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.

Flat Tops Trails

Flat Tops Trails, originally uploaded by McF Studios.

Of course I made a time-lapse. This is 10,080 seconds compressed to one.

Flat Tops Trails

A clear night above 10,000 feet in the White River National Forest. Half a moon lit the foreground and provided some colour in the sky. I figured there was too much light to catch any trails, or maybe the star colours wouldn't translate as well. Guess it pays to shoot anyway. The warm glow on the trees on the left is from my campfire. This image was compiled from 42 four minute exposures, roughly three hours.

Steady Thursday & Free iPhone Wallpapers

I think Thursday is going to be my post day.  It's always a struggle to produce content for the blog that meets my standards for artistic endeavours.  Sometimes the pictures happen easily, but the stories have trouble finding words, other times it's the opposite.  But I usually have something to share on Thursdays.  Maybe it's circadian.  Todays offering is in honour of the Fourth of July celebrations this week in the States.  I've created a set of 18 iPhone wallpapers of fireworks.  You get them all for the low cost of one mouse click on this link.  They are sized for the iPhone 4 screen specs but will display on any of the iPhone or iPod Touch models.  To install them Mac OS omputer unzip the file, drag the folder to iPhoto, sync your iPhone/iPod Touch, then, from your iOS device select an image and set it to the wallpaper.  Installing these from a Windows computer begins by pressing CTRL-ALT-Delete, and proceed from there.
Enjoy the prefestival fireworks!

The Cosmic Windmill

Gotta use what you're given, I guess.  Light pollution from Greeley, CO joins a gelled Maglite for a little mood lighting.  The Milky Way enters, stage right.  In adverse conditions, you gotta think through problems and be creative with solutions.  This is a great result and will hopefully resonate with a lot of viewers.  However, what I wanted was more simple and plain.  A lot of dreams start as mere suggestions.  So I turned the camera to the East, to find some black sky and used a small flashlight to illuminate the windmill.  This very subtle frame has all the elements necessary to explain why I make images of the natural world.  It's the last photograph I made that night, and with all those possibilities swimming through the sky, it's a great place to stop and get some sleep.  Have a pleasant weekend!

Cauldron

The Little Dipper floats above the glow from Cheyenne, WY.  Light pollution is a fact of life, and because we're all afraid of the dark, it's never going to cease being a problem.  Sometimes, though nature presents itself in harmony with our shortcomings.  Here the Little Dipper teases at the cauldron of city lights, maybe one day it will reach down and scoop the pollution away.

Polaris Encircled

Got it this time.  What you see is the result of 116 minutes broken into 4 minute exposures.  The colours you see in the photo are not typically visible to the naked eye.  Thankfully, however, the camera can see them perfectly!  The warmer the star is the cooler it's colour, so the hotter stars are blue and the cooler stars are red… science is crazy fun sometimes.  Interested in the timelapse?  Well here you go, 6960 seconds compressed to 1!

Faux Nebula

That gaseous nebula in the lower right is actually light pollution from Greely, CO spewing forth into the night  An arm of the Milky Way fights for attention in the background.

Star Week at McF Studios!

A few nights last week, I endured the mosquitos and sleep deprivation that accompany night photography to make a few star photographs.  These were all taken out on the Pawnee national Grasslands in NE Colorado.  You can't really get away from the light pollution of nearby cities, but that's because there's nothing out there to block it.  No trees, no mountains and no buildings.  I love it!  Our rainy season is ending, so everything is green and lush and buzzing with life.  But those photos are going to wait their turn… for now it's the magic of the heavens and it's expanse of possibilities.  This is the first week I've actually scheduled posts, so check back every day for a new photograph.  This first image was a kind of failure.  But it's too cool not to share!  I love the morse code texture that the star trails have, and if you look at the bottom left of center you can see a nearby fence, great scale.  The prairie was absolutely alive that night, insects buzzing in my ear and the biggest loudest chorus of frogs I've ever heard out there.  maybe that's my I like this so much, the memory of sound is connected by the stuttering in the trails.  Anyway, I fixed my settings that caused this and will have a proper trail up later for you purists.  One more thing, that's Jupiter in the lower right and Polaris in the upper left, with a couple of airplanes throughout for good measure.

Happy Shooting!

