Pine tree & cones

[abraxas]

C&C appreciated.

 

[LaFoto]

That is a nice "I-knelt"-photo of the cones! I like it. Did you do much to enhance the colours? The area is nice ... looks dry, much much much unlike anything looks round here right now (and we don't have colours round here at this time of our non-winter year). Everything here is damp or even quite swampy, mossy (which at least gives some colour), and most of all ... drab. So I do enjoy your photos!

Also the sky in the pine-photo!
Was it early or late in the day?

 

[abraxas]

These shots are from a series taken to document yet another area that will be cleared and flattened for big, massive, estate-style homes on tiny-little lots. Plenty of dry brush, and in the spring and summer, snakes & rats.

Technically, I've been learning to work with RAW and have lightened the shadows as well as enhancing the color a bit to differentiate shades of 'dry.' Also, something you said somewhere in some thread got me to thinking about using a layer for sharpening the online version- After I resize, I make a duplicate layer, use the sharpen filter and adjust the opacity.

The shots were taken mid-afternoon, but a storm was coming in and gave everything a nice light with the sun peeking through here-n-there.

Though I was feeling rather uninspired and couldn't pick/find a subject, the upside to the day is that a couple inches of snow fell after I left with maybe another foot on the way, and I had a buyer on the phone when I got home to purchase rights for a seasonal series in the area I've been working on. Downside to the latter; the shots will be used for brochures to sell yet another hidden mountain valley as a potential resort property. My beloved area is becoming a human zoo.

If some more snow falls tonight I'll head up tomorrow morning and get some snow shots. Hopefully I'll get there before it all gets mowed down, flattened out and turned into an obscene gesture toward nature. I suppose I'm just pouting because I had to postpone a desert trip to next month.

I'm thinking though that the hard rain (& snow) will bring some nice flower shots out in the desert in a couple weeks So the delay is a good thing.

 

[LaFoto]

It's a pity to hear all these bits of tucked-away nature have been detected and will be "developed" now. So go out for as long as you can and take as many photos as you can! I for one enjoy them all.

And do go out and photograph snow for me.
It is a rare sight for us here in this part of Europe in this winter!

 

[PNA]

You want pine cones and pine needles.....come to my backyard in GA and have a feast. I haven't raked this winter and don't intend to until spring.......70+ degree weather!

BTW nice shots.

 

[abraxas]

It's a pity to hear all these bits of tucked-away nature have been detected and will be "developed" now. So go out for as long as you can and take as many photos as you can! I for one enjoy them all.

And do go out and photograph snow for me.
It is a rare sight for us here in this part of Europe in this winter!

The storm is taking its time getting here- the way the weather people forecast, everything is like, "the sky is falling!" When it doesn't happen it is more like, "we're all gonna die!"

Development is bitter-sweet for me. The nature disappears, and I rot inside; homes appear and I make more money.

An additional upside to the later is that I've been practicing HDR on my client exterior photos

Here's an example of the type of homes that will be built;

Here's this week's favorite;

These places are HUGE. I figure the people that live in them must be about 9 feet tall. Both are nearly 4,000 square feet homes. They must have a lot of stuff.

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Thanks PNA.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, I do admit that these homes look impressive! But before I'd move into one of them, I'd want to know for sure that someone's coming round to my place to clean these windows regularly! :shock:

So the money for your hobby comes in by your selling these homes to people in the end?
So all this must be a very bitter-sweet experience for you, eh?

 

[PNA]

These are very rustic looking homes.....where are you building them.

 

[abraxas]

I don't build or sell. I just take the photos, put them up on the internet and and go goof off. My job, which pays for my hobby started as a hobby which came from my job which came from my hobby, etc.

Strange story, but in the last maybe thirty years I haven't done anything for a living that didn't start off as a hobby. Don't make much, but ain't very good. Used to make money as a kid by drawing. Worked like a fool for 9 years, still liked to draw and read. Then, one day, reading turned to writing, writing turned into tech writing, drawing turned into tech illustration. Started math/geometry as a hobby, that turned into engineering backed by drafting and computer programming from there. Programming and engineering turned into geographic information systems and making games for bbs' and that into internet. Geographic information systems turned into photo-modeling building and interactive maps. Models turned into virtual models with floorplans of homes for sale and programming turned into the internet. Started taking photos of nature and buildings and turned them into community modelling. Community modelling turned into web site building and natural environment photo-models. I started learning about the environment and started taking photos (no matter what the quality ). Photos sell to books occasionally. Author told me the way I like to tell stories I heard I should write a book- use my pictures because as an author that was her biggest expense. Take all my photos and put them up on the internet (about 40-50,000 shots to date) over a variety of sites/community/environment models and sell advertising. Collect stories I've heard in the mountains and desert and visit places they took place to take photos for a book(s) I'm trying to write. All the photos, at least the good ones I like will end up in books, or the internet at the least.

So on, so forth. Very bohemian/gypsy semi-free-spirit in nature. Get to live off my creative instinct, but because of my love of the technical. No school, never cared. Can't sit long enough. Don't make much, not all that good. Don't care other than taking care of my family- to a point.

Complained to my father a few years ago about I didn't have a retirement plan. He told me once I was retired I'd just do what I do now (take photos, write), so what was my point? He thought I retired at age 24.

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BTW, one of my sites is at the end of my tagline below.