A Mountain Town Indeed

This is one of my favorite little towns:
Wrightwood, CA.

It's here that you can listen to the evening as it comes in from the East.

The gently evening breeze browsing through the tall pines
always announces the coming of night.

Like washing the deeds of the day away,
making room for tomorrow.

This is an older (2002) image from a non-digital camera.
I used Picasa to "enrich" the colors. I used the "feeling lucky" button.

From Under The Tree in Time of Summer

Sometimes, trees just reach out for you saying,

Welcome to my shade,
please enjoy this glade.

The Patience of the Hawk

With the new year here, the hawk sits and waits,
watching the field for the next best opportunity.
Waiting for the right moment, the right breeze, the right opportunity.
Quiet, patient, knowing.

Oh yea, and letting me get this close,
knowing he can kick my butt,

Oreo Cows - They Do Exist!

They are actually known as banded cows, if you really must know.

Photography Books on Amazon.com

Starting The New Year With A Fresh Look

With the new year, we must look down the river we will travel,
and plan our paddle work from what we see ahead of us,
and what we want to do to, with regards to the current of life.

I Thought You Dug Up Your Fish Bait!

Modern technology lands in Idaho.
How live can it be!?

For some reason, I thought you would go out and dig up your worms.
Now, you just go dig up some coins then head down to the street corner!
Bait vending machines. Sheesh. What's next?

Happy Holidays to All

Happy Holidays to All!

Thar's Elk In Them Thar Hills!

This is 10 miles outside of Boise, Idaho.
That fence keeps them off the freeway.

Photographing The Moon

I've been using a Sony CyberShot P150 for some time now, having taken almost 15,000 pictures with it.

It's done me good since I bought it back in 2005. But I've wanted a bit more on those occasions that call to the photographer in me.

Last weekend, I upgraded to an Olympus E-520. I will be writing on that experience later.

Right now, I'm looking at trying to take pictures of the moon. That is one subject that has eluded me with my point and shoot.

As you can see, it ain't going so well. The LR image in my Mutilated Moon Collage looks like it worked, but I have to get it focused on the subject for it to be any good. Details!

While I am trying to figure out the camera, I am having multiple issues. (There are so many buttons on it that every time I pick it up, I change some setting.) But after looking around I found a few resources on shooting the moon and have come to the following conclusions:

I know absolutely nothing and I need to learn all these new buttons and menus. It's a long cry from my Pentax K1000.

Onward about Moon shoots.
The first rule of thumb I discovered is the Moony 11 rule. That is to set your aperture to f/11 and set your shutter speed as close as you can to the reciprocal (1 / x) of the film speed.

IE: If your ISO is set to 100, set your aperture to f/11 and your shutter speed to 1/90 sec. We are reminded that the moon is merely reflecting sunlight and why this works.

Another resource I like is DPS (Digital Photography Shcool Forums). In one post here were the settings of one marvelous moon image (I'm extremely jealous.)

• Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
• Aperture: f/0
• Focal Length: 0 mm
• ISO Speed: 100
• Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV

And a great thread that touches on shooting the moon on the DPS Forums.

My own settings for the LR image in my mutilated moon collage, aside from not being focused were:

• Exposure: 1/4000 s
• F Number: f/5.4
• ISO: 400
• Focal Length: 132 mm
• Exposure Bias: 0.00 EV

Enjoy the labors of my research.

Moony 11 Source: PhotoNotes.org

These Days, This Might Be A Good Investment

In this housing market,

this could make a great investment.
At least they can say it's got great airy rooms with a view.

Real Estate Available!?
Oh the times and things this place has seen.

Filling in Your Subject With Flash Work

Sometimes for me, natural light works for me, other times it doesn't. Every now and then I find that the subject is darker than I would like. I have a tendency to not want to modify my images after I've taken them. Call me stubborn. So I employ my flash.

Employing my flash brings the subject to the forefront in a rather abrupt fashion. Then you can see the subject clearly and still see the background as well.

I like the results it creates like this pic I've previously posted where the leaf to the left is brought to the forefront while we still see the rest of the scene.




