Not Quite...

Just a quick update, post Photowalk contest.

The Grand Prize and 10 Runner-Up prizes were picked. Unfortunately, mine was not among them. Here's a link to the page with the winners, (for as long as it works) and the reasoning behind their wins, per Scott Kelby who runs the whole thing and makes the final call on judging.
http://scottkelby.com/announcing-the-winners-from-my-8th-annual-worldwide-photo-walk/

A day later they also announced a follow up with Honorable Mentions. This was good - there were over 30 picks here. All shots he really liked, but didn't win any prizes.
http://scottkelby.com/honorable-mentions-from-my-8th-annual-worldwide-photo-walk-2/ 

You may notice, I am not in this set either. Bummer. So all together, there were about 45 winners selected from the group of over 900. Has to be a tough thing to judge. I can't say I like or agree with all his choices of winners, but anything like this is extremely subjective to whatever the judge likes/dislikes at this moment in time. I think I had a pretty good entry, but I guess I shall have to try again!

Photowalkin, Part III

After taking several years off, this year I decided to have another go at the Worldwide Photowalk on October 3rd. I did the walk previously in 2011 and 2009. Skipped several years due to bad weather or just general lack of interest in the selected location.

This year it was at the Terry Bison Ranch just south of town on the WY/CO border. It's main claim to fame is, not surprisingly, a herd of bison. They take you on a little train tour through the bison, if you want. It also has an assortment of other animals - camels, llamas, horses, donkeys, ostrich, peacock and other critters. Kind of a mini zoo, along with some old westy stuff, a large campground, etc. Basically, its a touristy place.

But since I've always just gone past it, never to it I figured I'd go. The weather was - ok. After a long very warm fall, we had a couple pretty chilly days, normal for October. But a big change. Temps were in 40s, mostly cloudy. Day before was foggy and misty rain most of the day, that would have been tough to do much outside photography without all your equipment getting wet.

21 people signed up, I'd guess maybe 15 or so showed up to wander around taking photos for several hours. Quite honestly, I didn't capture much that I thought was very good. Though working on them later, a few came to life once I mixed a little Photoshop in. Let's get started...

This was one of my first shots. They have this little homemade 'suspension' bridge, over a marshy spot. It was kinda bland, against a gray cloudy sky. But the sun was trying to peek through. So I went heavy on the contrast and color, made it into kind of a dark, 'moody blue' scene. Just playing around.

There's a number of pieces of old horse-drawn farm and construction equipment on the grounds. This is a detail shot of one - an old Case. Didn't have to do much Photoshop work on this image.

The hood emblem on an old International schoolbus that was converted to a tour bus, and later became a chicken coop on wheels. There's a number of free-range yardbirds (chickens) on the grounds, and this bus is their home. Another image I didn't have to do very much to.

 A horsehead hitching post on a fence. Tie up yer horse, head on inta the saloon, pardner! I did a little more on this image - saturated the whole thing, then desaturated all the background but not totally. Just trying to make the horse stand out from the background a little more.

An old Adams Leaning Wheel Grader. It would be slow going grading a road with one of these, but I'm sure it did the job, eventually. This image is by far the most Photoshopped. Besides giving it the antiqued look, I had to remove a lot of things - a stop sign, a fence, an asphalt road and railing along the interstate, which is actually at the line of the ground and the sky. After all that it looks like an old photo of a discarded piece of machinery rusting away in a field. Or at least I think it does.

Finally, we come to my entry in the Photowalk competition. This was really bland looking at first, and I figured it was a throwaway. But once I started playing with it in Photoshop it surprised me and really came to life. Funny how that happens sometimes. It's the inside of a metal pipe used as a slide in a big homemade playground setup in the campground. All I had to do besides make the colors and textures pop was clean up a few small distractions, rotate and center it. And for this location, this is what I consider my 'best' photo! I like the changing colors, the texture and the spiral swirl in the pipe. Uniquely abstract!

Only 3 people entered the contest in our walk. Kinda surprised me, with ~15 people there weren't more. Here's the link to the photowalk page, for as long as it is active-
http://kelbyone.com/photowalk/walk/cheyenne-wy-united-states/

The winner for each location is entered in the worldwide competition. I'd say I have a pretty good chance this year (I didn't win either of the other prior walks I entered. Which I can go on in detail about...)

*** UPDATE***
My entry WON the Photowalk for my location. So I am entered in the worldwide competition! That's cool. According to the website there were 999 walks worldwide. So that means there should be 999 entries in the competition. For 1 Grand Prize, 10 Runner Up Prizes and 1 People's Choice prize. So the odds are slim. And they always pick winners from around the world, only a couple from the US. So if my photo wins, it will have managed quite a feat! More to come soon...

Bad Moon on the Rise?

