Travelling and picture opportunities

While traveling, the opportunity to stop and take pictures are plentiful. I will show you two prime examples.

First, while traveling from Virginia to Kansas on one of my many cross country journeys I drove along the blue ridge parkway in southeastern Virginia. It was getting late in the day and the sun was going down behind the hills when I stopped and noticed this water fall. I was the only soul on this highway at the time, and there was a light fog starting to roll in.




I also started to experiment with shutter speed and the flow of the water. It was getting dark and I was having trouble just getting enough light for any pictures. It has been too long and I don’t remember the settings I used, but these pictures were done with a beat up Pentex K-1000 all manual camera. I still have it and am using it in Afghanistan right now. It also survived a trip to the sands of Mesopotamia and back. But that is a story for later. First the pictures...

Pets

Cats are fun to photograph. I especially like my cats. The secret to great shots is to get close. Not zoomed in, but down on the ground and up close.
If you don’t have a clear subject, like this first shot demonstrates, then it turns out to be a bleagh photo.

(And yes, I did tether my cats with little harnesses to a clothesline. Call me cruel, but they did not run away or get run over on the county roads...)

But get down in the grass, get dirty, and see what happens. They come alive in the photograph and show their personalities. She still gives me that look from time to time...mainly when she is mad at me or the wife...

There is a lot to be said about photographing nature. They are easy subjects, always taking directions well, and they don’t need to be paid. That being said, I found some of my best subjects in Kansas. The fields were ripe with flowers and small creepy crawlies and the colors were bold and striking against the sky, ground and green vegetation.

Take for instance these pictures I took one time coming home from work at Fort Riley. It was along a tank trail and the flowers were in bloom. The sun was out and the bees were flying around my head.

Then there was the time I went on top of a hill and took some pictures of plants and bugs. I really just wanted to get out and enjoy the cool clear day and the pictures do show the crisp light of the Kansas sun.

This one I am really proud of the way it turned out. I was walking on a trail when I looked up and noticed the sunflower. Then, I noticed the tree. The symmetry leapt out at me, and I snapped the picture. I was lucky.

Well, here goes nothing. I will post here my travels, past and present, from across the world. I will try to be as accurate as I can, but alas, my memory fades quickly. If I don't remember something exactly right, I will say so.

I will compose a small sample shortly of my travels.

Till then,

Patrick