Jim Larson Photography

This shot was captured during an earlier trip to Chicago.  In a big city there are many great studies of architecture and this particular image shows the repeating patterns of a high rise office building.

Even though the pattern is very repetitive in nature, I like the contrast between the sunny and shady side of the building.

Watch your exposure on something like this, because the light meter in the camera can be fooled if it pays too much attention to either the light side or dark side of the frame being captured.

Check the histogram of the image to make sure you haven’t “blown out” the hightlights or shadows.

The other day while trying out some new photo gear, I went to a place that I frequent during the summer months.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this interesting natural ice sculpture.

I was zoomed in quite a bit on this, because the details are what make this shot rather interesting.

Go and visit some of your normal summer spots this winter and see what a difference the seasons make.

I’ll end the month with another abstract. This one is not as abstract as some I have posted, but it still fits that category.

I love the smoothness of the ripples and the high contrast of each one.

When you are shooting abstracts, zoom in, zoom out, rotate your camera or maybe just shoot from a different angle to get different light.

Here comes another abstract. Actually, I think this one is pretty cool because you can figure out what it is pretty easily.

During our last trip to Portland, Oregon, we were walking along the Columbia river one evening and I spotted a very large area of grass that I assume was meant to be driven on due to the concrete squares that were covering the area. Over time the grass will pretty much cover it, but here it was new enough that the concrete was quite pronounced.

Remember to look up, look down or look close up at things in your travel.  You may see something that everyone else just walks passed without ever noticing.

I like to look closely at things examining the detail. This is just what happened a few weeks ago in Portland, OR. My wife and I were walking down a dock on the Columbia river and there were these very large poles that had been driven into the bottom of the river to secure the dock. Since they are made out of iron and are not painted, guess what happened? Corrosion of course, especially in the wet environment around Portland.

The graduated shadows due to the curve of the pole give the abstract image even more interest.

Speaking of rain… Here is another photograph that I took just after a rain storm in one of the local parks in Boise, Idaho. The droplets hanging off the edge of the wooden slats of this park bench intrigued me. Also, the rich colors of the wood looked good to my eye as well. I took one image with the slats pretty much level, but I liked diagonal composition of this shot better.

I also used a fairly large aperture in the lens to force the background to be blurry which helps to keep the focus on the subject.

Don’t forget to get up close to your subject for some of your photographs.

When I’m out and about, I keep my eyes open for interesting patterns. This image is of the wooden (teak) deck of a sailing yacht. I would have preferred to shoot down the center, but the layout of the deck and rigging would not have allowed that, so I got the next best thing.

Keep your eyes open for that interesting subject.

The image to the right was taken where we normally go sailing each summer.  It is fun to take a drive up to the lake at other times of the year to see the differences in the seasons.  The lake freezes over each winter which is interesting to see by itself.

I like to search out details that may not been seen unless you are specifically looking.  The image to the right shows one of these details; a leaf frozen in the ice.

What I found interesting in this is how the leaf, being a different and darker color than the ice absorbed the sun’s heat, and over time, melted the ice surrounding it.  This is solar power on a small scale, but solar power nonetheless.

I also framed the shot so that my subject was on that magic “1/3″ line of the image to help with the composition of such a simple shot.

Watch for the details of things around you.  You’ll be amazed at what you find.

Canon 10D, Canon 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS at 135mm, 1/250 at f8, ISO 100

From the title you may think that I took a trip down to Australia.  Actually, the trip was to northern Idaho.

The title came from the subject of this photo which is shooting down at my subject which is under water.  I know that’s a stretch, so don’t shake your head at me too much. 

Lake Pend Oreille is a beautiful mountain lake that is crystal clear.  I like the color of the moss along with the refraction of the light on the bottom of the lake from the surface ripples which can be seen in the lighter diagonal lines.  The water here was only about 4 feet deep.

Canon 40D, Canon 24-105 f4 L IS at 35mm, 1/50 at f5.6, ISO 100

Something to look for when you are out with your camera are repeating shapes. These could be in a picket fence, steps, arches, or in this case a bunch of watercraft sitting side by side.

This particular image was taken up at lake Coeur d’Alene, in northern Idaho. The sun was getting low in the sky which gave some interesting shadows on the seats. I also cropped this quite a bit to give the effect I was looking for. Without any cropping, it was very obvious what I was shooting. One point about abstracts is to keep the viewer’s mind wondering just what they are viewing.

Keep your eyes open for repeating shapes.

Canon 20D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 70mm, 1/200 at f8, ISO 200