Three Views of a Meadow

Finishing off the week with a post that takes three different looks at the same meadow in Yosemite National Park. Part of the reason for doing this is to show you that you should try to look at other ways of looking at the same image when you're out taking pictures. In other words, try different angles or orientations. Generally you'll run out of time before you run out of storage media (and if you're having a problem with that, you should really get another card). So experimentation should be the order of the day. But also I'm trying to point out how time of year affects your picture options. In the rock formation in

the background of the first image, you can see an area that appears to be "stained". That is where, in the spring, you would see Yosemite Falls. The grass and flowers wouldn't be quite as prominent, and you'd be much more likely to center the image on the impressive fall of water. Here in late summer, though, the flow has become a trickle, and so the meadow itself takes over as the feature that draws the eye.

In the first image and this one, I'm also using the footpath to both add a visual accent to the picture, and to draw the viewers eye across the landscape to get them (you) to look at the entire image.

Finally, in the third picture, I was walking down the footpath, and turned to get an image that was just the natural setting by itself. Again, same meadow, but now with a bit of a different look, and possibly even a different meaning to the viewer.

Notice how the "grain" of the grass, i.e. the way it naturally leans, causes the grasses here to look a bit greener and fuller than in the other images. Also how getting the sun a bit more "over the shoulder" makes the sky look a bit more blue too.

Hope you enjoyed this week of photos!

Picasa and Blogger - We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Generally I write up my posts a day or two before they actually post so I don't have to get up at 5am (I'm up that early most days anyway, but occasionally I'm not) to have them appear here each morning.

Today I was working on the Monday entry, and while the photos ARE going into my Picasa Web Album, they are not showing up here on Blogger. So something is evidently broken with the handshake between the two Google services.

I HOPE to have a Monday entry eventually, but if it's late, then at least you know why :-)

Two Last Shots of the Giants

To finish off the week, here are two more photos of some of the giants from Sequoia National Park.

Next week we move a little further south to spend some time at Yosemite National Park.

Those are some BIG Trees

Of course, what Sequoia is most known for are the BIG (Huge, Gigantic, Titanic, etc) trees. In these two photos I've tried to convey a sense of just how tall these trees really are.

As you might notice, the first picture is from behind the two trees, while the second is from in between them. In fact, the second photo might give you a little twinge of Vertigo if you're susceptible to such.

You don't get TOO much of a sense of solitude since you are constantly trying to avoid all the other visitors who are also gawking at the trees. But you certainly get a full sense of the majesty of these huge creations.

Free Windows 7 Themepack

Don't say I never gave you something for free :-)

For those of you already on Windows 7, or who are looking to upgrade, I've created a free Windows 7 Theme with a slideshow background of pictures from around the San Antonio Riverwalk. You can DL the file from:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U7YF1IK6

Once it's DL'd, you should be able to double-click it and have Win 7 automatically add it to the list of Themes you can choose from with the "Personalize" option from the Desktop.

Hope y'all like it!

Moon Just Above the Trees

It may be a little hard to see at this size, but if you look in the top center of this photo, there's a shot of the moon at mid-day just above the trees growing on this steep hillside.

Ideally I would have been there about an hour later when the moon would have been a little closer to the treeline, but then I may have had a little more problem getting a good focus on both.

I was also interested at how many folks walked by, looked to see what I was shooting, and then kept walking. Don't know if they didn't see the moon, or didn't realize that this wasn't a photo you could take just any day.

A Rocky Projection from the Trail

At this point, I'm far enough along the Rim Trail that I can look back at where I took Monday's picture from. In front of me, as you can tell, is a rock outcropping extending out a fair bit from the edge of the Rim. What do you suppose will happen?

Tune in tomorrow to see!

Picture of the Bright Angel Trail - A Hint of Things to Come

At this point I was continuing the hike along the Rim Trail, and came to a point where I could overlook the Bright Angel Trail. That is the same trail that is used by Mules to carry tourists all the way down to the Lodge that is on the river. The twisting trail is less for the benefit of the sure-footed Mules than it is for the Humans who also make their way up and down the trail.

There will be a lot of pictures from that trail next week.

Looking West along the Canyon

Starting off week three on here (but continuing the second day of the actual trip), you can see the fog starting to burn off in the canyon as I began walking along the Rim Trail. The clouds make interesting patterns on the canyon below, and you can see more of the characteristic reds, browns, and oranges with the light coming out.

Of course I did have to stretch out a little bit at this point to get more canyon and less canyon rim here, but it's nothing to what I did for some of the later pictures.

More from the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

End of Week Two - The Camel

I heard different folks calling this feature "The Camel" or "The Eagle". Personally I think it looks more like a Camel, so that's what "I" am calling it :-)

Supposedly folks have been caught trying to jump from the hump to the head, but I don't think that's a great idea. Even though the walls aren't too steep around this, you're still looking at a good fall. And if you don't catch yourself and started rolling... it's a LONG ways down.