A Tale of Two Tails

My first dog liked to chase her tail.  She'd spin in very determined circles, focused on her quarry.  An unstoppable vortex that would attempt to gobble up any counter attempt.  She learned, too, that hitting a wall or other object could giver her an advantageous bit of reach wherein she could finally attain her elusive quarry.  She became quite adept at catching her tail.  Trouble was she knew exactly what to do when she caught it… chew the hell out of it.  I'm sure it made sense to her… chase tail, catch tail, chew tail.  At that time in my life, I was too young to understand dog breeds, or behavioral anomalies and neurosis in canines.  If you asked me why my white dog had a black head and a pink tail, I would have told you she chases her tail and the black is a kind of camouflage.  Her tail is pink because she's good at catching it and she chews it until it bleeds.  Long before she developed this behavior, I named her "Tippy".  She's still a fond memory.  I'm very fortunate to have had a dog which provided me the opportunity to make empirical assessments at an early stage in my artistic life.  Sometimes the creative process is just a series of urges.  It can be similar to watching a dog chase it's tail.  The evening the photo above was taken, I set out on an uncharted course along Northern CO's grasslands.  Setting off without a physical or ideological destination at the beginning of an art making excursion is a valid endeavor, but can lead to the sort of behavior for which artists notorious.  Somewhere in the flat land, I got the idea that there was so much rain the rivers were taking back the roads.  And true the rain was making a very concerted effort to keep me bogged int he mud, so I ventured back to the dull paved lanes and eventually headed west toward home.  Taking the long way and effectively making a bigger loop around my tail, I came upon this scene as I rounded the bend, skidded to a halt, and began to close the loop with a series of u-turns and head-spins.  But to make the final catch on my quarry required abandoning commonsense and ignoring physical and legal threats to my person.  Thankfully, an F350 brought a moment of clarity and sanity to the evening, and I walked out of the middle of the road.  Did, I find something meaningful and succeed in making it an artful moment?  Thankfully, that's something for the audience to discuss.  I can only commit that I did, in fact, catch my tail that particular evening, and I am currently chewing the hell out of it for an, as yet, undisclosed reason.

(several other images from this evening can be seen in my Flickr Photostream, enjoy)

Staring Out, Again.

A two day storm blows itself out, revealing Hallett Peak, as seen from the easy, albeit windy, trail around Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.  This iconic image can be easily captured by anyone with a camera.  I'm certain that anyone who might come to see it when it hangs in the gallery, might intend to go try for themselves.  I wonder why, though.  As an artist, I am compelled toward the expression of my own peculiar stories and ideas.  But what drives others out into the cold to chase an elusive quarry?  In the six hours I walked around the park chasing my own demons tail, my mind drifted back to the mornings I'd get up hell bent on reaching the top of places like Hallett Peak.  I think it was the post-holing hike with an incredibly heavy pack on my back that dislodged the ancient memory.  Maybe it was the very cold and humid spring morning air and wiping my nose on my gloved thumb.  Felt good to be out and alone, drifting with the low clouds taking pictures of trees being eaten alive by pine beetles, and rivulet streams flowing through troughs in the new snow.  Several months ago I hiked into Dream Lake at 4am for the usual alpenglow photos.  After that I hiked to Emerald Lake at the base of the mountain and climbed to a fantastic napping spot in full sun.  I didn't sleep so much as stare at the craggy face picturing myself somewhere up there lost in a shadow, perhaps staring back, but more likely staring into the distance, yet again.  When, on this snowy morning, the clouds lifted out of the valleys, I slowly walked back to my vehicle, groggy and cold, aging.  Something alerts in the trees and goes quiet, all you hear is wind and brushes of snow.  You've become increasingly aware in the hushed forest, moving toward the daydream, unknowingly lost, alone, and increasingly happy.

