Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Hike in Sedona

A stormy, rainy day in Sedona - hiking Broken Arrow trail out to Chicken PointAfter checking the forecasts in a various parts of the state (AZ), we determined there should be sufficiently crappy weather in Sedona and we should spend Christmas Day there hiking and camping. I realize this sounds counter-intuitive, but we have so much nice weather here in Arizona that it can often be a lot of fun to bundle up in the weather gear and head out into the rain.

The weather broke long enough for me to get this shot from Chicken Point. But just because it wasn't raining doesn't mean I didn't contend with with weather - WIND! The gusts were strong enough that I could lean forward into it and stand at a diagonal.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Monday, December 22, 2008

What Are You Thankful For?

Tattered American flag blows in the wind caught in a treeI told myself I would not get stressed this Holiday Season; not get swept up in all the madness, consumerism, and misguided notions of what the Holiday Season is all about. Well this morning I failed. I got stressed about money, gifts, traffic, and every other fool-thing that I resigned to avoid getting worked up about this year.

When I returned home and gave another look at this photo I edited last night I was given a bit of a reality check. I have the gift of freedom; I have the gift of my family, I have the gift of my health. Not everyone, whether here or abroad, has these gifts - these "little" things we take for granted many of the days of our lives. These are really the big things, aren't they?

With this, I am thankful for all the love behind the gifts that will be exchanged this year and I hope you are too.

So while concerns of money, gifts, and bills vie for our attention, let's remember that we have the control to choose where to place the emphasis in our lives during this and every season.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Sorry, I just couldn't resist . . .

. . . the stupidity of this post. Whatever, let the stupidity roll . . .

Awkward night-time feeding behavior  ;-)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Lovebirds Outside My Office Window

Feral Lovebirds outside my office in Phoenix AZToday has been a gray rainey day here in otherwise normally sunny Phoenix. For some reason, it is the gray bleak days that I think to use the color shift technique of setting my camera's white balance to tungsten causing the outdoor ambient light to have a blueish hue. The strobes are color corrected using CTO (orange) gell so as to appear white to the indoor light balanced camera.

This bird feeder is outside my office window and I try to keep it full because as you can see, I get some pretty cool birds that come by to feed. This was a test run on a concept that I have been wanting to try for some time now. Perhaps a more photographically interesting example will surface in the near future.

Strobist Info:
There are 3 SB800's placed circularly around the bird feed all set to the same height as the bird feeder. They were fired 1/2 power and CTO gelled. Interestingly enough, the birds were not frightened off by the firing strobes.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.