Photography

Ketchikan – Alaska Cruise 2017 – Part 1

This post documents our September 14, 2017, visit to Ketchikan, Alaska, a long-delayed continuation of my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise. Current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE(link).

There’s a gallery at the end of each post and a SmugMug gallery HERE(link). Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size. Note that the SmugMug gallery will eventually contain all the photos from Ketchikan; those from this post (Part 1) and those from other Ketchikan posts.

You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. If there’s a panorama, I’ll link the full-size files but be warned . . . they’re typically huge. Huger than people have ever seen before. Don’t click on those links unless you’re enjoying a biggly Interweb connection. Also, if you have biggly Interweb but you’re reading this on a phone — which is sad; VERY SAD — I wouldn’t bother with the full-size photos because they are HUGE; huger than anyone else’s huge photos. 

Ketchikan welcome sign

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The OneOwner Experiment . . . Again

In THIS<<link post I briefly explained why I don’t follow opinion blogs.

. . . but mentioned  I follow many some photo blogs. Two such blogs are lightscatter<<link and 2clicksaway<<link, both run by oneowner, a. k. a. Ken Bello<<link.

I follow them because they offer ideas for subjects and composition and because of the often interesting post-processing and treatments of the photos. One recent post<<link had me attempt to duplicate one of his compositions . . .

OK, so I wasn’t overly successful.

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Juneau in Monochrome – Alaska Cruise 2017 – Part 2

The color photographs version of this post is HERE.<<link

This post is identical except most of the photos have been replaced by monochrome versions. Also, the word “monochrome” has been added where appropriate.

For them who didn’t read the previous monochrome post, I done do this to avoid mixing what are two different ways of presenting photographs. I aim to let each version shine on its own stage. Think of it as a nod to the days before color was invented . . .

This is the second (monochrome) post documenting our September 13, 2017, visit to Juneau, Alaska, a now even longer-delayed continuation of my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise. Current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE<<link. The following introduction is the same as that of previous posts so that’s something else you can skip.

One more thing . . . there are fewer monochrome photos than color photos, so the posts are not exactly 1:1 comparable. In part, that’s because some of the color photos are duplicates taken with the Note II and there’s nothing gained by converting them to monochrome, and some of the photos were not all that interesting in Monochrome.

There’s a gallery at the end of each post and a SmugMug gallery HERE<<link. Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size. Note that the SmugMug gallery will eventually contain all the photos from Juneau; those from this (monochrome) post (Part 2) and those from previous (monochrome) Juneau posts.

You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. If there’s a panorama, I’ll link the full-size files but be warned . . . they’re typically huge. Huger than people have ever seen before. Don’t click on those links unless you’re enjoying a biggly Interweb connection. Also, if you have biggly Interweb but you’re reading this on a phone — which is sad; VERY SAD — I wouldn’t bother with the full-size photos because they are HUGE; huger than anyone else’s huge photos. 

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Juneau – Alaska Cruise 2017 – Part 2

This is the second post documenting our September 13, 2017, visit to Juneau, Alaska, a long-delayed continuation of my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise. Current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE<<link. The following introduction is the same as that of previous posts so that’s something else you can skip.

There’s a gallery at the end of each post and a SmugMug gallery HERE<<link. Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size. Note that the SmugMug gallery will eventually contain all the photos from Juneau; those from this post (Part 1) and those from this Juneau posts.

You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. If there’s a panorama, I’ll link the full-size files but be warned . . . they’re typically huge. Huger than people have ever seen before. Don’t click on those links unless you’re enjoying a biggly Interweb connection. Also, if you have biggly Interweb but you’re reading this on a phone — which is sad; VERY SAD — I wouldn’t bother with the full-size photos because they are HUGE; huger than anyone else’s huge photos. 

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Juneau in Monochrome – Alaska Cruise 2017 – Part 1

The previous Juneau 2017 post is HERE.<<link

That post has color photos and rather than mix color and monochrome photos, I decided to duplicate the post with the monochrome versions of the photos. Think of it as a nod to the days before color was invented . . .

This is the first (monochrome) post documenting our September 13, 2017, visit to Juneau, Alaska, a now even longer-delayed continuation of my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise. Current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE<<link. The following introduction is the same as that of previous posts so that’s something else you can skip.

There’s a gallery at the end of each post and a SmugMug gallery HERE<<link. Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size. Note that the SmugMug gallery will eventually contain all the (monochrome) photos from Juneau; those from this (monochrome) post (Part 1) and those from subsequent Juneau posts.

You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. If there’s a panorama, I’ll link the full-size files but be warned . . . they’re typically huge. Huger than people have ever seen before. Don’t click on those links unless you’re enjoying a biggly Interweb connection. Also, if you have biggly Interweb but you’re reading this on a phone — which is sad; VERY SAD — I wouldn’t bother with the full-size photos because they are HUGE; huger than anyone else’s huge photos. 

