Happy Halloween!

And what is more appropriate than an Owl?

Barred Owl @ Sunrise

From the Raptor Education Foundation Photo Shoot.

The Wildlife Experience: Raptor Education Foundation

American Kestrel:  Smallest member of the Falcon Genus

The Wildlife Experience: Raptor Education Foundation

I'm not trying to hide the fact that these Birds have human handlers.

Sleepy Screech Owl

Eastern Screech Owls; Red Variety from North Carolina.  

The Grey variety is the more common color.

The Wild Life Experience: The Raptor Education Foundation

Peregrine Falcon:

The Wildlife Experience: Raptor Education Foundation

The Great Horned Owl @ the Raptor Education Foundation.   The familiar "owl" sound effect used in the movies.

These guys really blend into the bark.  As we will see, all owls are designed to "disappear" into the woods while they sleep during the daytime.

He seemed to be attracted to something behind him, moving in the brush.  So I captured several quick Head turns (and a lot of the back of his head).

The Wild Life Experience: Raptor Education Foundation

This Merlin is owned and trained by the Foundation Curator, Anne Price.  It is a healthy flying bird, but lives at the Foundation.

Below: Anne working with her Raptor.  She handled the Birds during the Photo Shoot.

The Wild Life Experience: Raptor Education Foundation

The Colorado Urban Wildlife Photo Club (which we belong to) had a recent Photo shoot at the Raptor Education Foundation.  So this week we will visit with some of the Residents. Most of these lovely birds were permanently disable by humans activities.  Please Treat Wildlife with RESPECT! We share this Earth, we don't own it!

Golden Eagle

This beautiful face made getting up at 5:00 AM to be in the field at sunrise worth while.  

The Raptor Foundation takes the Birds out to natural settings for the Photo Shoot.

World Singing Day!

Hope You have found some place to Sing!

A Last Look.........Panorama Fun

Back Outside: For the Best Dam Tour

This crane is used to adjust the water intake system, which can be raised or lowered seasonally to control the temperature of the water going down stream.

There is also a road across the top of the Dam..........

Going Inside........

I've toured the Glen Canyon Dam, but you get much closer to the Turbines at Flaming Gorge.

Back to Flaming Gorge

Saturdays Online: Return of My Dark Sky

I've returned to my photo roots, and My Dark Sky, brought to you by the #29 Red Filter and my Mamiya 7:

Learn More about B&W filters here and Color Filters here.  And yes, it will help your digital photography too by reducing the time you spend on Photoshop or Lightroom adjustments.

Just A Single Perspective......

I like roads that vanish into the distance.

Perspectives in Color and More Cropping

Too bad Fuji is eliminating Velvia 50/120:

This is the crop I planned when making the image:

In Photoshop, I saw another possibility:

Original Full Frame:

Perspectives on Cropping

Split Mountain @ Dinosaur National Monument.  Which would you take the time to print in the darkroom?

Crop #1: eliminate excess foreground,

Crop #2: is there also too much sky?

Original Full Frame:

Perspectives....The Bridge

Both Images made from the west side looking east....but the second one getting closer to the subject:

Perspectives....

Recently we took a little vacation time at Dinosaur National Monument and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  Lots of relaxation and photography.

I also made a lot of multiple exposures from slightly different perspectives, and zeroed in on my Mamiya 7 filter factor.  So we'll spend the next several weeks looking at the results.

Cameras used on this expedition as follows: Mamyia 7, Mamiya 645, Canonet Q17 and Nikon D-40 as a back up (and when digital just made more sense).

We Start with a view of The Flaming Gorge Dam Celebrating 50 years +1 (Completed in 1964).

And you can still tour the inside of these Dams (including Hoover and Glen Canyon).  We'll look around the Flaming Gorge area a bit more in B&W before going inside the Dam.

My Filter Factor Test Results for the Mamiya 7:  Exposing ISO 400 @ ISO 200, +2 over for best results.

Saturdays Online: You Need A Beard?

A recent article suggests that a Beard is required for all Large Format Photographers.  HMMMM Ladies that makes it a bit tough.  But we can ignore that and do as we please, right?
I any case, Donald is preparing himself for our 4X5 Press camera by growing a beard.......

He also has that large format stance down pretty good too! Add the western hat (which he does own too) and we are all set..........