A Southern Surprise

Had someone tried explaining to me prior to my family's trip to the Florida panhandle that 60% of the route would consist of driving through dense pine forests, I would have told them they were crazy.  My mind had already painted a picture of what I was going to see and that painting did not include pine trees.  But, my first trip through the south was a pleasant surprise regarding the scenery.  I was amazed as we drove through Mississippi and Alabama - pine trees everywhere and the overall scenery was gorgeous.  How could this be?  Was I ignorant or just uninformed?  Probably both.

Even as we crossed into the Florida panhandle I figured there HAD to be some point where we'd leave the pine forests behind and we'd move into flat grassland...or palm trees.  Where were all the palm trees?  I kept picturing breaking free of the pine "tunnels" we'd been driving through to see the ocean waves breaking on the horizon.  But, this vision never materialized and those pine trees followed us right up to the edge of the gulf coast.  Oh, there were palm trees, too, but how did these pines get there?  

This photo was taken on our first morning waking up on the peninsula.  We'd finally arrived at the camp ground after dark, so there was some mystery left as to what things would look like right on the beach.  Once again, I was thinking there would be more palm trees than anything else.  But, walking 20 feet through an opening in the bushes behind our camping spot yielded the beautiful scene here: tall grass, a marshy waterway, and...towering pine trees.

Enjoy!

Spring...Maybe??

The winter season has finally ended...or at least we'd like to think.  Kansas winters aren't too terrible, but this last one seems to keep dragging on and we had a couple significant late season snow storms.  And, just when we finally do get a little spring weather tease, it seems like we slip back into cooler temperatures.  I know more than one person who'd like to strangle that stupid groundhog in Pennsylvania.

So, what does a sunny summer photo of a beautiful river have to do with winter?  Absolutely nothing! I'm tired of cold weather and I'm ready for summer.  In fact, let's just skip spring altogether and bring on the heat wave!

Enjoy!

It's Been Cold

Cold, wintry weather is upon us.  But, that doesn't mean we can't have warm thoughts!  This photo is from our October camping trip to Roaring River State Park located in southwestern Missouri.  The park is a wonderful place to spend some time relaxing with family and friends.

A trout fishing destination known for its beautiful natural spring that feeds the river and local trout hatchery, this state park also offers some good hiking trails with access to gorgeous scenery.  This year, we lucked out and experienced some marvelous fall colors.

Enjoy!

Move Along, Move Along...Nothing to See Here

A fawn lay motionless on the grassy bank of the Green River as I approached.  I can only imagine what was racing through its mind.  Run?  Stay?  Run?  Stay?  It eventually ran!

Ten minutes prior, I spotted this little guy (gal?) from about 60 yards away as I walked my Grandpa's dirt rode leading to the lower end of his ranch.  Upon seeing it from that distance I immediately cussed myself for not having attached my telephoto lens.  I'd set out to catch some "golden hour" photos along the river with my wide angle zoom and hadn't even thought to bring my telephoto with me.  I like venturing out with a single lens because it forces me to slow down when analyzing scenes and zoom with my feet to get the pictures I'm aiming for.  But, as is often the case, there are typically 2-3 instances that arise when I'm practicing lens monogamy where I really wish I'd brought along another lens.

Even though the fawn was technically out of reach of my chosen lens, I went ahead and snapped a few photos from that distance, anyway.  As expected, those photos didn't turn out great.  But, at the time I figured I could file away the photos as a learning experience knowing that every time I viewed them in the future they'd be a reminder to be more prepared when I step out the door with my camera.  I continued on my way down the road, but didn't get far before deciding I had to at least try to get a better photo of this little fawn.

This is the part where I transformed myself into the most stealthy human being on earth - like the Predator sneaking up on Ah-nold's  team of commandos, but without the advanced alien invisibility.  Well, at least that's what I was thinking to myself.  In actuality, I probably sounded like a 2-ton bulldozer driving through a minefield as I came through the marshy grass, maneuvering my way around  some deeper water.  When I finally arrived at a position where I thought the fawn might be close by, of course, nothing was there.

