Bob's Blahg

Being a “Cancer” with the Moon as my planet I was amazed at how bright it was this evening. It was almost like daylight. The trees casting shadows and all. This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon. Makes me want to howl.

There are lots of sites that tell you how to photograph our closest planet. A tripod recommended. I tinkered around with the settings on my camera and this photo was taken at ISO 250, a shutterspeed of 1/400 of a second at f/20 with a 300mm lens.

Enjoy and Happy Howling!

Peace, Love and Planets,

Ever stand on a beach and look out over the ocean and try to fathom how really, really large it is?

But alas, I’m usually too busy watching the sun sink down to the other side of the world making it morning somewhere else and also thinking “Panama” is out there somewhere.  I more or less grew up there.  But that’s another blog.

Looking off the balcony and watching people on the beach I began to realize how kind of small we really are compared to things. I closed my eyes with the sea breeze blowing across my face listenting to the waves and drifted off in to a really nice nap.

Peace, Love, and Sunsets,

I love dragonflies. There are so many varieties and they are so photogenic. They also eat alot of mosquitos.

Image Copyright © 2009, Barrett Photo Art

There are 5,000 different species of Dragonfly (Odonata)  with 450 different species in North America and a good website to visit regarding dragonflies would be the Digital Dragonfly Museum

Image Copyright © 2009, Barrett Photo Art

Dragonflies and damselflies are fun to watch (If you like bugs I guess) and I know people who collect them. I mean, some folks have everything cat everywhere and some collect everything elephant – and some collect dragonflies.  Pictures, coffee mugs, placemats, T-shirts.  Interesting decorating idea.

Me? I take photographs of everything so I guess I’ll move on down the trail and see what I can see.

Peace, Love, and Happy Hiking,

My grandson has absolutely no fear of water and will dive in if not watched. My other grandson was terrified of water at first and didn’t get use to it until 5 or so.

Image Copyright © 2009, Barrett Photo Art.

I remember the ocean scaring me to death. Hunter here just walks right in – splashes – dumps water on his head and laughs. He’s amazed by it. Hand him a garden hose and he’s fine. They grow so fast and so much to enjoy. Hug your kids today – they grow up very fast and then they’ll be gone tomorrow (hopefully *wink*).

Peace, Love, and Swimming Hole,

I’m not a big fan of lightning. It’s powerful. It’s fun to watch from the safety of indoors (unless of course it blows up the transformer across the street, then it gets more on the frightening side).

I searched the internet to find out how to photograph this wonder and decided to try it. The storm was so bad there was lightning every 10 seconds or so, therefor there was no question as to where to point to the camera.

Image Copyright © 2009, Barrett Photo Art

The advice I found on the internet was to use a tripod and your camer’s ‘bulb’ setting. The bulb setting allows you to hold the shutter open until you release it. So I set my camera in full manual mode, selected an f stop of f/11, ISO 200, and the shutter speed to ‘bulb’.

Then point the camera in the general direction you think it’s going to happen and simply press the shutter (I wasn’t worried about camera shake because it was dark) and hold it open until you see the flash.  It’s not recommended to keep it open for longer than 2 minutes.  If nothing happens in that amount of time then close the shutter – and try another shot.  The above shot was ISO 200 / f/11 / and only 2 seconds.  There was alot of lightning.

Other considerations are water. I was under the porch (Literally cowering under the porch…ha-ha) or you could use plastic to sheild your equipment from the rain. Or if you’re lucky, it’s not raining (yet).  The number one thing to also consider is SAFETY.  Please be safe because lightning is dangerous and you don’t want to be out in it with expensive camera equipment.  I did, after all, run back inside as soon as this shot was taken.

Now that I have my first ever shot of lightning I guess I have to work on putting that beautiful scenery behind it like all of those famous photographers actually get.  I’m getting better and loving the experience and lessons learned.

I hope this helps with your photography experience and if you get a chance stop by Barrett Photo Art and poke around if you like. I try to keep my best work there.

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless.

Peace, Love, and ‘There’s the Ka-Boom!”, (vague Marvin the Martian reference)

I have finally been able to get Barrett Photo Art up and running with my best photography displayed. Come see a slideshow or browse the galleries at http://www.barrettphotoart.com . The photos are also for sale in many resolutions.

I’m also available for special requests or custom photography work. Thank you for stopping by and looking around.

Peace, Love, and Art Show,

I love taking photographs of animals – birds, bees, bugs, and you’ll see quite a few of them here once I get started. In the meantime, Enjoy.

Please feel free to visit the original blog (that I may try to import over here(?) at http://bobbarrett.wordpress.com

Image Copyright © Barrett Photo Art

I guess the best quote I ever heard as it pertains to photography is:
“Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.”- David Alan Harvey”.

I couldn’t have said it better because I was very happy when this hummingbird came along. And even happier when I saw that my trusty camera stopped his little wings.

Peace, Love, and Birds & Bees,