Thursday, April 27, 2006
Minerature Rose XCU

I've been experimenting with studio lighting. Until recently most of my photos have been available or natural light.

This is a miniature rose, the flower is about an inch and a half across. Which explains why the water drops look so big.

Saturday, April 8, 2006
Palm Saturday Roses

Today we went to the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market to find Palm Fronds to decorate our church for Palm Sunday. We didn't find much in the way of palms, but there are always fun things to look at anyway!

Friday, March 24, 2006
Miniature Rose

Look what followed us home from the grocery store!

When we went to the store today we found a cart with miniature roses on sale for $1.99. That was too much to pass up! This guy and two of his friends got to come home with us.

Of course, that started me thinking about taking pictures. So when we stopped at the second store, I was immediately drawn to the flower display to a really different orange flower. Stop by the site tomorrow to see that one. :-D

Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Valentines Rose

Ahh yes I have been slacking off a bit lately. (Actually it has been a very busy week!) But, I thought this image from one of my cards was a good image to get back on track with! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Monterey Rose

Could be an "American Pillar" rose, but it has more separation of the colors along the veins. Could be "Laughter Lines", the color matches, but it has less petals than the photos we found of them.

Either way, it is another in a line of amazing roses from the Monterey area.

Saturday, January 21, 2006
Soft Rose

This is an early photo I took when I first got my close-up lenses on eBay. The low aperture gives a nice softness that we have dubbed the "Fuzzy Flower Filter".

Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Pink Roses

December 31st... ahh it was a beautiful day!

These are some of the roses we had at our wedding. The others were Dolce Vita, a nice combination but they pale in comparison to my beautiful wife.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Wedding Roses

I was still getting used to this camera (Canon 20D) so these are a little brighter than I had intended. Still, I like the effect. And, these are special for another reason. On Saturday I will experience the indescribable pleasure of marrying my best friend, and these are the roses we picked to celebrate the occasion!

(I think it's particularly fitting that the name of these roses means "Sweet Life" in Italian.)

Sunday, December 18, 2005
Farmers' Roses

The Farmers' Market is a great place to play with a camera. Most of the people are nice there (as long as you don't get in the way of paying customers.) Of course, we were actually looking to order roses for a big event on the 31st!

Monday, December 5, 2005
Icing Inspiration

I'm starting to practice decorating cakes for a special event the end of this month. I have seen some beautiful roses created in icing and decorated with powdered food coloring so I was looking for an image to use as a reference. If I come close to this I'll post a photo of the buttercream version. If not... well, I'm sure it will be a delicious failure. :-D

Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Yellow Rose Close-Up

As I was looking through my images for a project I was considering this one. It has been the photo of the day before, but, I knew you could not see the small spider between the petals.

I always like to get something more than just a flower close-up. Things like this add a little life to the photo for me.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Possibilities

My favorite roses are yellow in the middle with red edges. Yellow roses stand for friendship, red for love. My best friend recently told me that yellow with red edges means "possibilities".

I guess that makes sense.

Monday, November 7, 2005
Hovering Bee

If you have been watching the site for a while you know that I like to chase bees. So far this has turned out well for me. I assume my luck will run out eventually, but for now it's making for some really nice shots.

This one even made it to one of my greeting cards.

Friday, September 30, 2005
The Yellow Rose of... ummm... Carmel?

This was in a really nice shopping center along Highway one in Carmel. They had beautiful landscaping and one of the best and most original restaurants we've eaten at in a long time.

Friday, September 2, 2005
Purple Tiger

By request! (see yesterday's feedback) This is the only purple rose I could find, and even though they are named "Purple Tiger" they are a very red purple. But, at least I grew this one myself! :-D

Thursday, September 1, 2005
Yellow Rose

This is the same rose bush from yesterday's photo, just a little different angle. I like the other rose and buds falling out of focus in the background.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Rose Bud

Sometimes the plant is as interesting as the flower! Especially in the right lighting.

Saturday, June 4, 2005
Peach Rose

Early in my tinkering with professional photography I could barely afford the tools I wanted let alone the best lenses money could buy. I was forced to scrounge for used and not quite perfect items to get the affects I wanted. Now, years later, I have some better tools but I still use most of my early toys.

I have a combination of filters that cause a soft halo around the outer areas of the photograph, although that was not their original intention. We call them my "fuzzy flower filters." I would not trade them for even the latest and greatest lenses.

I love to encourage people who are interested in Photography. The tools can be intimidating but they do not have to be. In the end they are just tools, the art comes from the person behind the lens.

At the Art Walk last Sunday there was a young girl, about 10 years old, who was very interested in how I got my close-up flowers. I gave her a short explanation and she seemed very interested. So I continued to tell her more about the different types of lenses. I was much younger than her when my parents encouraged me with my photography, so I would never underestimate a child's curiosity.

