Beluga Tail

It's a crowded, noisy place, but the photo opportunities at the Georgia Aquarium are spectacular. Unfortunately my camera broke after about an hour (reminding me that I should always carry a spare!). Now I must return to shoot the photos I missed...looking forward to the trip.

Golden Gate Bridge

We rented bikes at Fisherman's Wharf, rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, had lunch in Sausalito, and took the ferry back to San Francisco. Beautiful views along the way -- this is among my favorites.

Jeff Gordon

NASCAR races are full of great photo opportunities. The people are interesting and the colors are bright. There is so much going on around you that it's tough to know what to shoot!

River Road

Portofino, USA

Mmmmm...Fish

Many years ago, a friend told me I needed to try fly fishing. I resisted for about 10 years, thinking that it must be boring. I was wrong.

Keep Trying

Some photographers really have a knack for shooting flowers. I'm not one of them.

I really admire great images of flowers, but it takes a ton of patience to create a great one. Just finding the right flower is a challenge, but that's only the start. This is one of my better attempts. I like it, but I don't love it. I'll get it figured out someday.

Rush

Pictures of speed are really easy to shoot, but you need to experiment a lot to get an image you like. That's one of the great things about digital photography; you can shoot hundreds of photos at no additional cost and you get instant feedback from your camera's display. With film cameras, this type of shot requires a lot of time and expense.

Vary the shutter speed and overall exposure a lot. Use the camera's meter as a starting point, but don't be afraid to dramatically over- or under-expose the shot...the results can often be surprising.

For the image above, I made several adjustments in Photoshop using Levels and Gradient Map to get the contrast and color the way it looks now.

Mo Blues

The Blues

The color blue consistently gets my attention, even when the subject is otherwise dull...

Another Panorama

This image is Turner Field in Atlanta. We had terrible seats, about a mile above the field. It was nearly impossible to get good action photos (we could hardly see the game), but the view of the ballpark and of the Atlanta skyline is fantastic!

Shooting Panoramas

I have been experimenting with stitching panoramas for quite some time. This is accomplished by taking 5-10 images in sequence, overlapping by about 20% on each image. Although some people insist that special equipment is necessary (panoramic tripod head, etc.), it is possible to get excellent results by handholding the camera. You do need manual exposure and manual focus to get consistent pictures. Here is a photo shot from the suites in the pit area of the Homestead Miami Speedway before the final race of the 2004 NASCAR season. I stitched the images together in Photoshop, then used Layers to create a color version and a black & white version. I put the black & white version on top, then "erased" parts of the black & white version so the cars would show through in color.

Bahamas Color

From a recent trip to the Bahamas.
We had never been to the Carribean before...What a place. I have always thought of myself as more of a mountain man, but I could get accustomed to the island life. The fishing was fantastic. This image, of nothing more than water and sky, sums up my thoughts on the subject: just find a spot on the beach and hang out.

A Beautiful Place

My favorite city is San Francisco.
Great food, great wine, great views. I took this photo last year -- It never looked quite right until I played with it in Photoshop. I now love this image.