My first photography love

Photography as a passion was, for me, first a chemical thing. I started out in 7th or 8th grade with a shiny new Canon AE-1 Program (it belonged to the school) and as many rolls of Tri-X Pan film as I could shoot, develop, and print. I had developer and fixer in my blood for a time, I suspect. It was powerful stuff. (I wonder if I smelled bad. Maybe that's why my social life stunk (accidental pun-- sorry).) Loads of fun, too. Of course, black and white was the only real option for most of us. One school in our district had a color darkroom, but I was never very impressed by the color prints they made. Leave the color to the professional labs. B&W was not only fun, but doable--- really doable.

The advent of digital cameras changed things for most of us, of course. No longer do we need to own darkroom equipment and chemicals (not to mention a DARK room). A few clicks of the mouse, and our pics can be B&W. (I have a friend who not only still does darkroom/chemical B&W work, but also uses a pinhole camera for some of her best work. She did buy a digital camera recently, but she's a hands-on, darkroom junkie at heart, I think.) All of the pics from today's post were shot digitally and then converted. There are many, many ways to convert digital pics from color to B&W. These are all pretty straightforward, however. I own some Photoshop actions that convert them in fun, funky ways, but these are mostly straight conversions.

I post these today as a homage to what I see (and I think I always have seen) as the "coolness" factor of "seeing" in B&W. A "good" B&W shot, for me, has good contrast, a wide range of tones, even gradations (where called for), and a certain sharpness. I don't know what you will think of these, but they represent a range of things that I find both interesting and fun.

What makes a photograph work for you? What appeals to you? What draws you in? How does B&W figure in to the mix?

Scout-O-Rama 2010

This post is WAY out of date from one point of view. The Scout-O-Rama took place in late April. From another point of view, however, it is still very timely. The 100th year of scouting in the US is still underway and a friend of mine recently suggested that I get these photographs "out there" for more people to see. I post these for any scout to use for any bona-fide scouting purpose. Follow the link to see more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cdraney/ScoutORama2010Helicopter#

The occasion, as I already noted, was the 100th year Scout-O-Rama in Twin Falls. It was a great success. Lots of folks attended, some good money was raised for Scouting, and Paul Tikalsky, Snake River Council Executive, got all wet.

All in all, a good time was had by all.

Raptor report

1/250sec, f/5.0, ISO: 200, 250mm

Next weekend is Draney Camp. One of the things we always do is have an afternoon of paintball-- the weekend welting. Jacob got a paintball marker for his birthday this year and he's been dying to try it out, so we drove over to the other side of the canyon to some public land that people use for this type of thing. We wandered around a bit looking for a good spot away from other people. When we came to a halt in a little swale, we looked out the window and saw this beautiful bird perched on a rock. I just had time to get the telephoto lens on the camera before it took off and flew away. I was able to get 8 or 10 shots, including the above. Anybody know precisely what kind of bird this is?

We then proceeded to the purpose of our trip-- shooting up the landscape with paintballs (not to worry-- they're biodegradable). Jacob came away even more excited for next week. It'll be fun.

Patriot dream

One of the avowed missions of the Boys Scouts is to help boys and young men learn character traits such as loyalty and patriotism. To begin to learn these, they should also understand their relationship to their country. Proper reverence for the symbols of our country is key. One of the elements of Philmont was the daily flag ceremony. I'm hoping even our youngest began to get a sense of what the flags we fly mean. I recall watching my mother's reaction to the flying of Old Glory and the playing of the national anthem. I'm sure that it was in observing her love for God and country that I begin to learn and feel my own love for them.

Lost and found

#1 When we put our house on the market a while ago (I'm not going to say how long ago, but suffice it to say that we caused the housing crash by trying to sell our house), we packed up a bunch of stuff and stuck it in the shed so as to make the house look roomier. One of the things we packed up was the majority of our DVD collection. A while back, I dug most of them out (we ARE a movie-watching family, after all), but I didn't find the box with the M*A*S*H DVDs (and a few other movies). I looked a long time for them, but never did run on to them. I started to think that I had left the shed unlocked one night and someone had snagged them. I was kinda sad about it, but life moves on-- you know.

#2 In February 2009 I went to Seattle for some training for the accreditation report I was to help write for the college. When I got back, I couldn't find my driver's license. I searched my luggage carefully, called the airline, called the hotel, checked the car-- everything. No luck. Eventually I ponied up the $30 (or whatever) to get a duplicate license.

#3 Last summer, after we got back from Draney Camp, I remember using my Leatherman for some yardwork and little jobs around the house. I put it down in a strange spot, I thought, and I didn't see it again. It seemed to vanish, and no one had a clue about where it went.

#4 Keri and I got iPhones in February. One of the cool things about the earbuds that come with the iPhone is that they come with a combination microphone/remote. (If you're rockin' out to Flock of Seagulls or Planet P and your agent calls you about that spot in a Tide commercial, you won't have to unplug.) Within a week of getting our new phones, my microphone/remote earbuds went AWOL. Now, the story about earbuds in our house is that everyone wants some and no one keeps track of their own, so mine go missing quite often. This time, however, even monetary bribes didn't bring my "special" buds to the surface. Keri very kindly offered to let me use hers-- pretty much on a permanent basis (she's that way about everything-- selfless and considerate).

Since you noted the title of this post, you have no doubt figured out by now where I'm going with all this. It strains credibility, but all four of these items turned up in our house today within a couple of hours. All four! What are the odds?

Mentally, I'm still doing a little dance of joy. The universe is a little tidier tonight with these small mysteries solved. Pretty cool thing, eh?

High-flying adored

1/200 sec, f/14, ISO 200, 25mm

I'm not quite done posting pics from Philmont, but I thought the new week could use a high-flying start. All our kiddos, but especially the little ones, thought the swingset repairs at Grandma's to be the absolute bees knees (Thanks again, Uncle Kyle). If they could have, they'd have spent every moment with me doing "underdoggies" and pushing them "higher, please, just a little higher."

High on a mountaintop

1/30 sec, f/3.8, ISO 280, 24mm

Keri and I hoped for a beautiful sunrise at the end of this early (EARLY) morning hike. The clouds precluded that, but it was a wonderful hike nonetheless. It's called Lover's Leap, and behind us there, the cliff drops off some 200 feet (or more). Keri loves me, to be sure, but she's really holding on to me in well-disguised terror.

We started this hike in the pitch black at 4:30AM. We were on the mountaintop (or at least to Lover's Leap-- the mountain goes much higher) by about 5:10. We hoped the sun would break through, but it never quite did.  It was not a difficult hike-- just hard enough to make it feel like a bit of an accomplishment.

This was Thursday, July 8th, the last full day of Philmont.