Pigs in the Hood

I have tried to carry my camera with me at ALL times for quite awhile now. It has been a very good strategy and has rewarded me with some great pictures... a coyote, a wild horse, some hawks and a double rainbow just to mention a few.

The other night I dropped my guard and left the camera at home when I ran out to pick up my son from a friends house. I thought "Why bother. It's dark and I'll never see anything worth shooting in the 15 minutes this trip will take me."

BOY WAS I WRONG! As we were pulling away from his friends house we saw something walking across someones front yard. We stopped for a closer look and got within about 15 feet from some javelinas. At least I had my cameraphone to get some kind of picture.

Maybe this will teach me a lesson and I will never again leave my house without my camera. That way, I could drop by this house and give them a picture for them to submit with the insurance claim for the damaged plante. In the meantime, feel free to check out some of my photo galleries over at Flowing Desert Photography.

Christmas Kindness

I read a post by someone on the other side of the ocean. He has a great story about someone who did him a favor a long time ago. I get annoyed when celebrities (actors, sports starts, etc.) are rude so I really enjoy hearing stories like this. Check it out, not just because he has a great name and spells it the same as me, but because he has some great photographs there as well. If you can at least drop by before the end of the year, that would be nice since he is trying to get to 5000 unique visitors this year.

Keep thoughts of kindness in your hearts and minds all year long, and let them flow into your actions.

Merry Christmas to All!

Whatever you are doing this holiday season, may this brief post find you celebrating the blessings in your life.

Remember that even when things are hard, you probably have more blessings than you realize. If you are reading this, you probably have electricity and at least access to a computer.

I feel like I am more blessed than most. I have a loving family, a good job, a roof over my head and a way to get to work. I have the ability to pursue my passions with the full support of my wife. Last year, that included training for an Ironman triathlon (read results here) and then starting this photography business as an outspring from my years of being a photography junkie. Either one of those is a lot to ask from a spouse, but both in the same year really proved how great my wife really is and how lucky I am.

Share your blessings in the comments.

Shooting and Shooting

I went to the shooting range this past weekend with my oldest son and my dad. While we were there, I pulled out my camera and started doing some additional shooting.

I liked the way a soft focus worked for the violin picture last week, so I thought I would try it here. It doesn't work for me quite as well as the violin, but I still like it.

What do you think? Does this take you back to your favorite Western movie?

Posters and Signs

I've been having fun playing around with pictures and text. I have a few that I have started thinking about. This is a great old picture of our Bearded Dragon, Lizzie.

This was an average picture of Lizzie and had a really strong red tint. I used Gimp and adjusted the colors and ended up with a pretty good shot. Then I used one of my favorite dragon sayings and found a font that looked sort-of medieval. I like the way it turned out.

Now I am looking for ideas on something to do with our other family pet. Any good dog quotes? If so, leave them in the comments.

Custom Calendars

My Dad commented on one of my pictures that it would make a great calendar. That got me thinking and I came up with this one.



I liked the way it came out, so I started looking at other pictures I had handy to think of others that would also work for calendars. Since my sister just got married, this was one I had handy and I think it works. A strip of magnet on the back and it'll be a handy addition to their fridge.

Let me know what you think with the poll on this on the right side. I am keeping my eyes open for any of my other pictures that will work well for this. Please leave me a comment and let me know if you like other pictures that would work for a calendar.

Concert Photography

Concerts are often considered difficult to photograph. I have heard that popular music concerts are difficult due to legal requirements as well as the limited and changing lighting and crowds of other photographers. Local bands playing in smaller venues are also difficult due to the lighting conditions in most small bars and smaller concert halls.

My youngest son plays the viola and last night they had a big concert. There were groups from 2 different middle schools, the high school and 2 community groups. I really enjoy orchestra music and last night was no exception. I had my camera and was able to take some pictures, but was limited by my desire to honor the request for everyone to remain seated so that everyone could enjoy the music.

I think my favorite shot from the night is this one:

I liked it as soon as I saw it on my camera, but when I got it on the computer, I converted it to sepia tone and blurred the edges a bit to draw your attention to the bow and fingers on the strings. I hope you like it too.

Is it still Photography?

