SuperMarina's photos

As we were heading down CA 190 towards Stovepipe Wells, we could see the moon over the mountains in the distance. It was a pretty sight so we stopped to take a few photos. However, our cameras were not quite able to capture what we saw while on the road, so I had to use Photoshop to recapture the sight. This is it. Maybe not exactly what we saw, but pretty darned close!

I've been told the first Star Wars movie was filmed out here somewhere.

Badwater, Death Valley National Park, California

Once upon a time...

In its heyday, Rhyolite, Nevada had electric lights, water mains, telephones, newspapers, a hospital, a school, an opera house, and a stock exchange. Sounds more civilized than Los Angeles today, though I'm not sure the Los Angeles Stock Exchange building being taken over by a nightclub (I'm showing my age here; is it still a nightclub?) indicates a decline in civilization, if one considers how Wall Street operates.

Taking good landscape photos ought to be easy, at least if one lives in areas with the kind of landscapes common in the places I have lived; Norway, the US Pacific Northwest, Southern California, and many more. Well, it isn't that easy. At least not to me. When going hiking, I take my camera in case a bird or a flower should show up. The landscape photos I take do not in any manner or fashion whatsoever do justice to the actual landscape. Ansel Adams once said that "A good photograph is knowing where to stand." I guess it was easier in his days, before somebody put up signs with "STAY ON PATH!" all over?

For 1/640th of a second, the fish thought it might still escape...

At one time I thought I might be able to shoot wildlife with my 500mm mirror lens. After trying I realized this was not realistic. But the ring bokeh typical of mirror lenses would look really cool in shots of birds flying over water, so I faked it. To create this image, which a single shot with a mirror lens could have done if mirror lenses were sharp, required two professional cameras, two RAW images in four layers, and about an hour fiddling around in Photoshop.

Yes, I quite understand. The biggest one got away. Mine did too. They always do.

... when on the fence is just too exposed!

Another pelican; they are almost all I have photographed lately.

Carnations floating in the water near the Santa Monica Pier on Valentine's Day.