I needed something quick to post this morning as I am on my way in to work.

I had to go into the archives to post, we have been having trouble with our Nikon Coolscan 9000 at work which is what I do all my primary scanning on. True, we still have a Kodak HR500+ and an Epson V700, but I prefer the Nikon, as temperamental as it is.

Anyway, so out of the blue it started crashing the Nikon Scan software, for little apparent reason other than to be stubborn. I believe it was also a Monday.

To Nikon's credit their tech support has been working with us for a week reviewing our system summaries, suggesting new theories, listening to us explain their failures. It is amazing the variety of ways one can achieve the same result...

We have been suspicious that it was a hardware issue, and the scanner needed to go into Nikon for servicing. Nikon was convinced it was not.

So finally after having tried two different computers at work and three different firewire cards, including the original Nikon with NEC chip, I brought the scanner home and plugged it in here. Short story is, I finally got it working. Long story is.... ooops I run Vista 64 which Nikon never released drivers for, only 32 bit. So Nikon Scan won't recognize the scanner without the driver. Though I CAN download a free trial of Vuescan which strangely enough did have Vista 64 drivers and run that. Though unless I want to buy it, all my scans have dollar sign watermarks littered across them.

As I said, so many different ways of achieving the same result.

So now the scanner is going back to work, and the mystery will continue while we try to get the scanning computer and the scanner to kiss and make up and be old friends again.

I have a small series of these cloud images, and I was scanning one of them this morning. That one had dollar signs all over it, which was kind of interesting, but really not that much so. So I posted this one instead. We have had some great clouds lately.

Tags:   clouds Portland film Zeb Andrews photography sunset sky above up Pentax 6x7 painterly abstract color Oregon Pacific Northwest Blue Moon Camera

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Ever get the feeling where you are not sure if you are in control of your muse, or it is in control of you?

I do sometimes. I mean, I definitely march to my own beat when it comes to photography, but sometimes that beat marches me and I am left trying to balance when to believe and when to not. I have found that it tends to be right about as often as I am, so it is a tough decision usually. ;-)

Anyway, I did not mean to post this image tonight. But my walk home from work staring at the clouds awakened something and by the time I got to the house I was convinced this was the image that had to be posted. So I went with the feeling.

These cloudscapes are a lot like my sandscapes in the sense that the practice of seeing them completely revolutionizes the way I experience the world.

I like that.

On a related tangent, I am seriously considering taking a vacation in September to Florida to witness the final shuttle launch. Something about this stirs something in me too. Maybe I have a closet astronaut in me. ;-) Anyway, this is just in the idea-kicking-around-in-my-head stage at the moment. Any Floridians out there have advice on this? I already have a good line on tickets to the causeway, but I wouldn't mind hearing other helpful info.

Tags:   clouds abstract sky straight up Oregon Zeb Andrews photography blue film pentax 6x7 pacific northwest Blue Moon Camera

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I know I have told all of you this before, but I love clouds. If I could be anything for a day, being a cloud would definitely have to be considered. Not only do they have such a great view, but they also have such an great relationship with light.

On a related note, the other thing I like about trying to shoot cloudscapes is that they really require a slightly different approach over landscapes. Many of the traditional rules of composition cannot be applied, or at the least are more difficult to apply. It is also harder to communicate depth, you have no foreground to work with per se, so you have to use color and light. It is also quite popular to include some anchoring element with cloudscape images such as a strip of earth, a tree-lined horizon, etc. This can certainly help quite a bit, but I also like trying to find compositions that do not have an anchor to them. Interesting how much things can change when you point your camera straight up.

Tags:   clouds pink blue sky film Fuji Velvia Nikon FM2 Oregon Pacific Northwest open air outdoors nature cotton candy natural tendencies straight up cloud photography Zeb Andrews Zeb Andrews photography Blue Moon Camera

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This is from the same roll of Velvia at the previous shot of dowtown Portland. This sunset found me at home, a bit forlorn that I had seemingly missed it. Nonetheless I grabbed my Nikon and shot a couple of frames out of an upstairs window so I could compose out the trees in my backyard. This shot has no post processing, this is how Velvia captured it.

Tags:   Nikon FM2 Nikkor 50mm 1.4 Portland clouds sunset red Fuji Velvia 50 Oregon Pacific Northwest 1-5-fav wow amazing 5-10-fav superb nice Zeb Andrews Zeb Andrews photography Blue Moon Camera

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This is going to have to be another post-and-run, I should have left for work about six minutes ago. Ooops. ;-) That's ok, considering it is a mile and a half walk, I shall just have to walk a bit more briskly. But I did want to get an image up this morning, the time just escaped when I turned my back for a moment.

This was taken down at Ricky Point, a little piece of Portland I discovered not too long ago. It is an interesting spot, and one I would like to get back to for some after dark photography. It's proximity to the airport though allows for plenty of shots of airplanes going over, many much closer than this one. It was not until I made a print from the negative that I noticed the birds as well.

Anyhow, now to get out and get a bit of sunshine. This image seemed appropriate for the day.

Tags:   square film Hasselblad 500C/M Zeb Andrews photography Portland Oregon PDX airport sky clouds contrail flying split toned Kodak Tri-X Pacific Northwest Blue Moon Camera

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