Red Car, My Favorite!

I am part of a monthly photography challenge, last months competition was roadside distractions. The only stipulation was that part of the road must be present in the image. This is not the image that I submitted but it is from the same shoot. If I had used this image I think I may have scored a little higher, I used the image that I liked best instead. Unfortunately the judges didn't like it as well as I did. I think they would have liked this composition of the same subject a little better. Well I didn't win but I really enjoy the hunt more than anything. Finding the perfect image for the challenge is probably the hardest thing to do most of the time but it is also the funnest part of the challenge. Fun and frustrating often butt heads during the hunt for the best image.

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Mr. Lizzard

I shot this guy at the Columbus Zoo the last time I was there. I was really pleased with how this image turned out. I am not sure what kind of a light it is in the background but I like it as it looks like it could be the sun and this guy is just laying out in the desert sunning himself.

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Winter Vine

I shot this image while on a winter hike, there is a large parcel of land that is adjacent to the property where I currently live. It sat unused for many years and I had always wanted to hike it and see what was on the property. On this particular day I hiked it, not much on the property. Just an old barn that is or was caving in and a couple old grain bins. While looking around the old barn I made this image.

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Over filtered?

Music

Don't feel like writing tonight, I just feel like listening to some really good classical music.

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Butterfly Eskimo Kisses

This is a real live butterfly on a real live girl, this image is real it was not done in Photoshop. It is a bit over sharpened but I don't feel like fixing it.

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Dizzy

I shot this image while I was in Jamaica on a missions trip and I took it into photoshop and put the spin to it. If you stare at the image and without blinking countdown to 1 from 10 then you will be hypnotized and you will be under my spell. So give it a try, if you dare!

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Opera House Seats

I am not sure what happened to this image it looked better when I had it opened in Photoshop just before uploading it. After uploading it it looks a bit washed out I am not sure why. Oh well I am not going to pull it down and fix it, so you'll just have to live with it. One of my daughters is in a youth orchestra and she had a concert this past weekend in a historic opera house. I was sitting in the balcony watching the concert so that I could have a good place to shoot from. During the intermission I went to the back of the balcony and found these seats sitting against the wall. They must be remnants of the original opera house seats.

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Pileated Woodpecker

Here is the first and only time I have come across a Pileated Woodpecker in the wild. We were in the Smokie Mountains and we were on a motor drive through Cades Cove a very well known area for seeing wildlife. We saw a lot of deer many birds and a bear but I was most excited about the Pileated Woodpecker. I have seen many deer and I have seen bear before but this was the first time for a Pileated Woodpecker. I was able to get within 5 feet of these guys and they never seemed to notice me. When I left we drove past them and we were within 4 feet of them with our car and they never budged. I hope to go back to the park again in the future but I doubt that I will get another chance as good as this one to see them.

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Cox Arboretum Wet Lands

This past weekend I had a meeting with three of the Fantastic Four members. We were together to plan our next visit to Shoot the Hills which takes place next month. We decided that we need to get together in advance this year for some strategic planning. Our goal is to at least take a first place if not best of show. So we are planning so that our time is used more wisely, our meeting was held at Cox Arboretum and when we had finished the planning part of the meeting we decided to take a short hike to the wetlands. While we were hiking we came across these geese and I got this image. Unfortunately the wetlands had recently been burned (a controlled burn) to help it grow this summer. As a result of the burnt ground the wildlife was pretty sparse.

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Tree Top

I shot this image the day I arrived in Jamaica, as soon as we arrived we got through customs and we got on a bus to head into the mountains. We were in Montego Bay and we were heading into the heart of the island to a deaf school we were going to to work. Before we left the city we decided to stop and eat. Of all the places there were to eat we ended up at believe it or not KFC. Yep, good ol Kentucky Fried Chicken, hey I was happy they sell Pepsi there so I was ready to eat. Anyway the KFC had a 2nd story balcony where we ate and just over the balcony was this tree. I am not sure what kind of tree it is but I was drawn to it as the light from the sun was causing the leaves to glow almost.

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Tulips

Once again I am giving you a photo from my wife's Valentines Day flowers. I am having trouble with my wireless and I cannot access my images from this computer, so I am stuck with the images I have on this computers hard drive. Which unfortunately for you is photos of my wife's flowers, I hope to have my wireless back up by tomorrow. Since I am boring you with another photo of Kelly's flowers I decided to spare you the photography jargon. Of course if it were not so late and I was not so lazy I would walk all the way down to my basement and do my blog from my desk. However I much prefer the comfort of my la-Z-boy over my desk chair any day.

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Kelly's Flowers Revisited

Another image from my wife's valentine's day bouquet. This image of one of the purple tulips was shot using a Canon 50d with a Canon EF 100mm F/2.8 Macro lens. I shot it at 1/30th at F/2.8 ISO 640 handheld. I was using available light which was a nice soft light filtering through our window at twilight. I had little time to work so I didn't bother with a tripod. I know I don't usually share all of the technical data as many of my followers are not photographers but tonight I felt like I should. I hope you enjoy this image as much as I do.

