Don Vetter's Photo Website and Blog

Valley of Fire State Park

2011-12-04T16:18:20Z

Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada is a great place to visit. Around every corner and every bend the desert landscape has been shaped by wind water and time. Valley of Fire is 55 miles from Las Vegas and well worth a visit with or without a camera.

I became aware of this park after seeing images of the Fire Wave. On my journey to the Fire Wave there were many other spectacular features to photograph. My best guess is the rock formation in this photo is a Igneous Intrusion similar to the Devils Tower in Wyoming. I've done a bit of searching to see if I can find any information on this specific feature in the park with no luck. Let me know if you have any details.

Oxbow Bend in Black and White

2011-11-20T17:28:59Z

Grand Tetons National Park is truly a spectacular place to visit. Oxbow bend is a classic photograph in the park and a great place to view wildlife. This shot with Mount Moran the prominent mountain in the shot was taken pre-dawn and converted to B&W using Nik Silver Efex Pro and post processed in Photoshop. . I really feel that this image was best in B&W and the dramatic contrast gives a great sense of what it was like to be there.

Zabriske Point First Light

2011-04-17T16:08:55Z

Zabriske Point is located in Death Valley National Park. I showed this shot to Annette from the Baltimore Camera Club and she described it as a parfait. The look is the result of using a 200mm lens to take the shot. The effect this has is to compress the elements in the image together reducing the "depth". It is quite the opposite effect that using a wide angle lens with a prominent foreground object would have. Be sure to take a look at other work in my gallery from this trip! I will continue to add more in the coming months.

The Mobius Arch

2011-03-20T14:29:40Z

The Mobius Arch is in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine California. The Alabama Hills area is home to hundreds of arches. The area was used Hollywood to shoot and number of westerns Including Rawhide and King of the Khyber Rifles. In fact the Mobius Arch is located off of Movie Drive. This is a two shot panorama and I took it with the expectation that it would be converted to B&W. I'm quite happy with the result. The sky was pretty crazy! The Sierra's are in the background and Lone Pine Peak is centered in the arch. The tallest peak in the lower 48, Mt. Whitney is blocked by the arch.

Pulse of Scott's Run

2011-01-13T02:32:19Z

This photo was taken on rainy day at Scott's Run. Scott's Run was swollen with water from the recent rains and concrete pillars placed across the creek as "stepping stones", created the "pulse" as the water rushed by. In the Galleries and you can see an image that contains the pillars. The curves and texture are what drew me to create this image.

Kaleidoscope

2010-12-29T18:00:01Z

I was inspired by recent work Karen Messick has been doing. She has been creating what I would consider to be kaleidoscope images . Being that ice abstracts are one of my favorite things to shoot I took a few to create kaleidoscopic images. The kaleidoscope effect is created by mirroring a single image in Photoshop . I think I'll do some more.

I Love Ice!

2010-12-28T20:20:12Z

Susquehanna St Park, below the Conowingo dam is the place I go when the temperatures drop below freezing. Arriving pre-dawn, hopeful that water has not been released to generate the days electricity . On some days the water is up and the days ice washed away before the sun rises. Some days give a few tantalizing minutes before the flood. Some days you get lucky and can shoot until worn out and cross-eyed. The infinite opportunity for icy compositions is the result of the reduced flow of water from the Conowingo dam the water receding and leaving a blanket of ice on shores edge. I Love Ice!

Douglas Falls

2010-10-19T00:55:44Z

Just got back to a trip to Blackwater Falls WV with Chuck Robinson and later in the week the Baltimore Camera Club. We had stunning fall colors and a variety of weather . Opportunities for great photographs abounded! I've been to Blackwater before but not to Douglas Falls located near the adjacent town of Thomas. The beginning of the week was mostly blue sky and a few clouds. On those days we looked for places to shoot in the shade. Thursday morning when this photo was taken provided overcast and intermittent rain. Perfect conditions for photographing a waterfall. This and a few other photos are in the "West Virginia Fall 2010" gallery.

