Disclaimer
Almost everything I put on the pages of the Earthimages blog, contains my opinions to some degree. Opinions can be thought provoking, but they are cheap and everybody’s got them.
Creating images that “belong to you”, is one of my most common subjects in this forum. Let us keep that ball rolling.
The images below are of real subjects and actual events. How they are composed and exposed, are arived at via my personal opinions.
There are as many ways to photograph a flower as there are flowers.
Part of being a stock photographer is about making identifiable images of subjects such as flowers, so in field guides and other media, viewers/readers can know that an Iris is an Iris and a Robin is a Robin and a Maple tree is a Maple tree. I thank God however, that we are allowed to do more than copy nature’s reality. When you make your own images, you are making a statement. It is not neccessary to actually alter reality to display your opinion in a photo.
Would you want all paintings to look like photos? Paintings without brush strokes and texture, and without the personal touch of someone’s hand?
Below we have a Lily and a Chicory flower. Up close and tight. My goodness there are parts of those flowers that we cannot even see. It’s sort of like a portrait of a person where we cannot even see their feet. How will we know what a human being looks like? I say facetiously.
Like any wildlife photographer, I made use of natural light and natural perches for critters most of the time, but not always.
The butterfly/moth below is perched on the hood of my car. It was not made at night despite the dark background. I used the artificial light of electronic flash because I liked the drama it brought forth. Eye level, unusual light, and a unique photograph is born. Now understand, I have thousands of images of butterflies and many are as “natural” as most people would want them to be. That does not mean that I cannot look at my subjects in a different, perhaps more unusual fashion as well. One day is not always like the previous. If it was, life would be boring.
Mother & Child. It does not get any better than to find this scene in front of you. This time I tried my best to point and shoot exactly what was presented to me.
I loved photographing snakes and would have enjoyed doing more of that. I think they are regal and beautiful rather than “sneaky”. The Fox Snake below brought with it some issues. Mainly, it is very long. I did manage to get the entire snake in one shot with a 70mm short telephoto lens. I simply backed off a bit. It disappeared into the distance as quickly as it appeared, and I lost a chance for face shots. I personally would rather have gotten super close-ups of the business end of this critter, than this shot of the entire snake, despite the fact that this image shows us exactly what this species of snake looks like.
Birds are the number one wildlife subject worldwide, for photographers.
Flight shots, as with this tern, are the pictures that everyone wants with birds. From the side, the front, and yes even the back.
This bird is clearly fishing as terns like this often hover for brief moments, which gives photographers the opportunity to compose, focus, either manually or with auto focus, and click.
Takeoffs are easiest for photographers when the subject is leaving the water. This Great White Egret forecast its intentions which afforded me the opportunity set up for the shot.
Portraits are still the number one job for bird photographers. This Cooper’s Hawk and the immature female Snowy Owl that you see below, were both bonanzas for me. They were my first for each. You always remember your first.
While I have shared many closer portraits and many straight on ones on these pages, full body shots with subjects looking perhaps for prey do make nice “keepers”.
Pretty birds doing things, such as searching among the leaves and branches for insects or their larvae, are always winners. I no longer remember the experience of photographing this Oriole, but I can say with all assuredness, I had a great time.
I spent most of my photography time in the natural world, doing what I wanted to do, and what I believe I was meant to do. Oft times, people paid me for the resulting photos which afforded me the ability to make more.
I thank you for indulging me as I travel down memory lane.
Enough photography for now.
It is a sad day, when you have a nation, maybe a world, that has grown up not to be taught how to critically think, but instead indoctrinated in how to blindly follow!
A fair percentage of blogs are opinion blogs. While this one was always meant to share photographs and my life in photography, I always knew that given this platform, I would be sharing my opinions on many things. It is human nature, or at least it is my nature to do so. I do not know everything and that is why I do not share my opinions on everything. I have nothing to say on how to build a new deck on your house. I am silent on the subject of raising ant farms. I have little to add to any discussion on organizing parades or protests.
With that said, I have been around and I have seen a lot. My own religious (I am not a fan of that word) belief system has gone from some luke warm typical “yah I used to go to church once in a while” to something that keeps me close to God, and I find the need to comment on that from time to time.
Everyone has the right to believe what they want, but decisons have consequences.