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Covered Bridge 2

I thought I would show another of my covered bridge series from school. Unfortunately I am not really proud of this image, partially because it is a scan of a film image that didn't scan very well and partially because I don't like the highlight from the sun over the top of the bridge. Oh well, I guess I will have to re-shoot the series with my Canon 50d. I was forced to shoot these images in the winter and would have liked to wait until the trees had leaves. Now that summer is near I guess I will have to make it a priority to shoot them again.

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Covered Bridge

This photo of a covered bridge is one that I made while I was still a student at OIP&T. Our assignment was to choose a well known photographer of the past, study their style and shoot a series of images that are of the same style. We were not to try and reproduce their work just use their work for inspiration. I chose Edward Weston after seeing a series of images that he had done on barns. Weston traveled the U.S. and photographed barns and made a series of images of the barns. I have always liked covered bridges so when this project was presented to me I knew that this would be my subject. This is one of the 6 covered bridges of Greene County Ohio that I used for my project.

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Bridalveil Falls 2

I thought I would share this photo of the Bridalveil Falls from a different angle. In my previous post titled Bridalveil Falls, you don't actually see the entire water fall. So I thought that I would post this image that shows the falls from above. If you would like to see this water fall yourself you can find it at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. There are a number of water falls in the park, Bridalveil Falls is the largest but the others are definitely worth viewing.

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Lily Pads

I guess I don't know when to find a lily pad in full bloom, I have tried but never seem to find one fully bloomed. This particular photo is the best I have seen. I think the flower senses me coming and decides to close. One day maybe I'll be able to sneak up on one.

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Disney Land

Here is a picture of my two oldest riding the tea cup ride at Disney Land in California. While we were there visiting Global Recordings, my mom bought the kids each a ticket to Disney Land. We had a lot of fun but were disappointed that it was so small. We have been to Disney World and it is much larger so we just assumed that it would be the same. Since I was a kid I wanted to visit Disney Land when I was a kid it was the biggest and the best of all the amusement parks. It truly pales in comparison to some of today's parks. If you are going to visit California only one time and you have the time and the money I would recommend it. If your money and time are limited there are lots of other things in California to see. San Diego is beautiful and there are many things there to do and see.

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Self Portrait 6

I just keep finding more self portraits when I am looking for an image to post, I forgot I had taken most of these until I saw them. It is funny how I have so many images that I have taken that I don't remember taking them. Once I see them I remember, I guess that is how it is supposed to work. Anyway I took this image a couple of years ago while I was in California, we were at Disneyland and I came across this Christmas ornament and noticed myself in its reflection. So I took a picture of myself, I have others that show the kids and my wife but you can't see me just the end of my lens. They don't make for a very good self portrait.

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Photographer in Training

I wish I had this kind of gear when I was in training. I used an Pentax K-1000 film camera with a few knock off brand lenses. All manual no auto settings whatsoever, it was a great camera and a workhorse. It took great pictures as long as I got the settings correct. I still do not like the auto settings though from time to time I will use them but very rarely. This little photographer is my daughter and she has a pretty good eye, she has assisted me on a few of my weddings and I always end up with a bunch of images from her stuff that I will give to the couple. She doesn't have the interest in photography that I have but it gives me a little time with her when I am working.

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Self Portrait 5

Here is another self portrait for all of you who have been coming to my blog hoping to see another picture of me lol. Once again while I was looking through my stock of pictures I came across this photo of myself looking up at the mirrored ceiling of an elevator. Most of my family is around me but I seem to be missing a daughter I must have found her as she is sitting next to me at the moment. I don't know if I have any other self portraits in my stock pile of pictures but if I stumble across another I will post it for you post haste. Get it Post Haste, lol.

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Alzheimer's

Though most of my readers are not aware of it this is not my only blog, I also have a private blog. Each month is a different theme,the theme for February was unconditional love. A good friend of mine reprimanded me for not taking advantage of the example of unconditional love that I have in front of me each day with my parents. This is a photo of my parents, my father has Alzheimer's, he is in the middle stages of it and he is starting to slip more and more each day. On this day he was having a good day but unfortunately the good days are becoming fewer. My mom is a great example of unconditional love as she takes care of my dad. It is a very difficult job and though she is often on the verge of tears from the stress, she is doing a wonderful job and I thank God that she is there for him. I honestly do not know if I would have the strength it would take to take care of an Alzheimer patient. She is an Angel to my Father and I know that God is going to bless her richly for her dedication and her sacrifice. Mom I know you read this blog daily so please know that I am proud of you and that I think of and pray for you every day.

I love you mom, thank you for taking care of my dad!

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300 Year Old Violin

I love violins and violin music. My grandfather played the violin and my uncle plays so when I wanted my oldest daughter to learn an instrument it was the only instrument that I wanted her to play. I now have 2 daughters who play Violin and the oldest plays the Viola as well. My 3rd daughter is just starting to learn Flute. I couldn't get her interested in violin but I couldn't get my son interested in any instrument. Anyway I now have a collection of violins of different sizes and ages. The oldest one that I have is about 200 years old. The violin in the photo is not one of my own but one that I photographed while I was in Photography School.



