February 20, 2008

• PhotoPost: Cloudscaping

  

  I'm so late with this PhotoPost that I almost forgot I didn't post it to the blog!!! These images, taken with the new Sony Cybershot at 7.2 megapixels on Jan. 21, 2008 (like the sign says) are some of the best culled from my Webshots Folder called, interestingly enough, "Cloudscaping". I announced the creation of the folder, and showed a doctored rainbow photo on the January 23rd "News and Notes". where I also announced that "Cloudscaping" the movie was in production. The following photos include some which are featured in the first section of the internet movie, which I should have finished any day now. (he promises himself) 

   

  The first photo is the image from the title card above, but it also happens to be the best of the bunch featuring this cloudscape. I pulled over to the side of the road (where there is no parking), clicked on the emergency blinkers and started shooting. I concentrated on stills instead of video, although now I am using the video feature of the camera more than I did on Jan. 21st. I left the house right after I got home from work on a weekday because the clouds looked especially photogenic. You can see the silvery ocean, which shows up later, in the extreme bottom right hand side of the frame.

  

  This looks like it was taken in the wild somewhere, but is actually across the street from a Von's in the town of Rancho Palos Verdes, up on the peninsula, where I shot all these photos. I just loved the bare branches of the tree, and the cloudscape has just the right touch of menace. I was switching the filter on and off so I don't know which photos are filtered. I'm still experimenting with the camera. In order for these cloudscapes to work for me, there has to be more white than dark, with patches of blue. This image is my current screensaver at work.

  

  The angle is wider on this shot, and the clouds have moved a trifle. You might even say this is similar to the shot above, and maybe I shouldn't have put it here, but I wanted to show the slight differences between photos. I think the first one is the better, but this one shows more blue.  I really should have shot video of the various cloudscapes, but I was in fear of losing shots. I couldn't stay in the same place for long, and only had a couple of hours to take a few hundred photos.

  

  Here and below are a couple of different views in front of the fountain at the entrance to one of the golf courses on the peninsula. (I didn't make note and it's a month later. Sorry.) Needless to say, it was sprinkling but a few well heeled Palos Verdians were out on the links. I know I used the filter on this photo. I love the silvery sheen to the ocean in the distance.

  

  Here the conifer tree is framed by the post of one of the buildings at the entrance to the golf course. I have conveniently hidden the sun in both this and the above shot. It's behind the roof in this shot and behind the foliage in the shot above.

  

  I've walked a few steps down into the golf course, and this shot prominently shows the ocean, framed by a couple of palm trees.

  

  This is my representative photo of Santa Catalina island, which on clear days like the one on which I undertook this photo shoot, looks just like a mountain range rising from across the ocean. You can't drive to get there. You need a boat or a plane. This was taken later than the photos above, but I'm now looking south west instead of west. The sun is over to the right a bit in this photo.

  

  This photo is not doctored in any way. I came around the bend of the road heading back toward home, and it was sprinkling behind me, as the sun broke through the clouds and presented this wondrous rainbow, the first I've actually seen in about 8 or 9 years. I pulled over in a no parking zone again, flicked the emergency lights and started clicking away. I even left the car and crossed the street to the divider to get more of the rainbow.

  

  I can shoot clouds at any time. But the best photos are the ones which contain the best "cloudscapes". Since the wind is blowing, and the sun is sinking, (or going behind a cloud) and I'm driving, it sometimes takes luck and stamina to get the perfect shot. I do crop "in camera" as they say, and I "self edit" and delete the bad ones "on the roll" (Digital photography makes this a snap.)  But taking neat looking photos of clouds is not easy. Esp. here in SoCal where the sky is usually cloudless. As I took the final shots as the sun was sinking into the sea behind me, I figured I'd had a good "photo excursion".

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  Hey, "subscribers" and "friends" and anyone stumbling across this blog. I haven't received hardly ANY questions for the blogtag exercise. So I'll repeat (again) Here are the tag rules: Solicit questions from everyone about any subject.

  That means you get to ask me a question. Any question, on any subject, and I must answer. There has to be some more questions. Ask away.......

  • 7:55 pm
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