From the road of life, my journey continues and I do not know where it will lead?  That is the most interesting part of life, the chances we take and the roads we choose to follow. 

My travels have led to many u-turns on the highway as I pass by interesting churches.  As photographers it is important to remember not to in ti big of a hurry so we think about the u-turn but do not make one.  It will most certainly be the image that got away... I'm guilty of this myself, but resisting the hurry up and get there temptation.  Many happy u-turns ahead.

Two new black and white fine art images.  These are from the nearby abandon house that I have photographed several times.  I often go back to the same spot to photograph as there is always some new composition that I did not see before.  I highly recommend that you practice this in your own photography if you will to improve.

Hello Bloggerville...I have spent the last 2 weeks volunteering at Habitat for Humanity.  It is a great organization in which to give your time.  If you can not give dollars, then give your time as it is more valuable than the dollars.  I have been thinking about the places of religion, the churches, temples, ect although I think that there are only churches in this area?  Anyhow here are two new images of churches in the are of NW Arkansas.

A selection of images I made with my 7x17 ULF view camera in Fairbanks Alaska during the summer of 2011.  These black and white fine art images are contact printed on Ilford fiber paper to archival standards.  I just entered these images in a juried photography competition at The Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, VT. If you have not taken a look at this website, I encourage you to check it out.

Photoshop CS6 has a great blur control filter with the tilt shift blur.  There is also the lens blur and the field blur tool that gives creative blur control to images.  It can be over done and should not be used as a substitute for using the depth of field in camera to get the right zone of focus.  The image at the top is an example of using the tilt shift blur.  The other images are some photoshop edits from Craters of the Moon and winter fields in Idaho.

Working with Photoshop CS6 and its new Oil Paint feature allows for some fun manipulation of color images.  These images were made with the iPhone 4 and Hipstamatic.

A few more selected images from yesterdays travels.  The top two images are from NW Arkansas, the statue is from a abandoned hotel in Sulpher Springs, Arkansas, it was built in the early 1900's and was used for people who traveled to the area to soak in the sulpher springs for health purposes.  The four tires is from a road building project.  The rest of the images are from Picher, Oklahoma.  I have been questioning my vision lately and if my images are fine art photography, is there such a thing as fitting the category of fine art photography.  I look at many websites on the web and see some very good work and it inspires me to get out there and push the shutter release.  Some of the photographers that I often look at are Roman Loranc, Ryuijie, Mark Citret as well as many other.  

The photography adventures today took me to Picher, Oklahoma.  This is a mostly abandoned town due to it being a super fund sight form the old lead mine which left behind the mounds seen in the photographs.  The town was also hit by an F4 tornado in 2008, which destroyed part of the town.  The mine also dug under the town and from what I understand, the houses could just disappear into a sinkhole.  

A few new edits from yesterdays explorations.  It seems that a very discernible pattern is forming with my work in these past several weeks in the NW Arkansas area.  Doors and windows that have been forgotten by their owners and left to decay and the ravages of time.  The journey in the explorations in digital black and white fine art photography continues... I plan to visit Picher Oklahoma with is a super fund area due to lead mining.  I believe there was a PBS show about this place, although I have not seen it, I'm intrigued by the complete abandonment of a town.  I did see the other day the Chernobyl is attracting tourist to the abandoned city.  Enjoy...