Went out last night to take photos of the big lunar eclipse.

It was both a Supermoon eclipse, as the moon was about as close to the Earth as it gets, and also the 4th 'Blood Moon' in a recent series of blood moons.

There's all sorts of religious, mythical and other attachments to such events. Whether they really mean anything I'm not sure. That's up to everyone to decide, and time itself. Anyway, on to a couple photos!

The night started with a awesome sunset. God beams on the horizon under the clouds. Wait - clouds? They'll obscure the eclipse! Fortunately, that didn't happen. The clouds broke up and mostly drifted away. They did get in the way briefly during the eclipse but for the most part it was totally clear! Unusual - the weather rarely seems to cooperate during such events.

I took a series of photos, made a collage as most people do showing the eclipse coming and going.

These were all with my smaller camera, and the exposures were off a bit, a little too overexposed on many. But it still made a good series all together.

There were a number of people out watching the eclipse when I was. Though everyone left by the time it was in full 'blood moon' eclipse. I was the only person watching the eclipse end.

Glad the weather cooperated. If I shoot one of these again I'm going to use my DSLR with long zoom lens so I can get closer and control the exposures a little more.

Quest for Color, Part 2

One week later, new location, what did I find?

Much the same. Some color, lots of green. Lots of pale yellow or leaves that have fallen already. Talk about an inconsistent fall. The whole color change things seem discombobulated this year. Sigh.

Starting off with a little sky action. There were a few more clouds this weekend, which always looks a little better than a plain blue sky. These HDR clouds make quite a nice puffy, fluffy look over this large rock feature.

A touch more color here. All the grass long ago turned yellow, everything else is this years grab-bag of colors, along with the remains of a long ago burned tree trunk.

Who needs color, when you can get black and white drama? A rock and sky shot is wrapping up this quest for color! Almost looks like a infrared image!

Quest for Color, Part 1

Fall rolls around again, so time to head for the hills, look for a little fall color!

After a very dry, then very wet spring, followed by a mostly dry summer, we now have a late fall. No frost, and temps have been summer like. I'm not sure if that affects the color or not, maybe it does. For this time of year, it's been VERY green, with not much color change yet.

Though in spots, it has changed, but the colors are very dull. Some of the leaves have a lot of dark spots, some fungus or something. Some leaves have fallen already. Not sure this is gonna be all that colorful of a fall this year. Bummer!

A meadow with a pond, a little color but a lot of green. Shot in HDR, which helped pop a little detail out in the sky, which was looking almost plain blue. The clouds have kind of a unique shape to them I think.

A curtain of leaves, yellow and green - the order of the day.

I'll head out again next weekend as long as the weather permits, maybe find a little more color in another location. 

Sky High

Just got back from a summer vacation trip to visit some family. Got a few interesting photos along the way. My favorites were a bunch of stormy weather, very interesting clouds I got one day late in the trip.

The all-seeing eye? Nope. Just a large roadside sculpture, leading down a highway with 6 more very large metal sculptures. Some are pretty nice, some are just - unique. But they're all big!

A nice train relief on a building (actually at a rest area!). I toned it, but the actual color of the building itsn't much different than the photo.

Catch the buzz! Nice close up of a bee on a flower at my brother's house. Besides the bees there were literally squadrons of big dragonflies around but I didn't manage to get any photos of them.

The first of my stormy day photos. They were all shot in HDR. I tweaked the color to make it a little more bluish. I really like how all the cloud effects really pop out in HDR. Though sometimes it can be a bit 'much'.

Another shot, in this one you can see part of a rainbow near the ground.

I was shooting in a yard that borders a horse pasture. And there were several horses and ponies out in the field. They weren't quite as interested in the clouds as I was.

Its a storm-o-rama! This is a 180 degree view, composited from 4 photos. Really interesting sky, in-between running for cover from rain showers, which there was no shortage of either! Some pretty heavy downpours in fact. But I didn't get any of those tricky lightning shots.

Plants Ablaze

Went out tonight to take July 4th Fireworks photos. Had a pretty good show, with a really good blazing, exploding finale. But the whole show overall seemed a bit shorter. Probably shorter to save money?

Took quite a few photos, I picked out a couple that all kind of remind me of plants. But plants made out of blazing trails of light!

This one looks to me like a big purple flower. With a stem and leaves.

Tumbleweed - that's what I'm calling this one! Big and spiky.

Wrapping it up with a nice, peaceful Palm tree. Time to head for the beach!

Supercharged

Summer under way, and one of the early summer events is the annual Superday. Like always, I mostly go just for the car show to try and find a few interesting cars to shoot, and maybe a few cool hood ornaments. Overall, I got both!

