Ed Book's Journal

Cimarron Ridge - San Juan Mountains SW Colorado

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:13:49 GMT

Chimney Rock and Cimarron Ridge – on the way to Owl Creek Pass,
Uncompahgre National Forest – San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA

I really enjoyed my time in this place, I missed it on my last trip to SW Colorado and had it high on my list of places to visit. I want to go back to spend more time exploring these forests and the other side of the ridge. When I got up to ~10,000ft (not 12,000' like I said in the video) Owl Creek Pass, evening light was starting and some snow was loose in the air. I returned to the west slopes to catch evening alpenglo on the ridge.

I also made an image of approaching weather bringing snow that was featured a couple weeks ago at CreativeTechs.com/training. I had underexposed this exposure by three stops which introduced lines of noise in the dark areas. Jason Hoppe tried a few things trying to minimize the noise without losing detail and ended up blurring the dark cloud area in a selective edit. On screen in the video, it looks like a solution but seeing the original file, I didn't like how the 'texture' of the image varied across the image and the lines of noise outside the blurred area still had noise. Good try but I decided to try a different route by introducing more noise so it was deliberate and a sort of texture... but, in the end, I chose not to use the image and don't have it online to show. Here's Jason's video though with some interesting tries... (my voice is a little garbled in the video because I was talking via phone and not via my computer)

Peace

The Needles spires in Canyonlands south of the Colorado River

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:22:13 GMT

The Needles in morning light - Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA

©2009 Ed Book

on my autumn Rockies tour last month, after I left Colorado on my return toward home, I stopped by Canyonlands to do some scouting (and photography) for a return next spring, perhaps with some students. I arrived in the area late and passed the rock art at Newspaper Rock too late to photograph and then stopped for the night along the road to the national park.

In the morning I was up before first light wondering where I would find a location for morning images with no pre-scouting... It's as if one is racing the sun and not knowing where it would come up and what it would paint with morning alpenglo... I drove toward the national park and was surprised by the sun rising without much color in the sky and no discernible earth shadow opposite the rising sun.

I was at this location and was looking at the map still wondering what, where, but I did know when, (and it was that moment)... I pulled out camera and tripod and set up just as the sun broke through the distant cloud bank in the east to paint warm light on the needles and I was clicking...

The Needles (seen in the distance in this image) form the southeast corner of Canyonlands and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. Later in the day, I would be much closer to the spires when I hiked the Elephant Hill trail toward Elephant Canyon. I ran out of daylight and didn't want to be caught on the trail after dark because it's difficult to follow in the dark (and in some places a challenge finding it again if one wanders away from the track).

It normally takes a couple days, at least, before I get into the making images mode, but, there in Canyonlands, I only had one day and I was lucky to start clicking with the scenery immediately... a very prolific imagemaking day it was... I'm excited for a return in the spring. wanna go?

Peace

one more wet image then I'll post something from the desert

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:31:37 GMT

ferries pass in the rain in Rich Passage

When I was making the exposure for this image I knew that it would be too noisy to be a literal image because of the low light situation and the Canon G9's inability to handle high ISOs and/or low light conditions without gross noise. (here's the rhetorical quiz) What does Ed do when faced with a situation where trying to minimize a potential flaw (noise in this case) would be futile? A: Ed exaggerates the flaw to make it obvious and thus intentional. In this image I allowed the noise and bumped the ISO higher to exaggerate it. Then, after some optimizing and metadata (filling in the blanks) in Photoshop Lightroom 2, I jumped to Photoshop CS3 to desaturate (color noise just looks too funky to me) and then add some texture and contrast play using a high pass filter a few times. In this display of the image, the texture isn't noticeable, but it is in a print or full screen display.

Peace

watching the rain and ignoring the rain

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:07:31 GMT

would you watch or ignore the rain?

Many who cross the sound often or daily absorb themselves in books, laptops, newspapers, or conversation to ignore the crossing. I've lived in western Washington state only since '73 so haven't been here long enough to get tired of the rain and don't ride the ferries often enough to get tired of the view - even if the view is fogged by rain... but I've always been like that, I love to enjoy the view when I go from here to there or from there to there or there to here... Back when I worked for wages at the place in Bremerton that did stuff to ships, I enjoyed my commute and the view, especially on the way home - for more than the fact that I was going away from that place... I often took the long way home... often my ten mile commute would stretch to fifty or a hundred or more miles and even in the rain... and even though I usually rode a motorcycle.

Now, that I work at home, I often sit by a window watching
the rain...

but, today, no rain, cold and mostly clear but no rain... but, I watched for it...

