Some of the random thoughts of a photographer in central Iowa ...

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06 Feb 19

As we stumbled around the first month or so in this new year, buried in a polar vortex of Iowa snow & ice, dealing with  balky distant internet servers and nearby kids that didn't want to smile or sit still for their portraits, we wandered the internet to find some inspiration – and find some, we did, here ... thank you, Brooks!

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Working usually results in, well, results — photographs that very likely may not mean anything to anyone. Ever. But to me, they are, at the very least, evidence.  [Brooks Jensen]

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09 Jan 19

Put the "ice" on 2018's workflow ....     :-)

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15 Dec 18

Up to some "dicey" work in the studio this week ...

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07 Dec 18

Latest sale came from two images of a beehive ... made them into this composite for the customer ...

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26 Nov 18

... November reflections 

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28 Oct 18

... and a couple images from the "bullets & pills" shoot this weekend -- no pun intended  :-)  ...

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26 Oct 18

Chatting with another photographer today at Subway about cameras & LensWork Magazine made me realize I hadn't made a blog entry lately.  Here's one of the latest light table images  ....

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14 Sep 18

Worked a shoot with author/novelist L. M. Elm [Lisa Taber] last Sunday ...

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15 Aug 18

A couple of shots from the last month or so ...

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12 Jul 18

Worked on limes today ...

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29 May 18

Big news this week is the Christmas cookies & candy shoot - workflow on that continues.  The biggest dust-up of the long weekend was the still continuing disagreement [which Larry the photographer has remained carefully out of] on whether the bloom pictured below is a 'crabapple' [all one word] bloom, a 'crab apple' bloom [two separate words] or a 'prairie fire crab apple' bloom.  The main disagreeing parties have retired to a local air conditioned wi-fi hot spot for some adult beverages and internet research to solve the mystery while Larry stays behind to tap out this entry, then finish the assignment workflow.

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30 Apr 18

Made a variant of the usual Crestbruck Park tree for a customer ....

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20 Apr 18

Another busy photo month down ... best combat story of the month is arriving at a house for a realty shoot and finding out the place had sold 15 minutes before, the new owner was standing there smiling ... :-)

Latest sale is a 12x09 crop of the image below.

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20 Mar 18

There went another month and a bit more "unblogged".  Spent most of the time at/on the computer instead of behind the lens & did a bit of looking around for a replacement for the now dead spare camera back. Like the looks of the Nikon D850, but Trev, of course, suggested the Hasselblad X1D and few Broncolor extras to go with it.  How many megapixels & lights does one photographer really need, my brother?

Well, I just dropped in to blog what condition my condition was in on the chance someone out there wondered.  Back to the .pdf projects.  

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04 Feb 18

Well, January was a fast and ghastly month.  One of my favorite camera bodies fried out & turned itself into a paperweight, the office printer is slowly dying [pun intended], and, well, I won't bore you with other fun parts of owning a business, I'll just leave it to your imagination.  My favorite shot of the month is the sunrise shot of the barn below.  I like the effect of the slightly out of focus clouds on the silhouette of the tree line giving the image an almost 3D effect.  Clicking on the image below should get you to the full version in its' gallery.

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06 Jan 18

Happy New Year!  All kinds of year end work, including catching up the books, is keeping the photographer busy.  Favorite sale in the last couple of weeks was a modification of one of my farm sunset files which was turned into a 3' x 3.75" print by a customer.

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05 Dec 17

Not much to report that would mention anything other than having, again, been chained to computer workflow between assignments for a month.  Did, however, meet GiGi the dog out walking with her human friends and enjoying the fine weather in Southwoods Park between shoots at the end of November ...

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03 Nov 17

October seems to have dashed by with computer work and a few shoots.  Found a "tiny" flaw in the way I cataloged "some" [about 4K] of my older images during the transition from film to digital waaaaay back at the turn of the century.  Must say Lightroom simplified finding & straightening out the flaw ... it was definitely built with sorting and classifying  many images at once in mind.