When it comes to editing pictures, there are two extremes. One group says that if you do any editing to a picture, it is no longer a "true photograph". The other group says that anything goes as long as you started with a picture.

I am somewhere in the middle and feel that part of choice depends on what the purpose of the picture is. In a news article, the should be no changes to the original image. This is necessary to preserve the authenticity of the reporting agency. There was an example earlier this year where there was apparently an additional missile in an image that was widely distributed before the editing was discovered.

In most cases though, I think that some editing is acceptable. For example, in my picture of Cotopaxi, I adjusted the levels a bit to show the blue in the sky and the white snow better.


Sometimes however, I think it is perfectly acceptable to do some more processing work on a picture. This may be as simple as a little cloning to get rid of some dust or something more extreme like converting a photograph into an oil painting or pencil sketch. Like this:



So what do you think? Please vote on the poll and leave a comment.

Photographers and Police

Last month, I was in Tempe Arizona to watch some friends race an Ironman race and try and get some good pictures. I spent some time walking around and found some good places to get pictures. One of them was a nice median where I had a good background for the racers and a nice straight approach so I could see them coming and be ready for the best shots. This was a medium sized median and I was not in any way interfering with the racers or even likely to be noticed by most of them.

After shooting for awhile, an officer about a half a block away crossed over to the median and started heading my way

At least my first run in with the law was friendly. He came up to me and said he was sorry but I had to get off the median. When I asked why, he said he didn't know why, but that was in the rules they were given. When I asked who made the rules, he said the race people. I didn't know North America Sports could make new laws. In talking with other photographers, I heard that some of the officers didn't even try the "ask nicely" approach and went straight to the "bad cop" routine.

He was decen about it and I kept shooting as I waited for traffic (bikes and cars) to clear which was nice because there were some professionals coming through right then. After he made sure I safely left the median, he turned around and headed towards the next violator.

You can probably see why we liked this area since we were able to get close to the action and still be in a safe place.

I have been an official volunteer on this particular course (2007) as well as a competitor in the previous event (April 2008) and I have both shirts to prove it. I was never told in any of the volunteer or participant meetings that there were any rules about where people could spectate from, only that crossing at designated points needed to be guarded by volunteers to look out for racers.

Interestingly, this "no median" policy was not enforced at the turn-around point in downtown Tempe and there were dozens of people standing in the median. They were however waving signs that could easily fall into the path of an oncoming biker. It seems possible that the "no median" policy was more of a policy to try to restrict the quality of pictures freelance photographers could get than to keep the racers safe. Important to remember if you are thinking about paying almost $500 for this event.

Any thoughts from anyone else on this no median policy and the haphazard enforcement at this type of event?

Christmas gift ideas

In the spirit of the holiday gift-giving season, here are a couple ideas for unique gifts for your loved ones. Any of these gifts will be a great break from the usual mall-department store holiday gifts and will be sure to be a hit on Christmas and beyond:

Photo coasters are a great way to have the pictures you love nearby and protect your end tables at the same time. I think Bell Rock in Sedona would fit nicely on these coasters.



Any of your family members that enjoy a game of cribbage, war, crazy-8's or any other card game will enjoy their games even more with a new deck of playing cards. I think Red Mountain would be a great choice for this one.






















These are only a few of the many gift ideas for your loved ones. Take a look at the Flowing Desert photo galleries and when you find a picture you like, you can click the Buy icon and This Photo and then you can pick the coasters, playing cards or any of the other products under the Merchandise tab. Of course, a nice photograph (available under the Prints tab) is also a great gift idea.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to contact me with any questions via email.

Now Introducing . . .

Flowing Desert Photography!

Our web page, FlowingDesert.com has been up for a while now and while I have been using other avenues to blog about my photography, I decided to start an official blog for my photography adventures. I will still be blogging at my current site, but any photography blogs will be here primarily and I will simply point my other readers here to check it out.

The main focus areas of my photography at this time is nature


and sports like triathlon where I can capture the excitement and effort of the race for both amateurs as well as the pros.



I look foreword to sharing my discoveries and special images with you and hope you will stay in touch as well via comments and/or email. Please feel free to visit my existing photo galleries and let me know what you think of my work.