Peace

ps this afternoon I saw the bright orb drop from a cloud and hide behind the Olympic Mountains...

another image while crossing Puget Sound

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:05:48 GMT

watching the rain from the ferry instead of driving in traffic 70 miles in the rain to get to the same place

another beautiful Puget Sound day

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:27:19 GMT

Crossing Puget Sound

here in western Washington state, we sometimes see the rain coming and other times we see the promise of some light behind that rain... but often the sun sets before the clouds part enough to see what that light might be...

Today, hmmm, there's a strange blue cloud covering most of the sky and I saw a shadow a few minutes ago but didn't turn fast enough to see the orb causing it.

you just have to get used to it, huh Bran?

Peace

A True Gift for Veterans - Peace

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:35:08 GMT

I just found this and wanted to pass it on...

For OpEdNews: Rowan Wolf - Writer

The U.S. is deeply embedded in the mythology of the heroism of the warrior culture. There is a lot of rhetoric about the courage and sacrifice of the those who have fought (versus those who have served) for our "freedom." Never is that "freedom" defined. However, it is true that many have served - willingly or not - under the belief they our protecting our "freedom" and "our way of life." I will not besmirch those sacrifices, nor will I be silent on the utterly shameful way that both the government and the people of the United States have met the needs of those who have served. We call them "heroes," but as a nation living with heroes is a more difficult task than remembering (once in a while) those who have died.

Many return from their service transformed All too often, they are too uncomfortably transformed to fit into the "civilian" flow of life. For some, it is more comfortable to return to bloody combat and the risk of death, than to return to friends and family, and co-workers, and a clueless populace. The adrenaline, and violence, and death-linked comradery is a real embrace. The invisibility and lack of understanding of "home" is a different kind of death.

For some, there is no return to war zones, and for better or worse they wrestle the demons and some "win" and some "lose." Some rebuild their lives. Some end up on the streets, or in the jails, or numbed by drugs of choice. Many, and certainly their families, cling with all their might to the comfortable myth that "it was all for a grander purpose."

I have heroes who are veterans. I have watched many face the demons of war (and military "actions") that remain with them - often for a life time. One of the sacrifices they made is the tattering of a glamorized entertainment myth of war and fighting in the face of bloody reality and burned indelibly upon their mind's eyes, and upon their hearts. It is a cost beyond bearing, and one that goes virtually unacknowledged by the populace.

Instead, they all too frequently face a betrayal by those societally tasked to know - and support - them. Namely, the Department of Defense, and the various military services, and the Veterans Administration. Conditions such as PTSD and psychological issues are frequently ignored, or those who have served are dissuaded from pursuing services. Then there are those other things that the military does not want to acknowledge, and therefore refuses to provide service - the "atomic" vets, agent orange, depleted uranium, Gulf War Syndrome, the effects of vaccinations, the paltry benefits left to the families of the fallen, the list goes on and on. The realities of serving - or surviving serving.

Once a year (twice if we count Memorial Day) the nation is called on to recognize these heroes - standing and fallen. This sanitized recognition does not mean embracing the reality of the service or the true sacrifices made. This sanitized recognition does not even recognize the human and national costs of that service. Certainly, nothing is said in this war glorifying culture regarding what the best recognition should really be - a commitment to ending war and working for peace. Yes, peace is work - ongoing work. However many veterans DO make this commitment, and for veterans that commitment comes at a higher price than for most who have never served.

So I want to say thank you to the most courageous of veterans who I know - those veterans who struggle for peace. They have fought, and continue to fight, incredible internal battles while waging the most significant of struggles - the struggle for peace. Thank you veterans for this ongoing service to an ungrateful nation. Thanks also to those veterans organizations that struggle untiringly for peace and truth, and support those who have served in this critical struggle.

Please thank a veteran, and thank a Veteran's organization such as those below. Importantly, also commit to fighting for veteran's rights and to creating a world where such sacrifices are never needed again.

Veterans for Peace

Iraq Veterans Against the War

Veterans Against the Iraq War

*my edit: WinterSoldier.org

www/uncommonthought.com/mtblog/

Rowan Wolf is an activist and sociologist living in Oregon. She is the founder and principle author of Uncommon Thought Journal

Peace,
Ed

* I changed the link from one that was obviously incorrect.

Grand Prismatic Spring travertine terraces

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:55:38 GMT

Grand Prismatic Spring travertine terraces - Midway Geyser Basin - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

Peace

an edquiz: whatisit? / whereisit?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:58:31 GMT

View Poll: it's...

see my answer to the question for the correct answer (click the 'view answers' link in the comments section)

As in all my quizzes, I've been to all of these places...

