This weekend one of my best friends was evacuated because of The Valley Fire in California. I just wanted to post up a link to a photo gallery. But while reviewing the pictures and all the destruction, I came to realize that even when fire is destructive it is still amazing and creates a dramatic scene that can affect more than the emotion of sadness or fear. What do you feel? For me, I ran through all of them. Some of the foundations belong to people I grew up with and some homes that were saved, sharing the same fence line, in the same image. The most powerful picture is the image of the "Welcome to Middletown" sign on fire at night.

I have gone out a few times in the last week or two and I have been playing with focal points and lighting. the first photo is of the Yellowstone River. I was out fishing and had a cool sunrise to the east and just wanted to capture the light on the trees while leaving depth down the river channel with out showing a ton of reflective water.

This pic was taken later in the day while birding at Norm's Island. The few leaves on this branch were hanging abnormally lower than all other branches and the light just looked cool. I was only about 1' away from the branch when I took this. This made my background out of focus and darker than when you looked at it with the naked eye. This made the subject easier to focus on.

When I was taking this picture I was having a hard time focusing on the subject through the viewfinder and on the LCD screen. I am hopping you do to. (sorry I had to) I like the way this turned out because the grasshopper and the plant are in focus and have a good angle of light on them.

Update 1: Week of 8-31-2015

So... I went home after checking out a Nikon 1 from Dave I went home and started pushing buttons just to see what would happen. If you haven't met my son, "The Dude", he enjoys being in pictures doing unusual things. We got him these glasses for his birthday party back in July and he loves them. i ended up taking this picture just for fun and it turned out sweet. Yep, he is that awesome.

This picture was taken when I was on my way to go fishin' over the weekend. I happened to be driving by the Osprey's nest in time to see an adult return to the nest carrying nice rainbow trout.  This photo was taken rather quickly in a series and I didn't have time to adjust my settings to improve the clarity. Still it is a photo that few people get to take on there first day out with a camera that doesn't take film.

I like this photo because it is one that I have seen on the cover of almost all fishing magazines that come in my mail box each month. When I took the photo I was stoked because on the 3" LED screen it looked just how I wanted it to. After getting it on to the computer and seeing it at a larger scale I realized that it wasn't a crisp photo it was a little blurry. the other thing i noticed is that the edn of the rod disappears into the background. Oh well... i guess i just have to go fishing take pictures of nature again this weekend.