Jim Larson Photography

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.

It is the first of the month already, which means it is time for another calendar shot of our dog Alle. Here she is taking it easy on the arm of our couch.

A good friend of mine and I pair up to shoot the larger running events.  Just prior to last years Christmas Run, the hundreds of athletes were at the starting line getting ready to run.  My friend was in the middle of the road and spotted me taking the staring line shot and so we proceeded to take each other pictures.

I really like this shot because it really tells the story of the day.  I was using a 200mm lens on the camera, so it compressed the image front to back.  My friend was enough in front of the line that I got him in focus with a slight out of focus starting line.  This brought out the fact the he was the subject of this “portrait.”

One type of photography I do a lot of is sports photography. I shoot many events throughout the year, mainly those of people running, swimming or biking. At any given event, I may shoot up to 4,000 images, trying to capture the personal event for everyone participating. Generally, these images consist of a shot of the whole athlete running towards me.

This shot is somewhat different, in that no one can be identified, but you can definitely tell what is going on in the photo.

I will try this one again sometime, as I learned from this first experience that I need a smaller aperture to increase the depth of field for a more in focus looking image front to back. I may even try varying the shutter speed to show some motion blur to the moving feet.

My thought for the day is to get out of your normal “box” and try shooting some different angles of some common subjects.

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.

Here is a photograph of some Aspen trees after an autumn rain taken just north of Ketchum, Idaho. The rain really brings out the vibrancy of the colors.

It used too be that I would leave the camera at home on a rainy day, but a little rain can help to make a great looking image.

Keep on shootiing… even if it looks like rain!

On our last trip to the San Juan Islands (Washington state), we were on a motor tour of San Juan Island itself and spotted a very out of place creature.

We had heard of a camel being on the island and were lucky enough on this trip to actually see it. It was quite friendly and ran up to the fence to greet us.

I’m guessing that it has quite a few friends on the island that give it treats, but we had nothing to give it other than some grass that was on the “greener side of the fence.”

Keep your eyes open for interesting subjects. You never know what you will see.

Every once in a while I get to see a great sunset on my way home from work. This was one that I captured last fall.

I really like the pastel colors.

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.

It’s been too many days since my last post. I have lots of images to share, but too many other things happening to get the job done. I’ll work on getting my priorities fixed.

To start things off for May, here is Alle’s May calendar shot. She is quite the poser.