Vulnerability

I found myself in an uncertain situation last night. When I got home from work, I went to the mailbox and got the mail, which included a Priority Mail package for me. I opened the envelope to discover three New Customer packets from Verizon Wireless. As I looked through one of the packets, I found a “Customer Receipt” that indicated that I had opened 3 cell phone lines with Verizon on February 20^th. This not being the case, I immediately called Verizon and alerted their fraud department. In the process of doing this, I learned that the account had been opened with my social security number. I called the police (an officer later came to the house to interview me). I instituted fraud alerts with the credit reporting agencies. I tried to get my once-annually free credit report, only to learn that someone had already either got it or tried to get it the same day as the Verizon accounts were set up. This last little piece of information was perhaps a little more frightening than anything else.

So don’t think it can’t happen to you. Despite best practices, it most certainly can happen to you.

That feeling of vulnerability that comes with not knowing when the next shoe is going to fall is scary. But I’m over being frightened. Now I’m pissed. I don’t know who you are, but I am a patient man. I don’t know who you are, but I have a slow burn. I don’t know who you are, but I am Maximum Decimus Meridius. I don’t know who you are.

Not yet.

Soliloquy

This weekend at Wine Club, we will be presenting 6 wines from 4 of our favorite wineries from our May trip to Napa Valley. I got a little bored the other night and broke out some flashes, a shoot-through umbrella, a grid and some props to get this shot of the top of the capsule of a bottle of Flora Springs Sauvignon Blanc Soliloquy Vineyard Oakville 2009. We love Flora Springs. You should, too. Check them out here. Get some wine. Share the love.

Two speedlights at camera left. One high and shooting down through a shoot-through umbrella and 1/2 power. Second light is Justin clamped to a chair at 45 degrees, with a Honl grid, aimed pretty much at the capsule (which is the foil covering over the top of the wine bottle). White blanket background. I ran out of batteries or I would have splashed the background.

ISO 100
1/60 at f/11
Nikkor 70-300VR at 300, hand held.

Incidentally, the other wines are the 2009 Buehler Vineyards Chardonnay Russian River Valley, the 2009 Buehler Vinearyds Zinfandel, the 2007 Trespass Vineyard Cabernet Franc, the 1999 Flora Springs Trilogy, and the 2005 Taylor Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.

Hello, blog. Long time, no see.

So it's been about 16 months since I've posted anything on here. Coming soon (relatively) will be a little recap of our recent trip to Napa Valley. Until then, here's a shot from high on a hill above Buehler Vinevards. I took four or five shots from the passenger seat of John Buehler's truck, and after about 30 seconds, he remarked, "What the hell are you doing, making a photograph or a painting?"

I think I've forgotten how to operate a camera. I'll blame it on the wine.

Gratuitous Waterfall Shot

Ok, last post was about finding something unique in landscape shooting. But what would a trip to a waterfall be without actually taking a shot of the waterfall? Here's a shot from Ann Falls back in January, taken while standing in the creek below the falls. Shot RAW, exposure adjustments and black and white conversion in Lightroom.

EXIF:

ISO 100
Nikon 18-135 at 28 mm
f/16 for 4 seconds

Snow Mushrooms

This past Wednesday, I ventured back out to Ann Falls (below the Lake Ann spillway in Bella Vista) to take some snow shots. I got out there around 3:30 or so. One side benefit of being a duck hunter is the fact that I have all the gear necessary for an adventure like this, such as neoprene waders and a heavy, wader-length, waterproof coat. Gloves help, too, but can be a bit of a hindrance trying to manipulate gear.

I am a huge fan of the British magazine Practical Photography. Earlier in the day, I was reading an article in a back issue about fine art photography. I pulled a piece of great advice from this article. Anybody can take the obligatory, wide-angle shot of a landscape scene. A more interesting shot comes from isolating smaller components of the landscape. With this in mind, I was on the lookout for interesting little "mini-landscapes" while slip-sliding through the stream to the base of the falls.

On-course management strategy in golf is to think your way through a hole in reverse, that is, from the green back to the tee. You see things differently. And so it was with the waterfall. Standing with my back to the falls and looking downstream, I spied a nifty snow and ice formation overhanging a large rock, just above the water. The whole formation resembled frozen snow mushrooms growing on a rock. I'm still working on this shot to bring out the texture of the snow, but that's proving to be a challenge in Lightroom, so I may have to resort to other measures. This is a black and white conversion with a light blue split tone applied to the highlights. The wisps in the background were created with a long shutter speed to turn the stream into cotton candy.

(Yes, I'm aware of the lens spots. I'll fix them. I just really like this shot and wanted to post it.)

EXIF:

Nikon D80
18-135mm lens at 44mm (with circular polarizer)
ISO 100
f/16
6 second exposure

Field Trip

During the snow and ice storm of 2009, I wanted to get out and take some shots, but trial prep prevented me from doing so. This week, I have vowed not to make the same mistake. I have my tripod and waders in the truck and I am by golly going to get some winter waterfall pictures this week (and with the temperatures being so cold this week, it's not like the snow is going to melt). So maybe late tomorrow I'm going to head to Ann Falls and/or Tanyard Creek. If you're inclined to tag along, let me know--I'm sure I'll go more than one day this week. You will absolutely need a tripod, although you may not absolutely need waders (I will be in the water, though). You will also need the ability to manually control the shutter speed of your camera. If you can't slow down the shutter speed to half a second or slower, you won't be able to get the cotton candy effect that make all those waterfall shots so dreamy.

More Than Animals

Wow. Here it is, November 1st. The card that is in my camera has pictures on it from April that I haven't imported. Summer is full of a lot of things. Heat. Rain. Vacations. Sports. My summer was full of work, and not at all full of photography.

We went to Tulsa for a quick day trip over Labor Day weekend. Hadley has a pretty short attention span for the zoo. Also, to get really decent shots of wildlife, you kinda need a 300mm or 400mm 4.0 lens with a teleconverter. A monopod is also helpful (I decided to leave mine in the truck). Fortunately, many zoos are more than animals. This was taken in a little lillypad somewhere along the way.

EXIF:

Nikon D80
18-135m lens at 135mm
ISO 400
1/800 sec. at f5.6

Black and white conversion, exposure tweaking, split toning and gratuitous vignetting in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.1.