Character

1/60" at f5.6. ISO 1600
October 28th, 2007

I haven't had much of a chance to get out and shoot in the past couple weeks, a trip to the Sacramento railroad museum and thats about it. So, this is a shot from my grandmother's birthday. My grandparents have been married for more than 50 years, and they're still totally in love with each other.

I think sometimes the hands give a real clue as to a persons life. Soft and smooth, weathered and callused, scarred or twisted, they tell you a whole lot about how a person lived. My grandfathers hands are strong and well worn. They belong to a man who has lived a long and interesting life. He's worn his ring for so long that its fitted perfectly to his fingers, just like his marriage, a perfect fit.

Bejeweled

1/350" at f5.6. ISO 100
December 29th, 2007

Since last week's photo was of thousands of leaves and colors, I thought I'd choose something simple in contrast. The dew drops hanging from the bare winter branches were like tiny jewels growing as fruit. To capture them, I got in close and tried to separate the droplets from the surrounding branches.

Once I got it home, I liked the shot, but the reflection in the water and the appearance of crystal still didn't stand out enough, so I went with black and white. Then I over processed it to give it some grain and tried for more of a film feel instead of digital.

Pathways

1/4" at f8. ISO 100
December 29th, 2007

This is one of the last photos I took in 2007. Cristina and I got up at 6am and left for a cold, foggy hike at the Consumnes River Preserve to try our hand at some early morning landscapes. Granted, with the fog we got none of the sunrise we'd been hoping for, but none the less found an excellent atmosphere waiting for us.

With our cameras wrapped in plastic grocery bags and our boots squelching in the deep mud we both agreed that we felt like real photographers. That is to say, enduring miserable conditions while hungry and tired in hopes of getting that elusive perfect picture.

I love ethereal quality of this photo, like you're just down the way from Narnia or a fairy ring. Its actually one of the first of a new collection of photos I'm taking. Several of the books I've read suggest that a great way to push yourself creatively is to choose a project. It could be anything from tree bark to groups of three, whatever strikes your interest creatively. Make it your mission to seek out and photograph these things.

Personally I love photographs with pathways. I like the impression that you could just walk right into them. So I've decided to try that on for size. I'm going to actively seek out interesting pathways of all kinds, real or metaphor, whatever catches my eye. Six months or a year from now, we'll see what I have.