March 1 2009 Snowfall in Huntersville North Carolina
Well, here’s the 12th in the series of abstract wallpaper, and the last for 2014. I hope everyone has enjoyed these as much as I have enjoyed sharing them. I don’t have any way to tell how many people actually take the time to download these, but I sure would appreciate your letting me know via comment or e-mail. I’m thinking about trying something different for 2015, but if I get a lot (any?) requests to keep them just the way they are I’m open.
I hope everyone has a joyful and happy holiday of your choice, and we’ll welcome in the new year very soon!
Sunset at the Snow Geese Pool, Chincoteague Island National Wildlife Refuge, Assateague Island, Virginia
One of my favorite destinations for photography is Chincoteague Island National Wildlife Refuge, on the coast of Virginia. We visited there a few years ago for several years in a row, specifically to photograph the Snow Geese and Tundra Swans that migrate through there in late fall. We’re overdue for a return, and I’d love to get a visit there on the calendar for next year. Hopefully I can get my buddy Don Brown on the mend long enough to plan an adventure there with me!
Chincoteague is one of these places that never lacks for something to shoot. Even if the birds don’t show up at the time you happen to be there, there is a beach, woods, ponds and lots of other wildlife to make it a special experience no matter what.
One technique that I’ve found works well for abstracts is to put my lens into manual and deliberately throw it out of focus. It’s funny, but as much as I love shooting abstracts I often forget to try that. When I was looking for an abstract for this month’s wallpaper, I wanted something that was about fall color. I came across a lot of shots, but then I remembered these. I only did a few of them but need to do them more often. I love the effect, as it is a lot like the results I get when I shoot moving water. But instead of the moving water making the patterns they come from the shades and tones in the scene.
Fall seems to be coming a little early around here. The weather in general has been very strange the last month or two. I hope everyone is able to enjoy fall wherever you are, or spring for those who are “upside down” on this earth 😉 .
Evening on the Beach, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Back to the real abstracty stuff for September! Last month’s calendar photo was a little too literal to fit the “abstract” theme, but I like it and it works.
I really like this month’s photo for the pastel colors and the soft edge of the waterline against the sand. It fits into my idea of a quiet evening, which is one of the things I like best about being at the beach.
Beaver Creek State Park in Columbiana County, Ohio
This month’s wallpaper is a little less abstracty than the ones I’ve been posting, but this is a fairly recent addition and one that I happen to like a lot. I hope you do, too.
Kathy & I made a bit of a whirlwind visit to Ohio a few weeks ago – hard to believe it has been a month already – dang! – and on that trip we visited Beaver Creek State Park in Columbiana County, near where we lived before we relocated to North Carolina.
Unfortunately I don’t know the history of these trees, and even Google seems to be failing me, but I had forgotten them from previous visits. They were obviously planted by someone many years ago, probably as an early reclamation project. There are rows and rows of these trees throughout the park, and we spent some time walking around and I snapped a bunch of photos. A thunderstorm had just passed through before we arrived, and while the rain saturated the greens, the sunshine made for some interesting shadows on the ground. It also tended to make this a very contrasty scene, but I think the combination works well. I tried to process it with a bit of a Velvia look and think it comes pretty close. Hopefully you will be able to enjoy it for the month of August!
Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve in Alaska from aboard Sea Princess
I decided to make a bit of a change from the blurry water photos I’ve been using for my calendar lately and try something a little “cooler.” This photo is from our trip to Alaska a few years ago. It still somewhat fits the abstract theme, although it certainly isn’t blurry!
I hope everyone has a great July and manages to stay cool!
Evening on the Beach, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Kathy & I spent the week leading up to Memorial Day at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. HHI is our “go-to” beach for a nice, relaxing vacation.
As I had hoped to do, I bribed Kathy with good food and some wine from home to convince her to eat in a couple of evenings so we could enjoy – and I could photograph – the beach at sunset. She’s such a good sport! 😉
Capturing the water in the evening light often results in images like these that just ooze peace and quiet. I had a little extra incentive to come up with some good images this time, as we have a few walls in our new place that need some art. I even made a few verticals with that specifically in mind, but those will need to wait for a blog post since not too many people I know use their monitors in the vertical position. Although it might make a nice phone or tablet wallpaper. Hmmmm…. 🙂
I was a little slack with my posting and processing the last few weeks, but I have a lot of new photos to process and a number of them that I am looking forward to sharing!
This month’s wallpaper continues the abstract theme. I don’t have many landscape motion abstracts, and the ones I do have tend to be vertical images. Those would make good tablet or phone wallpaper but not so much on the computer screen. I do have a lot of moving water abstracts that I really like, primarily because I spend a lot more time shooting water at the beach than shooting mountains. Plus, making good motion landscapes is hard! It seems that I have a lot more luck getting water abstracts that I like. But no matter.
This image is titled Flat Rock, Morning, was one of my first print sales a few years ago and continues to be one of my most popular photographs. So out of the archives it comes to live for a month on your desktop if you so choose!
Kathy & I will be headed to the beach later this month, so don’t be surprised to see some more moving water photos in June!
Sunrise on the beach, Hilton Head Island South Carolina
Keeping with the theme of abstracts, here is another take on one of my favorite “beach blur” photographs. Captured by panning the camera at a slow shutter speed, I’ve always loved how the motion tends to simplify a scene. It’s tough to get right, and a lot of experimentation is required. One of the benefits of digital cameras is the ability to try stuff like this until we (hopefully) figure it out!
I’m going to try something a little different starting with this month’s calendar. For the last year or so I’ve been mostly dredging up old landscape photos mixed in with a few more recent shots. I’ve recently started to realize how much my photographic emphasis has changed over the last few years, and I find myself photographing a lot less nature and a lot more of what I call “found scenes.” Sometimes they are scenes I find in nature, but often they are scenes I come across just walking down the street in some town I happen to be visiting.
These photos won’t necessarily be the iconic “hero shots” that I have been posting as wallpaper, but I feel like I need to be true to my own sense of what it is I happen to be seeing and shooting. And that changes, necessarily I think, over time as I learn and grow. Some readers may enjoy this work and others may not. For those who like it, please say so and thanks. For those who don’t, please feel free to let me know!
I may also add in a few abstract photos that I’ve come to enjoy. Those also make nice wallpaper, although they may be a little different from what I’ve posted here in the past.
This particular photo was taken in Charleston, South Carolina, last winter. For me it represents the change from winter to spring – winter from the bare branches on the trees, but spring through the green on the bricks in the background, set against a whitewashed wall that hints of color but also could be seen as representing snow. Not in Charleston probably, but certainly in many parts of this country, even in March.
I hope everyone enjoys this little change of pace and I hope everyone has a nice March!
