timely – Page 17 – PictureLongmont

Days past

Amber waves of grain in front of rolling foothills with the mighty Longs Peak and Mount Meeker rising up to a late afternoon summer sky. These mountains were favorite subjects of mine in the early days of PictureLongmont. I used fairly low-resolution cameras then, and well, actually still do. Didn’t realize at that time that we’d move to Indiana ten years later making the name of the site irrelevant, c’est la vie. I think pictures of mountains look great printed and displayed on nearly any wall in the home or workplace setting. Especially here in the Midwest, looking at a mountain scene makes me wonder what it’s like up there where the air is thin and cold.

Apt 53

A vision of fire and ice engulfs a window between two doors in this scene. The doors, window and steps are critical to the symmetrical composition of this dreamscape image. I love the open door that you can peek inside while being guarded by the watchful eye below. I feel like 53 would be a pretty bitchin address to have on this path in town. The symmetry of the architecture combines with the artistry of the subject to make me love this image. This scene would look great printed and displayed on nearly any wall or tabletop providing a sense of wonder to those who see it.

Colorful city

We had a few days in Valparaíso Chile before flying down to Puerto Montt to visit family on that trip. Valparaíso is on the Pacific coast of Chile and has geography that makes it a good port city. With influences of people from all over the world it is a colorful city that was a pleasure to visit. This scene looking northeast depicts the colorful buildings that make up this city on the hills. I like the perspective of looking down in the foreground and then climbing up in the background gives a sense of dimension to the composition. This image would look great printed and displayed on nearly any wall giving a sense of wonder to those who view it.

Portrait of Ollie

Ollie walks around this way and says, “ready when you are.” Times like these when photography is the best tool for the art. I love this portrait of Ollie. He is so chill here I can’t help but smile when I look at this image. I hope you enjoy this shot of Ollie as much as I enjoyed making it and sharing it here with you.

Wander what

The light, shadows and bark star in this image to make you wonder what you’re looking at. The Beech tree has smoother bark than any other tree in my area and it gives them a unique look. With this image I just let my mind wander.

Memories

This scene was made from multiple images that I put together in the photo editor. We are looking north, across a valley between Boulder and Lyons Colorado. I’ve always liked making panoramic images. Cityscapes, mountains and seashores are the subjects that I like for these wide shots. I like the feeling of depth when I look at this image. It reminds me of the day when we hiked the trail that leads to this viewpoint. It was a special day and looking at this image reminds me and takes me back to that afternoon.

Light painting

Light is the subject in this image. Light, clouds and sky. I don’t know if this was a unique weather occurrence happening with the sunset or what, but I don’t see sunlight painting the clouds like it did on this day. I love the path of blue sky down the center of the scene. The layers of light from dark orange to white and sharp edges fading to softness all combine to mesmerize me when I look at this. I want to see more of the scene outside these borders. Was there more of this or was it localized to just this area? I remember seeing this and running into the house to get a camera because things were changing so fast up there. I grabbed a couple of shots before the evanescent cloud shapes disappeared before my eyes. This image looks great printed and displayed on a wall near a window to remind me of what could be out there beyond my four walls.

Magical

Evening fell as we left the park for the day. We walked through the castle making our way to the main gate when I turned and pointed my phone at this scene. I think the park lighting is what appeals to me in the image. There are lights pointed all over that castle, but you don’t see them directly, only in the way they illuminate the features on the walls and towers. Details of the castle exterior seem to come alive in this light even though the entire scene is somewhat subdued. I think this image would look awesome printed and displayed on the wall inside a real estate office. 🙂

Rolling west

I’ll take the high road while you take the low road. In this case the tanker train taking the low road or more like the low rail. I’m outside of Rollinsville, Colorado looking west towards the entrance to the Moffat Tunnel for this image. The composition of this scene is the two roads heading down the valley to the mouth of the tunnel. I was lucky to be there when the train came rolling up the tracks. I think the train adds interest and leads my eye to the tunnel entrance which might otherwise go unnoticed here. This image would look great printed and displayed in a hallway or corridor in any home or workplace.

Above it all

On top of the world. Standing on top of a high mountain in Colorado is exhilarating for me. Rock, sky, snow goes on seemingly forever up there. It’s typically windy up there and the strong cold clean wind pushes against you as you breath it in. In this scene we are on top of Mount Evans which is just west of Denver. It might be one of the easier mountains to climb because a paved road goes nearly the top of it. We are looking towards the southwest on an early summer day around 1 pm. A storm system is coming at us from the northwest, so it is time to be getting off this mountain because I don’t want to be up there in a lightning storm. This image looks great printed and displayed on nearly any wall in the house or workplace.

Relaxing

Afternoon at Nags Head Beach. This scene of family having a laid-back time on the beach makes me happy every time I look at it. I wonder what the kite looks like at the end of that string. There’s decent wave action and I can imagine the water washing up and over my feet. Out beyond the horizon the North Atlantic Ocean with its sharks and whales gives us all something to ponder about. This image would look good printed and displayed near a door leading outside. A reminder to get out there and get away from it all.

Ohio calling

I drove back and forth to Dublin Ohio a couple times a month when mom and dad lived there and this arch at the Ohio border along Interstate 70 was the halfway point of the three-hour drive. I had a thing about taking a picture as I approached the arch and so have a collection of images of this from all months of the year. I like what Ohio did here at their border. A mile west of here is a relatively tiny sign welcoming you to Indiana. It’s easy to miss that sign but you know you’re in Indiana because the road goes to crap compared to the smooth surface you’ve been driving on for the past 20 miles or so. The late-day summer sun really gives dimension to the clouds which mimic shapes of the trees along the road. The composition with the road spanning edge to edge the bottom of the frame draws me into the scene giving me a sense of being there when I look at this. I don’t drive to Ohio anymore and sometimes I miss those trips with their changes of the scenery to the changes of the seasons. I look at this picture that tells me to come back soon because there is a bit of my heart back there in Ohio.

