A Couple Awards

I got notice this morning that this photo was given an award of excellence by I Shot It.

With Angus moving out, and Sam becoming more reclusive - the house seems very quiet now-a-days. Nothing like the constant "Will you stop touching me" days of not so long ago. Quiet is nice! Here is a link to the I Shot Competition CLICK HERE

*Also*

About 5 weeks ago I won another Weekly Assignment at FM with the topic being "Old School" which was conveyed by this image. Angus provided the hand modeling.

Here is a link to the Fred Miranda Weekly Assignment competition. CLICK HERE

The wing wherewith we fly

When I started this blog the hope had been to write something that had some value. I don't think that has occurred in the way that I had hoped. Shakespeare writes with such an economy of words that span centuries. His words with substance (this blog's slogan) are the inspiration for this photo. The photo is titled "The wing wherewith we fly", but it is merely the heart of the Shakespeare quote: "Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." Pictured is two of a six volume set of large sized, and illustrated complete works of Shakespeare.

In a New Groove

The transition to a home based business has gone better than I expected. This has been my busiest July ever, and I really like the different atmosphere. Today I finally had time to refresh my web site. I put a fresh 90 images on the home page, and a new awards page. Check it out!

Photomatter (my web site)

Enjoying the details

Sometimes all you have to do is look to find aesthetically pleasing things. Here is a small sampling of a walk around the perimeter of the cabin up north.

There are seven more from this series, and you can see them all here

LINK HERE

Stitchin' Seattle

I enjoy making panorama's, but a really enjoyable horizon makes them so much better. During a recent visit to Madison Washington (a suburb of Seattle) I pressed into service an old 500mm Reflex-Nikkor - C f8 lens from the early 1980's. It's a catadioptric lens design which is brilliantly small, and light. Though it lacks contrast, and can produce weird dough nut shaped highlights - it completely lacks any chromatic aberration. The above image is 24 vertical images stitched together and it is sized from it's 40,000 + pixel size down to 2000 pixels. Even 60 miles away, Mount Rainier dwarfs lake Washington in the foreground.

This nine vertical image stitch shows the new lake Washington bridge being constructed. It is suppose to be finished by 2016, and I believe they intended to just sink the floating portion of the bridge in the foreground of the above panorama. Click either photo to see a larger version.

Art & Beyond

A friend let me know about a trade magazine (Art and Beyond) that is exclusively distributed to art galleries, museums and art institutions. They have an annual "Special Digital Art and Photography" issue, and they held a competition to be a featured artist. I got word in early March that I was one of the featured artists selected to be in the magazine (page 21). The link below is to an online version of the magazine. (I'm ordering some hard copies)  However, you can see my entries (above) and those of the other 15 featured artist in this link. I would suggest you make it full screen to see it better.


https://issuu.com/art_beyond/docs/art_beyond_special_digital_art_2014/32?e=0

FM Monthly Assignment Win - Theme Antique

Had another win in Fred Miranda's monthly assignment (#118). The topic was antique - the top five finishers can be found HERE

I've had 16 wins doing these "Assignments" on FM. (Which you can see here)  However, some of my favorite images only made it to second place (19 times), or even third place (18 times). But, the best thing about these "Assignments" is getting out there shooting, and doing your best to convey the topic. It sharpens your skill, and the reward is another likely keeper for your portfolio.