A November day in Anchorage...

[Blue_In_AK]

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day here (although a bit nippy), so Hull Boss and I bundled up and spent the whole day outside enjoying the sunshine. Here are a few pix.

A nice resting place along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail




A natural sculpture on the beach




A turbaned gentleman ice skating on Potter Marsh in the late afternoon sun



Sunset from Glen Alps, one of the gateways to Chugach State Park

[chknltl]

1. Blue-in-Alalska means:

Blue snow huh????

Just teasing.... That is great lighting that you are working with. Turbaned Ice Skater reminds me of a story.... but I have lot's of stories and this aint the story forum.... My fave from this series is the sunset from Glen Alps. BTW I see another picture within that one. Its just a bit of cropping and really it is also a matter of personal tastes as well. See what you think: Take two blank sheets of paper. The first sheet crop horizontally removing half the sky. Save as much of that gorgeous orange color as you can. Next use the other sheet of paper to crop vertically, framing that distant mountain. Give that mountain about equal space on either side. Cool huh? Again this is just a matter of personall tastes but I like the horizontal bands of color created by this vertical image. The silhouette of that distant mountain pops into primary subject status here. A totally different image within your image! Better???...well that is up to you of course...I think it is kinda dreamy but that's just me.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Like this?

I cut off the blue snow. :) I could use a few more pixels I think for the blow-up because I had to smooth this out quite a bit.



or how about this, keeping the blue snow. It fits in better with the "thirds" idea

[chknltl]

5. Yeah, (lower one) That is what I saw.

I think that one's kinda dreamy.... The blue in the snow is not even so noticeable now. A fellow photographer who I have a lot of respect for used to say that one can find treasures in every photograph... I was never as good at finding them as he was but I think he would have agreed here. I feel that cropping ones own photos in order to find those treasures is a great way to train ones own eye to seeing them out in the field.

Another observation: A lot of the time photographers do portraits in a vertical format and landscapes in a horizontal format. It is almost a tradition and yet I believe this cropped version of your original goes against that tradition successfully. I suppose I am biased because I suggested this cropping but I like it. It feels a little "narrow" but thats just nit-picking. You cropped it exactly how I saw it. I envy you.

[F.Gordon]

2. What chknltl is talking about......

Taking a shot of snow is very difficult with some digi-cams in some kinds of lighting situations. The camera gets all confused like and doesn't see the "real" color. But... that last shot, which I really really like, may be the true color that is seen with the eye.

It's very low light and you have some wild light up there as it is.

All... excellentamondo!!
:applause:

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Yes, the blue is very difficult to avoid here in the winter...

You should see what happens when I do the "one-step photo fix" or whatever it's called on the PaintShopPro with these photos. It's even BLUER than blue. I've pretty much kept them the way they come out of the camera on the color adjustment.

The paintings of one of Alaska's most famous painters, Fred Machetanz, are always blue. It's just a fact of life up here. For example:

[chknltl]

6. Now that is very cool!!!

Oh damn.... please don't dwell on my teasing you about that blue thing...I am feeling bad about doing so now...I understand that the eye compensates and your camera is registering the reality that the white snow is reflecting the ambient light of the sky. Registering snow as white can be difficult for cameras. Older film camera metering systems used to correct for ultra-white snow and the images turned out with snow balanced into dingy grey tones. We knew to compensate for that. Perhaps there is a way for digital cameras to compensate....this would be a tech question I have no answer for, I am truly lost in the digital world.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Oh, please don't feel bad...

I'm not "dwelling" at all. I'm not the hypersensitive type.

I'm still fairly new to this photography thing so I take all the suggestions I can get, especially when it comes to the technical aspects which I know next to nothing about. I never used film except for snapshots, point-and-shoot, and so all this stuff about apertures, speed, f-stops -- it's all Greek to me. I should have been paying more attention to what my dad was doing when I was younger with all those light meters and so on, but I was just enjoying the finished product.

[chknltl]

8. Cool... (Me, I'm the sensitive one though)

Right now I am sensitive to one of the worst bouts of hiccups that I have had in years.... I would not have guessed that you were this new to photography, for a novice you are doing quite well indeed. I will not be a good mentor on technically advice to anyone here I suspect, I will be seeking and soaking up that same advice you get from our fellows DUers. I hope I can bring a little about technique and composition to the table though. I keep odd hours too, this means I can help keep the photo contest kicked when it dips now and then.

I must say I envy you because you can go out and shoot photography, (in that gorgeous landscape), and do so for fun. I have not been able to do that for almost a decade now. All my photography during this time has been in dark night-clubs working with musicians.
On occasion I do "promo" shoots of bands out doors but it has been years since I picked up a camera just to go out into the world and explore it's beauty as you are doing. Frankly I miss it.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. I'm a musician, but not the "dark nightclub" type...

My preference is the beach. :) Back in the old days when I was a carefree hippie, I used to hang out on the beach in northern California playing my flute with all my guitar-picking hippie friends. I like that almost as much as photography, but I don't get to do it much anymore, so the photo shoots will have to do for now.

[chknltl]

10. Only ever worked with one flute player...

...He was more talented as a guitarist and vocalist though.
If you have "real player" You can have a listen: click the song "Only" this is not one of his better songs but it does have a small flute solo... (So did "Gravity" on edit)
http://www.giantradio.com/godot.html
"Hello Godot", also featured on this CD was my fave from these guys. btw: I did the back and interior photos on this disc (not that anyone can see it), I did work for quite a few of the bands listed here in Giant Radio.

You never let me know what you thought of my suggested cropping of the sunset photo... I liked your original fine but I loved the one which you cropped per my suggestions, (lower one).

[Blue_In_AK]

11. Oh, I'm sorry...

I did indeed like the cropping, and now I just want to go back and cut up ALL my photos. :evilgrin: Seriously, I think it was a nice change, and gives me all kinds of ideas. I just figured out how to do that crop function about a month ago. Like I said, not enough time.

[ConsAreLiars]

12. Some other crops

First, great work in all three recent collections.

The sunset one was especially appealing to me, but, perhaps because I am so accustomed to 35mm slide format, the 4:3 aspect ratio usually seems a bit "wrong" to me. So, to get past that viewing prejudice, I tried a quick crop to 3:2, and liked it better. I also tried a more extreme panoramic-type crop which I prefer. So: two more variations.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. Very nice, Cons...

Thank you. I really like that bottom one, too.

[Maestro]

14. Absolutely gorgeous!

Here is a pic to keep you and me warm while admiring your pics.



:hi: