Another fine example of the amazing things hiding underneath your feet.

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As per request...

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This was shot in a slim ray of light that cut through in between trees during sunset. You can see the ball of white that is the light of the sun in the corner there. I had other shots of this where the little flower-like things were more in focus but I prefer this shot over them for whatever reason. I just love how soft it is and I really think that it works with this. I have wanted to challenge myself to get away from these wide apertures some but they are just so interesting to shoot with and make photos using this style work in interesting ways like this photo (link) of the path that this was sitting off to the side of. I think I am getting weary of these wide aperture like photos because I see such a trend in using it as a crutch to make a nice looking image. So I guess you could say I have a love hate relationship with the idea... Part of why I love photography so much is because of all of the different approaches you can take to shooting something and its always great to challenge yourself to push it a little further which makes for a never ending learning process that I love.

P.S - those of you subscribed to this rss that don't visit the main blog, I have been planing a trip to Europe and am looking for some advice on places to visit, you can read this post for more. Any help/advice from you readers would be greatly appreciated!

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Just after the sun set during my hike the forest had an entirely different mood. Like it was suspended in time somehow with this dull light creeping in through the leaves on the trees. This wooden path is to keep you from walking through mud in this swampy area of the trail. I had a couple of requests to make this a desktop after posting it on my flickr page so here it is. Enjoy!

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This is a tree stump that looked pretty boring from above but as I knelt into the mud to look at my surroundings it came alive and I found this really cool looking mini-landscape hiding there. The black and white was chosen because it was in a really boring shadow filled light and I thought this helped add to the mood somewhat.

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I wrote more about what these were in the post below called 'surface' but to recap, these are tree stumps that were hiding below the surface of this lake. They appeared because the water level in the lake has been so low due to the lack of rain this summer here. I thought the way this shot was framed made for a great desktop.

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The lake I was shooting at was very very low on water so you could walk out onto the muddy floor of the lake. This also allowed for some of what was hiding below the water to show through such as a bunch of old tree stumps that were rotted in really interesting ways like this one here which had formed an interesting set of mountain-like peaks and cool looking arches. The sky just happened to be this amazing shade of blue which added a lot to this...

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This is the first of two shots I am posting of this moment and was taken before I saw the potential of using that little dead plant as a focus. This shot worked as well and I thought it would be nice to have a couple of versions to choose from. read more about this below on the post 'once'

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Sometimes shots like this present themselves very obviously and this was one of those moments. There is a really similar image that is also a desktop (above) called 'remains' and I think that one was taken before I moved in for this. While out hiking around a lake the sun suddenly began to sink down into the horizon and because this is near a lake that large clearing on the other side of these trees let in all of this amazing light that you normally would not see in a forest. So I started looking for interesting shots before the sun sank to far into the ground and this was one of the first to appear to me. I love these low angles on shots so I got down on the ground and started to line it up. The dead plant there among the leaves appeared almost out of nowhere as I got closer to the ground to shoot and provided a nice point to focus on to add something to what would have been nothing more than a shot of autumn leaves. So at any rate, here is one of a couple shots I took of this, enjoy!

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I took similar photos a while ago of a log with a crazy spiral down into the middle of it. This time its not so fancy, just a hollow log. For some reason I made a version here with a strange gradient overlay and tiny little diagonal stripes that you can't even see here in the preview image. But I know that some people like their desktops a bit more straight forward without all the color/stipe fluff so I've included a simple b&w for you guys.

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I avoid photos of flowers generally but this one seemed so hopeless I felt it needed a photo taken of it if not just to raise its self esteem a little bit. I mean, just look at those poor itty bitty little pedals. This was shot with my new lens which I have yet to post about but will soon. Anyways, if you like photos of flowers, well dark moody ones at least, then its your lucky day. Enjoy!

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Here is a belated moody spring shot for everyone. I feel its always a challenge making photos of flowers interesting because of the billions of them in existence...

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I was sitting at the base of a tree at a lake one day and I noticed a caterpillar crawling on my leg, and then another on my bag, two on my bag, another on my shirt... i stood up and got them off of me and examined the area around me to find that the tree i chose to lean on had a few dozen of them all over it so why not break out the camera and take a photo right? enjoy!

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These little pods were all along the edge of a lake and were really fun to shoot. I love the way they seem to fragile. Fragile things are so beautiful, no?

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I have always liked vines, big huge ones and little tiny curly ones like these. I figured there must be someone else out there who shares this fascination with these things, right?

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This photo of tree bark reminds me so much of a whales face (do whales have faces you think?) for some reason or another. That or a squid. Or a bird of some kind.. Im not sure what really. For those of you who don't see either, then here is a nice photo of some tree bark. enjoy!

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Here is one more from the Pacific. I still remember getting the lower half of myself drenched by an oncoming wave the day I took this. I have been using this one personally for a long time now and thought I would share it with the rest of you. Enjoy!