Fun job of the week, though, was when a customer's son asked for a picture of the moon for his dad's Facebook page, then, when he saw it, said to "share it with everyone"  ... and we did.  It's in the Free Clip Art Gallery or click here to go directly to the image ...

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30 Sep 17

Busy month or so ... added a bit to the sunset collection ...

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19 Aug 17

Last Tuesday there was this forgotten baseball on the bench in Centennial Park, Huxley, Iowa ... I just did what any photographer would have done ...

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28 Jul 17

Feel like I've been chained to this desk, this computer & the internet for the last three weeks or so ... the escape plan involves the D4, the 28-300 zoom ... &, perhaps if my old P/SAF check pilot remembers me kindly, some loggable flight time in a C208?

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06 Jul 17

Well, the changes are, of course, taking longer than planned ... specific images might disappear for a few minutes, then re-appear, but most of the gallery name changes are done.  Thanks for visiting, buying, and enjoying our work!

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28 Jun 17

You'll probably notice we're moving some of the galleries around and renaming others.  It should all be over by the 4th of July, internet permitting.  Hopefully it will make things easier to find when we're done.

Thanks for your patience.

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15 Jun 17

Tinkered around a bit with a b&w image from last month ... went with a sepia version ...

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09 Jun 17

Some discussions over the last week or two got me thinking about passed over projects.  These personal projects are themed on words or phrases and are a way for us to keep the creativity going.  I flipped through some old notes and came up with this project theme:   "Exoteric or Esoteric?"

Turned to one of my recent shots to see if I could measure up.  The effort resulted in:

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24 May 17

Customer asked for a landscape with "emerald water" in it and went with this one.  Tweaked the vibrancy a bit to bring out the sky and they were happy with it.

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17 May 17

Worked on the logo a bit ....

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07 May 17

Lots of workflow and some portrait work.  Even got some new sunset shots in on May 5th ...

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26 Mar 17

Time flies when you're having fun ... hmmm .... what to blog about a mere three months after the last entry ???   Lots of workflow completed, a couple of new lenses purchased -- do like the Nikon 28-300, fast to focus and sharp through the whole range, it could turn into my most versatile one -- my favorite informal portrait so far this year is from the 10th of February at a Southwoods Park shoot, see it below .... sadly, the photographer had no treats ...

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24 Dec 16

Was able to stop and try some morning sunrise fog shots on the way home today, one of them below ... still workin' remotely on other photog's stuff from the last week.  Have a happy holiday season!  [or, as pilot Sara says ... "Have a 'Bloody Mary', Merry Christmas!"  ... only if, of course, you are of legal drinking age where ever you may be.]

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02 Nov 16

Sooooo, softened up the next one .... REJECTED ... "out of focus" ... sheesh ...

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29 Oct 16

You photographers might sympathize with this ... doing workflow on some out with a camera sunrise images I found one that, while "o.k.", seemed a bit bland and in need a bit o' lab work to perk it up a bit.  Tinkered around with it ... played around with turning on or off in just about every Lightroom and Photoshop tool to see if it could be saved ... finally settled on adding some grain, brushing out some odd reflections from a street light or two, sharpened it a touch to bring out the clouds, got it to really 'snap'.  Submitted it to Adobe Stock and a couple of the other usual places.  Results? [insert a drum roll] ... REJECTED .. Adobe Stock - "grain problems" ...  multiple other usual places - "over sharpened" ... you just can't please all the people all the time ...

"Learn by doing or, even better, unlearn by doing the opposite of what you learned."   [Ernst Haas]

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17 Oct 16

Met photographer Kelsey Opague [www.kelseyopague.com] while she was at work in Quail Cove Park on Sunday. Check out her website, she creates great photos.

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19 Sep 16

Portraits and working with live models is a lot more fun than photographing custom office furniture.

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28 Aug 16

The D4 and the 80-400mm are getting along fine, picked up a bit of side work and plenty of computer work over the last month or so.  Tweaked the More Photographers [click here] page a little bit.

