How Saint Petersburg area dogs might think

This Australian Sheperd is a great listener

Last Sunday I found myself in several pet photography situations, all with dogs.  It got me to thinking, "what do dogs really think when they meet, play with, and wrestle with each other?"  The above and the following is my attempt at reading their minds.  The black & white Border Collie mix, by the way, is my crazy puppy, Kiki.

"I am not opposed at all to public displays of affection."

"Who in the world could ever pick on me, a cuddly 4-month old pug puppy?"

Apparently dogs are immune to the cuddliness of their own kind and play rough with one and all!

"If they will not play nice then I will just take my ball and go home!"

"Is a single blade of grass enough to hide me?"

Please feel free to put in the comments below what you think these dogs might be thinking.  

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New Personal Photography Project: Sunny Florida at f/11

A view of Tampa Bay from Vinoy Park on a sunny Florida afternoon

I had been trying to think of a photography project for myself for awhile now.  During yesterday's photography lesson I was shooting at f/11 to make the portrait of Danielle using my Nikon SB-600 strobe in strong sunlight.  I found myself really liking the detail in that image.  I was also thinking that I have virtually no sunny Florida landscape photographs at all, despite being nearly a year back in Florida by now.  Thus I got the idea to combine those two things, f/11 and sunny Florida landscapes, and make it an ongoing photography project just for fun (or more?).  

Now I thought I had shot the above image at f/11, but in actuality it was made at f/5.6.  Why did I use it in this post then??  Well, it at least fulfills one of the project requirements, that of a sunny Florida landscape.  

The loose goal I have set for myself it to produce one sunny Florida landscape at f/11 per week.  However, the weather has been extremely poor this winter in the Tampa Bay area, really a never before seen amount of rain, clouds and cold.  Of course this happens the first winter I am back in a decade, of course.  

If anyone would like to join me in this project I would enjoy the company, and please post links to your photos in the comments.  Even if you are not in Florida, I would enjoy seeing sunny landscapes of where you live.

Corkscrew Clouds over Smacks Bayou Snell Isle HDR

It is hard to beat Florida's flatness for producing big sky photographs right from your back yard.

It seems every time I take Kiki out for an evening walk in our neighborhood, the sky and sunset are always fairly dramatic.  Tonight was no exception.  And almost always, by the time I get back from walking her the best light and clouds are already gone.  I noticed the corkscrew clouds (bottom center of image) right away while walking Kiki.  I cannot say I have ever seen that particular formation before.  When I first saw them they were large and more pronounced.  When I finally had a chance to make a photograph of them, they had drifted further away and their curliness had become less defined.  Still, I was glad to be able to catch a bit of orange in the horizon before the fading sunlight all disappeared.

How I made this image:

• Nikon D300 with Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm lens tripod mounted
• f/11  ISO 200  white balance "sunny"
• 9-bracket jpg HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro 3
• Color correction in Nik Color Efex Pro 3
• Noise reduction in Nik Dfine 2
• Sharpening in Photoshop CS4 using unsharp mask

X Marks the Clouds

Saw this sign (?) from my back patio in Snell Isle Florida

I often walk Kiki around 5:15pm these days, which happens to coincide with the current magic hour for this area of Florida.  Often I am thinking, "I really hope Kiki appreciates this walk because I am missing out on some great chances to photograph some beautiful clouds," as clouds are one of my more favorite subject matters.  Well, I got back in time from the walk on this particular day to make some photographs.  The clouds I saw and wanted to photograph just before walking in the door were gone by the time I got back outside with the Nikon D300, Tamron 17-50mm lens and tripod.  However, I went around back and saw this "X" up in the sky, so I was just pleased to finally be able to catch some magic hour clouds.

The image is a 9-bracket HDR processed in Photomatix then in Color Efex Pro 3.

Photo Story: Serve the Servants

A former model, this woman was an interesting moment in a night of 1,500 photographs

For the past decade, these lyrics have been burned in my mind, "Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old."  They are the opening lyrics to the Nirvana song "Serve the Servants," which in turn is the opening track on the album In Utero, the follow up to the greatest album of my generation, Nevermind.  I cannot tell you how many times those lyrics randomly pass through my mind each week, but I can tell you it is multiple times.  