Riverbend Series, Plate 4

A couple of nights ago, I woke up from a dream.  It was more of a nightmare, but since I forced myself awake, there wasn't that normal continuation of panicked feelings.  In the dream, I was standing on a large rock that was barely sticking out of the ocean.  There was a great white shark circling the rock and being very aggressively inquisitive.  I turned my head to the person who was with me on the rock and said, "If the tide rises, we're fucked."  Then, I looked at my wet feet.  I was wearing shoes.  This is when I woke up.  When I was a small boy, I was very afraid of sharks.  It was an irrational fear, because I lived in Pennsylvania, but the mind of a child isn't a rational thing.  I couldn't close my eyes in the shower, because when I did, I would see a shark's mouth coming toward me.  As a teenager, on the swim team, I used to imagine sharks swimming in the pool during a race.  Fear of sharks, actually, replaced my fear of tornados.  Seems there's always something to fear.  Being an artist is strange thing.  I get ideas and make things.  I had this idea to make a series of prints around the central themes of water and distance.  Would you lose respect for me if I said, this project has it's own tide?  I hope not.  Anyway, you probably know what I mean, though.  Sometimes you lose sight of the idea as it's building.  You know it's there, but it's far off and a little past the horizon, now.  It may be getting closer, I can't really tell.  Damn-it, it's right there, you know you can catch it… but… you're going to have to get a little wet.

Riverbend Series, Plate 2

The second image from the series "Riverbend".  No luck on a new title, yet.  However, I was lucky to find several willing subjects in a single outing.  When I get an idea stuck in my imagination, it is clear and solid and tangible and definite.  Often, though, I cannot use words to express the idea and instead will use the sounds I hear associated with the flashes of colour I see when the idea comes into form.  Well… maybe art is like sausage, great on the plate, but you don't want to know how it got there.  I'll be direct, instead.  A stone cannot swim against the tide.  In order to create something, I have to let go of something.  This is an honest personal truth.  If you can accept that as the inception of my images, I can suggest  another truth.  In order to understand something, you have to let go of something.  A cloud cannot hold itself together.

Riverbend Series, Plate 1

I've completed the first image in a new series.  Riverbend.  The more I type that title, though, the more easily bored I am with it.  About a month ago, I was trying to write an "artist statement" for a local gallery.  When trying to speak about my use of colour, I had to visualize my own reactions to colours I remember from landscapes I've photographed.  Not being able to completely draw any one experience that defined those reactions, I instead, explored out from the feelings I have when moved by the light in some of the more dramatic areas I've worked.  This new series was born in the mind of a painter.  If you can hold an ounce of paint in your hand, it is a small world of colour.  As much as this dollop of paint has depth it can be explored, so much as it spreads around your hand it can be experienced.  The image above is based on a memory I have of being bathed in pink light during a predawn shoot.  The moment was powerful enough to completely stop my work and send me into a playing, dancing, hopping frenzy.  Lately, though, I've been listless as the season tries to change to spring.  A few weeks ago while out for a walk, I became very interested in the shoreline of these local ponds.  The intricacies of the submerged patterns was an amusing diversion, I was able to swim away into a pink memory, and float briefly, above the stones of winter.

Atmosphere; An McF Studios Series

Groggy and cold is now way to go through life. It's not even a good way to make a living. All the jobs I've had that required me to be present, lucid, and feigning interest at early-o'clock began as someone else's idea. The story about these tree images isn't any different. Sitting at the desk before dawn in January, I got an email from my girlfriend that read, "Get off your ass, it's really beautiful outside." Knowing that she hates the cold, I rushed out with the camera and two lenses, a 50mm and an ultra-wide. Shivering along the drive, my head started comparing places close by that might pair well with the fog. Had to be close, I was six minutes ahead of the sun, but the fog was really thick. I wanted trees and space. No space in town, but there are a few great trees in City Park, so that's where I headed. I started fantasizing about trees hit with god-beams while all around was fog and light. You get what you get. Everything was muddy, mediocre, dull. OK. Walk around shooting a few exposures, check the histo, change a lens, check again. Got it. Shoot the 50mm at f/1.4 min, f/2.8 max which will provide all the separation I need. Composing with the 50 also controls the distortion... ain't none. Just gotta keep picking up the sticks and moving until it's perfect. After that, I'm goin' full HDR baby. I shot 9 stop brackets, but only needed three. Had the intent of doing black and white, but when I saw the first return on the LCD, I wanted the little bit of colour because it increased the separation I was there to capture. Sometimes you just get lucky. Yeah... LUCKY! Today, I got lucky a lot. Lucky that the light was there. Lucky that I found an easy subject. Lucky that the means met the idea. Lucky for the girl who got me goin'. Not a bad day by my standards.
(the rest of this series is available at Flickr, enjoy)

Wolf Moon Prairie

The Wolf Moon rising over the prairie Saturday night, north of New Raymer, CO. After a lackluster sunset on the buttes, and not much glow in the civil twilight, I had completely packed the Jeep ready to go find food, anybody else crave steak after a day out on Pawnee? maybe it's just me. Luckily cought the slight arc of moon light reflecting on a window. Happily, skipping a meal I caught this.  Think the camera saw more stars than I did.  Lots of things I could have done better technically speaking, but that doesn't change how much I absolutely love this photograph.  Single frame shot, Nikon D3 at 30 seconds, f/4, ISO200.

