Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge: Week #6

Horizontal lines and horizons with a dash of diagonal.

Getting horizontal lines isn’t always easy. The first photo contest I entered one of the panel told me to use a level to get the horizon straight, since then I developed an abhorrence for crooked horizons, unless it intentional. It’s a simple fix that will make your photos better.

I did learn to use the level on my tripod and if I’m “freestyling” it I am at least aware so I work to make the horizon straight. If it’s not possible I leave extra room for cropping which is what happens when you straighten. If I do need to do post editing I usually use the straighten tool in Picasa (a free edit program) or the rotate canvas tool in Photoshop. With rotate canvas you can get a more precise adjustment.

click on each to see full photo.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Blind Pass Beach, Florida

National Parks

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming

 

 

Monochrome Monday: Frenchman Bay

Frenchman Bay, Acadia National Park, Maine

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #5 Leading Lines

Where does this long and windy road go line.

Indiana Countryside

Spring Mill State Park, Indiana

Round and round where it goes nobody knows lines

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Turkey Run State Park, Indiana

I see the end of the path line?

Lincoln Boyhood National Monument, Indiana

Grand Haven Light, Michigan

Going through lines.

Spring Mill State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

 

 

 

One Word Photo Challenge: Smog

Intermontane areas create their own special type of smog.

Death Valley National Park, California

 

One Word Photo Challenge: Wildfire

This photo was taken on my second trip to Grand Teton National Park. After four months of travel I couldn’t wait to see those shooting peaks that changed my geographic focus. But when I got there I could barely see them from the smoke of a wildfire. I was so disappointed but the colors of sunset brightened my outlook. Without the smoke this sunset would have been much different.

 9:00 PM, Mountain Time

9:40 PM, Mountain Time

 

One Word Photo Challenge: Drought

Drought: lack of rain. Some areas go so long with out rain even rivers dry up. But once it does rain look out, thus the pole with feet marked so you know if you can drive through. It gives a whole new meaning to flash flood.

 

Death Valley National Park, California

 

Greetings From Cataract Falls Indiana

Monochrome Monday: The Hurd

Dazzled indeed

If you love the national parks as I do check out Ranger Kathryn’s Arches blog. Although she’s at Arches this post is about my beloved Yellowstone with beautiful photos of Yellowstone in the winter – going to Yellowstone in the winter is a big dream for me.

Ranger Kathryn's Arches

“Still, what I want in my life

is to be willing

to be dazzled —

to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even

to float a little

above this difficult world.”

— Mary Oliver

It’s the dead of winter. My newly-waxed skis slip rhythmically across the shining snow; out-of-practice muscles welcome the exertion.

A coyote ambles past, making its circuit, following its nose, and a lone bison munches on green grasses it exposed using its massive head as a snowplow. Two trumpeter swans ply the Firehole River. Plumes of steam, rising like “the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,” confirm that I am in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone is a geothermal hotspot atop an active super-volcano, its immense magma chamber roiling just a few miles below the surface. Here, geysers expel super-heated water; hot springs burble and boil, fumaroles hiss, mudpots blurp. The…

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Cee’s Fun Foto: Landscapes & Seascapes

Landscape meets Seascape

Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Beach, California