Tahquechi Photography

The best of Summer 2010 gallery is up; it was a great summer and a great road trip. I saw lots of great stuff that I have always wanted to see, and a lot that I didn’t know I was missing. A few notes about the gallery, There are a few “arty” shots which is a departure for me. I did a sepia treatment to one of the shots form the Grand Canyon and an interesting take on a picture of a tree I saw in Mesa Verde Co. ALso of note in the gallery is a shot from Moab I did a High Dynamic Range treatment (where you take 3 to five shots of the same scene with varying exposures then combine them in either photomatix or photoshop. this gives very moody skies and edgy contrast on rocks and other high detail surfaces.). Theres also a panoramic shot of Lake Mead which I took when we went to Hoover Dam.

I hope you enjoy viewing the shots as much as I did making them.

While touching up the pictures from Mesa Verde I hit the wrong button in lightroom and got a happy surprise…I’m generally not one to do artsy shots but I really thought this one was pretty neat. Let me know what you think and you can check out the rest of the gallery from the main page.

So, while I was on vacation apparently my gallery page decided to vanish heh. While I resolve the problem I will use the main page here on tahquechi.com for the vacation galleries. Eventually (soon?) I will move the galleries back to the http://www.gallery.tahquechi.com page. Vacation pics are coming soon, I have been working on them and want them to be final before I post them. If your waiting for pictures expect a email shortly with the links to your gallery.

Vacation has come and gone now its time to start my favorite part, sorting through the hundreds of photos I took. This years destinations included Mesa Verde in Colorado, The Grand Canyon in Arizona the Arches National Park in Moab Utah. This years photos are very majestic, I’m excited to post them for you all to see.   The toughest part of being on vacation isn’t the traveling, the plane or living out of a suitcase, its resisting the temptation to sit and process all my photos. I waited until I got home to start the bulk of the processing so expect to see a new gallery shortly.

During the Grand Canyon trip, we took a jeep safari to the bottom, our traveling companions were from Australia, a mother and daughter who lost their camera gear. If they are reading this  please send me an email and I will send you a link to your personal gallery

I can’t believe it. Spring came and went. I haven’t picked up the camera for months and I’m going to tell you why. I was conducting a personal experiment. In my continuing quest to become a better photographer I took a couple of classes at the local college with my wife. I took a black and white drawing class and a color and composition class. I made the decision to not pick up the camera during the classes so I would have a definitive before and after set of images.

The black and white drawing class primarily focused on graphite, but did use pen and ink and even some color towards the end of the class. I found the class very interesting and I learned a lot.  I walked into the class without having touched a pencil to paper for drawing in years.  I now feel confident in my ability to render with pencil my thoughts. Now, this isn’t a drawing blog so I won’t other you with my drawings, I will just share my new photos with you as they are completed.

I was honestly hoping to get more out of the color and composition than I did. The bulk of the compositional aspects of the class were completed using cut pieces of paper on different backgrounds. I did learn more about how colors act together in a composition but was hoping for more. I will point out specific things I learned in the coming weeks as I post new photos.

I did learn from both classes that no matter what I am doing I tend to focus on the rule of thirds which is a basic photographic concept. The coming weeks will be interesting from a photographic standpoint. Its summer gloom time here in Santa Cruz so shooting outside at the moments is tough.

Before I go, I want to mention something about my instructors. I am fully aware of how difficult a visually impaired person is to teach, the teacher needs to often change not only their methodology for teaching that specific student, but also alter their expectations for what that student has delivered or is capable of delivering.  Both my teachers were exceptionally willing to work within my abilities and make the atmosphere positive and fulfilling for me.

I hope everyone had a great new year! I went out shooting for the first time this year and got a nice sunset picture at Natural Bridges.

In the family album I have been working from I found  a neat shot of a train bridge but it took me forever to find out where here in Santa Cruz it was. The good news is that I found the bridge, the bad news is the shots of the bridge I took didn’t come out the way I wanted.  I had the vision of a HDR shot of the bridge with the sunset and the clouds but it didn’t quite work out.  My wife Carrie (always the voice of reason for me) suggested coming back when the bridge was covered in fog, since that would be very Santa Cruz. Now, for once I find myself wanting it to be foggy here. Just before I left last night I snapped this bracketed exposure of the tracks I hope you enjoy.