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These trees are pretty much the only trees you see in the Moab/ Canyonlands area of Utah. They are slow growing and grow out of the strangest places. Pretty much any crack in a rock or small collection of soil they can find to grow. They appear to be dead on the outside with their rough bark but they are very much alive and all of them are unique in their own way. This was I think the only photo I took of one of them but I thought it came out pretty nicely. The image makes it look smaller than it is, the tree stood about 4 feet tall from what I remember. The larger version of this looks much more impressive than this little preview, just so you know.

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I know that I have already posted a photo of one of these trail markers in the snow but there is something about this one that I prefer over the other. It is just so subtle there in the snow. Who knows why the snow melted around this the way it did but it made for a beautiful photo I thought. I love the frost on the top rock and the way the rocks and the snow almost blend together as one in this image.

There are two versions, the top one is the original and the bottom one has thin little stripes going across the image at an angle and is slightly blue. I thought the stripes and the blue tint added something nice to this image for whatever reason. The choice is yours though...

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While hiking along in Canyonlands this caught my eye. The tiniest little branch of a plant peaking through the surface of the snow. These types of things are what get overlooked most of the time which is sad because even the most simple seemingly insignificant twig poking out from underneath a bed of snow can end up being so wonderful.

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This was an amazing area called the Devils Playground which was also in the Grand Staircase area in Utah. It is an amazing collection of interesting formations and arches and was a lot of fun to climb around and explore.

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This was taken while climbing around among the Red Canyon area near Bryce Canyon. It is a really nice area to explore and often gets overlooked by people coming through the area. I think I was a good ways off the trail which was nice because I got to shoot some areas that were covered in snow without being walked all over or messed with by other visitors.

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These are called cairns and they are used to mark trails so you dont get lost out wandering through the slickrock trails around here in the western US. Who knows, maybe these are common around the world, I'm not sure. I do know that I really like them and how they are different and sometimes people that make them get pretty creative with them making little arches and other structures. I find that it makes a nice sense of community within a trail. When you see one fallen over it is pretty common to help out my reconstructing the stack. So these desktops are to pay respect to these little wonders.

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These were shot while exploring slot canyons in the Grand Staircase area of Utah in an area called Dry Gulch. Really beautiful, I absolutely love slot canyons. Some of the most amazing formations on earth...

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This is another plant hiding in the snow just before sunrise...

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Just as the sun was rising I snapped this photo of a desert plant hiding in the snow.

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One of many cactus plants around in the desert area...

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This was taken while I was exploring a little piece of Bryce Canyon outside of its main gates. There was an amazing cave of ice and I hiked down a frozen stream. It was a nice afternoon and this is just a little piece of the story. Im not sure it is possible to take a bad photo in this area.

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These little sculptures of ice formed at the base of a spring coming out of the side of a cliff in a canyon. The splatter of water that hit the ground beneath made these formations. Really beautiful.

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On a small frozen pool among the canyons there was this chunk of frozen ice that had broken off of a larger icicle as it fell to the ground. Simple but I really love this image so I thought I would share.

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This is the view from the end of a 4 mile hike up to this view point from the valley that you see below. The hike was about 80 percent in the snow which was fun and the hike down was a nice relief from the climb up. The end point here is called Observation Point and gives this grand view of the canyon. That point there in the middle of the canyon that kind of pokes out into the middle of the valley is called angels landing and is where I was the day before. Its hard to give perspective to get an idea of how big these cliffs really are so look down to the valley and you will see a road there. It is a two lane road. Now imagine a car on that road. Now imagine a person standing next to that car oh so tiny you can hardly make them out. The elevation change from the valley to the mesa above is over a thousand feet up. I don't have my gps with me right now so I can verify the exact elevation but hopefully you get the idea. There is something incredible about standing on a cliffs edge that puts you at the peak of an area as large and powerful as this. Really inspiring indeed.

There are two versions of this desktop, one after I messed around with the color a little which I thought ended up pretty nice, and one that is simply a black and white version of the original exposure. If people really want it I will post the original color image eventually but I prefer it in black and white.

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The west coast of the US has a lot of rocky beaches where you can find huge boulders on the oceanside and there you will find water crashing into the rocks from time to time and its really beautiful to watch and hear. Soon after this I got a little to close to a wet area in the boulders and found myself covered in water from the waist down. This game me an excuse to just get in there and try and get a couple good shots from right at the breaking point of the waves pummeling the rock. It was tricky to snap off a few shots and get my camera out of dodge but I did get a couple of cool looking shots from the ordeal including this one here. Getting wet also got me to just sit on top of a nice warm rock and dry off in the heat of the sun for a good half our which was nice to just sit there and relax for a while.

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This is simply another shot of the flowers that I found sitting on the edge of a road.

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I found this bunch of flowers on the edge of a road which were beautifully lit by the afternoon sun. I simply had to take a few shots of them. I love how something such as these fairly plain flowers can become so magical in the right moment.

