When I purchased my first serious cameras, both in 35mm and medium format, and attempted to make for my own pleasure and education, images of architecture, I was frustrated at just how difficult or even impossible it could be to keep all the angles straight. Roofs or building sides were forever running down or up and even at times across the picture frame at odd angles. It wasn’t the way they looked to my bare eyes, so I understandably did not want them that way in my photos.

I began to quit trying with modern architecture to make every part of a building have perfectly straight lines. I came to find that I could use those parallax distortions with everything merging in the distance, or running at oblique angles and even seeming to be falling over, for creative interpretations. Then I began making images of my favorite architecture, historic, and I hated it when things were not straight. It was fun with modern buildings but borderline blasphemous to me with historic buildings which I adored. I love both natural and human history.

Then the time came when I was to be paid to make images of buildings. Customers did not want their buildings be they new or old, to be falling over in photos. A Pentax medium format camera, with an adjustable bellows between the camera lens and the removable film back, that could be adjusted, for the most part, solved that problem.

As the years went by, and most imagery I was to make of manmade structures was only for my own portfolio, I once again felt free to make images of buildings where the angles were allowed to slope and run off the photo. I also found a type of historic building that I enjoyed doing the same way. Lighthouses.

The image below is that of the house/office section of an old lighthouse. When I first look at this it is hard for me to tell whether the chimney is about to fall off the building to our left, or the roof is about to crash over to our right.  Of course the truth is that neither is the case as it is an optical illusion.

With this angle/lens combination, the flag and spotlight holder seem straight as an arrow, but now the roof is running downhill to our left.

The truth is, I actually enjoy both images but that may be because I somewhat understand the illusion.

This lighthouse light tower suffers a very minor tip to the left. I like it. The photo is less static and has a small bit of life to it.

With that said, I took another similar image and straightened it with software, and then cropped it to where everything was balanced.

Nuff said about buildings, how about nature?

The biggest supply of potential subjects and images in the world of nature photography, is in the macro category. There is a never ending supply of subjects, no matter where you are in the world, or what season it is.

Fallen flower petals and mosses both are nice subjects for close-up details. Together, they make a good team.

I no not where I made this image, but it’s gotten many miles in many places.

Dragonfly details.

The American Robin is the state bird where I live, and I have availed myself of their pretty much fearless ways to make many pictures. It’s always nice when they strike a good pose for you.  This pose is naturally artistic as if the Robin were a model that I was directing.

Red-tailed hawk in flight. Action photography is always fun.

Action, behavior, and rare birds are naturally what most bird photographers search for and rightfully so.

There will however always be a need for “cool birds” in a nice traditional pose. Such was the case with this pretty American Kestrel.

The out of focus washes of color in the background here are nice.  Any more color contrasts or background detail than this would have subtracted and detracted from a nice photo.

Some more “blasts from the past”.

More blasts from the past

Memories of An Eight Year Old.
https://nelsonearthimages.com/2010/08/16/haunting-yet-beautiful-memories-of-youth/

Visual Graffiti
https://nelsonearthimages.com/2010/09/26/visual-graffiti/

God Bless,
Wayne