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.