Posts Tagged ‘Sunsets’

Contentment is wherever you can find it.

Quanah Parker was the last War Chief of the Comanche Nation.  This beautiful lake on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge was named in his honor.  This image is a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image created by tonemapping seven exposures.  The breeze was very slight but it was enough to provide a sense of movement among the cattails and reeds.  I entitled this image “Contentment” because of the wash of peace I felt, first upon finding this spot and recognizing the opportunity, and then, even more when the image was captured and I had done my best.  For me, that’s contentment:  recognizing an opportunity and knowing I put forth my best effort to rise to the call.

"Barns of Southwest Oklahoma"

It was late in the evening; the sun had already sank below the infinitely broad western horizon of Kiowa County.  Earlier in the day I had taken Hwy. 54 north to 152, then west to Cordell, and finally north on 183 into Clinton, OK.  I enjoyed the drive; I always do.  However, it’s not uncommon for me to return a different route.  Late in the afternoon, as I began my return trip, I decided to continue on 183 south out of Cordell then turn east on Hwy. 9, a couple miles south of Rocky.  This would take me to the intersection of Hwy. 9 & 54, at Gotebo.  Though several miles away, I could faintly see the lights of Gotebo ahead where Hwy. 9 intersects with Hwy. 54.  I had never traveled this eleven miles before and it was not out of the way, so what the heck?  I questioned my decision just south of Cordell as I came upon some extensive road construction.  The flagman had us stopped waiting our turn to go for so long I turned off the engine.  There was nothing else to do since I was hemmed-in, both front and rear.  After what seemed like twenty minutes, but was probably much less, the lead car came to lead us, slowly, to the other end of the construction, just a few short miles north of Rocky. Read the rest of this entry »

Pac Man

Recently, I was reading “Inner Game of Outdoor Photography”, by the late Galen Rowell, and something he wrote struck a strong chord with me.  In the chapter titled, “The Art of Fixing a Shadow”, he wrote that William Henry Fox Talbot, in 1839 while introducing his invention of photography, referred to it as the “art of fixing a shadow”.  Upon reading those words, everything all my knowledge about photography suddenly melted together in harmony.  Fixing the shadows is truly the art and essence of photography.  The great landscape photographers have always been and always will be putting forth great effort to resolve the issues between light and dark, the highlights and the shadows.  Rendering highlights into a pleasing picture is not difficult, ah, but making the shadows work, that’s the art.

This is what I find fascinating and rewarding about employing high dynamic range (HDR) techniques in my photographs.  This technique is one I have only recently began exploring, but now there are so many, “Aha”, moments I have become intoxicated with the possibilities.  For years I have studied and labored on efforts to solve the issue of correctly representing what I saw in both the highlights and the shadows.  Most of these efforts met with disappointment and even the ones I considered successful failed to fully satisfy.  HDR appears to be the answer with results that bring a great deal of satisfaction and peace with my efforts.