David Hood Photography

I like taking action sports photos, especially when our boys are involved.  But I don’t enjoy being out in cold, windy and rainy conditions such as existed here in Albuquerque last Saturday morning. Nonetheless our grandson Billy had fun as he and his Mexico team mates played England to a 1-1 tie in the under 11 age division.  Despite the conditions, as the teams shook hands at game end, I couldn’t help but notice the beauty of the low hanging clouds against the Sandia Mountains.  I invite you to the game action photos under the Sports tab.

Capture the Wonders Found in Travel and Life                                 Email: d300dave@gmail.com

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I had the pleasure of photographing Sonja and Ben at one of many marriage ceremonies today at our city metropolitan courthouse.  This is actually a composite of a photo that I took in the hallway before the ceremony combined with a Google license free background.  Happy Valentines Day!

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The week before Christmas our family took a road trip to Texas to visit family members in Beeville, Rockport and San Antonio.  

While in Rockport, our host/hostess took me to visit the Aransas Wildlife Refuge to see the migrating whooping cranes, a nearly extinct bird that winters in this protected area every winter.  We didn’t spot any whoopers, but we enjoyed seeing other wildlife and will likely try again when in South Texas during the Winter and late Spring.  

While in San Antonio we stayed in a hotel on the Riverwalk.  It’s a truly magical place to visit during the holidays.

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In my view, photography is an art form.  In capturing images, Ansel Adams had an artist’s eye in approaching the composition. the leading lines and the effect of light.  He polished his vision of the photograph in the darkroom with techniques like dodging and burning while transferring the image captured on film to photographic paper.  Current day photographers using digital cameras use the same principles when they edit their digital images using post processing software programs such as Photoshop.  But there are some photography critics who opine that a true photographer will use his/her photographic skills to produce an art-like photo straight out of camera without reliance (or over reliance) on post editing software.  Such critics categorize any image resulting from significant software post processing as “photoshopped”, and thus not worthy to be considered an art form.

In the end, I think a photographer should produce images that are pleasing to him/her.  Some viewers of the image may admire it and consider the image to be art.  Other viewers may dislike the image not consider it to be art.

Personally, I don’t care for “over the top” post processed images that bear no resemblance to what the human eye can ever realistically  witness.  At the same time, however, I sometimes envision a photo that the human eye could witness if in the proper place at the proper time; but I cannot possibly capture that particular scene because even today’s best camera sensors cannot match the dynamic range (shades of light, shadow, and color) that the human eye can see.  

I offer this photograph as an example.  In order to capture the dynamic range of both the very bright super moon and the deep shadows and dim ambient lights that accompany a moon rise, it was necessary to take two photographs – one properly exposed for the dark foreground and another exposed for the bright moon.  Then I combined the two photos into one composite photo using Photoshop.  I found this approach was necessary in order to produce an image that reflects what my eye saw the evening this image was captured.  It was a beautiful sight and I hope you enjoy!

Capture the Wonders Found in Travel and Life                                  Email: d300dave@gmail.com

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As a kickoff to the 2016 Albuquerque Balloon Festival, the school district made arrangements for balloonists to visit several schools early last Friday morning to demonstrate how the balloons are filled with hot air sufficient hot to lift their cargo.  Children, staff, and parents were able to watch the balloonists unpack the balloons, attach the heaters to the cargo basket, and fill the balloon with hot air using the propane heaters and fans.  It was a nice start to the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, this year entitled “Desert Kaleidoscope”, 1-9 October.

Be sure to take a camera if you are fortunate enough to be able to attend this colorful event.  Events are scheduled throughout the day – from balloon ascensions at dawn,  to late evening balloon glows, to nighttime fireworks.  Given these divergent lighting conditions, the ideal lens for the best quality photos is a “fast” (f/2.8 or better) fixed aperture zoom lens.  These photos, which were taken about 7 AM, were shot with my Nikon D7100 camera and a Nikon f/2.8 17-55mm zoom lens.

Capture the Wonders Found in Travel and Life                              Email: d300dave@gmail.com

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