Opossum Family

This sighting was a first for me.  I came across this mother opossum yesterday while on an early morning walk.  At first I thought that the animal was moulting, but a closer inspection revealed that this was a mom with many babies.  I got off a couple of shots.  This was my favorite.  Shortly the opossum noticed me and took off into the bush.  I took this picture with my tiny (just slightly larger than my iPhone) Panasonic LF-1.  RAW in Aperture priority, f5.9, 43mm, ISO 200. When I got home I researched the opossum family and learned that a mom will birth as many as 15 babies and will carry them like this on their backs and in her pouch for up to 3 months. When opportunities  like this come up It is not important which camera you have with you.  It is only important that you have a camera!

More Africa in Monochrome

I have recently been intrigued with how interesting African wildlife looks in monochrome.  I took this photo of a beautiful leopard while on safari at Okonjima Private Reserve in Namibia.  This was our first opportunity in four African safaris to actually see a leopard in the wild.  I took this picture with a Nikon D300 and the original Nikon 80-400mm lens.  ISO 800, f5.6, 1/2000 second.  I converted the photo to monochrome in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

This image will shortly be displayed on my daughter's wall in Denver as a 16 X 20 inch print.

Whimsical Fun with a Fisheye Lens

Fisheye lenses aren't for every occasion, but they are certainly a good idea  in certain instances like this one where I wanted to get everything (house, deck and pool) in the photo.  You can even see my shadow in the pool since I got up on top of the slide to take the picture (:g).

I like the way that the fisheye bends the trees in a whimsical fashion.  Hey, if you are looking for an arbor of trees without any luck you can always take along a fisheye and create one!

Fisheyes are great for panorama photos.  Here I wanted to get the old historical building, the beautiful palm trees and a hint of the modern building next door.

In this case I think that the fisheye effect gave the photo of this Mexican restaurant a more tropical feel as the deck and its tiki like umbrellas wrap around the building.

In this fisheye photo of my kitchen I added a white vignette to enhance the effect. My fisheye lens is an 8mm Rokinon (all manual...no auto settings).  I keep the lens set at Infinity and f5.6.  This is a Nikon mount lens.  I used it for these photos on my Nikon D300 camera.  The Rokinon lens is really built strong. It looks great, and the optics are terrific but it costs a pittance of what it's Nikon competitor sells for. Rokinon offers fisheye lenses for other camera bodies as well.  I added one to my wishlist for my Olympus EM-5 too.

 A fisheye is a great lens when you want to give your photography a creative charge.  I like to put mine on the camera,then I leave all of my other lenses in the bag at home and just spend a few hours seeing what I can create with the fisheye. What do you think?

New Mousepad from a favorite photo.

I just had a mousepad made up by Shutterfly from a photograph that I took of the interior of my convertible. I am thrilled with it and thought that I would share it. The photo was taken with my compact Panasonic DMC LF-1. I mounted the camera on an X-Shot Extender pole and used a 10 second delay to take the photo. 

First Look - New Olympus 60mm f3.8 Macro Lens

 My new 60mm (120mm) f2.8 Olympus Macro lens just arrived.  I am sharing a few handheld photos that I took around the house with the lens on my EM-5...all at f2.8.  I have not touched these photos except for cropping.  I was particularly interested in the bokeh that I would get.  Pretty good I think 

I can't wait to get this baby on a tripod and get some photos of flowers.  What do you think?

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

Sedona Arizona Favorite Photos

Moon rise at Cathedral Rock

Lynn and I just returned from a great week in the Sedona-Cottonwood-Clarkdale, Arizona area.  This is a great spot for beautiful scenery, color and iconic southwest photo ops.  The photo of the moon rise at Cathedral Rock is an HDR.  The moon rise over the mountain makes it special.  I am thankful to an Arizona photographer that was shooting beside me for this rare opportunity.  I was ready to pack up my gear when the fellow next to me suggested that I might want to wait another minute or two...and voila...this is the scene that I was able to get.  My mystery friend said that he consults the iPhone app The Photographer's Ephemeris for the position of the full moon rising.  He drives from Flagstaff to Sedona upon every full moon to get the photo that I was lucky enough to stumble upon!

Sunset over Hangover Mountain

We took a 4 wheel drive trip up Schebley Hill Road in one of the Sedona iconic Pink Jeeps.  This might sound like an easy trip, but as soon as you leave the pavement you are on a non-maintained road that is about as bumpy as you will ever see.  Don't attempt this in anything but a 4 wheel drive vehicle with plenty of clearance.  There was still some mild smoke from the recent forest fires hanging over the mountains, but I was thrilled to get this sunset photo from the 6,000 foot summit.

The train station at Clarkdale is just a 30 minute drive from Sedona.  This is where the Verde Valley Railroad begins its 4 hour round trip journey along the Verde River to Perkinsville.  I love this 1940s era railroad.  You can buy an Economy Class ticket and shoot your heart out from the open, but covered cars that are next to every enclosed car.  The high desert scenery is magnificent and you just might see a bald eagle in flight.  

Sedona-Cottonwood-Clarkdale - It is paradise for the photographer.