Monday, June 11, 2007

Sunsets


What is it about sunsets? The photographer side of me says, "Seen it before. Everyone has shot it already. Why bother? Find something new already!"

But, my inner child says "Ooooo, look at the pretty colors! With fish hooks, too!"

The interesting part about this image is that you could imagine a cold evening, or a hot humid one. You can hear the loons making their last calls before night fall or you can hear the sound of black flies, pummeling your bug nets, looking for a way to bleed you out right there on the boat. Or, as my wife says, you can think of a romantic evening some place else where the sky looked just like that before a warm, melty kiss.

Your sky, your message, your story.

Beware of Camera Recoil While Shooting Clouds


Oh, what can I say about this one?

I got on the second smallest plane in my life, to go on a fishing vacation. The sky was brilliant blue and the clouds, once we got above them, were fluffy like cotton. Of course, I almost missed that part when the plane suddenly dropped about 20 ft down and another 20 to the left.

The copilot turned back to the 7 of us (yeah, did I mention it was a small plane?) and grinned, as if to say, "No worries, mate!"

Obviously, there were "no worries", as I am alive to write this. And, in fact, it wasn't that bad a flight. But, just to be safe, I pulled out my camera and watched the clouds beyond the engine until they looked satisfactorily dramatic and squeezed the trigger.

Suddenly, the camera slammed back into my forehead, like the recoil from a rifle when you place your face to close to the scope. The damned turbulance had bounced us again and slammed the camera, with my face following, into the wall of the plane.

I reviewed the image I had captured and promptly deleted it. Who wants a shot of my knee?

Looking back out of the window, I rubbed my sore forehead and resolved to give myself a little more room between window, camera lens and aching head. A few minutes later, the clouds cooperated again, but the turbulance had vanished.

During a quite moment on the vacation, I pulled out my laptop and spent some time tweaking my favorite from that session.

More images from the Canada Trip coming soon!

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