Who knows, some day maybe I'll run into her at her booth at the Art Walk!

Friday, May 13, 2005
Morning Rock Rose

Another variety of rock rose, growing around Monterey. This particular variety is a hybrid of two European species. It is supposed to do better here but as far as I could tell they were all very happy.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Award Winning Rose

Award winning, but maybe not the kind of award you might think.

Last August was the first time I put my photography on display. I was very excited about doing it, but I did not really know what to expect. I have received many kind words and great stories (especially stories about humming birds,) but one of the highest complements yet was on Sunday at the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show.

This rose was framed and sitting on an easel near the sidewalk. A young girl, about 10 or so, walked by talking to someone I assume was her mom. Neither of them were really paying much attention to the show. But, she stopped in mid sentence and said "WOW! Look at that Rose!."

Now that is the kind of complement I like. There are many artists out there trying to impress people (especially people with money) with their "deep interpretation" of things. And, that's not to say none of them have great work. But, as far as I am concerned, the complements of children (and animals) are among the highest you can receive!

Sunday, May 8, 2005
Happy Mom's Day!!

This is a particularly fitting place for this greeting. The images on this site would not exist if it were not for the support of my parents. They were crazy enough to let a little kid play with their cameras, and look at the results!

In particular, I remember looking through photos of a recent vacation with my Mom and Dad. I couldn't have been more than about 10 years old. As they were pulling out the photos that were particularly interesting, my mom pointed out that a lot of them were mine. She half-jokingly said that in the future they were going to have to let me take all of the pictures on our vacations.

You never know what is going to stick with someone a couple of decades later.

Thanks MOM... for everything!

Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Monterey Rock Rose

This flower was from a morning Basset walk in Monterey. These bushes line many of the streets in the cannery district of Monterey where we were staying. There are several different varieties of them and I will have photos of the others in the coming days.

I just scanned a few more rolls of film from my recent trip to Monterey. It is a slow process. I am a bit fanatical about getting detail out of the slides. So I push my scanner to the limit and I only get about 40 scans on a DVD. But I think it is worth it. I catalog the images on my computer and when I am ready to make a print for a show I do not have to go find the slide and scan it again. (I am much more organized in cyberspace than real space) :-)

Incidentally, this is one of the main reasons I still don't use a digital camera for "real" photography. To get a camera that would come close to the resolution that I can get from film and a scanner would cost $8000. (that still would not compare to the bit depth, the number of colors. Which is what allows me to pull detail from the shadows) And really, I would rather have an $80 camera with me everywhere than an $8000 camera wrapped in bubble wrap at home.

The other reason I stick with film is I really like the film feel. I am planning on renting some of the new digitals in the near future just to keep up on what they can do and see if they are getting close. But I have not seen anything convincing so far. I also like to be able to encourage people to get into photography if they are interested. Most people think it takes a huge investment. But it is more an investment in time and love.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Rose in the Clearing

This rose was in a small clearing surrounded by a man-made (or woman-made) jungle at Lotusland. There was just enough opening in the canopy to allow a nice shaft of light on the rose. The setting made the background much darker offsetting the vibrant flower.

As I have experimented with my photos I have found that the background is sometimes more important than the subject itself. The right surroundings can make a mediocre subject really pop, and it will make a beautiful subject something really special. Another good example of this and one of my favorite backgrounds is in the first image on this site.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Swirling Sunset Petals

Another print from my first show at the Santa Barbara Public Library, Townley Room. Flower close-ups are one of the first things I started to tinker with when I got a real camera. But, by real I don't mean expensive or brand new. I got a manual Canon AE-1 and some cheap lenses off of eBay. (This was back when I could look through all of the items in the photography section on eBay in one evening) Because of working with anything I could find a good deal on, the combination of lenses I put together causes a slight halo at the edges. Rather than giving up on the lenses, I found the softness makes for beautiful flower close-ups. My friend and I dubbed them my "Fuzzy Flower Filters."

The important thing if you want to get into photography is to tinker and have fun. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on the latest equipment. You don't need digital this and auto-focus that, I have the most fun with my trusty, all-manual AE-1. That's not to say I don't have an auto-focus camera and a small digital for quick shots. But, I find myself more inclined to carry a cheaper camera all over the place with me than I would an expensive top-of-the-line camera. If you don't have your camera with you, you can't get the cool spontaneous things you see on a daily basis. And the combination of an $80 AE-1 from eBay and a high quality slide film will result in sharper images than all but the most expensive digital cameras.

In the end you have to find what works best for you personally so you can have the most fun with it.