Peace

for those who Facebook

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:20:41 GMT

EdBookPhoto.com fan page

Peace

no entry to the Wisdom Community Building

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:41:04 GMT

Wisdom, a rural southwestern Montana village had two saloons, a liquid fertilizer company, a gas station, general store, restaurant, this community building and WIFI. When I was there, I watched one of my online classes that just happened to be online live when I stopped for lunch. Wisdom sits in the middle of a broad high rangeland valleys along the Continental Divide with mountain ranges in the distance east and west. The forest to the east had a wide plume of smoke that reached miles across the forest. The waitress said that it had been burning five weeks. East the next couple days driving eastward, thick smoke filled the air softening details - not a good thing for broad landscape images.

Wisdom Community Building with no entry - Wisdom, Montana

edbookphoto.com

More appropriate caption?

Peace

abstract high key aspen forest

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:48:48 GMT

aspen forest on the approach to the Sneffels Range in the Uncompahgre National Forest
San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA

©2009 Ed Book

how I made this image - long exposure (1/2 sec) and moved the camera up and down. I processed the image only with adjustmens to white and black point, clarity (mid-tone contrast), overall contrast, brightness. I had to make a lot of exposures checking results immediately ("chimping") and then trying again and again till the camera dance and my eye were getting into sync... The RAW image looks a drab grayish blur but from experience I knew what I could expect from my normal range of adjustments.

On my last visit to this area I was impressed by the size of the aspen clones (grove of trees connected together by their roots) and wanted to visit just for photographing these trees. Although they are at the base of one of the most spectacular mountain fronts in the Rockies, the aspen groves are worth visiting even when the mountains are in the clouds. The approach to the National Forest passes through some private lands and by the 'no tresspassing' signs posted along the roads it appears that the roads themselves are private. But no, they are legal accesses to the National Forest - since my last trip the number of new excessive consumption ranch homes (probably second or third or forth homes) and fences added is noticable. (an indication of the widening gap between the excessively rich and the rest of us).

I made this image along one of those roads that goes to a trailhead into the widerness. On this occasion, like on so many others, at the indication that the road was narrowing and getting rougher, I should have parked at a wide spot and walked but I thought I'd go a little farther to find a better turn-around place... 'turned out that I had to drive through a dip where the topography of the dip was more acute than the length of the van's wheelbase length... I caught the trailer hitch on a big rock and was stopped from going ahead or backward... After climbing out and scoping out my predictament I decided to give a run at going backward and bounced over the rock and the hitch dug a deep furrow in the roadway (actually in the dry stream bed I was crossing - I had measured and remeasured clearances between the rock and everything hanging down underneith the van to assure that if I shifted to the right a couple and no more than four inches, I'd be safe... I often have these little adventures... ones that my high-clearance four-wheel drive van left at home would not even notice... (the problem with the four-wheel drive van is that it beats one to exhaustion when driving down a freeway although cruises nicely on the roughest back roads... agressive tires, stiff suspension, and short wheelbase contribute to the rough ride...) Sometime, I'll tell about the mushrooms that I found growing in the rug and on the steering wheel leather cover when I returned from a very long trip and found that a housesitter who didn't have my permission to use the van lent it to someone to help them move and when they returned it, didn't close the sliding door... in the rainy Pacific NW winter... It took the whole next summer to dry out. The van is for sale now (minus growy things - except some moss on the roof) in case you know someone looking for a very capable 'get there' vehicle or trailer puller...

Peace

northeastern Nevada three weeks ago

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:53:33 GMT

riding off into the sunset Nevada style (Great Basin National Park)

I was hoping that this pass-through of this region would include a few days at Great Basin National Park but I was homeward bound and only had a couple days before something I had to be home for... so, my only glimpse like on my last visit was at sundown... So what I know of this new national park is what I've read and this silhouette.

Peace

cows snow tracks camera action

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:43:32 GMT

wish I could come up with something witty to say about these cows... I made the image on the last day of my autumn tour and just after I was turned around from trying to cross the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the southern Washington Cascade Range... snow, turned me around, or rather the snowplow I was following that turned around influenced my decision. So, I had to return south to the Columbia River to get to I-5 and homeward... I met these cows near the river where it had just begun to snow and the cows were wandering as they do... even when they ran, their tracks wandered all over... and that says something...

In my experience, domestic animals wander but wild animals take a direct route... follow a pet dog's tracks and you're find that there seems to be no reason to the trail... just this way and that and some more that and return to a former location and then this way and that again... but a coyote or wolf track is unmistakable (beside size) in that they move across the land with purpose, no loitering here or there to visit this post or that mailbox to read the latest peemail...

so, how do I know these were domestic vice wild cows? they wandered... plus, I don't think I've ever seen a wild cow. (bovine that is)

Klickitat County Wandering Cows

Talus working on his singing avocation

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:33:51 GMT

infant Talus developing his sense of hearing - singing happy sound for Mom and Dad

a Talus visit before going to look for autumn color

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:40:49 GMT

Talus Brubaker Book - lookin' about and enjoying sight

Getting into the pile of images made on my autumn -- this image from the first day of my trip which included a visit to my newest Grandson, Talus to hear his report of his first three weeks.

