Notes To My Mother

Silent Witness Last October I ended a 45 years career in counseling. I closed the door to my office and three days later jumped in an airplane and went to Eastern Utah for two weeks. It was a rush, a total high. When I came back to Santa Rosa, I was only just beginning to get with the new program of being retired. It has some major differences as you might guess. Like on Sunday afternoon you don’t have to be thinking of the week ahead, you can actually relax and coast into Monday. For the first time ever I do not have obligations first thing in the morning. So I have been spending early morning hours out and about in Sonoma County, rediscovering it’s beauty and charm, and discovering for the first time places I had never seen before, at least not in this early morning light. First Light This was taken along Highway One at the beginning of civil twilight twilight. This is an area of farmland. Lots of dairies, green pastures and farm houses. I was captivated by the ...

The best time to shoot landscapes is not necessarily the most convenient time. Of course you can shoot a landscape any time you want to but the question is: “Is there really a difference between what you shoot in the middle of the day and what you shoot at some other time of day?” Many people are satisfied with the daytime shot, but I think it is because they don’t realize what they would get at what I consider a more picturesque time of day. I am convinced of the advantages of early morning shooting. Otherwise I would not do what I did yesterday morning: Up Early It was 5:20 am and my eyes popped open just before the alarm sounded. I jumped out of bed, put on my long johns and layers of warm clothes. The coffee was on a timer and I could hear it chugging away in the kitchen. I grabbed my camera gear, all piled next to the front door and threw it into the car, checking to make sure I had extra charged batteries (“charged” is critical, I ended up with three spent batte...

Lagoon at Sandy Beach, Acadia. Five images wide When you have a scene you would like to photograph that is wider than you can capture in one image it may be an opportunity to do a panorama. Once you start shooting pano’s you may begin seeing opportunities to shoot them that would have passed right by you. The image above is of Sandy Beach in Acadia National Park. On this particular day it was raining and I have my camera covered with a rain sleeve. I am standing with the ocean to my back. Lagoon & Glacier, Iceland. 7 images wide Tip Number One: Overshoot the Scene The first thing to determine is what part of the scene do you want to include. You need to decide where the image will start and stop on the left and the right. Along with this you want to decide where the upper and lower limits will be. Once decided, overshoot. In other words, start farther to the left and end farther to the right than the area that will be in your final image. Likewise, ca...