I know that people who have known me either personally or through the internet, sometimes wonder about my “coming to God” which I have written about and has manifested itself over many, many years. Especially the past ten. Am I the real thing? Is there really a god anyway?
It has been a long, long journey, and it will end only when this body finally quits and my soul is carried away.
I have had highs and lows. Most of us look to find people who can help us. Those who know what they are doing. Who are truly themselves being used by God to educate and inspire us. Initially, I turned to well-known ministries and preachers, or churches or “religions”. I admit that can be confusing. There are a lot of different beliefs out there. It can be difficult for many to shake off parts of what they have been taught previously. What to leave in, and what to leave out of what we have already been told in our lives. There is always something to leave in, and sometimes much to leave out. People have often been mislead, even though much of the base religion usually has some truth.
The biggest upswing in my knowledge and faith came once I realized that I needed to first and foremost relegate to my past, what I thought I already knew, and than trust God to point me in the right direction in the future.
My intention below is not to tell you how to pray, but to explain to you how I pray. I am not wise enough to know if that works for everyone, as it does for me.
Prayer is the answer to much. I pray anywhere from two or three times in a day, to possibly twenty times. Not cheaply mind you, but with intent, love and with reverence and humbleness and directly to God. I most often pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, just as Jesus taught His disciples to do. As I stated, I am not here to say that my way of prayer is the only way. I use my own words when I pray but there are Godly prayers in the Bible, and good ones written by believers.
When I look for people to educate me, regardless of what church or organized religion they belong to or do not belong to, I ask God to help me, rather than a pastor or other leader. There are of course, “some” great pastors who can help you, but there is but one God.
Church services, whether they are a part of an established religion or not, can be truly Holy and greatly helpful, although many people worship church ceremonies and flawed church histories more than they do God.
Biblically, the Word, means Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. Without Him not only will we fail to have the Holy Spirit of God within us, but we will fail to be forgiven. He is the only path to forgiveness and salvation. We are cleansed by His precious blood. We are as filthy rags without Him. Total faith in Him and what He did, is the only way we can ever be in the presence of almighty God. We cannot earn it, either here or anywhere else. Good works are a part of Salivation, but they do not, I repeat do not, erase the stench of sin on us, as it needs to be. They do not “get us” to Heaven. We cannot earn, what almighty God wants to give us. We can be found sinless, only by what Christ did for us on the Cross, and through His Resurrection, and our aceptance of that.
Mankind was given initially the Ten Commandments, and then the rest of the Bible. Those Commandments were never going to be kept by us. They proved however, that we need a Savior. Although we should try to be Godly perfect every day, and then ask forgiveness for our failures, those Commandments were given to show us that we cannot succeed without a Savior.
Everything changed when Adam cursed us with original sin. Before long, murder entered the world, as one son murdered the other due to jealousy. Sin can take us downhill quickly. I know that for a fact. Sinning may be the one thing of which I am an expert.
When I pray, asking forgiveness for my daily sins, and am praying for others including my country and my world, and giving thanks for the incredible blessings I am given from God every day, I then direct my worship to that one God. He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I ask for help in not only getting me through the day literally, but blessing me beyond that.
I try to and sometimes fail to remember, that the most important aspect of prayer is not the talking we do, but the listening we do. He answers our prayers one way or another.
There are good journeys and there are bad journeys. Sometimes the bad ones are given to us (in my opinion) so we will recognize and embrace the good ones.
Often we can be misled, by glitter and fancy ceremony. Remember, there was nothing fancy about Christ. He walked this earth as a man, often in tattered clothes. That did not make Him less Holy, only better able to relate to His disciples and others who’s path He crossed.
After the Resurrection, when Rome decided to quit persecuting Christians and embrace them instead, it was only a short while before God supplanted the emperor in the minds of its citizens. Rightfully so. So under empirical direction, the Romans began making it a capitol offense to own a Bible. They would actually tie Christians found with bibles to a stake, and burn them to death.
They were not afraid that those Christians would not properly understand the Bible, they were afraid that they would understand it.
Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Sometimes sharing opinions is the right thing to do. I only hope and pray that you will find some blessing in my less than perfect comments. The question is now, how much longer will what I have said above, be alowed in public by the powers that be?
God Bless,
Wayne
Earth Images Blog by Wayne Nelson 