New things and timeless ideas

I admit, I've been kind of slacking off on pictures. I finally woke up and decided it's time to look that special woman to share my life with. I call this shot "Power spot" it's not a Photoshop
construction this is a real scene I caught here near where I live in The Dalles Oregon.

Sometime long before light and after midnight, I took a bunch of long exposures in the light of the full moon. This is one of my favorite places to take pictures from. I believe the exposure time here was about 20sec. It did not take a really long exposure. 60sec will turn most situations with any light whatsoever into almost a daytime scene. Click these pics for 1080 view!

I got this... This as you will see is a very fragile web of watter drops was not disturbed in photographing despite the fact that it was less then an inch wide.


....and this...


....and this...

From this! I try to find things that people don't think of. Details, out of the box type stuff. I hit mine of interest when I found this one. A tiny spider web collected dew drops on it. I viewed it like a lecture I watched on quantum mechanics.

shot details: DSLR=Canon (400D) RebXTI, extension tube and teli-converter complex
Since I had a teli-converter once that was so bad it actually had bubbles in the glass! I'm not kidding. I figured they were all junk. Then I thought about optics and figured out that the optical process of a teli-converter is often the same used in very high-end lenses. So if you want an 800mm lens on you DSLR and don't have an extra $2500+ to get one.. then try and find a new, good, teli-converter. The digital high-end one I got turned my 30-300mm into over 800mm (35mm equiv.) it also can enhance macro setups. Factored in with the Canon 400Ds digital frame size. It also works well on my 10D. An older camera, but with great controls and built tough, it's worth 6.3mp. I am happy not to always run out of space so fast and 30x40' is as big as I usually ever want to try to print. Don't be ashamed of 6mp in a digital SLR. Shoot RAW and you will still get awesome shots. Used pro-gear or high-end cameras can be really good deals.

Catching animals in flight is easy with a good SLR. But be sure and use the auto focus!

My dad's dog, Mombo, one of the first shots I took with the teli-converter. I can shoot detailed insect and spider shots from incredible distances, as well as get closeups of animals without alarming them. This is a bit blurry but that's only because I was not trying. This was one of those "test shots" and turned out to be worth keeping.


Ghosts? Now before you get mad at me for telling everyone what "orbs" are. I have not made up my mind on the whole issue. One thing I do know, tiny dust particles kicked up by movement or in this case.....snow, will cause the same effects reported to be ghosts in spirit-form photographs. In the digital age belief in these became quick and popular since most people don't know enough about optics to know why they are there. A small particle reflecting light form a flash or even sunlight will be at a different focal length then what you are focused on. As you can see, the size of the "orbs" here are larger as the get closer to the camera because they are more and more out of focus. Today's fast digital cameras do everything and do it fast so I can well imagine why someone would see some reflection like these moving in a draft and think it is a larger object with features. I am not closed minded on the issue, I only know that there's tons of dust in old insulation and our cloths..plenty to produce allot of optical illusions that are seen in supposed ghost "spirit orb" photos. Be scientific about your paranormal ideas. The
old rule called "Akim's razor". The simplest answer tends to be the correct one so explore it first. I think that evidence for spirits in a particular place is far more convincing when it comes from someone who knows nothing of the place and can tell you the story about who lived there and what happened before they even do. Or police cases that seem imposable cracked by some inocent lady who does not even watch TV. Dust (or in this case snow) out of focus is far more simple in concept then a spirit of a human being floating inside an old dusty Attic.


I like showing people worlds that they ordinarily don't look like. The more powerful my macro abilities get, the more I am able to explore. The infinite beauty of nature never ceases to amaze
me.

This is a creek that goes to a lake that we are at. It was very overexposed. Sometimes with my Canon 10D, I find incredibly that if you shoot at iso100-200 and see almost nothing in an underexposure, USE RAW and what you will find will amaze you. A great picture. The 10D
is able to do this better then my 400D. So sometimes I deliberately just work with the 10D when I need a higher speed and don't have it. Bringing a shot up from near total nothing in RAW. IN this case, it was so badly overexposed that I nearly did not make it. I used the RAW controls to bring it back.


More Ghostly photos? No, it's not a double exposure. I went out walking about 3 in the morning and decided to put my camera on someones garbage can and try this shot. I took a 30sec exposure and ran out into the shot, falling as if hit by a car. Then I had enough time to get out of the picture and come back. The best way to do this is to use your camera's timer to
open the shutter. That way, the effect you see here, a bit of a blur from movement, won't happen. It was cold but I pulled it off. A double exposure or a photo shop merge would have taken allot longer and been more complicated. This SLR has a double exposure feature with
in camera editing that works as well. The D40, D80 Nikon series has it I know for sure.

This is the future of fossil fuels. Period.
On the migration or whatever, I'm not sure, a huge flock of small birds flew up near me while before I got on a bus to Portland a while back.

