When the sky is magical

Sunset comes earlier

And the nighttime is chilly. Frost is not far away.

Awaiting the Marrakesh Express

The Ordinary Things

Become extraordinary by the choice of framing, the slant of the light, the darkness and the bright. This wasn’t quite a full success, in that I wanted to bring out the flow of water in the fountain, but couldn’t make that happen. Next time, I will find a small lamp to use for back-light.

It’s good that the photographs I post here are mere sketches or studies. Each one teaches me something.

The music on the stand, by the way, is “Teach Your Children.” People with grandchildren will probably know the words.

Not bothering anybody

Sunlight In Autumn Has a Different Flavor

Than it did even a week or so ago. It slants a bit more, throws deeper shadows and sits more gently. I miss the smell of leaves burning in the smooth Autumn air.

He thinks the roses might be tasty

Autumn is on its way

But it’s not here yet. The landscape color is really a bit dull around Casper, as we wait for the cottonwoods to turn. I also have my eye one some choice stands of aspen. All in all, it’ll be another two weeks or so before the colors arrive.

So, the Dragon steps in, in pursuit of the Rose Bowl. The guitar was just there, to observe.

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Technical: 400 ISO, 250mm, f11, 2 sec. Available light. It’s a fact, all of my stuff is shot by available light. I own neither a flash unit for this camera, nor any area lights.

An experiment in light and motion

I Did That On Purpose

To see what I could see. A recent phenomenon in photography has accomplished experts using several thousand dollars worth of equipment to produce blurry photographs. On purpose. On Flickr is a group centered around “deliberate blur” and landscape masters William Neill and Alain Briot have done a lot with the technique.

Me, I’m not so sure. I sort of like what I’ve done here, but it surely seems to me to be a waste of the exquisite machinery of Messrs. Hasselblad and Zeiss.

I can tell you this; like still life, deliberate blur is a lot harder than it looks.

This was not what I had hoped for

Looking For the Sunset

And finding not much. At least in this direction. This is facing East, toward Omaha. You can see why I chose this spot: A nicely delineated skyline, comprised of ancient white stones deposited when this was all seabottom, full of quirky trees and a deep but unobtrusive foreground. And the sky is quite nice.

A few minutes afterward, these clouds were dark and thoroughly uninteresting. The culprit was the thunderstorms building behind me, that blocked the sunlight as evening fell. I showed you those the last two days,

I also made a photograph facing West, just to complete the sweep of the four winds, but it is so lacking it will never see the light of day.

That mountain is 3000 feet higher

Looking the Other Way

Is something any photographer needs to do. You see a good photograph in front of you, but something even better may wait behind. I made this just a few minutes before the photograph I posted yesterday, by pointing my camera south, toward Casper Mountain. Yesterday’s photograph was made by pointing the camera just about 180 degrees the other way, toward Montana. My tripod never budged.

Funny thing is, I originally went to this spot to point the camera Eastward, toward Omaha. I had planned to get a fine portrait of an August sunset, above a slab of primordial seabottom. That never happened. I’ll show you what did, tomorrow.

Falls mainly on the plain

The rain is pretty useless

This time of the year. And there isn’t really that much of it; what the weather service calls ‘a trace’ is about all any one spot sees. And, this is falling mostly on grazing land, and there the grasses and tumbleweeds have already stopped growing, so the water doesn’t have much to nourish.

These trees always color up first

They are an Australian poplar

And seem to like to keep to their own schedule. We planted these because it is illegal in Casper to plant cottonwoods. Because of the cotton. Makes some noses itch. So, we have to import our hardy trees from elsewhere.

These leaves turned color overnight. Yesterday, Green as green. Today, Autumn yellow.

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You may notice that this photograph is square. That’s because of a framing error. I didn’t want to go reshoot, since I’d already brought the gear inside, so I simply cropped off the offending bright white fence I inadvertently caught in the lower right corner. Cropping is okay, despite what you may have heard.

He dropped by for iced tea

A photograph each day can be wearing

Especially when the sunlight has been so fierce it’s useless to even think about going onto the land. Today, I had a sinking feeling that I would have nothing for you. Blue Bear proved me wrong. He sat on my front porch and enjoyed the afternoon while I fussed around with the camera and such.

When I was done, I toasted him with the beer. It was good, and he went on his way.

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All artists should dip into the pool of whimsy, every once in a while, says Blue Bear.