Sunset Road

Take a drive with me down Sunset Road, on sunset road the sun is always glowing just above the horizion.  The grass is green and lush on both sides of the fence. The air is clear and fresh, a gentle breeze blowing from the south.  Horses graze in pastures behind barbwire fences along the road. The drive is forever peaceful, and your seat is always comfortable.

The road is calling.

Have you followed the a road for the sake of adventure, to chase a dream? Was it as amazing as you hoped it would be? I have found that sometimes it is even better and sometimes it is a little less amazing that I had hoped. They say life is what you make of it so I’m going to keep driving down roads looking for amazing things.

Sunset Road

This photo is available for purchase as a signed limited edition* 16 x 24 print to be matted into a 20 x 30 frame for $80.

Print will be professionally printed on Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper

*Limited Edition –  25 print prints available.

Contact me to order or if you have any questions.

For Travelers

You can find this scene just north of Beatrice, Nebraska on Hwy 77.  It is on the northwest corner, of Hackberry Rd and Hwy. 77.

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For Photographers

This is a 7 shot HDR processed in Nik HDR Effex Pro 2. I used the default setting in Hdr Effex pro because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to process the image and didn’t want to be locked into a certain style and look. By using the default I was able to start with a flat image, leaving my options open. It took me a while to decide how to I wanted this to look. I finally decided on some initial edits in Lightroom 4, you can find that preset here.

I thought I was done but I decided to take it into OnOne Perfect Effex 4 where I added a little Holywood Glow, and little of Spring from the landscape effects.

The Power of sharing.

Today i got to thinking about the power of sharing. Not sharing a cookie, but sharing in the terms of the internet, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. It occured while browsing facebook over lunch that the majority of items and posts that get shared on facebook especially are nothing more than chain letters. The subject varies, the most common are subjects are politics, cats and fake vintage posters with witty sayings on them.

Why am I writing about this? Because I have an alterior motive. I want to use the internet to grow a business and I want your friends and family to be able to do the same. It all starts with the click of a button. However it is not the button  you think it is.

Moving Beyond the Like Button

I really appreciate the interaction/likes that I get when I post my art. However Likes are not what I Need to make my business grow. I need Shares! I did a little non scientific research on facebook and google+ before starting on this post. I went through the 5 to 10 people who I regularly see in my feed.  What I found is this: most people that I interact with on facebook and google plus have only 40 to 50 friends/contacts in common with me. If I post a photo, or my wife writes a post about her new book that came out this week,  or my friend Magdiel posts a photo of his, or my friend Bradley Jensen Posts a photo,  there is a reason we are posting/sharing these things with you our friends. In my case I want to sell prints of my photos so I can afford to the upkeep on my camera and computer to continue to create things, if I post photos from my latest portrait session I am hoping to connect with other people in the Facebook/Google+ universe that might want to book me to shoot their portraits. The same is the case for Magdiel, he wants to sell prints to help fund his cost of producing art. My wife wants to get her books in front of more people so she can afford the costs of publishing her books and sharing her ideas and dreams with others. Bradley Jensen wants to book wedding, and portrait photography clients. These are just a few of the people that I know, I know that there are hundreds more and chances are, you know a few that I don’t.

So Here’s the Deal

I want the best for my friends, I want them to succeed with their businesses and to be able to share their art with others. So what is the best way for me to help them? Click SHARE!! The share button multipliess the reach of a post, of a photo, of a painting. If I click share then my 400+ friends have a chance to see it, maybe I don’t have the money to buy a print or a book, but by Clicking SHARE , I pass the oppertunity along others. If one of my friends shares, it gets sent to that many more people, and so on down the line.

My challenge to you

My challenge to you is to SHARE at least one post from someone you know that is trying to build a creative/art business or  is doing it as a hobby and would really like to get it in front of more people.  Help promote a humanitarian project that is doing good in the world. I am going to try to do the same. I have a tendancy to be lazy and use the like button because it is quick and easy. I PROMISE that your creative friends will appreciate it much more than Mitt Romney or Barack Obama.

I was able to go camping with my family over labor day weekend. When I woke up on Saturday morning I was able to take some time to wander the campground, the campground had some antique farm equipment in a maintenance lot. I spent a good amount of  time exploring the area and looking for good compositions. I really like the look of weathered metal and machines, maybe growing up on a farm with lots of old machines has something to do with that. This is a Ford 900 tractor.

Palmer-Epard Cabin- Homestead National Monument, Beatrice Nebraska

I recently had to travel to Beatrice, Nebraska for work. While there I decided to stop at the Homestead National Monument. Initially I was disappointed when I arrived because there was just this one lonely cabin and really nothing else interesting to photograph. So I tried to make the most of it. I went out to the monument as close to sunset as I could, I really like including the sun in my photos when I can. So I knew I wanted the sun to have an impact on the image. I decided that the glow was a more interesting element than having the sun in the image. After wandering around for a bit I decided on this composition because of the leading lines in the sky and the Hint of sun poking around the right side of the building.

6 bracketed shots, processed in NIK HDR Effex Pro 2 and Lightroom 4.

I took this while waiting for the fireworks to start last night. It has taken me all afternoon to get this processed, my computer is a couple of years older after wading through this.