I brought this back without knowing it. I forget what camera I took it with, but it is the wing of an airpline where the white ballence was off. Chances are, it was from my Nikon EM 35mm and the film happened to create nice colors due to low light.
This is in Honor of my Grandpa, Harry Wold. A decorated war veteran, and a great man. We will always remember the good times that we had and the things that you taught us. He's not going to be barred, but by chance I got this picture ready after a train trip I took it on. It's a distant old graveyard flanked by trees. Most of these pictures are 1080 so click on it to see more. My Grandpa has been in the Veteran's home after a stroke 8 years ago made life nearly impossible for him. We are glad that he can finally rest. I don't have any pictures of him on hand or I would put it here. He was a truly good man and I know he went home with honor.

YES! I AM BACK

= pMy uuncle has basidcly been my mentor in photography, and also helped me get home we slowed down just enough for me to snap this, an unexpected real picture. I justid some ligd-

Mombo's catch!

My dad's beagle catching a tennis ball.

PERSPECTIVES

I am not shocked and shocked about global warming. The scope of it is so massive and hard to understand. These are a few shots I took that gave me hope.

"complex carbon compounds" Even if a plant is not supposed to be there, it's still a plant to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

"Preservation"
"Life on Earth?"
All of these pictures were taken with A Canon 10D.

And as you might have noticed, I need to let the pictures do the talking. I am just not very good at writing. Even though I can type as fast as anybody. I've had to actually prove my typing speed to several of my family members. I just picked it up in high-school back when a mac looked like a box and the 386 with 4mb of ram and a 60MB (approximately 1000MB is 1GB!). Ironic.

THOUSANDS OF PICTURES -- LESS WORDS

This is the common "Garden spider" as are 100s of species around the world. This one lives in the Pacific Northwest and in Europe is called the cross-spider. Harmless to humans it's a great wasp and mosquito catcher. Araneus diadematus. Shot here with my Canon 10D digital camera with a 50mm EF II lens and one extension tube. Click for 1080 sized pictures. I have also chosen to be more open about the gear I use and cameras I use.




One nice hotel in Bali. This is a common look. All plants are real, flowers are fresh, and gardens very alive. The insects are tame because nobody has harmed them. Dragon flies will land on you sometimes in these places. Many people in Bali are Hindu and thus have a deep respect for nature and our need to live with it rather then attack and suppress it.


A shot from last year. Talk about stings, these sweat bees are named because they can land on your back thinking they will get a drink of water--if you have a shirt cover them--they will sting. Yet still a huge percentage of stings from insects and other kinds of arthropods are blamed on spiders without knowing enough. So if bit or stung--find and get what got you so you know.


The main 135mm lens on my Phoenix adapter lens system. A modified Olympus lens mount on a Olympus E-500 digital SLR took the bee shots and remains the most powerful macro system that I can use in the field. It includes not only lenses and extension tubes but bellows and a rig to hold it all together without over-loading the camera. I invented it myself after a broken lens gave me an idea. I plan to put more up about this macro system later.

I am ever-amazed at the number of incredible photos that pop-up out of nowhere no matter where you are. It would be very hard to find a place that you cannot find something interesting to work with or photograph if your gear permits.


Tiny plants on moss-- so often overlooked as people walk there dogs and jog every morning. Yet they are here. This and the above pictures are a few from the past here--I am also planning on putting up more of my Guam Bali trip. Not tonight. I am too tired.




BLACK WIDOW IN ACTION! As she captures a moth this rare opportunity to get around my personal rules about displacing species. I try to keep interference in nature to a minimum. I found her in the center of a Tennis Court She made her web under a small wheeling garbage can. She had ants and flies for food everywhere she went. I use a few simple tools to extract black widows and often it well takes over an hour. One thing always true--Black widow spider are very easy to recognize thankfully. Like the rattle snake--they do warn you and often do not go about running around without being displaced. Wood piles that have been around for years are a good place to find them--if you move things that have been sitting around dry for a long time then your likely to possibly stir-up a black widow. The females are the dangerous ones and they usually spend most of there lives in one place unless they must move. Incredible as it may seem--capture tests accidentally showed me a side to this most painful spider I never thought possible.


STINGS and bites
These little sweat bees seem harmless and are only about half the size of a normal honey bee. But they can get ugly when under your shirt. Leading anyone to think it may be anything since bees and wasps hide in all kinds of unexpected places. MORE ON WHAT I DO ABOUT BITES

These relatively small ants do not look that bad. Until you have 20, 30, 70, 100+ on you in the rain forest before you know it. They attack anything that moves or is in the way. Bite and sting with a relatively mild sting--but after being stung tens of dozens of times--it gets to be terrifying and really harsh. I was ambushed and thankfully saved my very expensive camera gear by placing it in an open area and practicing my techniques for situations like this. The tropical jungle is very dangerous. The big things are not what usually gets you. It's usually something you don't even expect or know about. These guys can be on your neck in a matter of seconds. My self discipline kicked in. I visualize and meditate about stressful situations if I think it may arise--snake bite, animal attack, bees-- I must admit that army ant's I saw take down a huge Dragon fly instantly I was not exactly ready for.