Settler's Gate

Three things that start with the letter "W".

Walking    Wondering    Waiting

Over the last three days, I've unknowingly adhereded to this shceme.  I found it by asking my self a question concerning the state of my art.  Which itself started as a question concerning the value others seem to place on the trueness of a photograph.  I'll start there again.

Sitting in Luck Joe's, showing my small book to a waitress, she asked, "Is this Photoshopped?"

"Yes, everything is.  Photoshop is one of my favourite tools."

She continued flipping through the images and, I think, complimented them before going back to work.

The essence of this question is, perhaps, "Can I believe this as a true photograph?"  Which is the repetition of the SOOC crap, anti-HDR crap, artist vs. reporter crap, and... (this is the exact moment I became bored with the argument).

Both sides of that discussion are ridiculous.  Side A: The river is here every day, it never changes.  Side B: The river is always changing, every day it different.

Explain that yourself.

The action of capturing a percise moment in time as a still image is by design an abstraction of reality.  anything more is an embellishment.  it is the intent behind that embellishment which can offer definition to the image.  arguing against intent, is futile, masteurbatory, and reteric.

From there I asked myself something about my intent as it relates to my means.  I find something while I am walking around.  It will get into my memory and from there a conversation will take place deep in a subconscious realm, while my imagination begins to wonder about that thing.  Then I will wait.

That's the formula.  Let me demonstrate it in a slightly more tangible manner.

The object in the photo above was originally found while hiking on my birthday.  I stopped to consider it twice, each time without a camera.  I thought it would be a great place to take some photos and then went back to stomping into the frozen snow.  Three weeks later, I didn't have much motivation to shoot but for some reason I went out and started racing the sun, because of a suspicion that something really wonderful might be coming.  This spot is close to my apartment and that's where I went.  Technically speaking, the image above has been manipulated from it's original group of negatives.  Lots of tools were used to beat the thing into submission.  All of the tools I use are available to anyone, except two.  Imagination and Awareness.  As an artist, those are the most powerful tools I have.

I walked (actually ran) to this old gate.  I wondered why I was there.  I waited for an answer.

Doing What's Natural

Racing the sunrise this morning, literally.  Running down the trail while trying to get the camera mounted on the tripod.  Couldn't manage to get it centered in the head correctly, so I stopped and did it right.  Fired off a few shots of civil twilight hitting the clouds (view one here) just in case I missed the action when I got up the hill.  Threw the rig over my shoulder and continued the sprint.  I don't run much.  Recently joked that the only reason for an adult to run is from the cops.  Now look at me.  Victim of poor planning.  Got up early enough, but didn't pack anything the night before.  Completely out of practice.  But the running actually felt good, until the hill.  Then I started thinking about taking pictures of the frost melting off the stones in the trail because I was going to be face down soon, waiting on Search and Rescue.  Just a bit of drama in the morning, though, blood moving kept the fingers pink and the boots warm.  This is what I'm meant to do.  Get outside to experience me experiencing the natural world.  Wish it paid the rent, though.

Got up the hill, found my spot and started gunning through the film (digital memory just sounds wierd).  I walked through this local Natural Area a few weeks ago and got an idea the sun would be just about right this time of year for some early morning pictures. The shot above taught me the real importance of tripods... you can keep shooting while catching your breath.  Felt good to be outside shooting, again.  Thankfully the sunrise is pretty late, don't think I could handle a 3am start. There's an interesting feature right behind where I'm taking this shot.  In the next few days you'll be able to see what I think is worth runnning uphill in 15 degree weather to capture.  Funny thing, on the walk back down, I met a cop out to see if the report of a huge buck was true.  He asked me to stay on the trail.  I fought the urge to run.