Starting off with a car I know. This '68 Dodge Charger belongs to a friend of mine. He completely tore it down and rebuilt it. Most of it looks factory stock. Other than the big supercharger he put on the 440 engine. He won best in his category. I shot in HDR, then photoshopped the background to get rid of other cars, people walking around, etc.

A front end shot of one of Ford's most infamous cars - an Edsel. This one was also a convertible!

A current generation Corvette hood/front end. Added a bit of an oil paint effect to the image (except the logo) to tweak it a little.

A logo from a Ford Lightning high-performance pickup truck. Truck wasn't anything special but I like the logo.

Got a couple new entries for my DHCBWOCHO (You know what it means) series at this show -

This was a really cool early 30's Buick sedan with wood spoke wheels. Car was in great shape, and had a nice big chrome ornament. Hood was open showing the engine, which you can see in the picture - the center hinged style hood.

My favorite from this shoot. A mid 50's Pontiac. The head was kind of an amber colored plastic, probably original as it had a lot of fine cracks in it. Car was black and white. Just a little cleanup and tweaks and it really pops! Cool unique hood ornament.

That was it for the car show. Very sunny, pretty warm. As always getting good shots is tough with all the reflections ( I keep seeing myself reflected in the cars!), overly bright sunlight, too many people in the way and too many cars next to each other. But, that's the way it goes!

Triple Threat

Got out for my first hike this weekend. With weather looking very likely to rain.

Partly sunny to start the day, even started getting warm. But this spring has been close to a record for the amount of rain we've been getting. And it continued today.

This is more HDR, as the clouds built up. There were a LOT of people out today hiking and biking. Till the first rain shower started. Then it seemed most of the people vanished. Maybe they melted? Fortunately I packed a rain coat, and had a good spot to wait out the rain and thunder for half an hour or so. Then it sorta cleared, and was nice again for a while.

Till the next batch of clouds rolled in. The rain forced to wait it out again. Turned this photo black and white for a little drama! The cycle repeated and it cleared up again, looked pretty nice and sunny. With more clouds on the way.

Just became the story of the day. Sunny and nice in between rain showers and cold, sometimes with thunder and lightning. Getting later in the day. After the third rain shower, it cleared more and I was able to finish my hike with some really nice weather. And almost all the people were gone. Too bad because the weather finally was the nicest it had been all day!

Getting ready to head out. As the next wave of clouds was moving in. But that's just fine - I was home bound for a hot shower and a cool beverage! 

Atroz?

What's that?

Not sure. Only definition I came up with online is its Spanish for 'Atrocious' or terrible. It also happens to be the name of my new Diamondback Mountain Bike! So I'm gonna go with "Dude, that bike is, like, totally atroz, man!"

Here's the whole bike. It a full-suspension bike with 27.5 inch wheels, the latest 'in' size between the old standard 26 inch and the new but too big for some 29 inch. Hydraulic disc brakes, 10 speed rear cassette with single speed front, aluminum frame, rock shox shocks. I've only added a couple accessories so far, have some on order. It's gloss black with bright green details, so I'm gonna go with that a little more, and call it my X-Bixe (along the lines of X-Box). Got it on sale for a pretty good price.

Rides pretty well, certainly a LOT different than my OLD mountain bike ROB (Really Old Blue), which is from the days of no suspension. But its still perfectly usable, and I still ride it occasionally. Curiously enough, that bike is a Supergo Access Comp, this bike is a Diamondback Atroz Comp. Both Comps. Coincidence?

One of the things I still need to get the most is a suspension pump. This bike has front and rear air shock suspension. Comes with some air in it but I don't know how much. But from riding it on some trails I know it needs a little more air in it. Suspension compresses quite a bit on bumps.

This is the trail in a park in town where I can ride off road. This is a pretty flat area, also has some areas with a lot of built up ramps, bumps, mounds and more to ride over. Due to the excessive rain this year, its very green and weedy and there are a lot of wildflowers. I wish the city would do a little more to maintain this trail, as the weeds are 3 feet high in some spots and have almost totally overgrown the mostly very narrow trail.

Time to ride some more!

Jingle Jangle

Took another trip north for Christmas. Didn't take many pictures worth posting here, but got a few that were interesting on the trip and playing with Christmas tree lights.

Shot this on the way north. Almost no snow anywhere the whole way. Got a HDR sky shot of some interesting clouds out in the empty countryside.

A motion shot of the Christmas tree lights. Always creates some bizarre patterns, totally dependent on what you do with the camera during the time exposure.

Similar to the above shot. But it was just a straight line of motion. So I copied it several times. moved it around in Photoshop and made it into kind of a kaleidoscope look.

Headed back home, another HDR sky shot. This one had a lot more clouds, but they were all small and bumpy. Shot right at the sun, created a unique finished look. I made it a little m ore blue than it came out of the camera.

And hey - Happy New Year!