Loved how this image came out and even more spectacular it was shot with an Apple iPhone. The phone's camera carries only a 1 megapixel camera and uses all the surrounding light(no flash). Sometimes it takes a really good picture. This is a photo of Mt. Princeton or Yale near Salida, Colorado.

Click to see larger image of above

I took these very recently during a harvest moon that was rising in the sky. It was really quite beautiful and I saw a cool opportunity to kick back and do some light designs. These 2 photos, specifically the top one were some of the best I thought. I could not duplicate these to save my life. The top image was ready hard to do in terms of the rotation, positioning, and final aperture of the shot.

The last image I am not sure how I got it, but I do remember using the camera like a telescope and slowly pull down on the lense while I held the tripod and the camera aloft in the air. You get these tunnel effect from the photo. Fun stuff. Hope you enjoy. I think the top photo would make a nice background as it presents best as a large image so you can take in all the detail. Take a close look at the detail in the various ribbons and swirls in how they bunch together like pasta.

Crazy orange eyes this bird has. I took this about an hour ago. I had originally spotted it in the window literally thrashing around under a cedar tree and thought at first it was a roadrunner, but couldn't figure how it would have such orange eyes. So I spent about 30 minutes stalking the bird basically to get as close a shot as possible. Many pictures later, only one or two decent photos. This is a Long-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma longirostre) which is only seen in South Texas. Since I saw this bird today in southwestern New Braunfels it looks like it might venture up to the hill country now and again. Very entertaining bird to watch as it thrashers about in the underbrush eating bugs under leaves. More info on the USGS page.

Here is the final painting. I love it!! How amazingly talented! She got the perspective right and the proportions of the dog right. It's kinda uncanny how similar yet different to the original. I wish her luck with the exhibition and am honored to have my picture inspire a painting.

I would encourage you to check out her other work at TessaDay.com. Some great stuff. Check out a few of the mouse paintings at the bottom. Really creative.

Here is the original again.

Just some interesting pictures taken with the new lens I thought worth posting. It was really dark out but I think the images came out well.

So far I have been impressed and amazed at the crystal clear sharpness of this lens, even in low light. Combined with a 430EX Speedlite, its a nice combo for "people shooting". I will post some photos in a bit. But if you are a Canon lover and considering getting a new lens, I would highly recommend this if you need something to do a lot of things.

Here is summary of it from bhphotovideo.com:
This lens replaces the previous high quality L-series 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, with a lens of even greater caliber. The range has been extended to cover an ultra-wide angle of 24mm, which makes it ideal for digital as well as film shooters, and the optics are even better than before with two Aspherical elements and a totally new UD glass element. It's now sealed and gasketed against dust and moisture, and a new processing unit makes the AF faster than ever.

First off, I didn't want to imply anything derogatory about the girl in the picture by using the term gypsy. I am using it as it was how the locals and everyone else referred to the people that begged for money in Fatima. This girl and a friend of hers of about the same age walked around in front of the cathedral in Fatima asking for money. Many times they know people will be extra giving in these areas and they do take advantage of that. From the way she is dressed, I don't believe she was homeless but I can not know that for sure.

I watched these girls for a few minutes and after awhile realized a photo opportunity develop. I approached the girl and asked to take her picture (gesturing like a retard to my camera), she shook her head no until I offered up 1 euro. She thought for a second, look around for no reason, and said yes or something like yes. Just as I was about to take the picture, her friend ran over and told her not to do the photo. She shouted something in Portuguese and then the girl starting waving her hand in front of my camera laughing and I snapped this shot. I immediately walked away not knowing if they were going to chase me to delete the photo. They keep looking at me as I walked away and then quickly went back to begging from the religious pilgrims. I think she didn't want her picture taken in order to protect her identity. Fortunately for her I don't know her name or where she was from. For 1 euro, it was a decent shot and some fun.

Most all religious sites I have visited in other countries other than the US have this type of begging. It is mentioned in the bible many many times about beggars and people on the fringe. This is one picture from Spain of a beggar in front of church. This picture here is of a homeless man in Mexico I took a while back. Remarkably quite a few people have emailed and asked me to use this image in a very positive way. One person used it to draw attention to the needs of the homeless people by making a poster out of it, 2 bands have used it for the front of their CD cover, a Icelandic government organization used it on their website to for a social work program about homelessness, and finally an umpteen number of myspace kids have used it on there page for one reason or another (popular with the emo kids somewhat I think as it invokes some emotions). For these things I have happy to let people use these photos for free for their projects.

