March 2016 - Just Enough Focus

March 31, 2016April 5, 2016

Track Crossing

These tracks cross the Manatee River between Bradenton and Palmetto. A lot of people like to stop here and take pictures, for some reason it seems to be a popular spot for prom photos. I suppose it’s an iconic location in this small blue collar town. Every morning and evening we hear the train blowing its horn as it crosses the river on the way to the plant.

I know I’m repeating myself, I’ve taken this image before. But every now and then I’ll do that, go back to a place where I’ve taken an image and do it again. Each time it’s a little different, I approach it with slightly newer eyes. Regardless, I think this shot always ends up being a little gritty, full on urban, no sunsets or beaches.

Other photos from the riverwalk section of Bradenton

The bridge here is almost a mile long. In the middle is a section that lifts to let the boats pass. I’ve seen fishermen walk out on this although there are signs all over warning people to stay off. The river itself is fairly shallow except in the center. Just the other day I saw a couple of fishermen walk under these tracks in about two feet of water about a quarter mile out from the other side. Big rivers being what they are I find that a little extreme, you won’t find me doing that any time soon.

More “urbex” from the gallery

March 31, 2016April 5, 2016

Sunny Day

Island Park in Sarasota waterfront is a spot to chill for a bit, even if it is a hot day. I prefer to take images at dawn and dusk, but this was smack dab in the middle of the day. Even though its spring, the brightness of the image is reminds me of the long hot season ahead. Right now it’s March break and we have great weather and visitors from all over, but in a month we’ll begin the long hot days of summer when everyone goes home and the pace of life slows down a bit.

This is another example of how I like to fill up the frame with abstract content like clouds. In this I’m closer to the rule-of-thirds, a simple rule where the subject is divided in thirds. Rules can be broken, but I think it works fine here. This is also another example of how I mix street and landscape photography. I’m basically out shooting landscapes but noticed this frame and someone in it. Bonus.

The Number Three

I’ve heard it said that three is a magic number. Well, it’s certainly the name of a tune sung by Blind Melon, but I’m not sure how magic that is. If you’re a little lost don’t feel bad, I had to look that last part up on Wikipedia. Even without looking something up I can reasonably say that three represents a lot of things. The periods in a hockey game, dimensions of space, and of course, the number of legs on a stool. Deeper words have rarely been written.

More images from Fort Desoto State Park

This is the kind of scenery you can find at Fort Desoto State Park in St Petersburg Florida. Its also an example of how I’ve developed a tendency to see scenes in letterbox vignettes, one at a time, all around me. In fact there were things to the right and left, but I imagined this one little vignette in my mind and so framed the shot. Sometimes I might need more and use a wide angle, but for this 50mm was enough to capture the image I wanted. Having a zoom lens really helps in this department.

This is also another view of the seawall that I posted a few days ago. It’s a thirty minute drive north of me and one reason I like to come here is that I can bring my dog. Much of the shoreline in central Florida is off limits to dogs but this being a state park its pet friendly. There is a dog beach and places like this where you can walk with your best friend. So here I am; me, my bud and my camera, just the three of us. Magic.

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016

Crossover

The sun is setting and I’m at the beach. I have exactly three minutes left to find one more composition. Those are some of the thoughts going through my mind at moments like this, it’s like a game and it can be a lot of frantic fun. Such was the case when I found myself behind some seagrass and a tree that created a kind of frame and just then these folks walked by. Click.

Checkout some more of my recent beach photography in the blog here

Framing an image is an important aspect of street photography. Find some interesting scene and wait for someone to walk through it. When people are in an image we tend to put ourselves into that scene whether we realize it or not. In this way artistic images have a way of pulling us out of ourselves.

My earlier landscapes almost never had people in them. Someone once pointed this out and I started to take notice. Now I’m not so concerned with finding landscapes without people, if I do great, but not required. So this resulted in a blending of my love of both street and landscape photography. Now when shooting landscapes I will often look for a frame and wait for someone to walk through it. In a long winded way this is the thinking that went into this image. It’s a crossover of sorts.

March 27, 2016

By the Numbers

My eye is always in the sky whenever I’m outside. I suppose that’s a side effect of being a landscape photographer. It’s my opinion that clouds are fifty percent of what makes an image interesting. That’s a generalization and there are exceptions to every rule, but ninety percent of the time, clouds are fifty percent of the picture; photography by the numbers.