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These trees can be found out in the california desert and are called Joshua trees. Kind of like a bizarre cross between a cactus and a palm tree. The spikes on these things are sharp! I have a scratch down the side of my leg as evidence to that. This photo was taken from underneath a bigger one of them I came across while driving down a dirt road in the middle of the desert.

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This is the view from the top of the world. Well, this little corner here near San Francisco at least. Not to much to say about this one, I just wanted to include a landscape shot for those of you who like this sort of thing.

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Sometimes when you squint your eyes in the light of the sun you find that things all blur into these simple shapes and colors that are so unique. I tried to catch that feeling with this, thats why everything is not in perfect focus, just so you know...

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Every fall I seem to come across a tree that calls out to me somehow. Usually it will be lit perfectly and be sitting alone among other fall colors. This time around fall was settling down and many trees were bare and grey but this one tree was radiating among the other resting trees as if it held back waiting for just the right moment to shine letting its beautiful moment that year stand out among all the rest. As I walked under the tree and looked up I felt like I was just waking up staring up into the sun and seeing these bright yellow leaves glowing back at me. When shooting I wanted to capture that feeling within the depth of the trees layers and hopefully you can se what I mean at least a little here in these desktops. I know the peak of the fall is drawing to a close but here is one last reminder of its renewing beauty that paves the way for a winter of rest.

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I probably killed this one in post editing I know, there are somewhere around zero mid tones left in here and the color is largely exaggerated but I decided I may as well post it since I got it ready as a desktop. Besides, I like the odd bug in this one and I'm sure some of you will enjoy it right? right.

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I postponed putting these up because I just could not come up with a name for them so I went with the easy way out and left them untitled. Pretty cool looking stump isn't it? I've never seen a naturally forming twist like that in a tree stump so it was fun to shoot. I found it while hiking up in Virginia last week. Enjoy!

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To go along with the fall like photos I have been posting I thought I would post something really simple for those of you who love your desktops as minimal and simplistic as I do. The way I see it fall is full of thousands of falling leaves but we rarely take a minute to look any closer. The full version of this one is really cool looking what with all the detail in the leaf. Hope you like it.

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This photo is a photo that I was reluctant to even shoot just because there are already so many of these autumn leaves photos out there but here it is anyway. The reason that I find it interesting is its perspective with the blurry set of leaves in the foreground of the photo which I thought gave the impression of casually looking up into a tree naturally. You will probably notice the strange alternate version below with birds. If you like it you like it and if you don't you don't, I mostly just wanted to use a photo that I had of some geese flying overhead and this seemed like an interesting combination because the leaves are destined to fall where as the birds are free to roam as they please.

On that note, anyone notice how we all find the fall so beautiful because of the leaves changing colors? I was thinking about how the leaves are pretty much dying and how we all find that so beautiful. I know death as a subject of discussion always seems to sound morbid but think about it. Usually death is so hard to deal with and is never attributed to beauty at all yet we all seem to look forward to this season. OK, yes I know I am digging WAY to deep here to sound interesting, sue me.

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This is another desktop that could work as a Halloween type desktop if you wanted it to me. To me it's just a cool photo because I like the fact that the rift in the trees bark could be seen as a spine and the spider ended up in crystal focus and is really a gorgeous looking creature. Then again maybe I'm just crazy but who knows.

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The title meaning Ever as in evergreen like the pine tree and fallen like this leaf is. I wanted to call it ironic but its just not really all that ironic. Not my favorite shot ever but I thought it was nice enough to warrant posting.

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Happy Hollow. I will see what I can do about getting some more fall like desktops up sometime. The leaves are due for a one way ticket down sometime soon. Until then, heres a dreary scene that I came across at the park and the last park photo I will be posting. Kids these days, I tell ya...

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This is what's left of one of my all time favorite trees. I went looking for it at the park next to the lake and this mangled bit of stump is all thats left. Heres to change and how it moves us all along whether that be for better or for worse.

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Summer is over and fall's wintery chill is settling in. While in the park the other day I was surprised to find tiny flowers still blooming in the sun and not only that but there were bees going at it all around. I just thought that this moment felt like summer was trying to hang on, in this simple little way, as long as it could.

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It's been a while since I have had a chance to post a new desktop here so I dug through and found what I think is a really nice one to get back in the swing of things. I took a couple hours and went out to a park that I grew up in near my house and for the most part things were just the way I left them, kinda. Playground areas that once stood strong for years and years have been slowly torn out because of new laws that dictate what a "safe" playground should be and now the only one left in the multi acre park is a plastic monstrosity. No more splinters, no more high swings, no more long elaborate metal slides... So this photo was taken during sunset but I altered it to match the mood the park put me in which was a strange one. It was still a beautiful place but it left me feeling a huge distance from my childhood and left me with more of a dark calmness, a pretty