No Poodles were harmed in the writing of this blog.

The photos here are from the I-beams of a small suspension bridge. 

What if we had paint that worked like that? Paint that would change over time to create a new look. Paint that would encourage rust instead of trying to eliminate it (Anti-Rustoleum).



 

Current desktop background.

I took a low light photo of a Mimosa bloom (highlighted with a cheap flashlight) and edited the shadows.

From Flowers

Big Sur Road Trip

Theses photos were taken somewhere in the vicinity of Big Sur.
Check out how sea salt and rust have corroded the fence posts.

Weathered Stone---Tafoni

These photos are of a curiously bizarre type of weathered stone called tafoni. The first photo looks as though it's some creature trying to force its way out of the stone---my imagination goes haywire with the shapes, textures, and random designs created in the stone. There are caves of Tibetan monks, the lunar surface, pits from Dante's Inferno, the demented work of H.R. Giger...







Here is a slideshow of the weathered stone tafoni at Salt Point.

Adventures in Bad Lighting and Indoor Weather

 Taking photos of the Mimosa flowers indoors sounded like a great idea---as opposed to the whole tripod on the roof thing. The first few photos were much too dark and some were blurry, as though a breeze had been blowing. My low tech and half-assed solution to the lighting problem was to use a flashlight. Yes, I admit, I was rather pleased with myself.
 After looking at some of the photos I realized what a poor solution the flashlight was. On the other hand, I was able to create very different effects depending on where and how I directed the flashlight---exactly the kind of 'educational mistake' I'm looking for.
As for fixing the blurry photos...I turned off the ceiling fan.





Here is a slideshow of ten of the photos. I edited the two pinkest photos with "auto color" in Picasa. None of the other photos have been edited, except for some cropping. I wanted to see what results I could get with the camera alone (and the flashlight).

I finally started using my new close up lens, the Canon 500D. I thought about getting the high quality Canon f2.8 100mm Macro lens, but it easily costs five times as much as the 500D (Over $500 for the Macro lens vs. under $100 for the close up lens). Am I ready to make a  serious commitment to macro photography or am I going to start out with a more relaxed and casual approach? In the end I chose the 500D, the close up lens for amateur photographers with commitment issues.


The Mimosa tree in my front yard has fascinatingly beautiful flowers. Setting up a tripod on the roof, to take close ups of the flowers, didn't seem like a very intelligent idea (that doesn't mean I won't do it some day). I opted to pluck some flowers and take them inside to photograph. Here are a few of the photos.

Note to Self: Learn how to use your camera equipment and accessories.

The sky at the coast was that gray/overcast/white-out condition that often occurs when the sun is high above the horizon and the last of the fog refuses to fade away. I was taking photos just to get an idea of possible subjects for the next morning---planning ahead. Okay, well, alright---if I'd been planning ahead, I wouldn't have arrived in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun was high in the sky, when the lighting was at its' worst, with an hour and a half drive left, in the dark, on a twisting turning section of Highway One, back to the motel I was staying at and I wouldn't have ended up writing this run on sentence. Sooo, maybe I was behind and planning to not be further behind the next day, but I felt like I was planning ahead.


The two pictures here were taken within 59 seconds of each other, but 180 degrees in opposite directions. There was a polarizing filter on for both of these shots. They're a great example of when a polarizing filter can help and when it can't. There was no blue in the sky that day----the filter brought that out. The photo on the right shows what the sky really looked like. It was the wrong angle and the wrong time of day---the filter can't fix that.When I reviewed these shots, a couple of thoughts occurred to me 1) "That's where I put that filter", and 2) "So that's how it works".


 

Salt Point State Park, Ca.

The rock formations at Salt Point are unbelievable. The wind and water sculpted stone make for unlimited photo opportunities. Check out the photos below.

Creek at Sugarloaf Ridge Ca State Park

Sugarloaf Ridge was several miles out of my way, but a book on California waterfalls mentioned that there was a waterfall here. I finally found the waterfall (after first taking the wrong trail---the trail without a sign), but I didn't take a single photo. It was a rather unimpressive looking waterfall---a 12-15' high narrow stream of water. The mini waterscape of the creek made for a much better photo.

Somewhere along the southern Oregon coast.

Trees Vacaville Misty Morning

From Black and White

Roadside Eats

Lagoon Valley / Pena Adobe Park

I need to work on my wildlife photography. The first wildlife photo I post and the main subject is dead.

Click the link below for a few more pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/pulloverandshoot/Jan162010LagoonValley#
The circumstances that lead to this photo fit perfectly with the blog title "pulloverandshoot". I turned off of the 80 Freeway (in error) one exit early. Driving to Lagoon Valley/Pena Adobe, without getting back on the freeway, I drove by a dead deer with three Turkey Vultures perched on it's carcass. I pulled onto the shoulder about 75' away. Only one vulture was brave enough to stay on the deer while I took pictures. Nine or ten vultures perched in a nearby oak, waiting for me to leave. They were much more patient than I was. Their dinner wasn't going anywhere, they could wait.

 

I am a sucker for a bare Oak tree. I know this would stand out more if  the entire tree had the grey overcast sky as a background. That would give the photo an ink block/rubberstamp/lithograph look (which I love), but I wanted the photo to match the somewhat surreal feeling I had when I was there. The green hillside appeared

to disappear into nothingness. Check out this photo on the link above (see it on full screen against the black background) and tell me what you think. Does this photo work on any level? All comments are welcome.

Fungi Fotos

On a wet and overcast day, in the second week of January, I was sitting at home warming my hands with an afternoon cup of coffee and waiting for photographic inspiration---and waiting. I decided to check the backyard to see if the wet weather had created any worthy photo subjects.
 I wasn’t expecting much. It’s January---there’s more rotting vegetation than new growth at this time of year. However, the backyard easily exceeded my low expectations. The lawn was riddled, littered, inundated, infested, (insert verb here), with mushrooms---toadstools---fungus---fungi, etc., in various stages of growth and decay---exciting stuff!
Click on the link to see a few of the fungi photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/pulloverandshoot/Fungus# 
Read more for the boring details.

More Oregon

 

Okay, break over.

Click on this link ( http://picasaweb.google.com/pulloverandshoot/2009OregonPhotos# ) for more photos from my Oregon driving trip. That would be the trip I took when I didn't visit Lainie and Paul.

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Think fungus for Saturday's post.

Primordial Post

 The blog begins.

I am beginning this hybrid photo blog after several false starts. I'm tired of waiting---and now that I've started, I can't stop (Which isn't actually true. Hell, I could post this, then go in and delete it and it would be as if I had never started. But I won't do that.).

I am writing this blog with the initial purpose of  increasing my knowledge of photography and therefore improving the quality of my photos.