Lost Creek Wilderness Area

2014 Calendar

Hey All, these are the potential shots for the 2014 Calendar.

Waterton Lakes National Park

I recently was blessed to go hiking with my wife and a couple friends in Waterton Lakes National Park. It was a wonderful time. Please enjoy these shots that do not do the beautiful views justice. To God be the glory.

Webs

ISO 800, 183mm, f/4.5, 1/80 sec, 

ISO 800, 200mm, f/4.5, 1/80 sec

ISO 800, 183mm, f/4.5, 1/80

ISO 800, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec

ISO 800, 24mm, f/7.1, 1/250th sec

Milwaukee

Acacia Sunrise

This season of the year is a time when many cliche thoughts roll in for me. Thoughts of new life and stuff. Cogitations deep and pensive that make my lips purse and eyes squint in the brilliance of my own thought and would require a pipe if I held such Holmes-esque trends. Being deep and artsy like this led me to posting "Acacia Sunrise", which bears the essence of spring with the sunrise (new beginning) behind the tree...nauseous yet? Sorry about the sarcasm.
In all reality the only thought that has struck me this morning is how I have not considered the wonder of spring really at all this year. You know what? I would like to see the most brilliant minds in the world work together and make grass. I don't just mean grow grass. I mean MAKE grass from scratch. Line up all the amino acids and figure out how to make the cell division happen in an organized way. Once the scientists get that figured out, I would like to mow it once a week or so. If the grass can handle that, it would be nice if they would let me freeze the grass for a few months and see if it would grow back and propagate through my entire lawn. If the grass survived all that, I would like to ignore the scientists, and say that the grass came together by accident and that they had nothing to do with it....in fact I would tell them that they didn't even exist and that it was irrational to think that they, the makers of this grass, were real.
I don't really care if you believe that it took seven days for creation or if you are an evolutionist...that argument is nigh pointless, but for CRYING OUT LOUD please let your eyes be opened and be in awe that there has to be something bigger than yourself running this whole circus festival! Because at the end of it all, God created...you.

Old Barn

Inside His Care

Check out Matthew 10:28-31. It is good stuff.

Kansas Winter

Catalpa Leaf

Golden Hour: Contrary to what Pirates of the Caribbean would have you believe, sunsets are good for much more than just green flashes trans-world travel. For example, it is a fine time to observe God's power and majesty, or propose the the love of your life or even, if you are in the mood to do more than just praise or love, do some smashing photography. In the world of photography, the hour before sunset is often referred to as golden hour. The simple reason for this being that the angle of the sun in comparison to the earth's atmosphere changes in such a way that it causes the lighting to be much more warm in tone, meaning it is much more red, orange and yellowy. This style of lighting is very popular due to its appeal to the human eye in photography.

When doing photography at this hour, it is often advised to keep the sun at your back, since facing the sun will give you more dark figures that are heavily lit, like the catalpa leaf above. However, it can provide some lovely results to shoot in this manner, but like any sort of photography, there are some points that are good to keep in mind. First, use the LCD screen on your camera, not your viewfinder if possible. Why is that? Because the sun is REALLY bright! If you don't believe me just ask your mother. She will tell you the exact same thing. Second, cover the sun in most circumstances. If you do not cover the sun, you will get glares across the lens or have you shot washed out. These problems can lead to artsy results that can be very lovely, but they are not terribly predictable and tricky. Third, whenever shooting a sunset it is good to have another subject in the shot because even though the sunset looks sweet to you, 9 times out of 9 and a half it will not look very good on paper. So, put a silhouette or something in the picture to have the sunset simply be a backdrop for.

Coulees

Half Dome in Yosemite and the rock slide that was blocking off one of the trails in the valley.

This shot was taken on our way out of Yosemite National Park.