe me, they do amazing work.
..and no this isn't a commercial and I didn't get paid to say that :)
Bay Photo: <a href="http://www.bayphoto.com" rel="nofollow">www.bayphoto.com</a>
Smugmug: <a href="http://www.smugmug.com" rel="nofollow">www.smugmug.com</a>

 

Out, Damned Spot!

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Taken near Kingdom Hall and the Baldwin Rural Area Transport Service station in Robertsdale.   I leaned out the car to snap this photo after leaving the Law Enforcement Memorial.   That's my excuse for it not being so great. ;)
This photo had some spots, both from the lens (actually, the polarizer filter) and dust on the sensor.
I made a quick video of how to use Photoshop to remove the spots you see in high f-stop blue-sky shots.
BTW: I highly recommend the Giottos Rocket Air Blaster to get stubborn spots of your sensor.   Use with caution, though - If you touch your sensor, you could damage the low pass filter that covers your sensor.  That's a costly repair.
http://www.adorama.com/GTRABLR.html
If that doesn't get your spots out,  I recommend having a professional do it.   I use these guys:
Very fast turnaround, great/solid work.
I've tried the Eclipse Pads and Static brushes myself without much success.   I didn't damage my sensor, just made it dirtier with dried out Eclipse pads or goofy little fuzzies from the $45 static brush.
Just have them do it :)

 

 

Small Town, U.S.A; 2011

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Video of how this was created:

Busy day today, taking photos.   CSU gives employees the day off for their birthdays (a pretty epic benefit, I think)  I spent my free day with the camera..   Two farms, The Sheriff's Office Memorial Park, NAS Whiting Field, Malbis Memorial Church and the grounds of US Sports Academy were my photography stops today.  I collected enough material on the trip that I'll be sifting through and posting for a week or so, easily.

I thought I'd start sharing today's results with this rendition of a farm on the west side of Highway 59 as you come into Robertsdale from the North.  I've been doing the bike-ride or jog thing at late and these farm landscapes have captured my attention.  I decided this one would be a good aged photo-looking candidate; your thoughts?