Behind the Digital LensMusings of an Amateur Photographer

19th Oct, 2011 I love you THIS much!

I love stingrays!  Especially their underside.  To me they look like happy angels.

The State Fair of Texas at Fair Park has a revamped children’s aquarium that has a “hands on” exhibit with horseshoe crab, rock lobsters and other non-venomous water creatures that can be touched.  Then, in an outside, but covered area are the sharks and stingrays, the latter which can be hand fed and touched.  After the tragedy that involved Steve Irwin several years ago, I have been a bit leery about touching a stingray, but these were harmless because they did not have their stingers.  Little characters, they would jockey for the right to get touched and to take shrimp out of your hand.  Pushing and shoving, along with squabbling, the largest wasn’t always the winner in the “battle”, but the “conflict reminded me a lot of a rugby scrum in chaos.

And then there was the “ham”.  The one stingray that had to show off at the window.  One of the larger stingrays in the tank, “he” wanted to be noticed [I don’t know if it was a he or she, but for ease of speech I am using the male pronoun] and made no bones about it, bobbing up and down and back and forth, swimming in a circle around the tank, and then coming back to bob up and down at the window again.  It was like he was begging to have his photo taken.  So, I did.  And I got him in a position that said to me, “I am happy to see you, and I love you THIS much.”.  It was a great experience, and left me feeling upbeat.

I love you THIS much!

8th Nov, 2010 Trying harder

My wife is probably one of the most talented and imaginative people I know.  She loves miniatures – designing, building, and decorating dollhouses of all sizes; designing, decorating, cutting and beading eggs [think Faberge-style decorated eggs – real eggs]; designing and making jewelry like necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  As a result our house is filled with wonderful dollhouses and beautifully decorated eggs of all sizes and shapes and themes and nearly every day she wears a piece of jewelry that she has designed and made, whether it be whimsical or elegant.  I love walking through the house and looking at all of the great things that she has made.

She also loves photography – a love that we share.  And she takes incredible photos of flowers.  I have always been in awe of her flower photos, and impressed with how many of them “came out”.  This in the day of film photography.  My flower photos left much to be desired.  I have always been more in to shooting landscapes.

Until digital photography I somewhat ignored taking photographs of flowers, mostly because I knew that I could not afford the film and processing to be able to take them as well as she did, and so I envied her ability.  And then I got my first digital camera.

Over the last few years I have taken a lot more flower photos than I ever did with my film camera, and I have learned a lot.  One of the challenges I have set for myself is to take closeup photos of flowers that look as though there is a black background, and many times I accomplish that.  But, I do not have a macro lens for my Nikon so the photos I take are taken with a 55-200mm zoom lens, standing at a distance and zoomed in.  Consequently my shots are not sharp, but then, who says they absolutely have to be?  I might not always take a good or great shot, and I might often get frustrated, but a missed shot is not a failure.  It is, however, a learning experience.

I am still learning.  I am still trying.  I am getting better at taking flower photos, but I still think my wife takes far better ones.  I am trying harder.  Some day I hope to be as good as her.  It gives me something to aim for, a goal to strive for.  As photographers, we can never think we are the best; we can always be better, because there is always someone out there that IS better.   Practice, hard work, dedication and goals.  Frustrations and failures are learning opportunities, not a time to put away the camera or throw it in the trash.  At least digital photography is not expensive outside of the equipment.

My wife gave me but one [of many] goal to strive for: taking better flower photos.  And, occasionally, I manage to get one!

29th Sep, 2010 A Different Perspective

Too often we take a particular view for granted just because it is what seems to be natural.  I try to see the beauty in objects from a different perspective.  Since I have limited resources and opportunities at the moment, I have to utilize what is around me, mostly within the back yard, but also around the side and front yards from time to time, too.

So often we forget there is always another side to things we see, good and bad, beautiful or ugly.  Just as we forget to look up, we also tend to forget look behind, from above, or beside an object to see it from a different angle, and many times we end up seeing a beauty from this perspective we did not know exists.  It opens a whole new world of photography, of discovery and excitement.

I love flowers, my favorite being tulips, but our yard has only 10 small tulips that bloom in the Spring.  My wife, though, loves roses and so our yard has beautiful rose bushes on three sides of the house; they produce gorgeous blooms that we get to enjoy for a large portion of the year, and that I have the good fortune to photograph – from all angles.

The next time you see an object you really want to photograph, don’t forget to see it from above, from below, from behind, and from beside, and enjoy it in all of its beauty – or ugliness.

