shadetree407

they're aspens... and i can't remember whether i found this batch in colorado or the eastern sierras in california. doesn't really matter tho :) thanks.

lol - that couldn't be helped. i was using the 65mm lens (my widest) and could not back up any further because i was on the edge of a 20 foor dropoff. my next lens will be the 58mm scheider super angulon XL.

geoff,

 

i pretty much chucked my 35mm stuff back around 1986-1987. i love sharpness & detail and going LF was the only way to do it. although i would have preferred an 8x10 format, i backpacked extensively in the high sierras at the time and an 8x10 was simply unpractical from a weight issue. when i would go out for 2-3 weeks at a time, my pack would weight in at a whopping 100-105 pounds- uggg. then there is the cost issue... 8x10 lenses are expensive.

 

i use a wista field camera. i am on my second camera because my first one got sunk in the pacific ocean near the shot i did on the oregon coast and posted herein. i got caught by a "sneaker wave" and out to sea it went. i look back at that scene and laugh because the last thing i saw go under was 2 tripod legs in "slow motion",,,, as if it was crying out to me "saaaveeeee meeeeee" :)) in retrospect, i might have opted for the zone-6 camera but it was several inches larger in folded dimensions which puts a bind in my pack.

 

 

i sometimes use split ND filters (mostly with color). which image are you referring to?

 

 

>>> Worth getting your feet wet for!

 

 

john, you betcha.

 

while i was standing in the cold flowing creek, i took notice that the ripples travel backwards at a rate of about 1 ince per second. so i took several shots and chose the best of three for presentation. other things that flow backwards are the shape of slot canyons (they are sculpted by water and essentially "grow" backwards) and the "waves" in stop and go traffic because cars stop faster ralative to the time it takes them to speed up.

 

:)

 

 

mihail, to rate photographs, i think you just click on the "ratings" tab (between "detail" & "copyright" tabs) below the picture and then proceed to assign a number for asthetics & originality

 

 

the star tracks look oval in shape because i used a wide angle 90mm lens (4x5 format). that doesn't bother me because for this particular image, i am more interested in what it says from a spiritual, emotional, or symbolic perspective. here we have the stars overhead that are going to be here for a very long time, the bristlecone pines have been there for 3000-4000 years, and then i walked right through the picture twice (once to go back to my truck & sleep and again to trip the shutter off) and don't even show up. that sort of symbolizes the element of time for me, personally, in a certain fashion. we (humans) are here for a very short stay and yet, collectively speaking, we seem to think we are somehow superior in the way we claim dominion over the world in which we depend upon for life itself. it's a powerful photograph when thought of in this fashion:

 

 

we are nothing

 

we are everything...

 

 

everything in the sense that we're made from the same stardust that the trees are made from; nothing in the sense that within the timeframe and scale of what seems to be eternity, we're truly insignificant... but as individuals, we're everything of significance because we do relate to our environment and have made a huge impact. everything is interrelated... from us to the trees to the stars.

 

 

okay, okay... just my opinion here & i'll step off my pedestal now.

 

:)

 

i love the simplicity and the balance between the two on the right and the other nine.

 

:)

~ 8 hours

 

remember that a full circle is 24 hours. so take any star in time lapse picture and figure out the arc. in this case, it's around 110-120 degrees (let's use 120 deg) so:

 

(120 deg) / (360 deg/circle) * (24 hr/circle) = 8 hours

thanks folks. when i came upon this scene, it did not look as bold as the the finalized print. i shot it after a windstorm the night before so there were some interesting patterns on the dunes. the light is coming in from the right hand side. the wind must have been from the left as it made deposits on the downwind side of the crests which lit up at sunrise in an extraordinary way. i have yet to find another shot with a feel like this but have seen the "snakelike" ripples before while roaming around on the dunes.

 

i'm done working on the black & white uploads for now (i think) - i'm going to fix the anasazi folder next because most of those images have too much color saturation

 

:)

 

i intentionally printed the dune "high key" and with low local contrast

set against a high relative contrast between the sky, the moon, and the

dune. it has a surreal feel to it. what do you think?

There is a magnet in the southwest that keeps tugging at me :)

If I had been one foot to the right, I could have avoided the merger at

the top edge of the photo that occurs between the large tree trunk on

the left and the distant one behind it. What do you think?

Don't change a thing. It catches a lone sheep looking off into the distance towards the direction the translucent light is coming from.... seemingly waiting for soemthing to appear out of the mist. The large and small trees work great and the tonalities make the image look somewhat surreal.