Peace

ps no, not teeth, although his little (what do you call that blister-like spot on an infant's upper lip from suckling?) looks like it.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:49:13 GMT

Don't Screw Us

Posted using ShareThis

home again home again

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:28:14 GMT

Jiggity Jig... Thank You Lord for another safe return home...

images of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon to follow... in a couple days.

Peace

Vernal

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:23:17 GMT

'just checking in... just dropped down from Wyoming's snow to Vernal, Utah to check the interwebs and pay bills online. stay tuned...

no photos to view as I've been sleeping (or driving) at night instead of optimizing some images.

Peace

my autumn tour

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:28:51 GMT

'currently at a wifi eatery in Hamilton, Montana. - the air is full of thick smoke from a fire in the Bitterroot range near here. I'll be moving south and over Trail Pass and eastward ...

'the past few days... visited Talus (Grandson)
then visited the Mount Tahoma Trails a couple nights with visits to High Hut, The Yurt, High Hut again and
Paradise, Stevens Canyon, Chinook Pass in the park and
down the American River to Yakima,
then easterly to the wind farms of Columbia and Garfield Counties in the Blue Mountain Foothills.
[one day photographing from before sunrise till about an hour after sunset... then I climbed into my van for the night till the wind arrived during the night shaking the van ...
In the morning, the windvanes spinning in the 26 knot winds... one day still air... the next day strong steady winds that gave a totally different impression of the site... the added parameters of sound and air motion and the visual spinning windmills.... and what did that mean for exposures? the tactics and maneuvering differences were interesting.
Then, the wind filled the air with fine dust so
I drove northerly to the Snake River and a dam crossing where they record your identification and then open the gate for you to pass across...
then across the Palouse to Steptoe Butte a high 360 degree view of the Palouse except that that evening there was so much dust in the air the setting sun just fadeded near the horizon.
I left and drove south to Lewistown
and then up US 12 to Lolo Pass and
down into Montana.

from here, I'll drive south up the valley till the air clears... or to near where the medicine tree used to be till one day
it fell over

Peace

Washington State Stock Photos Agency

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:31:35 GMT

WashingtonStateStockPhotos.com
is live!

also known as
WAstock.com

Peace

Rushing into autumn

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:51:14 GMT

Aspen - Conboy National Wildlife Reserve, Klickitat County, WA

©2008 Ed Book

What do you do when the wind is blowing too much to keep your subject sharp?
Here are some things you can do:

use language that would embarrass a sailor and perhaps bring on a lot of bad karma and don't make an exposure
quietly don't make a picture thinking you're not good enough
watch the motion enjoying the moment knowing that you're not going to get a picture
make an exposure knowing that you're going to throw it away but do it just because you like pushing the doohickey
make a "documentary" exposure to remind you that you were there
make an exposure knowing that you can use it to make into a digital painting
raise the ISO (sensor sensitivity) until the shutter speed is short enough to stop action
wait for the wind to stop
photograph a rock instead
use a long shutter speed to allow the motion to show and hope there is enough motion to make it look like the motion was deliberate
be glad you had a gassy lunch and break the wind
wait longer for the wind to quit
come back a different day or week or month or year
move the camera enough that it's unmistakable that motion is important in the image

I've done all of them...

Peace

same cottonwood grove and in fact the same exposure

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:15:02 GMT

I should have mentioned when I made the last post that that image was made along the way in my optimization work for this image. I was adjusting the tone range of the tree trunks and I temporarily slid the slider all the way to dark to see which pixels would be affected and the image I posted was what was presented. I liked the image at that point so saved that version and then continued on to this version.

Peace

Black Cottonwood grove

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:48:12 GMT

Hybrid Poplar grove (Populus deltoides) Boardman, Oregon

I've driven by this grove many times, each time not stopping to make a photograph because some condition like high winds or poor light and once because of an ice storm. Last autumn, I was returning from a photo expedition to the Blue Mountains in northeastern Oregon and had my opportunity. I didn't have much time to explore before losing the light late in the day but did come away with some images that I liked. Hopefully, my next visit will have conditions conducive for photography, even if I have to stay a few days for a break in the wind and some good light.

Peace

tight grouping of Garry Oak

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:05:11 GMT

Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) Klickitat Canyon, Klickitat County, Washington

I'm planning to include Klickitat County in my autumn tour again this year as well as stretching to the Rockies to see the aspen and tamarack. I haven't decided on time or logistics yet but will be deciding soon. I'm trying to juggle the autumn tour with a sailing trip up into the Georgia Straits in Canada. Oh yeah, and get wood for winter heating before the soaking rains.

To see more of the Oaks of Klickitat County
(just north of the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge)
click here...

Peace