More cloudscapes from the gallery

Of course I’m being a little facetious, art cannot be divided and multiplied. At least I don’t think so. But I think art gives inspiration to ideas like mathematical theories. It’s a side effect of how we work. We look at something abstract and try to make sense of it. We look at clouds and each see something different. I think abstractions give our subconscious an opportunity to communicate with our conscious selfs, only we don’t realize it so we call it “sub-conscious”, one of life’s little ironies.

Back to the math. In photography we have something called the rule of thirds. Dividing the subjects on boundaries of one-third makes and image more interesting, so they say. Some of my images, like this, are a little more extreme. I’ll call it my rule of tenths. One-tenth of stuff on the bottom and nine-tenths of abstract at the top. That way, my sub-conscious has more room. It’s just a theory mind you, but you never know, I could be on to something.

March 25, 2016

Handing Over the Reins

This is the cargo dock in Vancouver Harbour. I’m standing at Canada Place facing east towards Burnaby. Half of this photo is a painting of sorts. I’m not really a painter but all of the reflections are my own doing, an example of an idea I get and then working to bring it out. I do it for no other reason than I get a enjoyment from it. The waters of Vancouver Harbour are not nearly this glassy, but that doesn’t stop me from imagining what it would look like if they were.

More sunset photos from the gallery

This looks almost like a lake with fresh water. But then there would not be such big cargo docs. Mr. Rational says things don’t make sense and deconstructs the scene. However in the world of my imagination I get to mix things up a bit and play what-if scenarios.

In fact the waters of this bay are really clean, especially for a port with so much shipping. It’s not uncommon to see otters and seals swimming about. Compared to other port cities this is probably one of the cleanest. Maybe that’s where I got the idea from. I’ll take it up notch and make it appear like a lake. One thing is for sure, this is the only image like this you’ll see because it’s one part reality and one part dose of my imagination.

March 24, 2016March 24, 2016

One Foot in Another World

Other “paintography” images from the gallery

In fact the waters of this bay are really clean, especially for a port with so much shipping. It’s not uncommon to see otters and seals swimming about. Compared to other port cities this is probably one of the cleanest. Maybe that’s where I got the idea from. I’ll take it up notch and make it appear like a lake. One thing is for sure, this is the only image like this you’ll see because it has one foot in reality and one in my imagination.

March 23, 2016March 23, 2016

Wings of Angels

This is one of the places I go to whenever I need to get away. Friday evening I walked along the seawall with my dog and soaked in the muted tones of blue, green and grey. I had come up here hoping for a sunset but what I got was better. This is Fort DeSoto Park is in St Petersburg Florida.

By simply making the effort to show up and be observant I notice things I might otherwise overlook. The textures and patterns in the clouds are an example. I once heard that these are the wings of angels. Maybe, but whatever posses them to form such shapes is beyond my comprehension.

More seascapes from the gallery

In the foreground is the concrete reinforcement of the seawall. Beyond is the Gulf of Mexico. Ships pass by here on the way in and out of Tampa Bay. If you look closely you’ll see two large vessels along the horizon. A few minutes later I watched as one passed by.

At this time of day the crowds have left and you can pretty much have the whole place to your self. There were one or two other souls along the seawall enjoying the tranquillity, or perhaps just communing with their thoughts. Maybe those angels had something to do with it.

March 22, 2016

Going Nowhere

I don’t know about you but when I walk on the beach I’m not really going anywhere; just walking for walking sake. Maybe I pick a point at the turn of the coast or a pier off in the distance, but really, it’s just something to satisfy my sense of progress while the rest of my thoughts are allowed a little down time. Going nowhere in particular is good.

Invisible Rain

This is a section of Science World in Vancouver BC near the subway, people walk along here all hours of day or night. I have no idea where they go so early on a weekend. Maybe to work in the shops. More likely they wondered what I was doing out so early with a camera.

When I’m home I don’t go out in the rain, but when I come here I don’t mind. Funny how my brain works. Rain is good for photography and I never regret going out in it with a camera.

More night images from the gallery

Last night I was crossing a bridge back home in Florida and I was behind a big semi rig. The trailer had the name of the company but what I remembered was the city, Vancouver WA. Just north of Portland, that rig was a long way from home. It’s interesting how many cities have the same name. Ontario Canada has a couple of their own, Paris and London. Maybe they started as tributes. If a city did that now would they get sued for copywriter infringement?

The dark Vancouver mornings of January bring rain so regularly that it becomes invisible. I think people pay it little attention. It reminds me of living next to railroad tracks as a teenager, the first night it rattled my bones but after a while the trains just faded into the background. Isn’t it amazing what we become accustom to? Seems we only notice things that we consider unusual, but when they become normal they fade and recede into almost nothing.