One of my first times combining effects from Topaz and Nik, to get that old-time platinum plate appearance. I like the soft subtle tones that it exhibits.

It has been way too long since I added a post to this blog, but his morning looking out my window at 4 degree F. weather I decided to pull out the Hasselblad and mess around a bit indoors. I came up with this shot, deciding on a close crop, somehow it seemed to me to add an extra dynamic to the picture. What do you think?

Looking past the forest and getting in among the trees

I worked on this photo a good bit in both Painter 12 and Photoshop before getting it like I wanted it. It is a long way from perfect and has a couple of real flaws in it, but I am still happy with it. I was using it as a learning tool to see if I could draw out what I visualized when I captured the image. I do pretty well in Photoshop, but am really just learning to use use Painter, which I will have to master if I want to bring my photo art any where near the level I a shooting for.

Similar to Photoshop, the only real complexity of learning Corel Painter 12 is the richness and depth of an incredible number of tools from which to choose. I can read the books and watch the videos, but the only way to really "own" and program such as this is to wade in, experiment and use the tools, however inappropriate your initial choices and efforts may be.

Below is the original image:

(Shot with the Sony NEX 7. You can see from the extreme crop, the incredible image quality the camera is capable of reaching... with the kit lens.)

Jim Morrison

I stare into this photograph and hear Jim Morrison's "Break on Through." The Doors truly did break on through to a new music, a new sound. And today when I'm walking through a shopping mall and hear their melodies tamed and canned, piped throughout the crowd and shops I sometimes think I see Jim vaulting over a Starbuck's stand or the kid's play pit; it makes me grin.

Always Popular

This photo, simple as it is, almost too stereotypical, is always popular. I find, in fact, that though I captured it two years ago, whenever I come across it, it's comforting, like walking down the street and suddenly meeting an old friend whom you haven't seen for a while.

Coming Together

I'm finally getting my linked sites together, with this blog pointing to my Google+ page, The Image Trail... which can also loop back into Jack J Jenkins Photography -- fine art unbound, or into my Google+ stream of daily photo postings.

Now, if I can just keep remembering exactly how all the pieces together!

Raven's flight

I don't know why, this shot I captured when hiking in the snow near Estes park, Colorado, made me recall an obscure poem by Gary Snyder, enough so that I looked it up:

Range after range of mountains
year after year after year
I am still in love
-- Gary Snyder

I picked this poem to set it in opposition to the scene. To me, Snyder is saying that love transcends death. And this coal black raven winging though a chilled, dark sky can certainly lead to conjured images of the grim reaper. So to hell with that.

Favorite from Prairie Creek Redwoods

Redwood forests are often dark, the scale is overwhelming and just about impossible to capture in a two-dimensional image. Stand back to get the whole tree/forest in view and it becomes just another ho-hum image. Get up close to the trees and their immensity is lost. But what is really lost, most of all is the reverence you feel, the quiet majesty of being down close to these giant, mystical beings, the fecundity of life that develops in a relatively stable environment that stretches back 1000, 1500, 2000 thousand years.

This photo, to me, captures at least the smallest bit of what I felt standing here in a true cathedral of life's story.

Way Best viewed Big

No snappy, high contrast tones to catch your eye when browsing small, but really pops into life when viewed BIG.

New Favorite from Sony NEX 7

Shot this yesterday with the Sony NEX 7, thought I'd see how the black and whites looked out of the camera... and, DANG, I'm afraid my Hasselblad is going to setting on the shelf more and more! Kit lens, hand-held, no post-processing other than B&W conversion with some custom tweaks to gray-scale.

the Rose and Rumi

This rose makes me think of Rumi:

"Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?"
-- Rumi, (translated by Coleman Barks)

Orcs, Morlocks; H.G. Welles and Tolkien

I love machines. Why then does this photo make me think of Orc, Morlocks and the dark recesses of the earth and human mind? I didn't feel this way when making the initial image capture, but this is what emerged as I worked to finish the photo. Hmmm.

