This is another view of the same wagon in yesterday’s blog. It is still a five exposure HDR. The only difference is that after it was processed I ran it through the Snap Art 2 plugin. The setting was an oil painting with a natural fiber paper look. The thing I like about these plugins is that they allow the photographer to experiment with new mediums to display their art. So next time you have processed your photo try a new twist and experiment with one of the many fantastic plugins available.

I like how the oil painting turns this photo into a realistic painting.
I like the texture of the paper.
I like the colors of the paint.

Let me know what you think.

~wr~

This was a fun little photo to take. The wagon is located on the front porch of the cabin I filmed the other day. This is just one of many theme items on this porch. This photo was with the aid of a tripod. It was foggy and the light wasn’t great. The photo is a five exposure HDR that I batch processed and then exported into Photomatix Pro. Batch processing is basically editing one of your photos and then applying those settings to each of the other photos. Here is a link to one of many tutorials found on the web http://vodpod.com/watch/1972915-batch-processing-in-lightroom. Basically it is a way to save a ton of time editing large groups of photos.

After composing the HDR and getting the settings the way I liked it on the photo I exported it to Photoshop and applied a small amount of Topaz Adjust, and Denoise to the photo.

I like the rustic look of this photo.
I like how it looks like a toy, but one that was useful.
I like the rich colors of the photo.
I would like to have a a handle on the end of the wagon with a child pulling it.

Thank you for visiting my site. Let me know what you think.

~wr~

We were in Rexburg, Idaho to take a tour of BYUI. This was one of the schools my daughter was planning on attending. The Rexburg Temple sits on top of a hill on the campus of BYUI. It is an incredible building. This was our last morning in Rexburg. I arose before anyone was awake and set the tripod up in an empty field. My goal was to take a photo of the temple right as the sun rose over the horizon. The Temple faces East. This was one of my first attempts at HDR photography. The photo is a five exposure HDR. I didn’t have a cable release or a very good tripod, but I think the photo turned out nice. The small specks on each side of the temple are actually birds that took to flight as the sun rose.

I like the sun enhanced color of the temple.
I like the color of the horizen, it matches the temple.
I like the moon in this photo.
The blue to me off sets the color of the temple nicely.


Thank you for visiting. Let me know what you think.

~wr~

I had a friend text me today asking about the Coyote photo on my website. I took that photo in Yellowstone a couple of years back. He also mentioned the bugs. It got me thinking about spring and warmer weather and again taking photos of insects.

Two summers ago I had a blast taking photos of dragonflies. It seamed that everywhere I went there they were. At first they were a little bashful. They are predators that are quick to move and don’t stay anyplace very long. It seamed that every time I would get close they would move. I developed a technique of moving in close to them with the lens on auto focus and the camera set to rapid fire. I would then start taking photos non stop as I ever slowly moved the lens closer to the dragonfly.

The first photo is the dragonfly as I started to take the photos. The second is when I had moved as close as I possible could get. As long as I was moving slowly towards the bug I was not perceived as a threat. I did not change the settings on the camera or the lens for this shot. The only thing that changed was perspective. Notice how the depth of field gets shallower as you get closer to the subject. When shooting in Macro mode it is extremely important to have your point of interest in sharp focus. The margin for error is literally less than millimeters.

The photo with the black of the eye is the reflection of my lens while the light spot is the reflection of the sun. I shot these photos in full sun. By the time the last photo was shot I was only a few inches from the bug.

This sequence was 15 photos. The two photos above represent the first and the 15th photo. It took all of 3 seconds to shoot. The camera was on continuos shooting mode for the entire sequence.

The Specs:

Iso 320
105mm lens
f/14
1/125 second
Hand held.

I like how the dragonfly looks like it is smiling at me.
I like the huge eyes.
I like the detail on the individual eyes.
I like the look of the nose and mouth.

Thank you for visiting today. Let me know what you think.

~wr~

I showed my friend Jon the photos from my daughter’s engagement photo shoot in Midway. He liked the location so much that on Saturday the two of us went back up. We went early in the morning and found that the Heber Valley was cloaked in a thick layer of fog. The temperature was 13 degrees. By the time we finished shooting the pictures I had small ice droplets starting to form on my beard. We had a blast and this porch was filled with so many interesting subjects. We could have stayed all day.

I like the dark and light areas of this photo.
I like the rustic look of each item.
I like how the snow frames the bottom and the fog frames the top right corner.

Thank you for visiting and please let me know what you think.

~wr~

The major updates are now complete. I have made several significant changes. The first is the layout and format of the entire web page. I hope you like what you see. I added several new features that make the page easier to navigate. Each of the sub pages are more true to the content. On each page the photos are clickable. They will take you to the page described to the side. Or if you prefer you can click the link from the drop down menu or the title next to the photo. I have updated the links page with links to some of the programs I use. These are the manufactures that allow you to download their software for a free trial period. I also have an example photo of those people who have web pages that I have links to. The best part is now all the photos are uniform in presentation and you can view them in a larger format. In the coming days I will do some minor updates that are mostly cosmetic in nature and I will work on updating the photo albums. In the process of this entire rebuild I reorganized my workflow. One casualty was the misplacement of several photos.

Take some time and explore the new web page and thank you for visiting. If you like what you see please share with your friends and family.

~wr~