Water power …

The events of the past week with Hurricane Irene remind us all once again of the mighty power of water. Irene’s surge and the torrential rains that are plaguing the northeastern region of the country harken back to images of the destruction of Katrina, the broken levees along the Mississippi, and the ocean of water that descended on my hometown of Nashville, just a little over a year ago. Combine enough of those tiny molecules of H2O and you’ve got a force to be reckoned with.

Which brings me to this image, taken from the banks of Niagara Falls in 2009. There are few places I can imagine that demonstrate the mighty power of water like Niagara. To compose this image, I leaned about as far as one can (safely) over the rail to entirely frame the rushing water and white foam–6 million cubic feet a minute barreling over the precipice to a 170 foot drop. The icing for me that day was being there at the moment the sun’s lowering rays turned to golden, which reflected in the white water and transformed the Niagara to a beautiful emerald green. Hope you enjoy…

f/10, 1/800th, ISO 400, 250 mm

Liquid energy …

Water is quite an amazing substance. Two little atoms, hydrogen and oxygen, bonded together, form a unique substance that sustains the planet. Truly remarkable, when you think about it. And while a mere droplet of dew clinging to a blade of grass seems so delicate, so innocent; put enough of those droplets together and you have one of the most powerful forces on earth, capable of producing enough power to operate a city or create devastation on a massive basis. This photograph of the underside of Niagara Falls offers just a hint of that sweeping power. In addition to the view of the falls this image offers, my hope is that it evokes the deafening roar of the water as it pours over the precipice and pounds the dark rocks below. If you’ve been there, you know what I mean. If not, it’s really something to see. Hope you enjoy…

f 7.1, 1/200th sec., ISO 400, 28 mm

Ethereal dusk …

OK. I will admit, at first glance, this shot looked almost too cliche. But of course, when you are holding a camera, and it’s there before you… well, to paraphrase Sir Edmund Hillary: you shoot it. I remember thinking: Will these beautiful dusktime rays actually record the way I am experiencing them? (Which was, mind you, with a complementary heavenly chorus somewhere in the background, haha.) But cliche be damned–I clicked off several shots before it disappeared and hoped for the best.

A couple of months later, and now revisiting this image with fresh eyes, I actually think it held up well. I massaged it a tiny bit to add a certain je ne sais quoi to the beachfront reality around those ethereal beams, and here you have it. Hope you enjoy…

Seascape …

Summer’s speeding by oh so quickly…. trying to hang on to that laid-back, gulf air, sand-in-your-toes state of mind, as long as I can, I guess…

This, I have to say, turned out just as I envisioned. Long, long exposure, giving me smooth flowing waves, plenty of sea mist with the perfectly placed, lone surfer. Ahh, wish I were still there… Hope you enjoy.

f/32, 0.6 sec, ISO 100, 50 mm

The artist’s eye…

Anyone viewing this photoblog on a regular basis probably knows by now I enjoy nature, travel, and landscape photography. My aim is to create a composition that portrays an artistic rendering of a scene through an understanding of the use of light, and the mastery of the technology used to capture it–my camera. Most often, my scenes while hopefully artistic, are fairly realistic, but sometimes composition lends itself to more surreal treatment. This is one such photograph that was admittedly, fairly mundane in its original state, but the use of post processing truly brought out the sense of what I felt, and indeed “saw” when I clicked the shutter. That process, to me, is what it’s all about. Hope you enjoy…

f/5.6, 640th sec, ISO 100, 285 mm