I finally got the photos I took this weekend out of the camera and into a computer. It has been awhile since I posted photos here in VB so here are a bunch of them. How many is a bunch?

There are more photos from this weekend on my Flickr page.

More Beach Photos

*

*

I spend a lot of time looking up at the sky and following the circle of life.  Trying to figure out whether we will be seeing a nice sunset in the evening or a great sunrise. It’s pretty tricky business.

And I also do the same thing early in the morning but there’s not a whole lot you can see. I usually just lie in bed and try to have some sort of psychic experience that will tell me whether or not to go out.

But that doesn’t work very well as you can imagine. So as we often do I decided to go to the search engines and try to find an answer. This is an interesting discussion in a forum for photographers about sunsets. They talk about cloud formations.

Mid level clouds come up several times as promising for this sort of thing. And as I think back there may be something to this. The sun goes down and then it shoots rays up at an angle. If there are heavy clouds sitting on or near the horizon these rays don’t have a chance. But if there are thinner clouds further up the sun’s rays can penetrate whatever is near the horizon and reflect off of them. And then the light can bounce back down to earth and the happy photographer. I guess. Here’s the link for those who follow these things.

Once the sun goes down the rays start shooting up instead of down and interesting things begin to happen.

VIRGINIA BREEZE:  “David’s blog has some of the most beautiful and cherished poetry I’ve read in a long time. It has moved me to tears on more than one occasion. If you enjoy heartfelt honest sentiments that speak of the core issues of our lives then grab a cup of tea, slow down and read some of David’s poems. They are written by someone who feels deeply and has an open heart. You will go away feeling like you know him. They are easy to understand and are mated with beautiful photos. My post this month was inspired by David’s poetry. His writing sets me free and encourages me to be authentic. He also writes about a variety of topics I find interesting, warm, real (and sometimes funny).”

“A Nice Camera Can Change Your Life”

–David

Or, at least, a very nice camera can change your life. It changed mine. I won’t say it was a religious conversion or anything as dramatic as that. But taking photos has made my daily life much more interesting. I am never bored now and I used to find time to be bored. When you watch television a couple of hours every day it could be a sign that you are bored!

And I wasn’t that interested in going out either. Being in an interesting place like Virginia Beach or DC or even Disney World was not that fantastic an experience. I would become involved in watching people and seeing all the stuff that’s not so attractive about them. And then my feet and back would start to hurt too.

I was ready to go back to our home or the hotel and have a drink in short order. But taking photos changed that. Because I started looking for things that are beautiful instead of things that are ugly. I became enthusiastic about the search for the interesting and the artistic in nature or in the things man has created. I became very happy when I found it and ignored my physical discomfort. And I am sure my wife appreciated the new more happy, outgoing and energetic me!

I share this with you because I believe there are a lot of folks out there who could benefit from taking up photography. When we went up to DC recently I was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial and watching everyone taking photos of Abe. Ninety nine percent of them were using those little digital cameras that take about five seconds to capture a photo. Five seconds is an eternity to try and take a photo. People were moving in front of the photo taker. And I am sure the results were uniformly generic. Do you see what I mean? Did you ever want to take a photo that is unusual or original? Did you ever want to express the artistic side of your personality this way?

Try taking this photo with a small digital camera.

And then try taking it with a Nikon D70. You are standing on the beach just after sunrise. You have your camera in hand and your finger is on the button. As you watch the waves coming in a bird takes off behind you as you whirl, focus and shoot in less than a second. Because that is all the time you have and the camera is up to the job.

Here are a few photos I took when we were up in DC. Having a nice camera and a telephoto lens really makes things much nicer. Sure it can be expensive but not any more expensive than a new computer or a flat screen HDTV.

And it’s not just the taking of the photo. In these days its the editing with one of the many fine software programs that are available. You almost become a painter when you start working with the raw material of a new photo. But you need to start out with a great camera and probably a powerful lens or two in order to get that photo . Then you can capture what most are too busy to see with their own eyes and edit it until it is very clear. Finally you can share it with the world. And believe me people will thank you for it. Everyone wants to know that the world they live in still has beauty left in it.

Photography is an art form and you can become an artist. You don’t have to be an intellectual to be an artist. That was something that always put me off. Because I am not that smart. But I can practice taking photos by the hundreds and the thousands. And you know what? Some of them are going to turn out very well.

People have lots of nice things to say about them. And you can see them in my blogs and on Flickr and Picasa Web. But more importantly you can begin to see how someone with no experience or training like yourself perhaps can become a photographer and an artist.

You can create something that is beautiful and meaningful to thousands of people. You can share it in a blog just like this one. And you can become an artist and change your life.

My Photos here in Virginia Breeze

My Photoblog

My Photos on Flickr

My Photos on Picasa Web

I started taking photos in earnest about nine months ago. They have made my blogs much more entertaining according to my readers. And because I was learning to be creative I also started writing poetry. So one thing can lead to another and soon you will feel like you have done something that will be remembered twenty years down the road. You will be able to look back and see something about your life that was pretty nice. It will be much better than an old, musty diary. (There’s a reason people grab just average photos when their house is burning down).

But NOW in the present you will find out things about yourself and your world.

You will grow.

And you will discover the creative and energetic soul that is in there somewhere and hoping to come out and play!

Virginia Breeze is here to help you along this path. I’m not here to give you much technical knowledge about photography. But I can help you to see that you can do this too. You can take the photos and you can present them in a blog so that many readers will enjoy what you have done.

You can share your life in a way that is interesting and useful to your readers while it is fulfilling to you.

*

*

*

*

*

***

Here is what Virginia Beach looked like yesterday in the morning.

*

And here is what it looked like early this morning

*

You just never know what you are going to get when you go out to take photos of the dawn. But it is always worthwhile. Just being there makes it worth the effort.

*

*

***