At that point, I ditched all attempts at stealthy and assumed the fawn ran away.  But, I also didn't want to retrace my way back through the marsh and figured I'd explore a little and find a dryer path back to the road.  I walked about 40 feet west and suddenly heard the sound of something crashing through the brush very near to where I was walking.  As I turned around I honestly thought I was going to meet face-to-face with an angry doe (aka Mommy deer) ready to imprint some hoof marks on my forehead.  Instead, I watched as the small fawn bounded away.  "Damn!" I thought.  I was that close and missed my opportunity....or so I thought.  Turning around and walking about another 15 feet, I stopped and couldn't believe my eyes.  Laying no more than 5-6 feet in front of me, hunkered down and as still as possible, was this little fawn.

At this point I was grinning ear-to-ear, but I was also hesitant because I realized how defenseless the fawn was.  I started to second guess my decision to get closer because the last thing I ever want is to hurt or stress any animal in my attempts at self glory.  I couldn't believe how absolutely still the fawn was.  It never moved, not even a blink of its eyes.  I slowly squatted down, raised my camera, and snapped 2 photos, at which point the fawn sprung up and bounded away into the brush.

I'm still on the fence about my decision to get this shot.  Am I happy I was able to get it and have the experience?  Heck yeah, but I probably put the fawn and myself in a situation of unnecessary risk.  I'm pretty certain that, had I taken one more step closer, Mommy deer was waiting in the bushes to ring my clock.

Enjoy!

Not Your Typical Fall Color

Wanted to share a couple pictures taken this past month close to our home.  I was targeting the stereotypical fall foliage that we all love, but didn't have much luck in that department.  Instead, these two scenes grabbed my attention and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Enjoy!

Behind the Lens

I spend a lot of time with a camera shielding my face, staring at the world through the lens (TTL for you non-photography junkies).  A consequence of my love affair with this medium is that I rarely show up in any "real" photos documenting my family's daily happenings or vacations.  Sure, I could always approach a stranger and ask them to snap a photo of me and my family, but I'm not too trusting of other people with my equipment.

However, there are times when I like to document that I *still* exist.  When this occurs, I typically find a light source (usually our nearest star), place it directly behind me, and then attempt to frame an interesting composition that includes my indispensable sidekick.  Most of the time, the resulting photos are never shared since I don't view them as serious photos, it's simply me messing around.  But, the photo here actually turned out really cool and so, I wanted to share it.

This photo was taken during our annual family trek back to Wyoming.  We were wrapping up a nice evening walk along the beautiful Green River.  I had actually turned to photograph something else and noticed my shadow staring back at me...and *Click*.  I like to think of these photos as my own little self portraits.

If you happen to follow me on Instagram (travisgraham44), you may have noticed a couple of my other self portraits in my photo stream.  Speaking of Instagram, I really enjoy that little application and feel like it's another easy avenue for creativity.  I only post photos taken with my iPhone because I feel like importing photos from my other cameras would be cheating.  My most recent Instagram photos appear in my blog sidebar.

Enjoy!

What Happened to the Print?

I recall one of my earliest computers which housed what I then considered a "large capacity" hard drive.  I'm pretty sure it was 6.2 Gb and I remember thinking to myself, "How could anyone EVER fill up 6 gigs of disk space?"  Now, 6 gigs isn't even enough to run a modern, feature laden operating system.  Even worse, 6 gigs is barely large enough to hold 2.79% of my current photo library - Seriously!

In today's world of digital photography photo libraries and the storage to hold them have exploded in size.  I recently read a quick fact that stated 70 billion photos will be uploaded to Facebook this year and that Facebook's photo collection currently has over 140 billion photos.  140 BILLION!!!!  But, what do people really have to show for all those photos?  If we're taking and sharing photos so quickly, are we really stopping long enough to enjoy looking at them and the memories they hold?

