Once In a Life Time

(f5.6, 1/80, 21mm, ISO 160)

(f5.0, 1/60, 21mm, ISO 160)

These are not the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever photographed - not by a long shot. What intrigues me about these waterfalls is that they only lasted about three or four hours and then they were gone. . . maybe forever. Why? Because these waterfalls only last while the tide is out and in three or four hours the tide is back in and the powerful ocean is rearranging things and so next time the tide goes out as far as it was that day new and different waterfalls will appear.

There's one more Once In a Life Time I'd like to mention. Today was my last day as a full time employee of any company. I retired today. I have decided to stay on on a part time basis just to keep my head in the game, give my wife a little break and (hopefully) finish paying off the mortgage. No more 40 hour work weeks. I'm restricting myself to 16 hours or less. I'm pretty excited about that.

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Along the Oregon Coast at Low Tide

(f7.1, 1/125, 14mm, ISO 160)

Days like this make me want to sell the house and move to the Oregon coast.

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Spud Futures

(f8, 1/200, 42mm, ISO 160)

This was taken in South Eastern Idaho on our way up to Yellowstone National Park in April. The mountain peaks in the distance on the right are the back sides of the famous Teton range. By now this field is green with the famous Idaho Potatoes soaking up the nutrients of the rich soil.

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Sunset Sunday - 19

(f9, 1/200, 32mm, ISO 160)

In the Southern Central part of the State of Washington is an area called "The Tri-Cities". The Tri-Cities is made up of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland. This is a bridge across the Columbia river that goes from Kennewick on the South to Pasco on the North. For some reason I was infatuated with the design of the Bridge and wanted desperately to get a photo of it with the Sunset behind it. I searched and searched for a place I could get a good photo of it and had almost given up when I decided to "trespass" on a railroad bridge that was about a half mile East of it. Amazingly even though there were "Danger" signs and other attempts to discourage foot traffic it was actually very ideal for getting photos of this bridge. Besides having an excellent steel walkway with lots of cables, to keep you from falling off, running next to the tracks it had very sturdy ladders down to large concrete piers that held the bridge up, and the piers had strong steel cables on them to keep you from falling off of that too. It was like it was made for me to go out on there and take photos. You will see more of this bridge on my blog in the near future (wink wink, nod nod) - watch for it.

If you have a Sunset photo you'd like to share, I'd love to see it. Please leave a link to it in your comment. No Sunset photo to share??? I'd love to read your comment anyway.

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Deep in the Canyon

(f5.6, 1/80, 21mm, ISO 160)

From the Oregon coast in yesterday's photos to the deep canyons of Zions National Park in today's.  This spot was one of my favorites, although there were many.  We had to climb down a little ways to get to it and it seemed a real find.

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Phun Phriday! # 20 - Polarizing

(f6.3, 1/100, 21mm, ISO 160, Polarized)

(f8.0, 1/125, 14mm, ISO 160)

It's Friday or should I say Phriday! - and you know what that means.

I just got back from my 10 day trip last night and so I'm sharing a couple photos I took and incorporating them into Phun Phriday! by doing a comparison between one with my Polarizing filter set to polarize and one set so it doesn't. It's just a quarter turn to make the difference. You choose which you like because it's just a matter of preference. In this case I like the polarized.

We were really fortunate on the day that we went to the Oregon Coast for these photos.  (Happened to be my birthday.)   The skies were partly cloudy or mostly sunny depending on how you want to look at it and the tide was quite low giving us lots of really nice tide pools to play in and discover.  You'll see more of that in future posts.

Two points I want to make. One, is that if you are getting a polarizing filter for your digital camera, make sure it is a circular polarizing filter and two, note that it also changes the exposure. The polarizing does absorb light and so your exposure has to be adjusted to compensate.

Have you done something outside of the box recently? We'd love to see it. Just leave a link to it in your comment. If not, I hope you'll feel free to comment anyway.

