Wheat Field Cemetery

           Gabriel and I ventured into the tall grass to look for the abandoned cemetery in the wheat field. The descendants asked us to not plow the resting places, but for ten years now they have not visited. Mesquite plants now overwhelm the tombstones.

The larger stones stand above the tall grasses.

I could hardly see Gabriel through the overgrown plants. That's the old Taylor tombstone he is photographing. 

We quickly took a picture of this nest. Perhaps the nest and its tender egg belong to a Mourning Dove.

I knew when I took this image that I would enjoy post processing it in the digital darkroom. 

Thanks, Photomatix.

Sent out an APB on the identity of this bird. Will update you when I find out. P. S. Female Dickcissel.

Fun grab shot of Gabriel opening one of the gates. 

Birds at Wild Bird Rescue

The Red River Photography Club took pictures today at the Wild Bird Rescue center. They plan to publish a calendar to donate for the organization to sell as a fundraiser. I drove out there to check things out.

I watched Alicia feed hatchling Robins.

AShepherdsHome worked on a photo of the baby mallards.

Two Yellow-crowned Herons sort of posed for the group of photographers. 

Missi's Mom held a Yellow-crowned Heron while BirdManBob slipped a minnow into its beak. 

Old Images New

Dabbling in HDR has helped me "save" images I took inside Christ Church in Greenville, South Carolina.
Here we see the chapel and a stained glass window made by Tiffany. I felt awed by the window and wished to capture the image, but until I worked on it with Photomatix, I had only a slightly under- and over-exposed picture.

Saint Petersburg Tonemapped

Some of my single images lend themselves to HDR, such as the two above from Saint Petersburg. 

Watching Men Working

I had the opportunity to watch the roughnecks at work drilling for oil. 

As I drove up, I knew which image my new old D2h my friend gave me would take first.

Man on rig.

The swivel on the derrick and fabulous clouds in the background.

Drill bit. Huge. 

Working with a cutting torch.

Walking down the steps.

Resting.

Climbing on the derrick.

Adding more pipe.

Preparing more pipe.

New Old D2h

My friend gave me his old camera, a Nikon D2h. Fabulous. I like the way it sounds when I press the shutter release button. I clicked away just to hear it, sometimes. I carried it with me when I walked around after supper this evening.

Cappadocia George: Tonemapped

The HDRs so far have come from my old photography files and from the single image I extracted. Ideally, one would employ a tripod and capture three images at different exposures to subsequently merge into one image in your favorite High Dynamic Range software. Thus far, I've used Photomatix.

George's image, above, and Christ's, below, painted on the cave walls in Cappadocia. 

Sumela George: Tonemapped

HDR version above; original image below.

Painterly HDR or Otherwise

           My friend Nancy loves the images we saw in Trabzon, Turkey, of the Sumela Monastery. So do I, and cannot resist working with High Dynamic Range photography on the images I took during our visit there. Here we can compare two images of Karl composing for a photo of the chapel built in the side of the mountain.

Pig Pen on a Wheat Field

         Fred the Farmer put us in a combine. We harvested wheat for about an hour before I had to leave to attend a board meeting (argh) or I would have remained in the cab watching the combiners at their work. We see them for only a few weeks every year. 

The combines are constantly surrounded by a cloud of dust and wheat grass particles, and I was remindful of the comics character Pig Pen.

This is the view from the cab of the uncut wheat ahead of the combine.

Looking directly below, the tines keep the cut wheat on the belt that moves inward after the blades saw off the stems. 

In the cab, the driver can monitor information on each run, such as how many bushels per acre, groundspeed, and moisture on the wheat plant.

The window behind the driver shows the combine filling the compartment.

          When the compartment is full, a light flashes outside the cab to alert the tractor driver to approach. Tractor and combine drive side by side at more or less two miles per hour as the driver of the combine fills the tractor's trailer and directs the combine down the field. (Kind of like chewing and walking of a higher order. Kids, do not attempt this at home.)

Once full, the tractor transfers the wheat to the eighteen-wheeler. Note the tires on the tractor. 

Tone-mapped Karl in Sumela

Fiddling with HDR

Tone-mapped Virgin Mary of Sumela (top).

On the South West Side

We drove around exploring.

Old trailer along the dirt road.

Gas chart.

Common Nighthawk.

A Black Angus cow stands belly-deep in the water cooling off from ninety-degree Fahrenheit temperatures. 

A cow, accompanied by Cattle Egrets, stands in the shade of a Mesquite plant.

Hunters left behind chairs now flooded by the risen lake level.

Looks like a dwelling for a little animal.