Orchid Study Revisited

After finding out that my images look totally different on other people's monitors than on mine, and realizing that what they looked like on other monitors closely resembled what they looked like on my printer, I stopped blaming my printer for not being color accurate, and went on a search for a new monitor (couldn't adjust the monitor enough to make things right). Last night, I couldn't pull the trigger, and in exploration of what kid of video card I had, I found the ability to adjust the image using a gamma setting in the video card. Voila, no need to buy a new monitor! So, to celebrate, I'm putting these images back out to show you more what I was seeing when I first posted the horrid orchid art project. Let me know which one you like best, from original to extra crispy.
  
 
 

Big Ben and the Eye

This isn't the best composition, but I wanted to give a friend an idea of how RAW images can contain enough data to cover the range of exposure from the light on the clock face to a good black of night.  

Blogged straight from Picassa

OK, a colleague of mine just saved me hours of work. You can blog pictures directly from Picasa, which is a free Google image management program. No more resizing and uploading images!
  

Before the Flood

Reflections in Big Easy windows before the flood.

Goodbye Winter

Rural Missouri

Stopped off I35 for a few photos of the first "farm" we could find. Wish we had time to barn-hop a bit more, as there are some spectacular scenes off the highway. In any case, here are the few shots I was able to take.

Sunset

Weather here has been amazingly warm -- 70s yesterday and today -- unheard of in February. Wonderful sunsets have followed.

More Orchids

St John Anniversary

Well, we are approaching a year since our wonderful trip to St. John, and a colleague of mine brought back the old memories, so I had to dig through the archives. These shots made me literally thirsty to go back!

Greenhouse

Flower art?



From Dad's Greenhouse

Winter in the City

Took a drive over lunch down near the River Market area, and took a few shots on a gray, rainy day when I was hoping fog would give me some interesting shots of the bridges. Found some graffiti, which tends to intrigue me, for some reason. Here is Actual, and my digital graffiti on the graffiti.

London Bombings

I just found the images that I took in London in the afternoon after the bombings in July. Here are the first that I'll post. I had arrived in London early that morning, and but for the express train, would have been in one of the bombed tubes. Oddly, I didn't try to get photos of the bombed areas -- not a great photojournalist. It was amazing how everyone dealt with the situation, and literally thousands of people found creative ways to get out of the city that afternoon, as most public transportation was stopped, and cabs were quickly absorbed for long trips. The flowers in the gardens were oblivious to the situation.

Early morning on the St. Marks river

I had a last-minute opportunity to go fishing on Friday AM before we drove back home. It was a very peaceful time on the river. Fish didn't even bother us much.

Family Pictures moving to MaCalWag!

I set up a new blog called macalwag for family photos - there is a link on the right side of the screen from here to access it, or you can go directly to macalwag.blogspot.com next time for family pictures. Then you don't have to look at sunsets, trees, flowers, etc. if you are just looking for kids. There are Santa pictures there, so try the link!

Sunsets

Sunsets are one of my favorite things. No two are the same, and each has its own beauty.

St. John

Found a few more St. John pictures. This hummingbird frequented the beautiful flowers around our deck. They don't sit still much, but I had time to wait for a shot. The closeup is a crop from the picture below it. Credit the Canon L series lens for the quick focus and beautiful bokeh (blurred out-of-focus background).

Found Flowers

While looking for some images, I came across these flowers that I took during our last trip to Tallahassee.

Time with the kids

We took Macy and Calvin to a nearby park with a recreation of the town of Shoal Creek. It is fairly challenging to get both of them to smile, but with patience, we captured a few of their wonderful moments.

Fall

Fall has been beautiful in Kansas City this year. over 80 degrees today. Trees aren't sure what to do, but have been giving us color for several weeks. I haven't had a chance to take many pictures, but here are a few.