Dante's Rose

My lake neighbor's name is Dante and his wife's name is Alida.  They are from Milan, Italy.  Dante is the lead engineer on the Audubon Bridge project in New Roads.  He loves to play the guitar and sing Italian love songs.  He also enjoys riding a racing bicycle and paddling a kayak to stay in shape.  His wife loves to cook homemade pasta and loves high fashion.  They are a lot of fun to be around.

Dante and Alida started a garden this year.  I never really noticed it until I came out early one morning to watch the sunrise.  I noticed a beautiful rose in Dante's garden.  It was not quite daylight yet, but I hurried to get my camera, thinking this might be my only chance to photograph the beautiful rose.  I used my 35-70mm f/2.8 at 35mm and f/8.0 at 1/250sec.  I ran the ISO way up to 5000!   The shutter speed was necessary to stop the motion of the rose in the breeze.  I used f/8.0 for greater depth of focus.  It is interesting to see just how good the D700 sensor is to produce this image at such a high ISO.   There certainly is noise, but it is acceptable in my opinion.

About an hour after taking the photo, I noticed that the rose was gone!  Dante saw the rose and cut it to give his beautiful wife.  I was glad that I had photographed it so early in the morning.

Here is the photograph...

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I decide to make a painting from this photograph as a challenge.  Here it is...

Always stop to smell the roses.  (Or to photograph them!)

Tony

My Dad

I really love my mom and dad.   They are going through some tough times right now as my dad battles cancer.  I would appreciate your prayers for him as he continues his chemotherapy and radiation.

The photo below is one of my favorite photos of my dad.   I shot this in June of 2007 during the timeframe that my dad was being treated for a life-threatening heart ailment.  We were sitting in the breezeway between his house and garage and had natural light coming in from the right and left.  It was about 11:30 am, and the light coming through the lattice work wasn't very strong, but was usable.  I had my D80 and a 50mm/f1.4 lens and rudely photographed him as we were talking.  He was a good sport about it and tried not to ruin the pose.  I used 1/30 second exposure at f/4.0 and ISO 800.  I did some work on it to unclutter the background and to lessen the processed noise.

This photo looks like it was shot in a studio, doesn't it?  Actually, it is very difficult to produce light of this quality in the studio.  I built a large softbox today to try to simulate light coming through a large window.  It worked very well.  It is about 5 feet wide and 8 feet tall with two novatron lights firing into it.  When I saw this photo, it made me realize that I could probably come close to duplicating this light by building another large softbox for the opposite side.

Until next time,

Tony

My Dad

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Another Painting

Here is another painting I did for a friend in New Zealand, Jarrod Clyne.  I based this on a photo he took of his wife in his home studio recently.

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Tony

Paintings

One of my hobbies is creating paintings from digital photographs.  It has been much more difficult to learn than I thought, but I’m getting the hang of it and hope to do this on a commission basis.  

This is one of the first paintings I’ve done.  It is from a photo of Jennifer in a zinnia field near Montezuma Georgia.  I’ve included several zoom crops so that you can see the detail, followed by the full painting.  It is pretty rough, but has potential.

You may click on each frame to see an enlargement, then use the "back button" on the browser to return to the blog.

Let me know what you think!

TJ

Photographing an Oil Rig

I spent several days this week visiting an oil rig that is drilling one of my prospects in south Louisiana.  It is a land location, so it is relatively easy to get to.  I was given unlimited access at all times of day and night.  So, I was able to catch the natural light at it's best in the morning and evening.  And the rig's artificial lights worked well, too.  I never used a flash.  It was exciting to be an the rig floor as the hands were making connections (adding new drill pipe) and drilling deeper.   I felt the jars when the drill pipe was sticking and observed an excellent crew practice well control procedures.  These people work at least 12 hour shifts with few if any breaks.

I thought I would share a few shots from this trip.  I may add more at a later date.  The results of the drilling are considered confidential under a later date.

This is the rig in the full morning light.

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This is a view of the board road  in the early morning, looking back from the rig pad toward the main road.

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This is the Milky Way as observed from a dark location near the rig.

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This is the rig at night, illuminated by the generator powered lights.  The colors of the rig really came alive in this light, which is unusual.  Artificial light rarely produces such color.  I shot these wide shots with a 20mm f/2.8 Nikon lens on the D700.