Smell the rain

I can smell the rain in this image. The storm had just washed over us when the clouds parted and left the sky above their yard looking like this. The early evening sun is low and behind us setting up ideal conditions for a beautiful rainbow across the sky. This image was made with my phone and then processed with Gimp which is fairly normal practice for me. My processing consists of adjusting for a level horizon if needed, then I typically bump up contrast a couple of stops, adjust color for white balance, apply a smoothing filter and then scale the image to a smaller size suitable for the internet. I like the feeling of summer that this scene conveys.

The bridge

This is one of those scenes where you follow the action to see where it takes you. The children were checking out the new bridge and maybe not even aware of me. I was standing off to the side taking pictures while they were busy doing what they do. The camera was set to single shot mode, and I took a dozen pictures over the course of 10 minutes or so. I love the composition of this image and I love the pose of the kids. It’s a portrait image but not a posed picture. Possibly my favorite type of portraits. The morning sun gives definition and helps show the action in each individual. They are each doing their own thing but are clearly a family group and are preserved here enjoying a moment. This image will be most treasured by the family, but I think it can have universal appeal in its depiction of childhood freedom and joy.

Talkin

The one doing the talking is playing a talk show host interviewing a best-selling book author. The image was shot with the phone in photo mode but if there is movement it captures it and creates a live file. Live files can be saved either with loop or bounce effect and this one saved as bounce. Opening the file in Gimp results in many layers, a layer for each frame of the live capture. You can transform the image with the crop tool and it applies the crop to all layers. I export the image as a gif file with the animation option selected and the resulting image is displayed here. I like the pose these two have sitting there in front of the black background and the bounce animation allows an aspect of personality to show through that would be missed with a still image.

To fall

This image of Horseshoe Falls could be reference material for a painter to paint the Niagara Falls. If they were painting a scene like this the painter might lighten the blue sky up and they would not include the water-spot dots that appear in the mist here. An artist could add another bird or two to the composition as well. An artist with paints or inks has freedoms that the artist with a camera does not have. The camera with its physics approach to capturing an image does not like to be pointed directly into sunlight. And if water is splashing around it’ll get on the lens and be visible in images that are made. I like this image as is, but I think another run at post processing to remove those two spots would make it better. I love the composition of this scene, the balance of land (water), to sky is perfect for me. That bird soaring in the mist cloud really makes the image and makes me happy to look at it. This scene could look good with a light-colored mat and frame becoming a good decoration on nearly any wall.

Flo me

Flo at Walt Disney World greets us as we walk to breakfast in the park. Photography can have the effect of flattening things as it creates a 2D image from a 3D scene in front of you. In this case with Flo, it’s hard to tell the physical objects from the lifelike painted scenes. There’s a hint of rain on top of the car and the dry area underneath around the car that shows off the physicality of her shape. The sun is low on the horizon and partially blocked by the buildings behind but enough gets through to paint beautifully across Flo’s roof and hood lines. Photographers want to pay attention to lighting across shiny subjects to make sure their own shadow or reflections do not become part of the image. This picture makes me smile. With this subject matter how could it not? The image would look great hanging on a wall in a garage or outside on a deck. Flo is a classic. Enjoy!

Bodie island

Bodie Island Lighthouse stands in front of a late September sky as a flock of geese run towards the south to take off. They talk about the rule of thirds when discussing photography artwork composition. It’s about how the elements of a scene are balanced within the frame in a way that is nice to look at. This image for instance has three things that I think are balanced within the scene that make it enjoyable to look at for me. In front we have the geese running in the field. Behind them the fence, trees and the lighthouse buildings. Finally, behind them the sky full of clouds. It’s odd there’s no water with crashing surf in a lighthouse picture but this scene has something else to say. It says, “fly south you geese cause big weather is coming and we’re watching out for you”. 🙂 This image would look great printed as a frameless piece, maybe metal or canvas print and displayed on a wall next to a door leading outside. Give viewers something to contemplate as they exit to the outside, something that says take care, you’ll be ok, we’re watching out for you. Decorate your life with images that give you something to contemplate about at the Picturelongmont photography art gallery today.

Right now

Make an image now from stuff that’s right here. This image could possibly look good with a grey mat and thin black frame hanging on a wall in an optometrist office. If I was specifically making an image to hang in the office, I’d try to make the subjects all sparkly clean. In this case I was just playing with composition with things that were on my desk. Besides the light there are three things. Glasses, iPad, and piece of paper. It’s a color image but this is a case when shooting black and white might be better. I don’t know. Not sure what those vertical stripes are but some of them are gold colored and I think I like that. The left side lens in the reflected image is black and denies the bright stripes which is interesting and I don’t know why that happened. This could be an example of product photography, or it might be called still life. To me it is just an example of when I picked up a camera and said make an image from stuff that’s right here, right now.

Stars and stripes

I like a tightly cropped image where there’s no question what the subject is. I also love a good picture of the US flag. The invisible breeze becomes visible with help of
sunlight highlighting the billowing fabric of the flag. The image is a study in contrasting lines. The stripes in the flag, the flagpole, and the trees compete for my eye’s attention. If I use superpowers of imagination, I can almost see the flag depicted in the trees behind. I’m a color photographer. Very rarely do I shoot using black and white. I love the color of the red, white and blue and think this image would add appeal hanging on any wall in a home or workplace setting. Visit the Picturelongmont photography art gallery today to find an image that adds interest to a wall or tabletop in your world.