How about this photo, huh? There is so much going on that I don't know what exactly to look at first. This is a picture of a Mexican Botanica. It is a bit stylized as the content were moved from its original location in San Antonio, Texas. A botanica is a sort of herbal shop, offering all sorts of herbs, religious items, magic potions, good luck charms, statues, and just about anything that will cure your ills. They had love potions and prayers and much that is just plain strange. This particular store is now located in the Alameda Museum in downtown San Antonio. The original store (one of the last remaining as I understand) was closed after the owner passed away.

Took this in Lisbon Portugal while back at a Gothic monastery that I can't remember the name of. I think it was something complicated in Portuguese that I should have written down. Cool picture. There is a couple in on the side there, that was making out the whole time I was taking pictures on this floor.

I really like how this picture of the Tennessee warbler came out? Soft, cute, and calm. This bird however was one of the most elusive little things to photograph. It zipped around from tree to tree in a frenzy eating little berries and hardly sat still long enough for me to take a picture. Luckily yesterday it sat perched long enough for me to snap a few shots which at one point got me running around following the bird as it tried to land on a window sill. I was determined to get some good shots.

This bird is actually a migratory warbler in Texas. Tennessee Warblers (at least that is what I am pretty sure this is) come through in the spring and fall looking for warmer pastures. I had seen this bird before in the spring, but it was even more elusive then. I did not know what it was until I was able to get some pictures.

The picture below came out amazing. I captured him in mid-flight from a branch.

Another image:

What most people don't know is that it had a mystery thumb that was edited out before being released publicly. I recently pointed this out to someone when were looking at the photo and they didn't believe me until I pointed at it in the picture. So I decided to post it just for fun. See if you can find the thumb in the final image you have most likely seen before.

Final Image:

Mystery Thumb Comparison! Old School Photo Editing

Original Unretouched Image:

In this original image, you can see the thumb clearly in the lower right hand corner. Its much more distracting, so it was nice they did edit it out long ago.

Next time you see this image, ask your friends to see if they can find the thumb in the image. At first glance most people won't notice it, until you find it and then you see if every time you look at the image.

Library of Congress: Dorothea Lange Archive Photo Collection
Wikipedia: Dorothea Lange

Took this picture this weekend. It was around the door of a really old barn my grandparents have. It was probably 80-90 years old. The light was coming through door in the barn wall and it was quite unique and beautiful. So I got the camera and snapped some pictures. That greenish flash thing in the center, I have no idea what it was, but it appeared in half the photos. Maybe it was a ghost? LOL, I think not, but Happy Halloween anyway!

Liked the detail and texture of the face of this deer. Produces a kinda of stunning eye level shot. As for deer in photos. Let's face it, deer are kinda boring. No really boring. If you have seen one you have seen the eleventhbillion that run around here. They just sit there and munch and munch on whatever is in front of them. Then at the slightest breeze they run off in protest for being disturbed. So I usually don't shot deer except for baby deer, because people like those and they are fun to watch.

These are some pictures that didn't make the cut for one way or another. I decided to post them however because beyond not my favorites they aren't terrible. The below is a juvenile mockingbird.

I liked this shot a lot, but it didn't come out. I made the mistake of leaving my camera settings unchanged from the previous day with a big ole f/s 8 and it was bright outside. Result was a overexposed image. So I played with it a bit and it helped some. Thought it was still a need image of this terribly disheveled mockingbird. :-)

A visitor (Ron) from PhotoToPaint.com was kind enough to send me a photoshop edit of my mockingbird picture above. I told I would post it and I think he did a nice job improving the photo so it doesn't look so washed out. Thanks Ron!

There has been a pair roadrunners that have been around my house for the last week or so. They have been carefully picking off sparrows from the back of the house and it has been fun watching them stalk and attack the clueless bunch of sparrows. They are not always lucky in their hunting though. This guy waited for about an hour and then got bored and moved on. Luckily I was able to get some good pictures as they are usually hard to shot up close otherwise.

The photo below was him waiting for something to come out. Thought he kinda looked like a chicken just sitting there.