specifically light inside a box,
specifically light inside a light box, which I made.
The project began a little over two weeks ago when I saw Amanda Peters’s beautiful photos of larch cones. I asked her about them, as did others, and she then explained the process. The light box was inexpensive and simple to build, but using it was another matter. I had to experiment … a lot. Most of the 366 shots from the first session ended up in the trash.I learned a fair amount from my trials and errors. Of course I could have consulted some of the many webpages on the subject, and I will next time. But honestly, I enjoyed exploring on my own.
Because so much of the scene is white, a camera in Auto mode underexposes, making the subject too dark. Fortunately last month I learned about exposure compensation. For most of these photos I set EC to +1, or even +2, and everything in-between (three increments per step). Yet I still had to adjust in iPhoto. Maybe it's time to start checking photo histograms after shooting.My light source was sunlight through a window. But the day was only partly sunny, with clouds sailing by. More light would have been nice. A tripod might help, allowing photos with longer exposures to be more in focus.But even after severe culling, I still had enough photos for a modest exhibition. All post-processing was done in iPhoto … nothing fancy.
I’m strictly a wild plant botanist. I've never learned the names of the house plants that I bought 24 years ago, along with a house.
This is the sagebrush that's traditionally burned in women’s sweat lodges. It’s also called fringed sage, Artemisia frigida.
Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus) in my yard has green stems through the winter. I spotted the buds when I was composing the photo.
One can never have enough pebbles … nor enough pebble-searching.
Never!!!
Treasures from the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field in central Nevada.
Sand ripples from tidal flats 250 million years ago; San Rafael Swell, Utah.
In 1875 Grove Karl Gilbert studied Mount Hillers in the Henry Mountains in Utah. He called it a “laccolite” and thereby made it the type locality for structures now known as laccoliths – uplifts formed by shallow intrusion of magma. Gilbert was one of the greatest early geologists of the American West.
