1. Mount Rainier
Carousel Light Bokeh
Shallow DOF in a long exposure at night.
Normally I don’t think to use shallow depth of field for my stereoscopic photos but I’ve been inspired by the work of my friend Frank Roberto. It was very late, around midnight after the Evergreen State Fair was closed, that I took this shot. It was obviously a long exposure — it came out looking like noon! I miscalculated the light as I didn’t expect it to be this bright but I was pleasantly surprised to see it.
Shot with TL-120 at f2.8 using Velvia 50. Shutter unrecorded.
YOYO & Fireworks #8
Captured at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, Washington, August 2011.
Last year there were fireworks at the Evergreen State Fair and I didn’t know about it until it was happening. I was in a rotten spot to capture them and it all ended in tears.
This year I got the dates for the fireworks beforehand and guesstimated some good spots for shooting.
Poipu Sunrise
The sunrise at Poipu beach on Kauai, a short walk from our rental house.
I have long wanted to use a graduated neutral density filter with my MF photography. The problem is aligning a couple of filters on different cameras. On the TL-120, I wouldn’t be able to mount 2 filter holders side-by-side — there isn’t enough room. You could use screw on filters but then you’re limited by where you can frame the image. Problems, problems, problems.
At some point I realized that there was an extra large square filter size called X-PRO that would fit over both lenses of the TL-120. I found a used filter holder and had it modified to fit on the TL-120 and also came up with a system for positioning the filter (because when you frame the shot through the viewing lens the filter is in the wrong position and needs to be lowered precisely to take the shot).
I found an outfit in the UK that claimed to have Lee ND grad filters in X-PRO size. This was a little confusing to me because on their website Lee has no mention that they make such filters. But after several emails back and forth to the UK and assurances that the filters were real I pulled the trigger. I picked up 1, 2, and 3 stop hard-edged filters.
I don’t remember which filters I used in this shot but it was probably 2 of them, dropping down the sky by 4 or 5 stops.
Hanging Ice Cubes
This is another image from under the Mendenhall glacier. I have done several images of the surface and the caves. Here, I’ve screwed up the courage to actually get in the gap between the ice and the bedrock, put a camera on a tripod and try to compose some images. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on images when the ceiling is melting and the resulting ice-water-rain is running down your back. Then there are the streams (a little visible in the middle-ground), tumbling rocks, and falling ice-bits to keep you jumping!
I really wanted to get more light so you could see the distance better. Even though I had brought my flash (and all of the cables to make it go) I was unable to control it enough to get any light in the distance without blowing out the rocks in the foreground. What I needed was a Chimney Boy to slither in and rig a couple of remotes part way down the cleft.
Created with a tripod-mounted TL120-1
Decker Way
Juneau has more than a few steep streets, and quite of few of these become too steep to remain a paved roadway. Decker Way is a downtown street which becomes a staircase to finish its run down to South Franklin St. The staircase streets are named and numbered just like the roadways, and commonly have houses along both sides. I visit them on my lunch break, and I don’t envy the folks who live there who get to carry their groceries up (or down) in all kinds of weather.
This is not labeled, but is probably from my TL120-1.
Days Gone by in Texas
This was taken with the TL 120 south of San Antonio during the 2010 wildflower trek. Just two old cars waiting to be photographed for the umteenth time.
What you don’t see is me literally hanging over the fence trying to get as close to the cars as possible. That is when I wish I had zoom lenses! Too many Texans have shotguns that they aren’t afraid to use when you trespass. Oh wait, that was in Virginia when a guy came out with his shotgun because I was on his property :), long time ago and another story………
Prince Edward Island shoreline
Shot hand 
held with the sputnik using available light. Seems they have the same kind of sky conditions that we have in Texas 🙂
I wanted a different kind of mount so I got out my scrapbooking/card making stuff and cut the mount. I would like to know what you think of it. To mount I simply put the mask on the spicer jig I use and taped the chips to the black mask. Then inserted the mask into the frame.
Texas wildflowers 2010 part deux
The year 2010 in Texas had the best display of wildflowers I have ever seen. Unlike this year (2011) which produced virtually no wildflowers due to the severe drought which we are still experiencing along with triple digit daily temps.
This image was taken near Poteet which is south of San Antonio on some little country road. I realize the sky detracts from the image but there isn’t much I can do about that except to crop it out but I wanted the old rusty chair and the house to be included. This was shot with the TL 120, hand held.
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church
Some people say the interior of the Ammansville painted church is the color of cotton candy. Others say it is the color of Pepto-Bismol. Any way you look at it, the church is a pale, rosy pink. Legend has it that an unknown itinerant artist painted the walls of Saint John. Upon completion of the work, he vanished, never to be seen again.
The present Saint John’s is the third church to be built on the property. The first church was destroyed by a hurricane in 1909. The second church burned to the ground eight years after the first one was destroyed by a hurricane. A person recalled in a phone interview working in the fields and seeing the black smoke come up from the direction of the church. Everyone dropped their farm equipment and raced to the church. Folks were able to save some of the statues, but the rest of the building was lost to the fire, which was so hot even the church bells melted. With two churches destroyed in such a short time, one would think the community of Ammansville would have given up. Yet, they began the process of planning and rebuilding almost immediately after the fire. The third church was completed in 1919.
David Lee, August 2011
I have taken the liberty of scanning David’s slides so we’ll have something to jog our memories as we leave comments. Any errors in scanning are certainly mine and not David’s.
–John Thurston
David W. Kesner – Fern Pit
This is a lava cave in Eastern Oregon. It forms a natural terrarium that allows these ferns to grow year round. Taken with a Sputnik on Fuji Velvia 50. It was a long exposure and suffers from some light flair at the bottom.
David W. Kesner – Lava Tube Throat
Another lava tube cave. This image is looking down a side passage that I thought looked like a throat. Taken with a TL120 on Fuji ProviaF 100. Lighting was from a single Vivitar 283 flash held off to the left.
David W. Kesner – The Sentinels
These formations in a lava tube are called extrusion spires and were formed when molten lava in the floor was pushed up through a hole. You can see how some of the lava traveled to the top and then spilled out and dripped down the sides. These are over six feet tall and are the largest in the US. Taken with a TL120 on Fuji ProviaF 100. Lighting was from two Vivitar 283 flashes. One was placed to the far left and triggered by a slave. The other was held just to the right of the camera.