This is a 45 shot HDR Panorama, I took 5 shot brackets from -2 to +2 set vertically. I processed the brackets in NIK HDR Effects Pro. Then added noise reduction in Lightroom, since I turned it off in camera. I also added clarity with the adjustment brush on the buildings. When I shot all the images my sensor was very dirty so I took each individual HDR image into Photoshop CS6 and used the spot healing tool to fix the dust spots.
Once I had all of them clean I merged them all into the panorama with Photoshop. The final .tif file was over 2gb. I cropped it down to edit out a lot of water and sky that did not add to the photo.

Today I have another photo texture, this is the 3rd and last image in the Misty Sunrise series. It was a really beautiful morning, I spent quite a while wandering around and taking photos and just enjoying the quiet and the soft beauty. I added three separate textures to this photo texture blend, removing and blending in different areas to achieve the look I was going for. This image is the first that I have used Onone Softwares Perfect Layers to do the texture blending. They just made the program a free download, and it works really well. I will have a tutorial on how to use it to achieve this effect hopefully sooner than later.

Reflections on the Wind

Got up before sunrise about a month ago to shoot sunrise, in downtown Omaha. I mostly focused on the Durham, Museumbecause I like the structure and texture of the building. As it turned out I only had about a half an hour before it started raining. It is extremely hard to fit the entire building into the shot. It would have been a little easier with a  wider lens or larger sensor, but that’s not in my budget right now. The other issue that made it harder was the cars parked in the parking lot. I showed up very early hoping that there would not be any cars parked in the lot. Upon arriving at 6 am I was very disappointed to find 4 cars in the lot. If you look closely you can see one of the museum’s vans in the far corner of the parking lot, thankfully  I was able to work around the rest of the cars.

Before Sunrise, Durham Museum, Omaha Nebraska

I have been playing with blending textures with my photos a lot more lately. It seems to allow me to infuse more of my vision into the image that I am creating. I have been listening to a lot of interviews of exceptional photographers, the interviews were done by Matt Brandon of  Thedigitaltrekker.com. The interviews can be found in the Itunes store by searching for the “Depth of Field” Podcast. The idea of vision seemed to come through over and over again. Having a clear vision of what you are trying to create is very important.  I intend for this Image to be included in a 3 image series of misty sunrise I was privileged to experience a few weeks ago. I say privileged for a reason, in listening to the interviews I mentioned before most of which were with humanitarian and social documentary photographers, there was another idea that really struck a cord with me. The idea is this, life is short, fragile, and can turn for the good or bad at any second.  We really need to be grateful for the time that we have,  we need to be grateful for the beauty that we are able to see, the relationships we are able to form and the experiences we have.

When I shot this image I had a vision for what I  wanted it to look like but I did not have an emotion that was connected to it. As I was working on it tonight I realized that it really showed me how we should look when we wake up in the morning.  We should be gazing heavenward praising our creator for another day of life, and asking for the grace to make it a better day for everyone we meet during the day.

Greeting the Day with Praise

I’ll add the first image in the series so you can see them paired as well

The Mist and the Willow

This is an Okapi, as you can see they have enormous ears relative to the size of their heads. I have been trying to get a shot of them for a while, they have always been in a weird position compared to the light and how close I can get to them.  This time I was able to get the shot i wanted. I realize that it is the back of head and not the face. The shape and detail of the ears is really amazing. from the front it just looks like another relative of the horse.

This is a texture blend but only the background. I am really liking what an added texture can do to the Bokeh (background Blur) of a photo.  It can really make it look more hand painted or shaded.

"My what big ears you have"

We took a short walk to enjoy the warmer weather today a Platter River State Park near South Bend Nebraska. The late afternoon sun was perfect for the small waterfalls along the creek there. The kids had a blast playing in the mud and jumping on the rocks.

A walk in the woods

A shot of the effects of fall from Pioneers Park in Lincoln Nebraska. I really like this park for the open spaces, great paths and small picturesque ponds. Definitely worth a drive or walk through if you are in lincoln

The Colors of Fall

Randomly generated abstract fountain bubble art

Abstract Foam Art

I took the kids to the Henry Doorly Zoo last week on the last really good day before our weekend storm. I found this while they were playing on the playground at the zoo. The sun was low enough in the sky that is was hitting the rose bushes and highlighting the thorns. I keep thinking that I am going to run out of things to shoot at the Zoo but  so far I still find things here and there. I think it is good mental exercise to keep looking for new angles and compositions in familiar surroundings.

So Pretty It Hurts

The Beauty of the Thorns

I seem to run photos through in sets when I am busy. this is an old mail coach also from the Durham Museum. The kids had a great time seeing all the Exhibits in the Museum. The museum houses a large collection of historical photos and en extensive coin collection that are really neat to see as well.

The Old Mail Truck

The main entry hallway to The Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. This building used to be the train station in Omaha. It now serves a museum showcasing the history of our country’s western expansion

The Great Hall - Durham Museum Omaha

This is another from my photo adventure in the artic air of Nebraska, early this January. When I took this it was about 15 degrees with a 20mph wind. Terribly cold, but worth it I think.

Golden rays of hope

Another composition of the sunset in the bitter cold of winter at Mahoney State Park, Nebraska

Windmill sunset