It was during my college and early post-graduate years that I developed a strong interest and skills in photography, specializing in then state-of-the-art color darkroom work. At this same time, I discovered the beauty of California’s High Sierra, even spending an entire summer exploring its length. And I found the combination perfect — when carrying a camera, I found myself slowing down and paying much more attention to my surroundings. And since photography often best captures nature’s beauty under trying conditions, I also found myself getting out at all hours in all seasons and weather. But soon my developing computer industry profession and a growing family left little time and energy for these early loves. And it was only upon my retirement in Bend, Oregon, that I have been able to return to them. At the same time, photography’s evolution into a digital medium now dovetails nicely with my long interest in computer technologies. So Martha and I now find ourselves exploring near and far lands for much of each year, often with a camera in my hand.
About My Photo Equipment
I went to all-digital photography equipment in 2003 and currently the key pieces are:
- Canon R5 Mark II camera (45 Mpixel full-frame mirrorless);
- Canon R5 backup camera (45 Mpixel full-frame mirrorless);
- Canon dSLR lenses, in approximate decreasing frequency of use:
- Canon RF 24-105mm F/4L IS USM;
- Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM;
- Canon RF 15-35mm F/2.8L IS USM;
- Canon RF 1.4x teleconverter;
- Canon Control Ring Lens Mount Adapter EF-EOS R;
- Canon EF 11-24mm F/4L USM;
- Canon EF 100mm f2.8 macro
- Gitzo GT2541 Mountaineer 6X tripod, usually with a RRS BH-40 ballhead;
- RRS TA-U-LB leveling base, & sometimes a MPR-CL II slider, for panoramas;
- DJI Air 2S Drone with RC Pro controller;
- Apple iPhone 14 Pro for location logging and sometimes picture taking when one of my larger cameras is unavailable;
- Sony RX100 Mark VII point-and-shoot camera (20 Mpixel, 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 equivalent fixed lens); fits in pant’s pocket and used when the size & weight of the R5 camera & lens(es) are just too onerous and my iPhone’s camera isn’t up to the task;
- Adobe Lightroom Classic software for cataloging all images and editing them for website & email use; and Adobe Photoshop for more challenging & “fine art” editing;
- PTgui software for panorama assembly and KRpano for the “responsive” display of panoramas across diverse devices;
- High Dynamic Range (HDR) images produced by way of Lightroom or composited by hand in Photoshop;
- Silver Efex Pro for Black & White image creation
About This Website
This site’s top banner image was taken in Banff Nat’l Park’s Larch Valley, September 2022.
This website’s top level content and blog were created using WordPress. All photo galleries are published using The Turning Gate’s Lightroom Classic plugins (i.e., the TTG BackLight 5 Pangolin product family). All provide the “responsive” display of high quality images on all kinds of devices. TTG’s associated WordPress Theme plugin was used to generate a matching WordPress theme.