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Still Here

The primary reason for posting today is just to let everyone know that I'm still alive.  I will actually be heading back home tomorrow.  So I should be back on schedule with something for Phun Phriday! on Phun Phriday!  Even though this vacation was primarily about being with family, I did get some nice pics that I can't wait to share with you.  I take all my photos in Raw and my laptop software handles it very slowly so I'll just post another one of the sunsets I've taken here, but I've taken a lot more than just Sunsets that I'll be posting soon.

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Sunset Sunday - 18

(f20, 1/400, 70mm, ISO 160)

You didn't think I'd let a Sunset Sunday go by without a photo did you? I took this photo this past Tuesday Evening in Kennewick, Washington while on my trip.  Obviously I didn't have my PhotoShop to do my normal framing, but I wasn't going to let Sunset Sunday get away if I had to draw one with crayons.

If you have a Sunset photo you'd like to share, I'd love to see it. Please leave a link to it in your comment. No Sunset photo to share??? I'd love to read your comment anyway.

Today is Fathers' Day in the U.S.  Happy Fathers' Day to all the Dads out there!

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Phun Phriday! # 19 - Red Branches

(f22, 1 sec, 42mm, ISO 160)

Another Phun Phriday! has rolled around.  Even if I am on vacation you didn't think I could skip Phun Phriday! did you??? 

Did I ever mention that I am infatuated with motion blur photography. Whether it's something moving in front of the camera or moving the camera itself.  This is another example of moving the camera vertically while the lens is open to create vertical lines with the subjects in front of the lens.  I will keep trying until I have the perfect one . . .  Of course I suspect that is something like looking for The perfect painting, so I  shall just have to keep trying.

Have you done something outside of the box recently? We'd love to see it. Just leave a link to it in your comment. If not, I hope you'll feel free to comment anyway.

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Good Morning

(f5.0 1/250, 50mm, ISO 160)

I'm still on vacation so I staged this for today to say good morning to you.  Have a Wonderful Wednesday.

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Mammoth Hot Springs and Important Notice

(f5.6, 1/60, 42mm, ISO 160)

Towards the end of our Yellowstone trip we got to Mammoth Hot Springs. I have been to Yellowstone several times before but don't remember ever seeing these and I was amazed and enthralled with them. As I was photographing them I was just thrilled. Unfortunately, This photo, nor any of the rest of them even comes close to doing these justice. In order to really enjoy Mammoth you're just going to have to go there.

Now for the part about the "Important Notice". This may be my last post for a few days. I'm headed out of town and may or may not get the chance to get some photos worth posting. I will try to get where I can check on what's going on and even check out some of your blogs and make comments, but time will be at a premium so I can't promise anything until I return in a couple weeks.

Until then, happy blogging my friends!

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Sunset Sunday - 17

(f5.0, 1/200, 179mm, ISO 160)

It's Sunset Sunday. If you have a Sunset photo you'd like to share, I'd love to see it. Please leave a link to it in your comment. No Sunset photo to share??? I'd love to read your comment anyway.

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PhotoHunt - Bubbles

Today's PhotoHunt theme is bubbles. I'm sure we'll see many varieties on this theme.

A little over a month ago when I was in Yellowstone Park - Home of Yogi Bear and Boo Boo Bear - I came across an interesting boiling cauldron. This hole of boiling water was about 2 to 3 feet (.6 to 1 meter) in diameter and was constantly boiling with the water often going as high in the air as it was wide. Since I like water splashes I thought I might be able to come up with something interesting, but with the BUBBLES being so active and violent and the steam coming off of the cauldron it was very difficult and as you can see, nothing very impressive as far as photographic artistry. It is interesting however, so I hope you enjoy it from that standpoint.

Thanks to TNCHICK for originating and hosting PhotoHunt. To see bubbles from around the world click here.