You may be asking, "But, Travis, you post a lot of pictures, so aren't you just as guilty?"  Maybe I am.  Over the course of the last 6 years I have snapped A LOT of photos.  However, I bet 98% of them are never viewed by anyone but me, which in itself is a shame.  They sit on my hard drive collecting digital dust.  Even worse, of the 2% that I do share, probably 1 in 100 will get printed for proper display.  Ok then, why don't I share more photos?  And why don't I print more of the photos I do share?  My primary excuse is that I'm very picky on deciding what photos get shared, which is where I feel I differ from the average person.  If I don't think it's worth sharing, I don't share it.  My second excuse is that I'm too busy to sit and go through them, which is a "mostly" true statement.  Am I busy?  Absolutely.  Can I make time to sit and edit photos?  Sure, but it's tough.  Most of my photo editing sessions occur late at night after everyone else is asleep.  The past 3-4 months, I've been so consumed with work that I haven't really felt like editing photos because sleep sounds so much better.  Yes, yes...just excuses and excuses are like a**holes, right? :)

Not that long ago, I remember hanging out with friends and, most of the time, someone had a 35mm film camera with them.  At a time when saving money for beer was on of the highest priorities, the cost of film seemed really expensive and you only got around 30 exposures per roll.  Blindly snapping photo after photo could really be looked at as a waste.  Even without blindly snapping it seemed like 1/2 the photos came back looking like crap anyway.  Yet we snapped away and it never failed that when someone came home with several envelopes of newly developed photos, everyone in the apartment immediately stopped what they were doing, huddled together, and jockeyed for the best position to see what surprises the envelopes held.  Laughter ensued, surprises were found, events were remembered!  The "good" photos typically made their way onto pin boards or the refrigerator for permanent display.  Does anyone do that anymore?

Anyway, I've pretty much babbled along here without making much of a point, but I promise you there is one, so hang with me...

A couple months ago, a friend and former coworker took a new position with a new company.  After a couple weeks at his new job, he approached me with a question - if he selected a couple of my photos, would I get them printed for him so he could frame them to hang in his new office?  "Are you kidding?  I'd love to," was my response.  Heck, it's not every day someone wants to hang one of your pictures for display in their office!  With that, he selected his photos and I assured him I'd try to get him the best prints possible.

For the next week I went back and forth several times trying to decide where I wanted to submit my photos for printing.  I finally decided to try Mpix, which was a bit of a gamble because I'd never used them before.  I submitted both photos for printing on their metallic finished paper in size 12"x18", which I've found to be my favorite print size (at least for framing) because it does not require any cropping for 3:2 aspect ratio photos.  Plus, I consider it my "Goldilocks" size, not too big and not too small - just right!  Two days after placing my order, the prints arrived.

Now, if you've hung with me this far, here's where I'll try to make one of my points (yes, there may be multiple "points" by the end of this thing).  As I began opening the box for the prints an old familiar feeling began to wash over me.  A feeling of excitement and curiosity, just like the past with those film envelopes.  Oddly enough, I had some nervousness mixed in, too, because I wanted these prints to turn out really good.  I finished getting everything unwrapped and upon seeing the prints for the first time my jaw dropped.  They looked magnificent and better than I ever imagined!  And, I once again realized that there is no better way to view a photo than in print.  Yes, computers, laptops, tablets and cellphones are nice and very convenient, but photos were made to be printed.

To add icing to the cake, when my friend saw his new prints for the first time, his reaction was exactly like mine.  He couldn't believe how good they looked and his reaction was 110% worth the time I spent getting the prints ready.

So, thinking back, this whole process made me realize several things (ready for more points??):

1. We allow life to overwhelm us far too often and we all need to slllllooooowww down and enjoy the experiences in front of us because they don't last forever.  It's more important to care about capturing the moment than it is to care about how many people are going to "like" your photos.

2. Share/display your photos!  What's the point in taking them if they're never going to be viewed...and enjoyed...and talked about?

3. Print your photos!  Photos help us remember, good or bad, and are worth printing for permanent display.  They don't belong on hard drives.  Hard drives are dark, magnetic, and spin really fast.  On your hard drive a photo is just a bunch of 1's and 0's.  Printed, a photo can be a work of art, a conversation piece, a memory.

4. Technology is rotting our brains. :)

Now, if I can only follow my own advice.

Enjoy!