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Juneau – Alaska Cruise 2017 – Part 1

I’m writing this on the 28th of July, 2020 . . . my last post about our 2017 Alaska Cruise was exactly one year ago (HERE<<link) and covered the last of the Haines photos. Had I been aware of it, I would have tried to post on the anniversary of my last post . . . alas, there’s no way I’ll finish this in the next ninety minutes.

This is the first post documenting our September 13, 2017, visit to Juneau, Alaska, a now even longer-delayed continuation of my documentation of our 2017 Alaska Cruise. Current and previous posts relating to this cruise are HERE<<link. The following introduction is the same as that of previous posts so that’s something else you can skip.

There’s a gallery at the end of each post and a SmugMug gallery HERE<<link. Photos in SmugMug can be viewed full-size. Note that the SmugMug gallery will eventually contain all the photos from Juneau; those from this post (Part 1) and those from subsequent Juneau posts.

You can click on the photos in the body of this post to see a larger-but-less-than-full-size-version. If there’s a panorama, I’ll link the full-size files but be warned . . . they’re typically huge. Huger than people have ever seen before. Don’t click on those links unless you’re enjoying a biggly Interweb connection. Also, if you have biggly Interweb but you’re reading this on a phone — which is sad; VERY SAD — I wouldn’t bother with the full-size photos because they are HUGE; huger than anyone else’s huge photos. 

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Find the Hummingbird — Part 3

For them not interested in reading, you can go directly to the SmugMug Gallery HERE.

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

Note: in this mode, you can also click on the image to zoom in to full resolution (click to zoom out).

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

Easy to find.
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Find the Hummingbird — Part 2

For them not interested in reading, you can go directly to the SmugMug Gallery HERE.

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

Note: in this mode, you can also click on the image to zoom in to full resolution (click to zoom out).

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

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Orphans 02

For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS SmugMug Gallery.  

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

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Orphans 01

For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS SmugMug Gallery.  

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

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The year 2019 in photos — Part III

All of these are from the last four months of posting so they might still be fresh in some people’s memories.

I’m fairly certain most of the non-regular readers don’t see the entirety of my posts. It’s evident that if they see them on Facebook, Twitter, or the WordPress Reader, all they’re responding to is whatever single photo is shown along with the first few lines of the post.

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The year 2019 in photos — Part II

So, the first four months were . . . lacking. Specifically, lacking in photos. To be sure, there were a lot of photos, and they will eventually post, but this is a review of what I posted, not what I photographed.

Come May, we were a bit more settled and I had a new D7500 and two new lenses. Of course, my posting rate went up.

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The year 2019 in photos — Part I

Although an arbitrary measure of time, the ending of each year brings out everyone’s desire to mark the occasion with a retrospective.

Who am I to buck the trend?

I mean, there will be another discussion about what constitutes a decade, but that’s a windmill for another post to tackle.

Also for another post, a look back to what some would call a fairly eventful year for Melisa and me.

This post is the first looking back at the year in photos. Specifically, photos posted on the blog. Be aware there are many 2019 photos that have yet to grace these virtual pages. In fact, I might be so bold as to say some of the better photos have yet to have eyes on them. Also, some of the photos posted in 2019 were taken in 2018, but were processed and shared in 2019.

Project 313 272

At the beginning of 2019, I was in the waning days of Project 313. I won’t post many of the photos here because they have dedicated posts (HERE and HERE) showcasing everything published related to that effort. Or, if you prefer, the Flickr Album HERE.

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Playing with PlotaVerse

I subscribe to KelbyOne for Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials and tips and hints. Every year, they provide freebies to their members for the 12 Days of Christmas. This year, one of them was a year-long membership to PlotaVerse.

For them who don’t know — I didn’t know until today — it’s a site where you can upload a photo and add motion to it.

NOTE: while not huge, these files a tad larger than usual; Give them a few minutes to load if you have slow Internet service.

For instance, I can take this photo . . .

. . . and make it do this . . .

Mind you, I’m still learning the tool and that was my first attempt.

. . . and this was my second attempt . . .

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The Seed and I

I might have mentioned (once or twice) I like sitting out back, under the covered porch, camera in hand, coffee by my side.

A few days ago, I was joined by a seed. A Milkweed seed, as best as I can tell. Side note: Milkweed plants are essential for the Monarch Butterfly (HERE, HERE, HERE). Well, this gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a piece of wood I’ve been preparing for use in macro photography.

That’s a curved decorative piece of wood (about 8″ x 8″) I bought at a garage sale for about $1 (or maybe less)

It was in poor shape before I repaired a few scratches, removed a few stains, sanded it as smooth as I could, and sprayed with six coats of matte black paint. The idea was (is) to provide a curved surface for photography so as to minimize reflections, seams, and other background distractions when shooting macros.

Unfortunately, when it comes to paint, matte is not the same as flat so there’s still more sheen than what I want. Also, despite the visual inspection, photographically the surface is neither as smooth or unblemished as it looks, as we shall see.

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