ISO200 32mm @f5.6 1/160 sec Bracketed exposure + and – 1 stop

Be sure to check out the new Then and now page I have added. Its a picture of my grandfather’s Ford Model A, combined with my 2007 Toyota Rav taken on the same street here in Santa Cruz. Its surprising just how much the area has not changed. Many of the houses are still the original homes built in 1924. As always I look forward to your comments.

First, let me say thanks again for all the great feedback on the blog. I’m enjoying doing this and I’m glad your enjoying the images. I was going through some of the messages yesterday and the most common question or comment I get is, How can you take pictures if your blind? Well, first I’m not totally blind, I have 25% vision remaining in my left eye and no light perception in my right (the vision in the left is measured at 20/400, so almost no distance vision, or peripheral vision ). I think the best way to illustrate how I do the pictures is to show you a couple of  images I have prepared which closely represent what vision I have. To best show this I used a picture I took a couple of evenings ago.

When I composed the shot, this is very close to what I saw in the viewfinder. Generally I have to scan the viewfinder over and over to get the framing right and remember and imagine what it will look like when I take the picturte. Its not until I get to see the image on the back of the camera that I can (kind of) see if I got the composition the way I wanted. This is the reason you don’t see a lot of people in my images. Its not only tough for me to see faces and check for blinks and frowns, but people (unlike landscapes) tend to move around 8).

Once I have the shot done then I take it into photoshop and do a lot of zooming and working at 100% to fix any problems with the image (or remove things in the picture that I didn’t see when I was composing the original image in the field.).

You might be asking yourself how I get around without a guide dog or cane with such limited vision.  When I am walking around I use the same scanning method I use when composing  pictures. I also make it a habit not to go out in the evening or dark since I have almost no night vision. I have never been one to listen to people who want to put limitations on me, I think that if you want to do something that you can find a way to do it.

Heres the final image from the other night. Thank you all again who have sent me the great feedback and please make sure to check out my Then and Now section of the website. I just put the second page up. Its a bit of fun history on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf mixed with an original picture taken by my grandfather (who was also legally blind and had the same degenerative eye disease I have.). Get out there and get shooting!

This image is of the San Lorenzo river in Santa Cruz near the Boardwalk. I shot this at ISO 100, f8.0, 34mm at 1 /100 second shutter speed. Shot at sunset as the fog was rolling in.

Last night I was out shooting(thanks to my wife Carrie for taking me out even though she didn’t feel like driving), trying to get the “now” shot for a couple of the retouched images I have been working on. It was just as sunset hit when the fog rolled in like oranges. As a result I didn’t get the shot I imagined for the then and now project but I did manage to take this one of the boardwalk.

I’m on track to have at least one if not 2 more then and now pictures done this week. We shall see how things go.

The first stop on our trip was The Devils Tower Wyoming – rising 1,200 feet above the Belle Fourche River,  inspired the imagination of the Indians. They called it Mateo Tepee, meaning Grizzly Bear Lodge, and had several legends regarding its origin. According to the Kiowas, who at one time are reputed to have lived in the region, their tribe once camped on a stream where there were many bears. One day seven little girls were playing at a distance from the village and were chased by some bears. The girls ran toward the village and when the bears were about to catch them, they jumped to a low rock about three feet in height. One of them prayed to the rock, “Rock, take pity on us–Rock, save us.” The rock heard them and began to elongate itself upwards, pushing the children higher and higher out of reach of the bears, When the bears jumped at them they scratched the rock, broke their claws and fell back upon the ground. The rock continued to push the children upward into the sky while the bears jumped at them, The children are still in the sky, seven little stars in a group (the pleiades). According to the legend the marks of the bears’ claws may be seen on the side of the rock.

After seeing this awesome tower, it is certainly easy to see how it could impact anyone who has visited it, and why it was named our first national monument. It was a beautiful day when we arrived, a bit early in the afternoon for some great shots, but I managed a few good ones. I’m working feverishly on completing the rest of the shots from Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Deadwood.