I met the woman in the portrait above while photographing the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club's huge New Year's Eve party.  Whenever I photograph such an event, I always photograph the staff as well (though never asked to), with whom I naturally feel a greater connection.  We are in fact both the servants of the wealthier hirer.  Me just for that day or night, they for an undetermined amount of time.  However, as a photographer, I cross both social lines since photographing someone is a personal action, I can be close to the guests of the event on that level, but also to the staff working behind the scenes as I too am just an employee.  I like being able to cross both lines.

I had a chance to speak with the woman above for a few moments.  I had seen her from afar and knew immediately I wanted to photograph her.  Her face has a lot of character, and something about her hairstyle fascinates me.  Maybe it is the color?  Or maybe that it is not the typical hairstyle for a woman that age?  I asked her to stand in front of the wall so as to produce a clean background and to allow me to bounce the Nikon SB-800 Speedlight I was using off the opposite wall to light her as best I could in such a random space.

Such a portrait as this is not a priority to a client, but I made a mental note of it while going through the full 1,500 photo batch from the event to sometime highlight and single out this portrait.

The woman went on to tell me she did some modeling when she was younger.  As is my usual custom, I only wanted to hear her story, happy to only listen.  I cannot stand to speak of mine, and I was glad she did not ask any questions of me.  I would like someday to ask her more questions if I ever had the chance.  

In the meantime, "serve the servants" will continue to echo through my mind . . . 

White Ibises in Flight

White Ibis return to their island in Smacks Bayou in Snell Isle Saint Petersburg

I had scouted out a corner of Smacks Bayou a few weeks ago with a seawall close to where pelicans were flying past just above the water.  Since then I had been envisioning making a photo of a pelican doing just that, skimming over the surface of the water made from as close to its eye level as possible without a kayak.  After 650+ shots this late afternoon, and 30 minutes of lying on my stomach right on the concrete seawall, I was not successful in making the shot I had imagined.  

My consolation prize (hardly) was the above photograph of a flock of white ibis heading back to what I call the "bird island of Smacks Bayou."  It will have to do for now.  

The next time I go back to that spot it will be at sunrise to see if light from the opposite corner of the bayou is any better.

Philosophy of Antiques in the Park Gulfport Florida

Lots of glass items at Antiques in the Park. It seems Cs were in short supply in 1945.

I recently put on Facebook this statement that popped into my mind, "Only things that are old have any value."  One person commented, a 40+ year old guy, "tell that to my wife."  I meant it to be a serious statement though on the extremely disposable and commodified nature of all items, goods and personalities being created in 2010.  In 40 years will anyone admire a 2010 Toyota Camry the way they would a 40-year old Shelby Cobra today?  

All wonder over air travel has now been replaced by fear and routine, making a trunk like this one all the more valuable.

How is this for you?  iTunes DJ has just selected a classic song from the Amelie soundtrack to play.  The most modern form of playing music choosing a classic tune from before computers even existed while I write about the past on a wireless keyboard in front of two digital screens.  Perhaps this is the way of the future . . . using modern technology to help preserve the value of the past.

Hard to imagine a world only as big as the distance a wagon wheel could take you.

And by no means do I believe technology is advanced at all right now.  Computers and the Internet are still very much in their infancy.  How rough is it to use a computer still?  Not even my Mac "just works."  

This collection of old circus tumblers fascinated me. If I had $39 cash on me I just might have purchased them.

While browsing the tables of Antiques in the Park in Gulfport I came across the very green glass goblets my mother used to fill with pudding and jello when I was a child.  I had a very strong reaction to seeing them.  So strong I did not even thing to photograph them.  I was probably going to purchase them as I passed back by the entrance/exit on the way out.  I did not even have the chance as someone else, perhaps wanting to eat pudding from them once again, had already bought them and carried them cheerfully home as I would have done.

Nothing made now will rust like this oxidized tractor.

This was the first antiques show I went to in the south and I was surprised to see the legacy of slavery and racism in explicit messages on several antique decorative plates and even old 8x10 advertisements.  One recurring theme I saw was black people being pursued or victimized by alligators, suggesting I guess that white people would never be attacked by these apparently discriminating creatures.  It was a bit surreal and uncomfortable to see these items.  

I plan to visit a few more antique shows in the near future and I hope to find perhaps another set of those pudding goblets and maybe an old camera or two for decorating my desk with some photography history.