December 1999

The last five images on this page were taken with my new Nikon D1 digital camera.

 


Blazing Sunset and Trees

I was driving to Little Rock when I noticed that the sunset was going to be nice.  I stopped at an old graveyard off the expressway and began to snap pictures.  I must have taken 20 pictures of this sunset.  Each one was successively better than the previous one.  The sky kept getting redder and redder and the red kept expanding upwards into the whole sky.  I was astounded at the brilliance of the colors.

This shot was framed so as to eliminate the dark foreground and the headlights of the cars traveling on the expressway.


The capital building in Little Rock, AR.  I used the perspective transformation tool in Photoshop to correct the converging vertical lines in this picture.  My camera was point up slightly to get the top of the tree in the frame.  Any time the film plane is not parallel to the architectural objects being photographed there will be distortion unless you use a perspective control lens.  Photoshop's capability here really improves a shot like this.



Winter Sunset

I grabbed this shot while taking Bethany home one afternoon.  I asked her if I could stop real quick to get the sunset and she obliged but said I needed to hurry.  We stopped for no more than one minute while I setup my tripod to get this shot.  The scene really cooperated with me, because a moment later, the sun had dropped below the clouds and became way too bright and the corpuscular rays disappeared.



Petit Jean Sunrise

I was at Petit Jean mountain overlooking the Arkansas river hoping for a decent sunrise.  This was as good as it got on this morning.



On Petit Jean mountain in Arkansas

The colors were a little duller than I had hoped for and there was no sun this morning.  I was able to saturate the leaves a bit with Photoshop to improve the scan.

This is the view I was framing when I took the self-portrait seen on the opening menu page.



Ground Cover

The dew and new winter ground cover foliage are so delicate and perfect like a baby's skin.



Red Berries

I held my black fleece behind these red berries while I snapped this shot.



Lone Tree at Midday

I love the simple blue sky with the lone tree.  It was the middle of the day but I really needed to take a walk since I had not had the opportunity in a while.  Normally the bright midday sun is too harsh and not great for taking landscape photographs.  But this classic shot turned out just fine.


Begin D1 shots

Dead Prone Cypress

There was only a few moments to take advantage of the sunset light shining on the tops of the trees in the background.  The fallen tree makes for an interesting foreground.  I wish the sky had been blue all the way across the frame but the sun over my right shoulder was washing out the sky directly opposite it.  I have learned that the sky is bluest when perpendicular to the suns rays. 



Red Glow Sunset

The rain was threatening but I still caught the red glow of this sunset.  The sun never showed its face during this sunset because of the full cloud cover.



Reflection X at Sunrise

The condensation trails of two jets were visible in the still water's reflection on this crisp and clear morning.



Burning Trees

This colors in this sunset came up so quickly that I did not have time to really find a good frame for the shot.  I thought the foreground branches and the high-rise in the background might lend some interest to the shot.



Crosses at Bellevue

New Year's eve at Bellevue Baptist after celebrating the lighting of the Crosses.  This shot was handheld at 800 ISO.