Spring, Obstacles and a Request

Spring is upon us once again. I am so glad to see the grass beginning to green up and show signs of renewal. I always look forward to the colors of spring after a long winter.

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted here. Below is some explanation of why it's been so long, or at least part of why.

I haven't mentioned this before on this blog, but I have an eye disease that is slowly causing blindness. You can't tell by looking at me that I have this disease, nor can you tell how the world looks to me. If you'd like to see examples of how I see and more about this disease, CLICK HERE. These examples are not exactly how I see. Some are far worse and some are better or just different. That's the nature of this disease. The symptoms can vary greatly from person to person.

As you can imagine, seeing like this is causing quite a number of difficulties with my photography, which is much of the reason I've not been updating my blogs or facebook page much in the past year or so and have had to turn down jobs. As my symptoms have progressed especially in the past year or so, I've severely decreased my time in the field taking new images. It's so frustrating when I can't tell if the image is in sharp focus, has enough contrast or saturation, etc...and it's very difficult to shoot outdoors due to the glare issues this disease has caused me.

Upgrading my equipment would help with the capturing side of the images as I would have a larger LCD display, more auto focusing points and such, but I may still need to find someone to post-process or tell me how my adjustments look as I do them.

Surgery will alleviate many of these problems, but it will take time. I will get each eye done one eye at a time, when the disease has progressed enough for the surgery, and it will take time for them to heal and all. There are risks and no guarantee my sight will be what I need even afterwards or that my body won't reject the donor tissue.

I am not telling you this to get sympathy or pity. I know God will get me through this just as He has every other trial and obstacle in my life, but I do have a request...

Would you all consider telling your friends and family about my images that are for sale? Share the link to my blog or website on your Facebook or Twitter? Would you consider purchasing one of my fine art images or some of my greeting cards? All orders are much appreciated, as I try to raise the funds for the aforementioned camera upgrades, and I am honored by all who deem my images worthy of purchase for display or gifts for family and friends. Your prayers are also greatly appreciated if you are so inclined.

Click here to see more of my flower images.

Click here to order my images as fine art prints and more.

Click here to order my images on high quality greeting and post cards.

A Day in the Mountains

This past weekend, my husband and I went up to our local mountains to see some beautiful scenery and snow. We just wanted to get away, alone, for a while and enjoy each other's company in God's beautiful creation. God blessed us with falling snow for much of our day. I didn't take nearly the pictures that I usually do, and most of the ones we took were with our little family point & shoot camera. What a special time we had together! I'm so thankful.

My husband and I, enjoying each other, and the falling snow; not to mention the beautiful scenery.

This is a little place in town, where we stopped for lunch. I highly recommend them. We were going to rent one of their cabins for our upcoming, extended get-away but decided to go to Oregon to an old historic hotel instead. I can't wait!

This is the little town on Idaho City, in black & white.

Here I am moving my gear so I can get another shot of Grimes Creek.

For more & larger images from this trip, CLICK HERE!

Follow my adventures on my Facebook Fanpage!

Today's Chilling Image

Comments welcomed...

Idaho Rainbow

There have been some awesome rainbows in Idaho this fall. I took this one near the end of the season, just before the weather turned colder and the snow started flying. The colors are so brilliant! I added scripture to this one.

You can order this image as a quality print (matted & framed or just the print), canvas or gallery wrap at my main website, or as a greeting card! Just go to the Inspirational Gallery on either site. There is a discount for greeting card orders in quantities of 8 or 16!

Jim Richardson on Travel Photography, Travel Photo Tips -- National Geographic

While preparing to travel to Wyoming for some out-of-state, in-the-field shooting, I found this great article on researching a place to which you'll be travelling, before leaving home. This will aid me in being in the right place, at the right time, and capturing best images possible on my trip. This article has helped me and I trust it will be of benefit to some of you, as well.


Jim Richardson on Travel Photography, Travel Photo Tips -- National Geographic

Lightning Storm

We had a fantastic lighting storm last night. We drove out to get a good view to take some pictures and we ended up having the storm pass right over us. I've never heard lightning so close and so loud! My heart was pounding and I was thinking, "I'm still alive and nothing hurts. That was awesome!" After that loud bold of lightning, the wind and rain hit. The car was shaking from the wind and the rain was a real downpour! By the time it quit raining enough to open the window and take a picture, the lightning was pretty far off in the distance. I never even got a chance to get my tripod out so all the photos I took were hand-held. Below is one that was acceptable to share with you all, but not what I was hoping to capture. Maybe next time, though! You just never know...

On My Own-An Independent Film

I took the stills for this independent film, last summer. The movie is by AKB Productions and premieres on August 21, 2010, in Boise, Idaho. This is the movie poster for promotion of the film. (The graphics were done by Media Ghost Productions.) Click here for more about On My Own, and to see the movie trailers.

For more about the film company or to see other films they've done, CLICK HERE.

If you are interested on working on their next full-length film, A Sweeter Song, click here for more info.

HDR-style editing technique

If you are into photography at all, you've surely heard of HDR images. For those of you who haven't heard of it, HDR stands for high dynamic range. Usually, you would take 5 or more images at different exposures and combine them in a software program. The idea is to bring out more detail in an image, especially in the shadow areas, while not clipping the highlights. There's a lot more to it, but I won't go into all that here.

I have been hesitant to delve into this area of photography because as far as art goes, I am a bit of a purist. I once took a watercolor painting class and did poorly because I like pure color and the opacity of the medium eluded me in practice, no matter how much I tried to keep a light hand. In photography, for the most part, I like images that look as real and natural as possible.

HDR can look very natural or very un-natural. HDR has the ability to enhance an image in a way that will enable it to look more like the scene looked to the human eye sees, but when overdone/over processed it just looks hokey to me. If you're going for hokey, or even artsy then I'm okay with that; but when it's supposed to be a photograph, it should be done with extreme caution so as not to overdo it and take the realism out of the image. I do believe there is a place for both.

So, this is one of my first images that I have edited this way. It was actually done in Lightroom 2, from a single RAW file. I learned the technique from a post at Digital Photography School's site. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. You can view it larger in my "Artistic" gallery, if you want to see it larger. Let me know what you think...does it look realistic enough? Is it too cartoony? Not cartoony enough for you?

Update: Here's another...

...and, one more...

Broken Fence-Free Wallpaper Download!

I just love old barns, old structures and old fences so I decided to offer this image as my latest free wallpaper download. This image was taken in Gem County, Idaho.

By downloading this file, you are agreeing to certain license usage terms. If you do not agree to the terms, please do NOT download the file.

If you would like to use this image as your computer background,

Please CLICK HERE and follow download instructions. Please also leave a comment.

*If you know someone who would like this download, use the share button; please DO NOT send them the file yourself.

ENJOY!

Snake River Birds of Prey Festival

Last year I attended a wonderful event! It's the Snake River Birds of Prey Festival, and it's coming up again! It will be held May 14-16 in Kuna, Idaho. It offers tours, lectures, and children's activities.

The lectures are very interesting and informative. There are falconers on site with live raptors as part of some of the lectures and in the vending hall. You can view them up close and ask questions about them.


I went on one of the tours last year. It was the Burrowing Owl Tour and it was an awesome experience! Below is one of the pictures of the owlets, just over a week old, I took on that tour. Click here to see more of the photos and read about my experience.

This year I plan to attend again, and I hope you will, too! Next year I will probably be a vendor there, but in the meantime, you may purchase my photography as fine art prints, framed or unframed, as well as greeting cards.