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18 Jul 16

Had fun working with Ann, Cameron & Polly from The Iowan Magazine at the Iowa Fairgrounds today.  Thanks for the work [& the tasty snacks]!

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22 Jun 16

Having run into several "new" photographers recently who asked for ideas on a good reference book to explain or help them with the basics of the camera and lighting, I've recommended John Hedgecoe's "The New Manual of Photography" [2003] for the basics. 

Taking a quick look at B&N's website, found it used in the $2 - $20 range ... link - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-new-manual-of-photography-john-hedgecoe/1005838660?ean=9780789496379&quickview=true

Photo quote  -   "There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are."  [Ernst Haas]

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08 Jun 16

Well, another month in the books ... lots of workflow, some cool assignments finished and quite a bit learned.  Tweaked the site's home page style a little bit, let me know how you like it.  Many thanks to those of you that bought and/or kindly commented on the new deer at the Rothchild Nature Trail marker shot.  [click here to open that deer image in a new window]

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27 Apr 16

Between shoots and workflow assignments we've been studying, among other things, the writings and works of Edward Weston, the Capas and a few of the other well known photographers. Quite interesting.

Newest quote -

“ … and, finally, this is what I need to say to you. There are things in your life that only you will see, stories only you will hear. If you don’t tell them or write them down, if you don’t make the picture, these things will not be seen, these things will not be heard.”    [Emmet Gowen]

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25 Mar 16

Thanks to Sarah & Al, I got more than the usual right seat flying/riding along with the "freight dogs" this last month.  Thanks again, guys!  That, of course, cut into my out with a camera time, so I'm trying to get more lens work in this last week of March.  Have a shoot coming up with Trev & the others when they get back from the UK in April, so I'd best get back to work keeping the eye sharp.

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08 Feb 16

Spent most of my time this last week behind the keyboard instead of the lens on big workflow projects for other photographers.  Have shoots of my own coming up, hope I remember how to use the camera.

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15 Jan 16

Books caught up, tax time approaches and a couple of shoots lined up for this month ... looked over the new D5 specs ... think I'd go with the CF setup ...

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03 Dec 15

Whoa. Where did November go? Been busy as the associate understudy photographer's assistant on a couple of projects and with turning out other photog's workflow so they can work multiple jobs in a week and still make their deadlines. Had to move the 'Untold' project deadline to maybe mid-spring or early summer to be sure I can keep up with the holiday workflow and a couple of my own scheduled shoots in the next few months. Picked up an 80-400 zoom to help with the new projects ... started working with it on my 'out with a camera' time, seems to be what I need.

A photo quote, courtesy of LensWork edition # 121 ... "For me, photography is all about celebrating the everyday ordinariness of life." [ Patricia Lay-Dorsey ]

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30 Oct 15

I've been happily cranking out workflow for everyone else for the last month or so ... got this shot [below] of a squirrel while out with a camera taking a break from the Internet ... [full size link - http://www.stonesthrowe.com/Recent-Workflow/i-pZTrZMz/A] ... can't quite decide if the paw to the chest is a "who me?" or a De Niro's "you talking to me?" from the 70's movie "Taxi Driver" ... 

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22 Sep 15

Here's a Charlie Foxtrot moment for all you photog's out there. Four hours the other day shooting sandwiches ... art director in NY watching via the Net, local gal [er ... person] making the sandwiches at NY's direction with Iowa products ... need to reshoot it all ... sandwiches were on the "wrong bread"... pardon me whilst I step out into the corridor and scream. Not complaining, mind you, these guys pay quite well, have a great sense of humor & their checks don't bounce, but I'm beginning to believe I'm secretly on a contract to the U.S. Congress ...

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05 Sep 15

There went a couple more fast weeks. Did get to wander around a little bit at Ledges State Park on the 1st while assisting with the Franklin Township and Ledges shoots. Sometimes it's nice to just be one of the assistants. May have to delay the 'Untold' project deadline for a more important [read "higher paying"] job this month. Decisions, decisions. Will be in Ames the 15th to help finish off the Franklin Township workflow.

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