I said I wasn’t (necessarily) going to do a monthly wallpaper, but I keep remembering to do one so here is the third for the year. No promises going forward!
Kathy & I got away to Key West for a few days recently and I’m still working on the photos. I’ll have a few stories to share along with some pictures over the next few weeks.
This is one of my favorites from our recent visit to St. Martin, and it just seemed like an appropriate photograph for February! I had already made it into a wallpaper for my phone and tablet, so what the heck. Might as well put it on the computer desktop too.
I hope everyone has a great February…spring’s coming!
Well, it’s a new month and a new year. I’ve decided to stick with the wallpaper idea for a little while, but I think I’m going to try something a little different and leave off the monthly calendar. From my standpoint, I like to be able to change my wallpaper often, and while I can make my own wallpaper any time I want, having a calendar on there makes it a little hard for someone else to do that.
A number of people have told me that a particular photo is one of their favorites, and someone might want to keep it up all year long. And that’s fine with me!
If anyone misses the calendar and would like me to continue, I can probably do one of each, so let me know. I’m pretty easy to get along with!
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 😉 .
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.
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!
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!
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!