Fuji S7000 @ 26 mm, 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200, 7 June 2004, PP HSM, Saturation
At a trip up to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park this thief stole a junior mint when I put it down for a second to take a quick picture of my wife with the lake as backdrop. He knew exactly how to use his paws to shake out a mint and once he got it he didn't waste any time before he started eating it. This was the most well fed squirrel we saw, so he is probably the master thief in that area.
Fuji S4900 @ 8.9 mm, 1/450 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, 16 May 2002, PP HSM, Saturation
That one of the most photograhed bridges in the world would be the next stop in this blog does proabbly not surprise anyone. No picture will ever make the view from this viewpoint justice. The nature was so green that the it almost hurt the eyes and the engineering of the bridge is amazing in itself and it fits so well with the landscape that it becomes natural to view it as part of the scenery.
Fuji S4900 @ 11.6 mm, 1/480 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, 16 May 2002, PP Highlight, Shadow, Midtone
Time to revive the blog. I'm sorry (in casy anyone reads this blog) that it's been a while. My intent is to post at least twice a week, but sometimes life is just too fast for me to keep up.
Being a Swede living far from the sea (Denver, CO), I cannot imagine a drive more enjoyable than Highway One beween SF and LA. This picture is from a viewpoint just before Bixby bridge.
I like the picture even if the angle doesn't make it real nice. I wish I'd gotten down lower to get more of the flowers and avoid the angle to the water being so steep. Oh well, it was a few years ago and hopefully I've learned a thing or two since then.
Fuji S7000 @ 7.8 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200, 9 July 2005, PP Exposure, Highlights/Shadow, Sharpening
In an effort to avoid yard work today, we decided to go hiking in the mountains. We picked a two mile hike around the lower Cataract lake outside Dillon. It a very nice wild flower area and it was a hike we felt was hard enough for us. We haven't exercised much lately, so we wanted an easy walk. The walk would probably have been easy if we had followed the signs to the trail we should be on. We ended up on another and had to scramble upwards a lot to get to our trail. That consumed pretty much all energy I had and more than twice the energy my wife had…
Anyway, it was one of the nicest places we've seen in Colorado and we've never seen so many Columbine flowers. The lake and the surroundings are very scenic. It even has a cascading waterfall. We will return to this trail!!!
So with all these views and flowers just begging to be photographed, I decided that the best photo was of dead wood in water? Actually yes. We got a lot of nice views of the lake and pictures of flowers, but I liked the looks of these have-been trees in the shallow water. I realize that to some this is a test photo, meant to be deleted. However, I like the look of the branches and how their shape looks in the water.
This is one of my first attempts at using Photoshop to improve a decent picture. I know I probably went overboard with some things, not far enough with some, and probably forgot to use some tools. Leave a comment if you see something I need to work on.
Fuji 4900z @ 23.9 mm, 1/550 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200, 16 May 2002, PP Saturation, highlights/shadow, sharpening
I had hoped to skip the old pictures for one post and have some fireworks picture from the 4th of July celebration here in Denver. However, no picture was good enough. I tried to improve them with PP, darkening the sky made them look more like computer art than a photo. I guess I need to practice more on photographing fireworks and on the PP for them.
So back to California and 2002. This is the lone cypress at Pebble Beach, Very beautiful area and they claim that this is the worlds most photographed tree. It may be, there must have been at least 25 who were snapping pictures when we were there. The tree is between 200 and 300 years old and clings to a rock out in the ocean.
Fuji 4900z @ 16.7 mm, 1/320 sec, f/4.0, ISO 200, 12 May 2002, No PP
I know this is highlights galore. But, I still like the picture. To me it's a fun picture where my wife is looking out from the inside of an old redwood. The tree is hollow and lying down, it's so big that she could stand up inside it with no problem at all. This is from Avenue of the Giants in Northern California.
I like the natural skin colors and the natural weather bitten look of the wood in the parts that are in shadow.
You may wonder if I'm going to keep publishing old photos from a vacation a few years ago. The answer is that I will continue with this vacation for a little while. I like a lot of the pictures we got on that trip, but it'll not be that many and each picture should be different as they are all from different parts of California. I'll add more recent photos when we get a nice photo from a photo outing.
And if you ever get a chance to visit the northern part of California, just know that you have to see the Avenue of the Giants. It's an experience you'll never forget. I hope to one day go back and wonder off in the woods searching for beautiful pictures of the trees and the nature in this part of the world. If only money were no object…
Fuji 4900z @ 18.2 mm, 1/350 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200, 10 May 2002, No PP
Yet another picture from the Napa Valley balloon ride. Some of my favorite pictures was taken this day. Part of the reason I like them may be my memory of the event. So if you don't like them, I hope you'll enjoy other pictures more.
This picture was take soon after we took off (is that the correct term for a balloon?). I like how it captures the early morning light and all the other balloons over the beautiful valley.
Fuji 4900z @ 7.8 mm, 1/270 sec, f/3.6, ISO 200, 10 May 2002, No PP
(This picture may not look good on your monitor unless you click on it to see it in a larger format.)
This is from a balloon ride in Napa Valley. This is (obviously) how the balloon looked from the inside. I like how the colors play and the symmetric in the pattern.
This is one of few pictures from back then that I like enough to maybe try to print at a decent size and hang on the wall at home.
I took this pic early in the morning (as in when the balloon would leave, so the early morning light probably made this picture for me. All I had to do was to be there…
Fuji 4900z @ 9.7 mm, 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400
Time to get this blog started. It's a photoblog, so don't expect the text to do much more than just explain the pictures.
I picked this picture to kick off the blog with as it was the first picture with a digital camera that I was really happy with. Not sure I'd be as pleased with it today, but it convinced me that it was time to abandon film.
The photo was taken at Sundborn, Sweden on 6/26/2001 during my honeymoon (week). This photo is taken just outside the place where Carl Larsson (Sweden's most famous painter) lived. This place is so beautiful that it feels that it's posing for a photograph all the time.
