Archive for the ‘WMWR’ Category

Iron Foot Bridge

Sunday afternoon was beautiful with temperatures into the 60s.  While Sherry, Marcy, Erin, and Mike hiked the Elk Mountain Trail up Elk Mountain located on the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Oklahoma, I stayed at the bottom searching for photographic opportunities in the Sunset Picnic Area.  The old footbridge crossing Headquarters Creek was replaced with a new recently constructed ironwork bridge.  It is being allowed to age naturally.  I think it’s a nice and thoughtful touch.  The dominating red color in the granite and soil of Southwest Oklahoma is due to the high levels of oxidized iron; this oxidized iron bridge is a perfect fit.  The image is a 4 exposure HDR image.  I used a polarizing filter on my Carl Zeis 16-80mm lens to bring out the moss growing on the bottom of the stream.

Reesie Stalks Her Prey!

Throughout most of my life I have learned and practiced my photography skills in solitude.  However, this year I decided I would join our local photography club, “Wichita Wildlight Photographic Society“.  We meet once a month and enjoy being in a room with people who are there because they have some degree of passion for photography.  It’s a real mixture of people, representative of any group of 50 people you might form from the Walmart crowd.  Anyway, back in October, about 20, or so, of us loaded onto a bus at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center for an excursion into the Special Use area.  The Special Use area is closed to the public and contains well over half of the Refuge itself.  I had never been in this section of the WMWR, so I was excited to go even though 3:00 PM is not the best light to for photographs. 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.

Enchanted Tower

It had already been a magical morning.  The magic began shortly after sunrise as I rounded the curve that bent back toward the southeast taking me to the dam on  Lake Rush in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  The scene took my breath as the scene unfolded in brilliant colors in shades of reds, yellows, and greens.  “Thank you, LORD!”, I spoke aloud, even though there was no one else around to hear them; just He and I.  I continued to thank him throughout the morning as he showed me wonderful and glorious beauty.  I knew I was rushing against ever rising sun and it’s changing light.  I knew the wind was coming, as well, and understood this window was fleeting.  A feeling of urgency arose within and I rushed to gather my  equipment, locate the perfect place to set up and then to think clearly enough to  manipulate the controls and settings to capture the image not only seen with my eyes but felt in my soul.  My biggest fear was that after two days already spent on the Refuge, the planning, the preparation, and now the presentation would be lost because of mistakes I’d make and points I wouldn’t consider.  To minimize all possibilites, I focused, not just the lens, but my total attention to the task at hand.

The next two hours were intense as I tried to capture as much as possible before the sun rose higher changing the angles of the light and chasing the enchantment away.  I moved frequently trying to stay ahead of the sun and time.  Each moved revealed something new requiring a changes in method and technique.  I was oblivious to everything around me and yet, hyper-aware of all my surroundings.  Finally, with a deep sigh, relaxation washed over me and I knew the window was closed and it was time to leave.  I left with no regrets.  But, I knew there was more left to the morning if only I could find it.  I knew there was more He could show me if I wanted to see. Read the rest of this entry »

Lace Cactus

This morning’s email from Amazon.com contained a list of the best books of 2009, so far.  I clicked the link and soon began looking over the selections.  The title that caught my eye, was “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie”, by Alan Bradley.  I began reading the description with interest, all along wondering if it would be something Sherry would enjoy.  Following the description there was an interview with the author, Alan Bradley.  That’s when the “Aha” moment happened.  Mr. Bradley wrote this book at age 70!  He hasn’t always been a published author, although he stated he always thought he could write, even at age 5.  He went on to note, “Seneca, an ancient Roman author, had said something like this, ‘Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms, you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.’” Read the rest of this entry »

Independence Day has come and gone.  The only thing that’s ever the same is the Oklahoma heat.  What made this year’s Fourth of July rare was the rain.  It never rains on July 4th in Oklahoma!  Never, except this once, this year.

I was staying indoors this year, out of the heat, working like crazy trying to get Expression Web 2 to cooperate with PHP like it’s supposed to do.  I believe it’s just another example of how Uncle Billy, et al, keeps giving us software that doesn’t live up to it’s advertising and then doing nothing to fix it until there’s an upgrade he can sell to add another $Billion to his worth.  Anyway, I was busy as could be when I became aware of thunderstorms building northwest of Lawton.  The idea came to me about heavy ominous thunder clouds behind the mountains of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and the bright July 4th sun to the south.  I pictured an extremely high contrast situation with the mountains in full sunlight and the thunderheads behind.  I couldn’t shake the images from my mind, so late in the afternoon I gathered my camera gear and headed to the WMWR.  I was soon disapointed by the realization that I was going to be about an hour late.  The thunderheads got to the Refuge first.  This is what I wound up with.  Not what I wanted, but it gives an idea of what could have been.