This is the Stern wheeler in Portland Or. It goes up the Columbia river from Portland towards where I live near. Hood River. I have taken it once. It is a great experience for photography and or just for the incredible views and on board things to do. If I recall, it is one of the very few real stern wheel powered ships still running. My trip was over 10 years ago but I think it is surely still great. I caught this with new Canon 10D. It's an awesome camera and I got it new in the box. The lens-- A 50mm F1.8 fixed EF II

TOMATO FLOWERS taken from my dad's plants this fall. He's got more
then he knows how to give away! Once again with my Canon 10D, I saw the awesome creative potential of that lens I just bought--a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 (Max for macro shots is an OK F22)

A HARVESTMAN. One of three creatures called the "daddy long legs". This is NOT a spider. It is a close relative. They do not spin any silk, have a one segment body, and have two eyes a top sometimes very elaborate structures looking almost like a snorkel. I will try to find more of them as I work on a more detailed shot of these incredible eyes at some point. Some species here in Oregon are HUGE! I plan to track down the large species I found once in a small town. They are your garden's garbage collectors and eat all kinds of organic stuff. They are also totally harmless. Opiliones sp. Shot with Canon 10D with F50m and extension tube.

This is sometimes called incorrectly the "funnel web spider" or grass spider. It is a fast and shy Sheet web spider. Larger adult sized versions of this spider have been FALSELY called the "Sydney funnel web spider". IT IS NOT! There are so many bad rumors about spiders I want to write a book on it to clear there name. In short--there are about 38,000 species known to science today. Many yet un-discovered and named, and only about 35 kinds out of 38,000 are marked dangerous to humans. Agelenidea sp. This shot was done with a Canon 400D EOS 70-300mm zoom, extension tube, and a few other things. And it gives you bragging-rights at having a 10mp digital SLR (uselessly stupid). One thing is for sure, the mega-pixel game is just ridiculous. Un-biased I have got to use many common digital SLRs looked at and got to use quite a few cameras. If you want to know how I feel about these subjects or what I would recommend from my own experience --write me an e-mail.



While in a car or on the train--I like to snap pictures of anything I see. I do not--and nobody should (obviously) attempt to take a picture while driving! I just said that so you know. I like old buildings and Industrial junk or constructions. They are in there own way a work of logical art.

This was taken from OHSU. I was diagnosed with a hip problem I now have to deal with sometimes. I got lucky--it's nothing to worry about. When I was there it happened to be an incredible day, perfect for pictures. Despite lack of time and being limited to my fixed 50mm lens--I was able to get allot more then I thought on this beautiful day. I have a number of shots from this trip to post once I have them ready. Click on this for 1080 size shot (From here on--less talk larger-res pics). This shot was taken with my new Canon D10 and a 50mm f1.8 EF II lens.

"Mill Creek Bridge"
This is the longest foot bridge I can think of. It lets people walk from there homes from a road near by to go to local shops and stores allot faster. It's a long ways down and even if your not afraid of heights it can be a bit weird. There are many great spiders that can only be found near creeks down here, I've shot a few of them below this bridge by Mill creek.


"A view of the birds"
I sometimes wonder how amazing birds see the world. It must be an incredible thing to just be able to lift up and go anywhere so quickly. This one found a place to rest for a while.

I have more of this one coming. This is the much-loved Argiope sp. Also called the Zigzag spider and in some places Garden spider or Banded Garden spider. These take care of allot of flies and other bugs and should be left alone. In many local parks that have been "land-locked" for lack of better words by parks--they have died off. This was taken with a Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) using an 18-55mm zoom lens and outfitted with a full battery grip that adds full. I will have more on this spider and it's close cousin coming up. I have to import all this from RAW so it takes me a while to get everything right between computers.

MOSTLY MACROS NEWS: LESS WORDS
I am getting tired of writing long comments! Even if I do get them right I spend hours and hours correcting them until I often finally give up without proofing. They often go off on tangents and I end up not finishing them. (way to many mistakes) I can type very very fast. So this problem gets me everywhere! I nearly view typing as easy as talking; but I am not a very good writer! However, it is only based on getting the facts across. Facts are facts no matter how they get there. The only I thought you need to spell perfectly are the scientific names and terms I used to think, the rest is just getting the point across knowing that anyone with even just half a brain will understand it. I know I was just young and rebelling then, I even came up with what I thought was a more efficient way of writing! Dumb, and I stand corrected- but I type too fast I took an serious course in it and it stuck with me for some reason very well. I have considered putting a glove on one hand to slow myself down! Now I plan to change things and give you full 1080 HD sized images (actually a bit more sometimes) and allot less talk. If you have a question you can ask. Only a very short paragraph or about the photo, the name of what I photographed and possibly camera and lens setups. It's past midnight. I am falling asleep on my keyboard again.

If you see any picture that is way too dark or bright or the color seems off--let me know if you have the time. Because I am using two computers I became aware of how pictures can look different. Be sure to once again click on each image and use your Internet Explorers' back arrow button to return to my site. Click "Mostly macro's home" to get back to the start anytime. I have a great deal of work I want to do on my website and need more feedback.