Dying to Get Out of Here

this bird didn't make it...

Two Years Ago Today

Since I've not actually had much opportunity to take new photos...two years ago today, my parents were visiting and on one of our drives around, we stopped up above Sarajevo and I took a series of 6 photographs I intended to merge together into a panoramic ...tonight I tried out the photomerge function in Photoshop CS4 for the first time and here is the result. After the merge and cropping out the "waste" it was still over 45 megapixels. I think Blogger limits me to only 1024 pixels wide (the original is over 17,000). I would have liked a little more blue in the sky (that was behind us) but it was still a nice day. See how many cemeteries you can count...


Sarajevo Valley, 2008 - Sarajevo, BiH





Zetra Olympic Stadium (extracted from the photo above) - Sarajevo, BiH

I'm Thinking

that people aren't so close right now...in retrospect, we were probably too close...I think these are all scans from Jan 2005. When we went up in 2006, we actually looked down the hole spewing lava in the photo #4...

At the Edge of Creation - Volcan Pacaya, Guatamala City




Lava Tube Breathing Fire - Volcan Pacaya. Guatamala City




Sulfur & Steam - Volcan Pacaya, Guatamala City




Modern Day Dragon Spitting Fire - Volcan Pacaya, Guatamala City

Some of the Oldest Photos of Mine

that I can find among my scans on this computer...I'm sure I have a pile of negatives somewhere from when Ryan was born. I first really got into photography and shooting slide film in Australia the early 90's...maybe 1992 or 1993 when I bought an EOS-10s. It is interesting to go back and see how far I've come and how good I still think some of my early photos are. I also wonder what I'd do now photographically in the same situation but with the experience and equipment I have now...

The oldest first...too bad I didn't have the 70-200 2.8L IS for this one...I wouldn't count this as one that I still consider real good...it is just one of the very oldest I have.

Pink Cockatoos at Sunset - Northern Territory, Australia



This was just weeks before we left, on a road trip through the Northern Territory with another family that was also from Cincinnati and also leaving...this remains one of my favorite photos of all time and among the first I posted...I took 6-8 rolls of 36exp slide film on the about 10 day trip. If I took the trip today, I'd probably shoot a couple thousand photos.

Devil's Marbles - Northern Territory, Australia




Among the many highlights of that trip was our time in Kakadu National Park

Yellow Waters - Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

Portrait of an Iris

These were in full bloom when I left last week...

Iris - In the Front Yard

Some Things are Growing Fast

I'll basically see the entire mushroom life-cycle in the less than 3 weeks I'm here....in the meantime, I don't think that my cherry tomato seedlings even grew a millimeter...

Mushrooms II, They Came From Mars...

In The Front Yard This Morning

I had to get down on my belly for this shot...

Mushrooms

Spring Time in Greater Cincinnati

Beautiful day today...some shots from this afternoon's little trip to the Cincinnati Flower Show which is appropriately enough...in Loveland.

I think these were probably already in the park...

Red Buds & Blue Sky



Hyacinth


Flowers...

I Think This was July, 2005

But like the previous post, these are scanned slides...and unlike digital files from my digital camera, they don't necessarily come with dates attached...

Roaring Forks - Great Smoky Mountain National Park




Roaring Forks - Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Biotopo del Quetzal

These are from way back...scanned slides. Still just looking through all the photos I've taken over the years...holy cow there is a lot I totally forgot about.

Something made me think of my photos and slideshows on photobucket.com (individual links on the right) and I realized I never linked to my Guatemala album...well I corrected that now...which got me looking through a massive folder of slides I scanned back then that I'd copied to the new computer (because someday I'll have heaps of time to organize ya ya ya...) and now with photoshop on a computer with the memory to handle the massive scans...here are a few I touched on this evening. I think only the bromeliad has a version in the slideshow...

Anyway, a really neat place up in the Coban cloud-forest is the Biotopo del Quetzal. We went there two or three times and actually managed to see a Quetzal on one of those trips.

Ferns and Fog - Biotopo del Quetzal, Guatemala




Bromeliad - - Biotopo del Quetzal, Guatemala




Patterns in the Canopy - Biotopo del Quetzal, Guatemala




Small Waterfall - Biotopo del Quetzal, Guatemala

New Mexico Moon

Another old one...

Wind and Moon - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Continuing With the Past

Still going through old photos. This was taken during the week-long photography workshop to learn photoshop I took at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops back in 2006. Our first outing was to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument...here is one of the photos.

Time - Tent Rocks, New Mexico

A Couple of Older Shots

I found these today sorting through and organizing older photos. These two are from shortly after I got my digital camera, but before I left Guatemala. The first isn't as sharp as I'd like it to be. The rain shot was a failure in the sense that I kept trying to get the little splashes and circles from the rain to show up, but I didn't get it right in any of the shots I took.


Mom and Kids - Antigua, Guatemala




Rain on Rock - Guatemala

Cow Tipping

I'm certain that with a few beers in me, I could tip these cows over... despite the Wikipedia claim that Cow Tipping is a myth.


Retired Cow Out to Pasture and Palms



Grazing Cow

Diversity in Beans...

yet they are all beans...

No Idea for a Title

Besides cemeteries, tree bark and tree leaves, their colors, texture and patterns are something that tends to draw my eye.

Here's a couple more photos I took a few weeks back when Shelby and I went walking down by the Little Miami River with our cameras. This was a rather massive tree that had fallen across the path a long time ago.

Moss on TreeMilford, Ohio




Tree in Giraffe's ClothingMilford, Ohio

A Hint of Spring

I didn't see much promise of spring when I was home at the end of February. I've since heard that the weather is now a bit nicer than all the snow I saw...

Here's a picture I took when Shelby and I went walking down by the Little Miami River with our cameras

A Hint of SpringMilford, Ohio

The Last Bit of Alaska

Here is a misc. collection of photos from our Alaska trip that I've never posted...enjoy (I hope)



One Man Town...I Don't Know Where, Alaska





Picnic TableSan Juan Island, Washington




LavenderSan Juan Island,Washington





Old Russian CemeterySitka, Alaska




SunsetNear Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska





DawnGlacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Snow Angel

It looks like it might be a long time before there is any hint of spring. I've been home for a week, and I'm thinking I won't see the ground this trip...

Swing Waiting For Spring - Milford, Ohio




Snow Angel

Smith Bros. Hardware

On the surface, this looks like just another iconic example of the world passing by the Midwest...

But go to Google and search "smith bros hardware columbus ohio" and it is clear that everything isn't always what it seems...leads to articles like this.

Smith Bros. Hardware - Columbus, Ohio