Michael Harris Photography

National parks contain many of our nation's most treasured landscapes, from the majestic mountain ranges of Alaska to the vast sawgrass prairies of the Everglades. The travelers on .... the trail to ... Grotto Falls - Smoky Mountain Natl Park

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living.   Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope.  And out of hope, progress. Bruce Barton More Mangroves  

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.                                                                           John Muir  

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. Annie Dillard

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship.  But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. John Muir What looks like a casualty of Hurricane Andrew (1992) I found this ship wreak almost a mile inland in an area that is only accessible on foot. It now has a new job.

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else- we are the busiest people in the world.                        Eric Hoffer  Thanks to all for your vote, I have been awarded 3rd place in the Canon Photography in the Parks Contest. Now it time to get busy again...      Mike

The pains which are yet to come can be and are to be avoided. II.16, Sutras of Patanjali Past pain is finished. Pain that we are in the process of experiencing cannot be avoided, but can be reduced to some extent by yogic practice and discriminative knowledge. Unknown future pains can be prevented by adhering now to yogic discipline.

The most ancient traveler in the universe is love. It is love that travels from the unknown to the known, from eternity to eternity. From The Essence of Spiritual Life

Canon 40D, 24 70mm at various mm & f, iso 400, +CLP, AEB -2,0,+2 , All hand held. More HDR images, this time I took a group of about 50 different images. 3 different exposures (-2,0,+2) for each image. Set the camera in Low-speed continuous mode to capture all images from the same point. Tripod of course will make these sharper. What I wanted to test was the batch processing part of Photomatrix Pro 3.0 and I can report it worked flawlessly and was very easy to configure. I used the Batch process to process all at one time. Took about 40 minutes of unattended computer time, about 75% of the images required no more processing. The images shown here came right out of PP 3.0 . I would love comments about this HDR program or any other.

Canon 40D, 10-22mm at various mm, iso200, all with CLP, all hand held. Shot in (AEB) auto exposure bracket mode -2,0,+2. Then processed in Photomatrix 3.0, no further processing. I like extending the dynamic range of my sensor and have been experimenting with HDR processing. These three images were shot on a cloudless day around 1:00pm. As you can see from the watermark on the images I'm using the trial version of Photomatrix Pro 3.0. So far I tried CS3, Dynamic Photo HDR and Photomatrix 3.0. I like this program the best so far. I would love any comments, experience, likes, dislikes, etc...

Canon 40D 70 -200mm at 70mm, iso 100, 1/2000 sec @ f2.8 This is an image with my favorite color. What color is it? I thought about making the image not so obvious, but the answer is there. First a strong B&W subject, but Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum ; they absorb all such frequencies of light. White is the color of objects that reflect all parts of the visible spectrum. Sorry for the science. Next you see the reds, oranges and yellows they appear to move toward you. NO, not any of them. And last the touch of blue, hopefully the last color you see in the image. Thanks for taking the journey.

Canon 40D 70-200mm @ 70mm, iso 100 1/4sec at f13 Cropped to Panoramic This image is of course about light and how it can define your subject so easily. What made this possible was camera location, I had hiked up the side of a hill about 100ft. The additional height brought more of the mountain range in view and gave the image more depth. In addition the yellow leaves with the blue mountains and sky gives it color depth. When the setting sun cut through and lit up the aspens that was all I needed.