Natural World Show at C4FAP

In keeping with my self promotion style, I'd like to announce that I had an image selected for the Natural World show at C4FAP.  Yep, it's that goddamn tree at Fossil Creek Res., choke on that haters!  The show is nearing completion, so you'll have to hurry if you want to deface it!  (All sarcasm aside, I am very proud to have been selected to be part of the show.)

Luckily, I was using my Nikon P(oS)7000 which refused to focus on any object in the room.  Maybe it's some kind of built in copywrite protection.

McF Studios Gallery

If any of you are traveling outside this blog's bounding box you may have found the McF Studios front page, and from there perhaps you dove into the Image Galleries link.  About a month ago that would have landed you on the doorstep of my reseller.  Then, as if planned, a week ago, you may have seen a 404 style error page.  Hmm...  I won't get into the particulars, but that situation didn't make me very happy.  Whose fault it was isn't important, but since this is my business and my name it's ultimately my fault that the link suddenly didn't work.

The New Gallery Page at mcfstudios.com

It works now, but you will no longer be taken to a reseller.  Instead you are presented with a gallery of my photographs.  These are all taken very near my home of Fort Collins, CO.  I think they are some of my best work.  Please take a minute to enjoy.  Web based print sales will return, until then if you'd like to purchase a print, please drop us a line at contact@mcfstudios.com.

Thank you, have a pleasant weekend.

-r.
P.S.  It's a flash based gallery, so it won't work on your iPad.  I'm working to rectify this, but it may take a few weeks.

Pinion's Perch

One little pinion perched on a hill / Comes a storm to break your will / Not my problem, I don't care / I can move from here to there / You're all alone up on your perch / Tell me now what is it worth / We'll face this rain but seperately / Hope you last this calamity.
(it's that mockingbird song, and it sounds much better if you sing it)

City Park Fauxtumn

Then I got really bored and whipped this up with my favourite oil paints.  Mmm... linseed...
Not really, it's a 100% digital creation.  In the beginning of the year, I photographed several of these magnificent trees in City Park.  Before the horrendous wind started, I took a trip to see how they were getting along in Autumn.  Gorgeous as ever, I wasn't satisfied with the greater atmospheric occurrences and just took some snapshots to record the locations.  Enter the new painting technique...
Enjoy!

One Hundred!

Today is my one hundredth post!  Glad it's a happy colourful image.  Finally put the studio back together and got most everything plugged in again.  The new layout didn't come together the way I wanted, but it's certainly better.  Feels good to be back to work!
Saw this tree the other day after I had pack up to hike back tot he Jeep.  The sunlight in the leaves and all those colours, I had to stop and shoot more!  Who could give this up?  Yellow, green, red, blue... what'd I miss?  Pretty sure if it's a colour it's in the photograph... gonna be a pain to get this one printed correctly.

In The Last Of The Sun

Blackfoot-Pawnee-Cheyenne-Crow!

Ap-a-che!

Ar-ap-a-ho!

...sheesh!  If anyone reading this can remeber the post-punk, new wave song that chant is from, you're too old to be reading (or writing) blogs with fonts this small.  Anyway, whenever I venture to roam a bit in this Fort Collins Natural Area, that silly song pops in my head and won't leave.  Any guesses?  Here's a hint:  I'm adamant that in natue is the key to our survival.  Might even contain the fountain of youth.  Drink deep and howl into the night with the Kings of the Wild Frontier!

City Park Fauxtumn

Obviously, I'm really starting to have some fun with these digital painting tools.  If this dang wind ever stops, there are a few places I think I can find new subjects to apply this technique.  Hopefully, a few leaves will be spared, but there are whole branches (literally) blowing through the neighborhoods.

Paradise Divide

The headwaters of the Slate River as they cascade down the surrounding slopes to writhe through a valley of their own.

When this image was made, I had been squatting for over three hours on the hillside waiting for that cloud to cooperate with my composition.  When it finally began to behave, most of the colour was gone.  Bastard clouds!  I haven't done much black and white since Agfa Scala followed the dodo, but every once in a while, I see something that really wants to be black and white, like this very pretty place.

Bonus Thursday Post = FLY AGARIC!

Might have been the most prolific mushroom of the season.  Every where I went these were in full screaming beaming sprout!

The Clearing To Come

Little drops on the needles of the pines catch hits of sunshine.  After seventeen hours the rain finally relented.  Slightly comforted by the sighting of colour, we shiver into the night.  Everything in the forest yearns for dawn.

Ten Seconds at Camp

...and so it began, another week in the mountains, another seventeen hours of rain.  Gotta get that campfire  hot!  It's gonna be a few day before the wood dries out.
Gone Camping.
Happy Friday!

Any Moon Tonight

A Paddletail Darner (as in "darning needle", yes that's why) fancies a lamp globe.  These guys, like many of the insects you see at night, navigate using the moon.  Instinct says, "Go toward the light!", but it doesn't tell you what to do if you get there.
Dangle for all you're worth, little man!

Contest Entries

                Cold Burn, 2009                                               Dream Lake in a Fog, 2009

Evening Events

Ever find one of those places that you don't want to leave?  I set up my tent and sat here for nearly a week.  Most of the recent photos are from very close to this exact spot.  In the afternoons, I'd head into the mountain (literally), but mostly... I stayed close to this spot.

Trees Against the Night

Light pollution painted the clouds and I painted the trees.  An arm of the Milky Way cuts the frame.  A pleasant night in the mountains.

Fireside Star Fall

Mistakenly left the camera tuned to ISO 1600 for this, so I ended up with the blue sky.  The storm cleared out and the long exposure ignored the clouds, except the few illuminated by the light pollution in the last few frames.  For something to be captured by the camera, it has to be visible for 25% of the exposure, my method for compiling these ignores all but the brightest values of the images.  Add equal parts mistake, luck and technique - Shiver uncontrollably to combine.  Trees in the foreground left are lit by campfire light.  Seven photos at 240 seconds, or about 28 minutes.  As mentioned before the humidity was tremendous, so not long after sundown a very heavy dew settled on every thing, including that great bulbous 14-24mm lens, thereby ending the shot.

A Clearing Storm in Purple and Yellow

After two hours of duck drowning rain, the temperature lost twenty points, the humidity stayed at 100%, late season Arnica began their wither, and the sun gave a futile last attempt.

Not a Ramada!

Here's my excuse.  My escape.  My little birdhouse, tucked against a tree.  Branches and clouds and stars and mud.  I cannot get any closer to sharing with you, my love of being outside than this image.  Of course, I do a lot of crazy things outside, but being in the mountains, moving slow, watching the sky spin, is what I really need.  Maybe I'll fit some tent time in this weekend, too.  It's a work trip if I have the camera with me, right?

Have a pleasant weekend in your own little birdhouse.

Star Bombers

Trails in the SW sky, the Milky Way (center frame) remains visible above the Hayden Point forest fire. Compiles from seventeen four minute exposures.  These are the same trees and stars from yesterday's image.  Enjoy.

Through the Trees

Three blue spruce stand against the night sky in the White River National Forest.  Several miles away a fire near Hayden Point glows on the horizon.  The Milky Way continues on, undeterred.  Single 30 second exposure, trails to come later.