Some more photos of Grand Canyon National Park next week as the photos from the 2009 Road Trip continue. If you like what you've seen, remember that I'm able to take time to do all this through the "Public Radio" model. In other words, if you like the site and want to make sure I have money to keep doing stuff like this, I'd appreciate it if you'd drop by the Donations page and give what you can.

See you next week!

Road Trip 2009 - A Panoramic View

Here I was going for more of a panorama of the view from this part of the South Rim. One nice thing about both of the Panasonic cameras I've owned is their wide angle at the bottom of the zoom range.

The colors are a little soft and subdued due to the fog, but I still think it makes for a nice image.

First Shot from the South Rim - Grand Canyon National Park

Got to the parking lot near the visitor center, walked over to the Rim, and this was my first site of the Grand Canyon. Though I grew up in Colorado, I'd never made it over here before. So I was excited to see what it looked like.

You can see how foggy it was in the Canyon itself, making it look like there were rock islands in a sea of sky.

More of the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Road Trip 2009 - Nearing Flagstaff, Arizona

We've skipped a good bit of the first day of the trip to go from outside El Paso to about an hour south of Flagstaff, Arizona. Yes, it's another photo from inside the car, but you were expecting that, right? :-)

In any event, you might be able to tell already, but the "clouds" to the lower left are actually smoke from a wildfire that I noticed as I neared the top of this ridge. The road didn't get close enough to see the fire itself, and fortunately the wind was blowing the smoke away from the road. However, I would see a lot more clouds like this on the rest of the drive in, as well as controlled burns at Grand Canyon National Park, which I'll start posting photos of tomorrow. Of the Park that is, not of any of the burns. I don't mind taking a one handed shot when the road is this empty and there's good visibility. The burns at the park were much closer to the road, and so made for some interesting driving to and from the canyon.

Wrapping up Week One - Road Trip 2009 - West Texas Butte

One of the things I really like about my Panasonic FZ28 is that using the iA mode of the camera, I can shoot one handed. That allows me to take pictures like this one while I'm driving down the road. There wasn't an exit for miles on either side of this Butte, so if I hadn't gotten it from here, I probably couldn't have gotten it at all.

This image had to be slightly cropped to remove a bit of the dashboard and passenger column support along the bottom and left side of the image. Since my eyes were on the road (safety first after all), I couldn't completely frame the shot first.

I hope you've enjoyed this first week of images here on Ewan Photos! The site runs sort of like a Public Radio station where the donations that people make help fund the work to make this available for everyone. So if you've enjoyed what you've seen so far, please drop by the Donations Page, and make a contribution to keep things going.

Thanks again for visiting, and I'll have more images up starting again on Monday!

Road Trip 2009 - West Texas from Interstate 10

OK, I have two images for you today. First is a barn with an old fashioned windmill located in West Texas just off of Interstate 10.

Next is a group of modern windmills about half an hour further down the road. While the first windmill would have been used for pumping water, these newer windmills are used to create electricity. What's interesting is that a lot of the power from the windmills in West Texas is actually sent over to San Antonio. So in one sense I was taking a drive to see where the power that recharged the batteries for taking these pictures came from.

First Picture - My Work Environment on the Road

Let's kick things off with a series showing my "Office on the Road" from my latest trip. As you can see in the picture, I used an ASUS 900HA that had been upgraded to 2 Gigs of RAM, and the internal HD was replaced with a fairly fast 128 Gig SSD. The dongle on the right is a Verizon 3G USB modem (which worked well until you got below the rim on the trails), and the white base is a Logitech Notebook Cooler.

In the background is the Grand Canyon as taken from the South Rim.

Camera for this and most of the pictures I'll be showing on the site is a Panasonic FZ28. I will occasionally post (and will note when I do so) some older images taken with either a Panasonic FZ18 or a Canon S2IS.

As I mention on the Donations Page, most of the images here are also available as prints if you are interested. Just drop me an email and let me know.

Of course, I'd love it if eventually doing this covers the bills well enough that I could be shooting images to share with y'all all the time. For the meantime, hopefully you'll enjoy what I do have already for you!

Grand Opening Scheduled - Monday, September 14th

Looks like I have all my ducks in a row to have this site "go live" next Monday morning, September 14th. The plan is to have a new photo up every day, which will be one I've pulled from my collection of the "best" of my photos. Generally I'll be trying to tell a story along with the photos, and occasionally I'll post something designed more to show how NOT to take or edit a photo, or just because it helps with whatever experience I'm trying to relate.

If you haven't read any of my previous stuff, most of the photos will come from the Western United States. Over the first few months I'll be posting stuff from my recent trip to six National parks, as well as some shots taken on the road as I was going past everything.

Look forward to sharing more with everyone next Monday!

Under Construction

On the off chance someone stumbles by here by accident, I am currently working on the FAQ, Sponsor and Donation pages first so that I can "push" them off the main page and then start posting the photos proper. So please bookmark us, or better yet let me know that you'd like to be notified when I begin posting the photos for each day.

IOW, this place is still under construction, so my apologies for any nails poking up or lack of paint on the walls :-)