Trippin

2010-05-30T16:05:07Z

The Baltimore Camera Club took a trip to NYC visiting the Museum of Modern Art to see a collection of work by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Seeing work by this legendary photographer was inspiring to say the least. Trips like this give camera club members a great opportunity to talk photography sharing ideas and techniques. It's not likely I would have taken my camera out of the bag on the return trip home if it wasn't for Karen Messick taking out hers and snapping away in the moving bus this night. I decided it was best to join in the fun. I put my Canon G10 in manual mode and took exposures thru the front window of the bus varying the length of the shutter speed. The photos I chose to put in the gallery I hope capture a bit of essence of the road on this dark and rainy night. The view from the front seat of the bus was "Trippin"

Beach Cliff Sardines

2010-05-12T02:28:25Z

Last fall I spent a week in Acadia National Park. I've been to Acadia many times before and was looking for new places to explore. My "search" lead me to Acadia's Schoodic Peninsula. The Schoodic Peninsula is fantastic, and the communities outside the park are classic ME. Beach Cliff Sardines was taken in one of these communities, Prospect Harbor. At the time it was taken I was unaware of the story this sign, this piece of Americana had to tell. Fellow Baltimore Camera Club member Kathleen Hill pointed me to an article telling of a sardine canning factories closing. The last factory in the US to can sardines, Beach Cliff Sardines in fact.

Forest

2010-04-27T01:23:45Z

I have been aware of the photographic technique of panning the camera while using a shutter speed long enough to blur the image for several years. I have seen it used to create beautiful images by Karen Mesick and Tony Sweet but until last week never made a serious attempt to do it myself. I really like the result achieved in Forest 1. The fresh greens of the spring forest with the tree trunks receding into the distance. I'm not sure how many people would recognize what this is an image of without an explanation but feel it does unique job of representing the forest. There are several other "Swipes" in "Smokies 2010" gallery but this is my favorite.

Cascade

2010-04-25T04:40:02Z

The Smokies are full amazing streams and rivers, their water flowing down picturesque cascades and waterfalls. Most any road you drive down will have water flowing beside it. The beauty of these bodies of water can be captured in many different ways. The grand view, fluid motion, abstract details ... ... ...

"Cascade" uses a shutter speed long enough to capture the waters motion, and short enough to show a distinct texture. When photographing water it's important to be aware of the shutter speed you are using and the effect it will have in the image you capture. I make a judgment as to what the shutter speed should be by taking a shot at about 1 sec, looking at the result on my digital cameras LCD, then adjusting the ISO and aperture increasing or reducing the shutter speed to achieve the effect I'm looking for. Awareness of the shutter speed is not the only important aspect of this "Cascade". I spent a good bit of time "working the scene" to find a composition conveyed a serenity and relaxation. I hope "Cascade" inspires you to go to the Smokies!

Peak

2010-04-21T02:41:35Z

The trees here in the Great Smoky Mountains are in the green of spring. When illuminated by the sun the intensity of the greens are incredible. Not one shade of green but many. Fresh red leaves are part of the palette too. This blog image attempts to capture the "Smoke" in the Smokies along with the spring color. I think it's a great combination. This shot was taken on Newfound Gap Rd. at 70mm, 1/80^th Sec., at f11

Waves of Color

2010-04-17T02:57:42Z

"Waves of Color" was created shortly after arriving at Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee today. I'm here with fellow Baltimore Camera Club Members Karen and Chuck. After the nine hour drive to get here (Chuck Drove) it felt great to get out and take some shots. Good company and great scenery should make for a great week here.

"Waves of Color" is a shot of moving water in Laurel Creek showing color from the creek and sky. It's shot at 200mm, f29 at ½ sec.

Ruffles

2010-04-11T21:42:42Z

Ruffles is a shot of a Cattleya Orchid taken using a 180mm macro lens with a 25mm extension tube and Live View. I always enjoy looking for abstract images to shoot but in general haven't had much success finding them in flowers. This is at least in part due to the fact that making a careful choice as to what to keep in focus for good composition was difficult while looking through the viewfinder using depth of field preview button. In most cases depth of field preview made the image too dim for me to judge what was in focus. Live View helps overcome this problem. Pressing the depth of field preview button while Live View is active gives a brightened image on the LCD that can be zoomed to 100% allowing a clear view of what is in and out of focus. I really look forward to continued exploration of the possibilities Live View provides.

BTW, I was turned on to using Live View by reading an article on the subject by Ian Plant.