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These are the rig hands (sometimes called roughnecks) making a connection of a new stand of three drillpipes (90 feet) to the pipe already in the hole.  This is dangerous work with large, heavy, powerful, equipment swinging around the rig floor.  These guys really work hard, not only to keep their jobs, but to move up the ladder to better jobs as they come open.

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This was the last photo I took before I left.  The trucks were bringing in fresh mud to put down the hole. The mud helps maintain the hydrostatic pressure necessary to keep the well from flowing out.  The temperature and pressure are much higher at the bottom of the hole than at the surface.

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Let me know if you would like to see more from this trip.

I've also received several request to write about the grizzly bear photo that I posted on my website under wildlife.  I plan to do that very soon.

Thanks for visiting! 

Up to my eyeballs in alligators!

I got this email from a guy who saw one of my alligator photos...

Subject: Amazing Image for Article  Dear Tony, I came across your amazing photo of a alligator (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cajunphoto/2327252891/) and was wondering if I might be able to include them in an article I am putting together on animals appearing to go for the camera for the blog sitewww.environmentalgraffiti.com. You would of course be fully credited with a link to your photos on flickr and any other site you specify. Best Wishes, Karl

Here is the photo that Karl was referring to...

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Here is a link to Karl's story:

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/animals-menace-photographers/14757

Now, here is the rest of the story.  I was down at Bayou Black near Morgan City photographing eagles.  The tour guide took us to see some of his "pet" alligators.  He had the gators trained to leap out of the water to grab a piece of chicken from a pole he held above the water.  I stood close to the guide and zoomed in to take this photo as the gator leaped for the chicken.  Looks like he's coming for me, but I was probably 7 or 8 feet away and safe behind a rail.  However, the guide did warn us to keep our hands and cameras behind the railing!

The guide also had one of the eagles trained to swoop down out of a tree to pick up a piece of chicken the guide threw out on the water.  Here is one of the photos of the eagle...

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You can find more photos from that trip on my flickr account here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cajunphoto/sets/72157594527495625/

Tony

Sometimes...

something very simple can make an interesting composition.  I walked by my desk one day and noticed how the light from the lamp was illuminating the sunglass clip and the desk cover.   When you notice good light and an interesting composition, that's when you pick up the camera and shoot.  It took three shots to get the exposure the way I wanted it.  This was shot with a Nikon D300 at ISO 1600 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens set at f/4.5 for 1/80 second.

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I'm the last one...

... to have a blog.  My brother's have been doing this much longer than me.

My brother Tim lives in Charlotte, NC and blogs daily about all the interesting things he finds on the web.  He also posts videos of our families.  Tim's blog is:  http://mitnosnhoj.tumblr.com/

Mitnosnhoj is TimJohnson spelled backwards!

My brother Terre lives in Birmingham, AL.  He writes from his unique perspective about music.  It is fascinating and runs deep.  His blog is:  http://musicmeanings-terre.blogspot.com/

I've been using Flickr for several years to post my photographs.  ( http://www.flickr.com/cajunphoto )  However, I think this blog will be more useful to me.  Flickr only has a white background.  Dark, neutral backgrounds are typically better for view photos.  Blogspot allows the choice of many templates which include dark backgrounds.  Flickr allows descriptions under the photo, but doesn't have allow photos embedded in text.  Anyway, I hope to update this blog once a day with an interesting photo (at least to me), and I hope to discuss what the photo means, or where it was taken, or how it was taken.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tony

Hummingbirds

We enjoy sitting out on the front porch in the evenings.  The hummingbirds are a delight to watch and listen to.    They hum and they chatter as they chase each other around the yard.  Last week, at midday, I hid in the lantana with my camera and captured a few shots of the hummers.  It was too hot to stay long.  Then, one evening, I sat down on the edge of the porch, just a few feet away from one of the feeders.  The hummingbird came by and didn't seem to notice me.  But, when I brushed at a mosquito, he came over and checked me out, about one foot away.  Susan's late father used to do this on his back porch while wearing a bright red baseball hat.  It was quite a sight to see the hummingbirds fly around him and try to figure out if the hat had any nectar!

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This was from my first band shoot:  Icarus Complex.

I think the band broke up a few minutes later...

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