Tafoni - Wide Screen

Tafoni - Narrow Screen

This months photograph is titled “Tafoni”

I shot this image in El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve. Tafoni are small cave-like features caused by weathering and erosion found in granular rock such as sandstone or granite. They are found in intertidal areas, such as our coastline, as well as in deserts.

My wife Erica and I enjoy exploring the open spaces of the Peninsula, and when we found this remarkable feature of the landscape I knew I could get some really cool shots. And since my daughter suggested that I stretch my limits, I felt this was a good opportunity to set aside my innate preference for realism and explore the abstract.

Please let me know what you think by calling me, sending a e-mail or posting a comment here on my blog.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Please call me if you have any need for photographs and I will do all I can to help you.

Thanks,
Dean

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Twilight at the Sea of Souls

Twilight at the Sea of Souls

This months photograph is titled “Twilight on the Sea of Souls”

This image is another in a series I did of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse near Pescadero, CA back in 2006. I really love this particular lighthouse because of it’s archetypal architecture. It is the only classically styled lighthouse on the west coast because this is the only point that does not have cliffs of sufficient height on which to build the structure above the fog.

This is a pseudo high dynamic range image. Normally to shoot HDRI you need several different exposures of the same scene, however if you only have a single exposure you can still get unique and very dramatic results.

I hope you like it.

You can download this month’s screen saver by clicking the images above. A new window will open with a larger version that you can save to your hard drive.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Dean

Temple Hoyne Buell Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Temple Hoyne Buell Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts

This months Photograph of the month is titled “Temple Hoyne Buell Theater”

This image is the last photograph I shot as a semi-professional photographer way back in 1992. I had been working for five years to build the skills and acquire the experience necessary to open my business as an architectural photographer and finally all my plans were coming together. I had one more goal to achieve before I went out completely on my own and that was to photograph one large, dramatic public works project.

I pleaded my case to the theater manager and he decided to let me do my thing. He was very kind because not only did he let me into the theater on a Sunday morning he gave me free reign to make any changes to the lighting that I needed. It took me about a half hour to figure out the lighting controls and once I had mastered them I was all set. I shot five different images that day, using my 4×5 camera and black and white polaroids, this is the single best image.

In fact it’s so good I have used it as the closing image in my portfolio ever since. It’s still one of my favorites and always will be.

I hope you like it.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Please call me if you have any need for photographs and I will do all I can to help you.

Thanks,
Dean

So, it seems that a lot of people are buying new computers, but at least half of them are the thirteen inch screens. At this rate I will be able to drop the narrow screen version of my photograph of the month by August.

Stasis - Wide Screen

Stasis - Narrow Screen

This months photograph is titled “Stasis”

I have been planning this image for a few months now. I had shot some preliminary test images in February but wasn’t satisfied with the results.

There are some rather significant challenges involved with shooting high speed images of water drops. The technological challenges of timing are the least complex. I was not prepared for the amount of space that was required to shoot water drops and get the smooth gradient background I envisioned. I ended up buying a 40” x 60” print developing tray , painting it black and filling it with water – and it was just barely large enough to realize my vision.

This was  one of the single most challenging images I have ever created. The image you see here is the result of four days of hard work, in a wet, dark room. I must have shot 400 images before everything finally fell into place with lighting, precise timing, angle of view, size of water drop, and the distance it traveled to get the perfect splash, the perfect reflex splash, and the perfect pressure waves. I even had to control the surface tension of the water using soap, alcohol and temperature of the water. I am very proud of the result.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

You can download copies of all the Photographs of the Month by following this link to my website gallery.

This month’s photograph is titled “Daisy.” I shot this in a local park recently, I like it because it’s simple and sweet. I hope it brightens your day through the coming winter months.

You will notice there are two versions of the photograph. This is due to the recent industry wide adoption of the “wide screen” format for laptops and desktop computers, as well as high end cell phones. I realized that at least thirty-three percent  of the visitors to my site are using the wide screen format and wanted to ensure they had the option of enjoying the screen savers I work so hard to produce each month.

One version is for the wide screen and one version is for the “narrow” screen us geriatric cases are accustomed to. Select whichever fits your need, I will continue to produce both wide and narrow screen versions until the new format becomes universal. You can view and download both versions from my portfolio galleries as well.

The wide screen format has a long history in the movie industry, most of us have seen Panavision movies at one time or another. The computer industry has adopted the wide screen format because it is the defined format of HDTV and the motion picture industry has adopted the wide screen as a standard format for movies.

It also forces all of us to buy new computers lest we be seen as being out of date dinosaurs. If you have twenty minutes you might want to take a look at this video called “The Story of Stuff.” It’s really quite enlightening and aggravating but it’s well written, thoroughly researched and very well produced.

Oh, well… as with any computer technology what is available today really is much better than what was available last month. I just wish it wouldn’t cost quite so much.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. You can click on the image to open in a new window or download; please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Dean

When I began my blog I stopped sending the images themselves through e-mail, and instead simply sent a notification out and posted the monthly image in my blog. Many people have asked me to post the past images so they can be downloaded because they hadn’t been included in the list the entire time, or the images sent through e-mail were lost, deleted or misplaced.

I have created an archive gallery of all my Photograph of the Month Screen Savers going back to the very first image “Flight” which you can see here (click the thumbnail to see a larger version.) I will continue to post the images to my blog and send e-mail notices on a monthly basis and I will also add the images to this archive so anyone can see and download them at their convenience.

So, please take a look at the archive, download any images you like and share with your family and friends with my compliments.