Fog also a favorite subject...

Yesterday on my drive to Spokane from Plummer, Idaho (project site for my day-job as public works inspector) I ran into a nice stretch of fog!

Now, maybe some people don't think of fog as "nice" while driving, but I enjoy driving through fog with a few hundred yards of visibility. Not the slow-down-I-can't-see-anything dense fog, but the misty fog that allows trees and barns to appear gradually as you approach.

I have been "watching" this one tree for 6 months, waiting for a good opportunity to capture it and the space around it. This is the "original" version, I have some more comments then I will show an alternate version-



I have been in a mood to find and develop some images, especially those exploring empty space around the apparent subject. (I've seen it referred to as "negative" space but I am not an art student and I've seen definitions that do not fit the reason I want empty space in my composition.) This is a theme I have explored on and off over the past 4 or 5 years.

For me the object in the picture is only half the story, or the anchor for the space. Empty space to me represents the passage of time, the embodiment of curiosity, roads not traveled, any number of things.

Here is the second version of the same shot. At some point I would love to hear feedback from some visitors to the blog- which one do you prefer? At the same time I realize "art" is personal and different people enjoy different images. There are some image I do not connect with. Images that create a sense of proportion or significance for an object, I can relate to-

Sucker for good clouds...

I have always enjoyed capturing images of clouds that depict movement. We frequently have two cloud types in Eastern Washington- cotton-ball type massive formations that involve a linear pattern of motion, and then simple, stretched thin cirrus-looking clouds which appear in radial fashion when you use a wide-angle lens.

Here is a shot from two days ago on the construction site I am inspecting-

Construction Photography

It's not always easy to find an "artistic" image on a construction site. Or at least one that involves the actual work being done. Here are a couple recent shots from my daily inspection work in Plummer, Idaho-

The first one shows rebar being cut with a composite blade. Every so often someone is cutting rebar with a torch or grinder tool. I've experimented with different ways to capture the visual result. This is one of my favorites so far-



This shot depicts an adjustment to a concrete vault. The hole wasn't wide enough and had to be notched out further. Photography is all about the light so I used some artistic license in Photoshop, altering the quality of light and bringing more focus onto the worker-