Above the Clouds

Stop the presses! We got out of Prescott! The drive was only 17 miles or so, but we did get out of town. The impetus was that my photo group is meeting tomorrow on zoom- and the topic is “How Far Have You Gone”- meaning how far have you travelled during the pandemic. Until this weekend, my answer would have been all the way to the doctor’s office. I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one in the group who is staying home most of the time- but I just didn’t feel like bringing a still life or flower photo (although I will later on).

So we drove through Skull Valley and Kirkland, and I found three photo ops along the way. Today’s photo is one I took on the way home- I’ll post the one I am using for class later on.

 

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Windmill Whirrrr

Different windmill- same day.

Rudy suggested I slow down my shutter to capture the motion of the blades- I like the effect! This is something Tom (my photo teacher) says to do with helicopters and propellers. Why have I never made that connection?

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Windmills on my Mind

As I mentioned last week, I took a few- maybe 5?- windmill photos when I was photographing raptors. And three comprised one 3 exposure in camera multiple exposure.  My camera has a very basic multiple exposure feature (no blend modes, no previews etc.), but the challenge makes it fun, even if the results aren’t spectacular SOOC.

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I had fun adding another windmill shot from August to create a windmill Photoshop composite. Even more fun!

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A Hawk and a Windmill

There was a windmill in the background while we took photos of the two hawks last Saturday. I kept composing my images with that in mind- and then ended up cloning it out in the sepia portrait I posted Tuesday of Emily, the Swainson’s hawk. This is the Harris’s hawk with the windmill in the background- with a little texture editing.

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Being more of a windmill photographer than a bird photographer, I also took several photos of the windmill, including a multiple exposure shot. I will be posting those next week.

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Adventures in Compositing

The topic for this month’s photo club is an interesting one: each member randomly drew a piece of paper which had a section of a map of Prescott and the surrounding area on it. Our photo had to be taken within our section of the map. I believe the word creative was used in the description. Gah!

Lonnie and I drove out to my area, and he immediately spied an old windmill, which stands in someone’s yard. Perfect! It was midday with no clouds and 95 degrees, so we planned to go back.  The following week, we drove out there again about 9 a.m., and I had a nice chat with the owner of the property. The windmill was there before the land was developed and was evidently part of the original ranch. It still works, although he doesn’t have it going right now.

I had this brilliant (hah!) idea of taking photos of the windmill, a poppy, a street sign and Granite Mountain (visible from the street) and then creating a composite that would be very artsy.  I need practice in making composites- both the technical side and the creative side. I never did get all the elements into the photo- maybe someday. And neither of the two composites look at all like I envisioned. I will probably use a plain windmill shot for the photo club.

Here is my first effort. Later in the week, I’ll post my second try.

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