Ok, I have a new photography tutor to help bring out my inner artist.  Kate is a gem who has already given me many tips on useful web sites, how to download nifty photography tools, how to create a copyright etc as well as ideas about focal points and composition.

 I will be posting more of my photos here for Kate to comment on and provide feedback.  Any friends and family who want to follow along are welcome.  I also plan to provide my own commentary, mostly about the photos with some observations of my own regarding the philosophy of art or whatever else comes to mind.

 This is going to be a lot of fun!!!  I hope all of you will enjoy seeing the photos and learning along with me.

 So lets get started.

Final resting place of the 7th Cavalry.  They followed a fool into hell to force those who had never done them any harm onto glorified outdoor prisons called reservations.  Nevertheless, they were husbands, sons and brothers.  Brave men who deserved better leaders and a more noble mission, they swore an oath to serve the Army and fulfilled that oath with their lives.   May their souls rest easy and the snow fall gently on their graves.

 Wild flowers at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.  They are so low to the rock you have to lay down sideways to get the picture but I really wanted them as a foreground element to the mountains behind.

 A possible picture postcard of the timeshare complex in Big Sky if I could get the sky right!!  Tried various sharpening levels when created the HDR.  It still needs more work in Photoshop.

 What is it about the sky that eludes me?  It should be blue rather than purple and those clouds followed the ridge line much more impressively in the view finder.

 Another one which looked better through the view finder.  The flag is ok but Washington's head just seems tiny.

 This is one of my favorites and I plan to work with it till I get it right.  I like the clouds and the line of the stream back to the mountain but the sky is still a problem and the sunspots need to go.  Nevertheless, once I get it perfected, this one is going on my office wall. 

 The sky on this one is not bad but the heads on Mt Rushmore are too small.  May try cropping and enlarging but I want to keep some of the trees for perspective.

 Ok, on this one I deliberately went for a slightly over enhanced almost cartoon effect.  It fits with the colors, which are stunning.  BTW, the temperature of that water is between 170 and 180 degrees with spikes to just above boiling in some areas.  And the center of the pool is over 300 feet deep which is what gives it that deep blue color.

 The eye of Sauron!!!!  I swear I spotted hobbits in the woods nearby.  Right after I got this shot, my tripod and camera fell over.  Broke the tripod and the cheap filter gave its life to save the camera lens but all turned out ok.

 Bear Lake with relatively good sky and dust spots. 

Other than some dust spots the sky is not bad, it is just kind of boring.  The photo divides in three, each of which is ok but it does not quite come together enough to earn a spot on the wall.



















Yeah, this one need a whole lot of work.

Almost getting there.  The sky still needs some work and it is fairly obvious where I did a not very good job of trying to fix it; but hat is why I hired Kate.  I am sure she will be able to teach me how to fix it.

Another photo which works better in theory than in practice.  Maybe if I enlarge it enough, Mt. Rushmore will be more visible.  I took a few from inside the tunnel and wanted get one like this by sitting down just inside the far end.  I also wanted to live through the photo shoot and cars coming around the far curve into the tunnel were coming just a bit too fast.  I annoyed enough of them just sitting in the middle of the road for this shot.

No, this one is not from the Black Hills or Yellowstone.  It is from Williamsburg.  It actually came out fairly well.  Other than a few dust spots, which are easily fixed, the sky works, the colors came together and it has the HDR light range without looking over processed.

Yeah, this one is going on the wall.  I like everything about it but am always open to suggestions for improvement.

Need to clean up the dust spots but this one is still a keeper.  There was something about the air and the way the steam drifted off the thermals into the morning sun that made our last drive through Yellowstone somewhat mystical.