The opportunity came for me to be able to get out of the house and view a sunrise for the first time since May, and while the sunrise itself wasn’t spectacular, it was the nice morning light afterward that really made the scene.

I visited Lavender Valley, which is a lavender farm in Hood River, Oregon.  It’s a great location with a nice view of Mt. Hood to the south.  Although the morning sky was cloudless, the light on the lavender field turned out to be very nice.  I minimized the sky and put the focus on the field.  Mt. Hood in the background is just a little icing on the cake.

The field itself is not particularly large, but with the right perspective, it looks a lot bigger than it really is.  This was taken with my 28-75mm lens set at 66mm, so it wasn’t a dramatic wide angle.  Although with a wider lens the field would have looked even more expansive, it also would have made the mountain look too small for what I was trying to accomplish.

I did break out the 10-22 wid angle though for another perspective.  There is a nice gazebo in the middle of the lavender field, and this seemed to be a good place to use the wider angle.  Again, I felt the sky was a little bland, but as a friend pointed out, it does provide a nice contrast for the rest of the scene.  The gazebo pops out against it where it might have been secondary to a dramatic sky.  This was a little later in the morning, but not too long after the Mt. Hood shot.  As I mentioned, I used my 10-22 mm for this. 

I should also mention for both photographs I used a method of “stacking” within Photoshop to achieve maximum depth of field.  I took three photographs each with different focal points (near, mid-point and infinity) and then blended them together to achieve an overall sharpness.  That level of sharpness is hard to achieve with a normal lens.  A tilt/shift lens could most likely produce an equally sharp image with that kind of depth, but I don’t have a T/S lens, and using a wider aperture limits some distortion and allows for faster shutter speeds.  It’s a technique and method of processing I really like.

So as it was, there was a nice morning where the sweet smell of fresh lavender did turn out to be a sweet smell of success.

It’s been some time since I’ve written or posted any new photographs, and don’t think it doesn’t weigh on me.  It does.  It’s been a pretty crazy summer.  The business I co-own with my wife, At Home Veterinary Services, has been expanding and we just recently revealed a new web site design.  It’s been quite an adventure.  Photographically, I got up at “zero-dark-thirty” (military slang for getting up before the sun rises) with good friend Jack Graham (Jack’s Blog)to check out a location in the Columbia Gorge.  The weather wasn’t ideal, in fact we both were a little skeptical of our chances of some good light, but satellite imagery showed there might be enough break in the cloud cover to let some sun peak through.

Well, the sun did show itself that morning, and quite well too.  It was a wonderful morning.  Lucky, you say?  I beg to differ.  Sure, there are photos taken where luck is involved.  There’s no doubt about that, but good consistent photograph is about making your own “luck.”  Of course, when you do that, it’s not really luck at all, it’s intentional.

It would have been really easy to call it off and go back to bed that morning.  It had been raining off and on over night, and there was heavy cloud cover at my house when Jack picked me up.  However, we knew there was a chance, and we ran with it.

I’m not sure when I’ll be getting out again.  For the time being, I’m working on a new web site design.  Although the current design isn’t a year old yet, I’ve decided I don’t really care for it.  I’m not sure I ever did.  It was just one of those things.

I think you’ll enjoy the new site format once it is up.

I’m afraid I don’t have much else to write about today.  It has been and intense summer.  I’m hopeful that a trip to Colorado this fall will materialize and I’ll have the opportunity to capture some great fall color in that area.

I promise it won’t be as long until I write again.  Oh, there will also be some changes coming to this blog…a look to match the new website and the ability for readers to leave comments if they so desire.