Redwood Majesty

This tree on the northern California coast was alive and thriving when Icelandic Vikings first settled in Greenland during a warm period in the Tenth century when much of the island was free of ice and glaciers.

Some black and whites I like

Different scenes, different perspectives that I shot at different times, but I have a fondness for them all.

Moonscape

I am having a difficult time making up my mind about this photograph. There is something in it I like, but I am not satisfied with it overall. I like the form and the black sky (infrared treatment) but I don't like the texture of the rocks; I think they are too contrasty and gritty. Yet when I drop the local contrast on them, they become wishy-washy and ho-hum. Guess I just need to work on it all over, starting from scratch. There is something GOOD in there, I just haven't yet pulled it out.

Getting high 1

Looking east on a high country morning

Colorado's state flower, the columbine, nesting...

High Country Potpouri

There's something about this house

Serenity

Functional beauty

Beneath the surface

A Few Thorns

Color me sharp.

Come hither...

Come, let us dance the mystic path
Enter the narrow way, weave
the shadowed trace, pain and pleasure,
amongst light and dark. Let the Lord
of beauty enter. Come, dance.

Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells"

In my head I kept hearing Bob Dylans' song, "Ring Them Bells," as I worked on this photo. It's on his Oh Mercy album, one of my all time favorites. The man is a genius.

Initial work with Sony NEX 7:

Whoa! This camera has great potential. And in spite of all the criticisms I read about the kit lens before I purchased this camera, all these photos were taken with it, and I think the image quality is outstanding. You do, however, have to carefully choose your aperture and focal length settings for best results.

Landscape Arch

To me, this is the most beautiful arch in Utah. I do love that red rock desert country!

In the Groove

Life is good, what's not to like....

Mars? ...Nah, Utah

A near-by Volcano blew its stack several thousand years ago, hence the beautiful chunks of black basalt spattered all about the red sandstone. Thank you, Mother Nature, good job, good visual acuity.

Left Behind

The twentieth century saw the most massive migration off the lands and farms into the cities. Homes, and bits of hearts and souls, were left behind. Alone, they deteriorate.

Wisdom

Acceptance

Out of the darkness

.Basho's frog?

Red

Life, be open to it.

Spring Seeding in the Palouse 2013

All hours of the day, late into the night, the work goes on to get the crop into the  ground. An amazingly few people manage to supply all the world's food, feeding almost 7 billion people, when 40 years ago, Lester Brown and countless others vociferously swore and lobbied that we would never be able to feed 5 Billion. The noise of the dooms-dayers always makes better media coverage than the untold accomplishments of the real producers.

Starbucks Morning

Ubiquitous:  

Colt 1911 45 cal.

You will stop. Now.

Back in the day...

26 horses pulling a wheat harvesting combine on our family farm, 1906, Homesteaded in 1877, Whitman county, Washington, USA.

Zen

No words necessary.

Have a...

...cuppa, you'll soon be out of here and the air will be free and clear and the mountains will rise up to greet you, the crowds will be behind you. God bless Colorado.

Dark Mountain

Dark mountain, dark mountain. Forgive my trespass, I'll go lower now.

Or maybe I'll wait just a bit longer and see what happens.

Beware the Plains

The High Plains make me humble -- and careful -- there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Cling to the earth, seek the low spots (but not a dry wash) and hope the wind and lightning won't be too bad. Oh, and don't forget the probable hail.

Damn, I love it out here, I surely do.

Loathe to Leave

High snow pack grudgingly yields way to spring and regrowth of the tough, wiry tundra plants; they stake their claim to life and the snow sneaks higher, trying to pretend it's not happening.

Think I'll camp here tonight, looks like a fine spot.

Cycle of Life

High meadows, grazing sheep and a gathering storm; what, oh what, shall we read into this.

Life goes on. People and animals die, new ones are born... the storm passes.

Dante's Dream

...and which circle of Hell might this be, or is it just the desert?

Which ever, it so is beautiful. So happy I'm able to be out here.