26th Jul, 2010 Looking up

I love to take photos; that’s obvious in the number I take in a year – good or bad.  Yesterday I went to our local State Park, a favorite place, to take some photos around a pond and lake.  As I was walking around the board walk next to the pond, it occurred to me that I was always looking ahead of me or down around my feet or down at the pond.  I never looked up to see what was above me besides sky and trees; I wasn’t looking to see what might be IN the trees or the sky.  What a realization that was!

We are so used to looking straight ahead or looking down at our feet or just beyond to see what we might see to take a photo of that we miss a very important part of our environment – that which is above us.  How many times, sans camera, have we looked up to see sun rays peeking over the clouds, birds in flight, flocks of birds in trees or other animals, and wish we had our camera?  And then, when we pack our gear and head out, we totally forget to look up, instead focusing on the scene before us.  Not that that is wrong, mind you, but we forget all that neat stuff we saw when we didn’t have a camera to capture that neat moment in time.

A few weeks ago, at this same state park, my wife and I were walking around an area known as the “butterfly” garden, even though it’s not been kept up well.  At my eye level I spotted a lot of butterflies that were just sitting on the tree trunk, flying or landing.  We had never seen this phenomenon before so we were both fascinated by it.  And then we looked up.  Above us were banana spiders, one large and several much smaller, scattered throughout the trees.  It was one of those rare times I thought to look up and had I not, I would have missed the spiders.  Not that I could get a decent photo of any of them because of the angle, but they were there and something that might have been overlooked.  Later that evening, while sitting on the beach by the lake, we happened to look up again and saw a Great Heron flying above us followed by two resident geese.

The environment above us should not be ignored, but often times we’re too “centered” on what is before us and below us to remember what is above us.  We might not be able to capture the moment because we’re not quick enough, but at the same time we had the moment to see things that live outside our personal space.

26th Jan, 2010 Success!

Well, after a 20 minute drive yesterday I finally got my lens at a Best Buy in another city; it was the last one they had, so I was lucky to have gotten it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, so wasn’t inclined to look at the lens.  There it say, in the box, in the bag, faintly calling my name, begiing me to let it out and put it on my camera body.  I just couldn’t do it, though.

Today is a different matter, however, and out of the box it came and, with trembling hands, I put the lens on my camera and out the door we went to take some photos of bees flying around our confused blooming red maple tree.  Sweeeeet.

This is the time of year where the birds hit our bird feeders and the other lens just wouldn’t get the close-ups that I enjoy when capturing the antics of the finches and juncos.  It was frustrating to not be able to get the shots I wanted, even though I could use my good old stand-by Canon, which in the past has gotten some really good “bird play” photos.

So, for now, I am happy.  I have the two lenses that I will most likely use the most, and which I had used in my “film” days.  There’s still a learning curve, but that’s the fun.  And the best thing is that I can see the results immediately and don’t have to spend a small fortune on film processing.  Digital, where were you 30 years ago!

25th Jan, 2010 On The Hunt

I’m on the hunt – for another lens for my camea.

Back in October my beloved Canon PowerShot Pro1 developed a strange problem with the shutter leaves, but only in one specific place; the shutter works perfectly most of the time, but it’s just this one place… So, I replaced the camera with a Nikon D3000, but the kit came with only one lens – an 18-55 mm zoom lens.  It’s a great lens for most every day shooting, but I want an additional lens for those times when I need to zoom in on a shot.

So, I’m on a hunt for a 55-200mm lens, specificallly the Zoom-Nikor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6 IF-ED AF-S DX VR Zoom Lens.  It’s apparently a popular lens because locally neither Best Buy nor Wolf Camera have any in stock and neither will be getting them in the next few days.  That took my hunt to the internet.

I could buy from Amazon for $214 or from Sam’s Club for $219, both before S&H, but I’d rather buy one locally, even if it ends up costing a bit more.  I finally found a Best Buy in two cities nearby that supposedly have the lens in stock and I am going to try to see if they do.  Hopefully I’ll be successful.

Hmmm…I need another battery, too, but that can wait for a bit yet.  The lens I need so that I can get familiar with it before heading to Florida next month.

4th Jan, 2010 Hello world!

Welcome to my world!

I am an amateur photographer that lives in Texas.

Photography is my passion, but not my profession.

This blog is not so much my opinion on any variety of subjects as it is just a documentary of my limited travels and joys and frustrations behind the digital lens.  Here you won’t find any deep revelations nor any profound political discussions.  Here you’ll only find discussions on photography and the occasional post of a photograph.