In this case below, if I had not used the flash the leaf would not even show up except as dark shadowed highlight:

Sighing In Silence, Helping The Family

One of the most confusing things to experience.
Helping the family pack and move,
stoic silence smothers your frustration,
sadness envelopes the day,
but it's not about me,
and I must help
for they are
family.

Sighing in Sadness.

Time Life Photo Archive to Go Online

LIFE and Google are in the process of releasing over 10 million new pictures on the internet that have never been seen before.

These images can be found when conducting a search on Google.com or on Google Image Search. Users can also search through the LIFE Collection directly by visiting http://images.google.com/hosted/life.

The collection will be one of the largest collections of professional images on the internet and as the scanning project moves along, more images will become available. (I think I remember seeing this job position when is was open on-line!)

If you think about it, this is ~70 years of photos folks.

On top of the standard fare of Tim-Life imagery, the LIFE Photo Archive will include

• The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination;
• The Mansell Collection from London;
• Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880's;
• Hugo Jaeger Nazi-era Germany 1937-1944;
• DMI red-carpet celebrity shots;
• Pix Inc. personalities;
• the entire works left to the Collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen.

Imagery will also be available to purchase through QOOP.com, a leader in online art sales.

All comments are welcome from Bruce's Pics readers.
source: Time Warner press release

Tipsy Turvy Cow Horns

Wow, now that's a confused set of horns.

A View To Leave For

Sometimes in the Fall,
It's not all the colors around you,
But the color right in front of you,
That delivers the message of the season.

A User Trick To Sorting On Photobucket

A Photo Website Service Tidbit by Bruce Simmons :

Online Photo Service
Amongst all the photo services out there, I've been using a few, but have leaned towards

• PhotoBucket.

In PhotoBucket I have one gig of space, can choose the limit on my image sizes, if I want to, and find it mostly intuitive.

BUT I do have an issue with how Photobucket organizes my images.

I like my images in the order that I took them but Photobucket organizes them backwards from the way I choose the file for upload. For example, if I pick images 1-10, it will upload 10 first, then 9, etc.. So far, this is the only annoyance I have with the service.

Usually, my files are ordered by the filename the camera gave them and it's an quick, emotional reference for me. So to put my images up in an order I like on Photobucket, I pick the last pics first and select backwards so that the first image is picked last. (This has been in the bulk uploader, but I suspect it would work for the standard upload method too.)

Then when Photobucket uploads and does it's thing, my images are already in the order I like and I can move on without nary a bit of maintenance on my part.

Printing Pictures
As far as printing images go, I lean towards Walgreens.

It's super fast because I've never had to wait more than 44 minutes after upload and the prices are comparable and sometimes better than the offered prices in the online services.

Not to mention, it's a nice 10 minute walk in my quaint little downtown block.

Reader comments or suggestions are always welcome.

[Image Cr: Rayanne Alves, sxc.hu.]
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A Sunset For The Neighborhood

Sometimes,
You can still connect with nature,
Even if you're in the middle of your subdivision.

Neighborhood Views

A Single Fall Color Leaf

A single leaf, A single color.
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The Colors of Fall Are Coming

The leaves have changed colors
and are waiting for the breeze to set them free.

Fall is in the air,
and leaves are on the lawn,
and on the car,
and in the street,
and probably in your pool.

Fall Colors

Looking for color on a drab Fall Day

Views of Nature

Hello dinner!
Says the Bald Eagle to the Magpie!
This is about 40 miles NW of Boise.
Next to the highway.

Animal Photography on Amazon.com

Views From The Drivers Seat

It's a view.
In a view.
With a view.
Playing with mirrors,
views from the drivers seat.

A Scenic Day Overlooking Boise, Idaho

Boise, Idaho sure can be a pretty place.
We're looking SW over the city.

Photography Products on Amazon.com

A Flash Back To 1982

GoldenGate Bridge: Picture Taken in 1982
Check out the cars!

Comic Con 2008: War Monger

If you've seen the Iron Man movie, you know this is the War Monger armor, at the 2008 Comic Con in San Diego.