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Playful Pussy Cat

I promised that I would have a photo from my trip to the Zoo this past weekend, so here you go. It was a great day and the weather was very nice. The animals seemed to be enjoying the weather as much as us humans were. There were many animals outside and many were active. None more active than the lions, the male lion anyway the females were quite lazy. The male was busy playing with a cardboard tube that was in his cage. We could hear him long before we could see him. Everyone thought that we were hearing a recording but I wasn't convinced, it sounded to real to be a recording. When we got to his cage we saw a huge crowd of people standing around and as we started to get a look the crowd started screaming and people started running from the cage. Then those closest to us started laughing, the lion was tired of the people watching him. He had been roaring to get the people away, when they didn't leave he decided he had to try something else. No he didn't break out, he turned around and sprayed pee on everyone who was close by. Lucky for me I wasn't in the line of fire. I was still able to get some good images of him while he was playing with his cardboard toy. I was able to get some very good images of some of the Lizards, I will put some of them up at a later date.

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Jamaican Sunset

This image was shot while I was on a short term missions trip in Jamaica a while back. It was day one when I took this photo, we were still in route to our location in the mountains of Jamaica when the sun was starting to set. We were in a bus and was traveling through the countryside of Jamaica when I shot this image.

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Monkey Business

This is a picture that I took at the Cincinnati Museum a while ago. This little guy was just hanging out waiting for me to shoot him. I couldn't have asked for a better model. I spent the day today at the Columbus Zoo and I took over 4 Gigs of pictures but I have not had a chance to look at them. I plan to spend some time tomorrow doing just that. Hopefully soon I will be able to share a photo from today's visit to the Columbus Zoo.

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The Fountain of Youth

I found this fountain while I was in Grenoble, France. Grenoble is located in the French Alps and is the most beautiful part of France that I was privileged to visit. I was staying at a camp that was situated on the side of one of the mountains that had a beautiful view. It was really quite romantic however I didn't get to share it with my wife. I did get to share it with my daughter though and it is a memory that I am sure that we will never forget. This fountain was in the courtyard of the camp and it was built right into the wall of the compound. It was a natural spring that never stopped running. No it isn't really the fountain of youth, in fact I was told that I shouldn't drink the water unless it was boiled first, just to be safe. So I didn't take a chance and never took a drink.

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Prickly

I don't know about you but I don't want to get stuck in these guys, they look like they will tear you up. I think I would rather run through these barefoot than to take on the owl in my post from a few days ago. I came across this prickly situation while I was hiking with my good friend Jeff and my daughter Morgan a while ago.

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Ghosts

OK so this is not a great image but I like it. We were camping in Pennsylvania and the kids were all sitting around the campfire while I was playing with my camera, when I got this idea for this image. I wasn't sure how it would turn out and it took quite a few exposures to get this image but overall we had fun just trying. I had the kids set up 6 chairs and then I set the camera to very long exposures and had them sit super still for a certain amount of time then I would have them very quickly change seats and sit still again. We tried many different seating arrangements and many different exposures. This one turned out the best. I know you won't enjoy looking at it as much as we did making it but I hope you enjoy it none the less.

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Connie and Amy I hear you are trying to leave me comments, well I am not sure who is getting them but it isn't me. To leave a comment you just click on the word comment at the bottom of each post and type in your comment and hit accept.

Mexican Wolf

There are no wolves but we have a pack of Coyote's living not far from our house. I don't see them often during the day but one day while I was on my way to school I came across one sitting in an area that I often see them. I usually see 2 of them but on this day I only saw one. I stopped the car that day and took some images of him, unfortunately I didn't have my telephoto lens so I didn't get any good shots of him. This image Mexican Wolf was shot at the Columbus Zoo I wish I could say it was shot in the wild but it wasn't.

Photoman

Photo Restoration

BEFORE


AFTER

Photo restoration is a good way to spend many an hour in front of your computer. I did this little project for my mom a while ago. I think I have showed it to her, if not she will see it now. I have a bunch more images on my hard drive that still need restored. One day when I have a lot of extra time I will try and repair them. Most of them are in worse shape than this one. With Photoshop just about anything is possible if you have the time and the skills. I don't know if I have enough of either. One day I'll have the time and then I'll find out if I have the skill it takes to fix the images.

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French Musician

I thought I would share another image from my trip to France with you today. I like this image of this young man and his guitar sitting on the steps of a Catholic Cathedral. I often wonder where he is going or where he is coming from. I like to take photos of people when they are not aware of me. Not because I don't want them to know but because I like to capture them in a natural state. Often when a person is aware that I am photographing them they will act different or try to pose for me. I think an image looks much better when the person is relaxed and acting normal. When I shot this image I was standing behind and shooting over the shoulders of 2 of the girls who I was traveling with. You can see in the lower right corner some fur from one of the girls jackets. I apologize for this, I would have cropped it out if I had noticed it before uploading it. I am to lazy to pull it down and then reload it so you will just have to overlook the distracting lower right corner of the image.

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