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Phun Phriday! #18 - Dinner Date

(f7.1, 1/250, 300mm, ISO 160)

Here it is Phun Phriday! again already. Usually, Phun Phriday! is for stepping outside the box and getting creative. This week I've decided to just post a photo I took earlier this week just because I thought it was kind of Phun. I was by a small dam and kept noticing these two ducks bobbing under to get their meals together and thought it was funny to see their tail feathers poking out of the water at the same time so I grabbed a quick snap of it. Like I said, nothing spectacular and especially nothing very creative or even that great of a shot. This time it really was just for Phun.

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Counting Flowers on the Blog

(f5.6, 1/160, 50mm, ISO 160)

(f5.6, 1/160, 50mm, ISO 160)

(f5.6, 1/160, 50mm, ISO 160)

(f5.6, 1/200, 50mm, ISO 160)

(f5.6, 1/50, 50mm, ISO 160)

For several days I've been promising myself a walk around our yard to capture some of the beautiful flowers that my wife is nurturing.  Today was that day.  You'll notice that they are all at f5.6 to control the DOF (Depth of Field).  I also thought it would be fun to mess with the border a little, and so I used the color picker and selected a color from within the photo and then using a large brush at about 80% opacity I painted that color over the background image.  If you look really close on some of them you can see some of the background shapes coming through, which is obviously exactly what I wanted.

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Speaking of Waterfalls

(f22, 1/10, 14mm, ISO 160)

Unless this is your first or second visit to my blog you know that I love photos with water in them. I especially love falling water, whether it is falling 3 inches or 300 yards (meters). I posted a photo of a water fall yesterday, that I took yesterday. Today I'm posting one that I took a couple months ago in Zions National Park. This morning Karen of What Karen Sees, posted her Tech Talk Tuesday post about lens flare, so I thought in honor of her information about that I would post this with the lens flare through the falls reflecting the colors of the rainbow.

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Today's Ride

(f18, 1/4, 14mm, ISO 160)

(f6.3, 1/400, 141mm, ISO 160)

(f4, 1/50, 14mm, ISO 160)

(f11, 1/15, 202mm, ISO 160)

There's a very pretty canyon about an hour's drive away that is cool and beautiful in the spring. Today's photos all come from a trip up that canyon that Chad and I made today. I'm sure he'll post some on his blog today or tomorrow or maybe both.

On the bottom photo you can probably tell by the fine hairs that they are really small, but just in case you want to see how small they we stuck a pen up next to the flowers for comparison.

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Meet Rick - Guest Photographer Extraordinaire

I've met so many great people and excellent photographers since I started blogging and sharing and enjoying the beautiful work of other photographers.

It has been my honor to feature a number of them as Guest Photographers on my blog and to introduce their work to others who may not have seen it.

There are a number of people out there doing a 365 project where they post at least one photo every day, and most of them try to post a photo they have taken the same day. Some stick with it and some don't. One such photographer who has not only stuck with it, but actually posts 2 or 3 or even 4 photos every day is Rick de Zoete. I have been most impressed by his beautiful photos and not only does he post several every day but he is one of the most diligent at getting out and commenting on so many other photographers' blogs.  My friend Chad has commented several times that he is amazed Rick is able to do so much. If you are not already familiar with Rick you need to be, so stop by and take a look at his great photographs by clicking here.

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Sunset Sunday - 16

(f5.6, 1/13, 42mm, ISO 160)

(f6.3, 1/100, 42mm, ISO 160)

Both of these were taken from the exact same place last Sunday night less than 2 minutes apart. The difference is the camera was pointing almost due North for the top one and North West for the second. I couldn't resist posting them both.

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PhotoHunt: Sparkle

Yesterday I got to see four of my sweet grandchildren for the first time in over a year since they had been living in Kentucky but now they are moving much closer to home, not close enough for my liking, but much closer. I saw this cute sparkly football jersey and had to grab some photos of the two girls. As you can see they are great models. Of course you can't see the biggest sparkle of all cause that is the one in grandpas eyes as he spends a few days with some of his sweethearts.

Thanks to TNCHICK for sponsoring the PhotoHunt weekly scavenger hunt. To see sparkle from around the world click here.

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Phun Phriday! #17 - Getting Kind of Crazy

(f18, 1.3 sec, 39mm, ISO 160)

It's Phun Phriday!  Does this look like a painting to you?  It's not.  It is a photograph.  Read on to learn how it was done. 

Unless you're fairly new you've seen my motion blurs before on Phun Phriday!  I love a good motion blur and I know that some of you don't care for them.  I read a quote on somebody's blog attributed to Ansel Adams that went something like this:  "One blurry photograph is a mistake, ten blurry photographs is experimentation and 100 blurry photographs is a style."  I hope I'm developing a style.  I will say that you may like this one better if you click on it and make it larger.  Since this is Phun Phriday! I hope it comes as no surprise that I really did have fun with this one.  First of all this was taken in a canyon in Zions National Park, and a photograph of the scene with no Phun looks like this - not bad, but certainly not all that interesting.

Then by closing the lens way down, putting a neutral density filter on it and setting your shutter to be open for 1.3 seconds, then moving the camera upwards while the lens is open you can get this:

But as you can see there's more to do to get it to look like the photo at the top.  In Adobe Bridge I tweaked the  settings to add more blacks, fill light, clarity, vibrancy and saturation.  Like I said I just had fun with it but I did NOT add any filters or alter it in any other way.  I just made adjustments in the settings. 

Have you done something outside of the box recently? We'd love to see it. Just leave a link to it in your comment. If not, I hope you'll feel free to comment anyway.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Can't Wait

I took this photo last summer at the top of a mountain near here, as a matter of fact if I could fly a straight line to it, it's about 17 miles, driving, it's probably more than double that.  I keep talking about getting back up there, but It's probably under at least 2 feet of snow still.  The altitude is around 8000 ft.  (2450 meters).  When spring hits up there it will hit fast and hard, I just hope I can get there before it's gone.

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Better Late Than Never

(f6.3, 1/80, ISO 160, 50mm)

(f3.5, 1/1600, ISO 160, 50mm)

(f2.5, 1/200, ISO 160, 50mm)

(f5.6, 1/80, ISO 160, 50mm)

According to the calendar Spring arrived on March 21st. According to my observations it arrived this morning, about 6:47. Summer is supposed to arrive on June 21st. According to my observations it arrived this morning about 7:32. Okay, I do exaggerate a little. After all we've had Spring flowers around for a few weeks, but only the hardiest survived. All of today's photos were taken within the last few weeks.

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The New Look

What, no photo?!?! Actually there is a photo. It's the new banner for June 2010. This is a panorama of The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone taken at the end of April 2010. It consists of 5 photos covering a 180 degree panorama stitched together in PhotoShop.

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What Are The Chances?

The other day I got a call from my granddaughter who lives in another state several hundred miles from me, with an exciting story. She's in the third grade there (I think :^} ) and she was very excited to tell me what happened in school the previous day. Her teacher was talking about the cycle of forests as they go through the seasons and showing the children photos to help them understand. When the photo for trees in Winter came up my granddaughter noticed that it said "Photography by Scott Law".  She said she was so proud and excited to raise her hand and tell the class that the photo was taken by her grandpa.  Since her last name is the same as mine I hope that added credibility to her story.  I don't know how the teacher got the photo, and I really don't care.  I'm happy that she used it and happy that she left my name on it.  I don't know for sure that it was the photo above but it had to be one posted on my blog, like this one was, and I'm assuming it might have been this one because it is an eye catching photo and my name is very visible on it.  My granddaughter couldn't really describe it, after all she's in the third grade and probably more impressed that it was her grandpa's photo than any details of it.  As I asked in the title, what are the chances?

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