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Welcome to the Featured Photo page of The Camping Machine website. This page will
display, in a larger format, some of my favorite images. Some were taken on camping trips, others were captured during
hikes with my family or at other times. I will usually include a description of the equipment used and any other notes
or observations that add to the image. Please feel free to share your comments by sending an email to CampingMachineGuy
(at) gmail (dot) com.
AN OLD FRIEND
Somewhere in a small rural town, an old truck sits
on a lonely, weed-filled lot. It's an agricultural town, far from the bright lights of a big city. It's
a town you've never heard of, let alone been to. You could drive right by it in your shiny new truck and never know
what you missed. The
town is Crosby, North Dakota. This
photo is probably the closest you'll ever come to seeing Crosby. But it is a cool truck.
This is why we camp
Yes, this is why we camp.
This is why we bought The Camping Machine. This is why we spend four hours the night before packing clothes, coats,
swimsuits; food, drink, small appliances, life preservers, books, toys, games, computers, DVD players, walkie-talkies, cameras,
video cameras, and all sorts of other sundry items. This is why we spend $4.25 per gallon, get 8 miles per gallon and
drive for six-and-a-half hours when Google Maps says it should take five. Yes, this is why we do it. We do it to get out of the
city, breathe some fresh air, and show our two young boys parts of our country that some folks only see in pictures.
This picture does not do the scenery justice, but unless you go to see it in person you'd never know that. This is why we camp. Image captured with
a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 28-200mm zoom lens.
ABANDONED RURAL CHURCH
Wrasslin'
at the Rodeo
We recently returned from our annual trip to Ennis
Montana. One of the events we enjoy there each year is the 4th of July Rodeo. While no one in our family is a
cowboy, even an urban cowboy, there's something fun about watching these guys ride bucking bronco's, angry bulls and
wrestling steers. This particular
cowboy turned this steers head nearly all the way around - but the darn thing would just not go down. The cowboy lost
his grip and the steer trotted off. Hard luck for the cowboy, who got no points for a valiant effort. Good luck
for me as the photo is very nice. I
captured this image with a Nikon D300 and a 70-200 mm lens, wide open at about 1/250 sec.
Forgotten Beauties
 During my recent travels to northeastern North Dakota I was struck
by the number of rusting junked cars and trucks in fields and near homesteads across much of that part of the state.
It literally seemed that every home, occupied or not, had at least one non-functioning vehicle parked somewhere on the property.
Outside of the sadness the cars seemed to convey - like so many of the abandoned homes I saw, the cars seemed to represent
(to me, at least) the broken dreams of the families that owned them. Like their farming lives, the cars were slowly
wasting away, despite the bright hope and promise the original purchase once offered by the shiny vehicle with the wonderful
new car smell.
Yet the adage that one mans loss is another man's gain holds true here as well. For I
found the cars to offer a photographic opportunity.
The photo above was taken in the town of Fortuna, North
Dakota, about 8 miles from the Canadian border and about 20 miles east of Crosby, North Dakota. Fortuna is barely a
town. The gas station is closed and I am not even sure anyone still calls Fortuna home. Certainly these cars have
not been driven in decades. Still, I found them unique and took several photographs, the best of which is here. The image was taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 18-200 MM zoom lens, hand-held at
about 1/500 sec somewhere near f. 5.6
 I had the occasion recently to spend some time in northeastern North
Dakota. Williams County, Divide County - hard against the Canadian and Montana borders. The area is possessed
of a stark beauty - a rural, agricultural area with big skies, far horizons, vivid blue skies and miles of farmland.
The population of North Dakota peaked in the early 1930s and has been losing people ever since. 12 of the top 25 counties
in the United States which have lost the greatest percentage of their populations are in North Dakota. While the farms
are still being worked, the number of farmers has dropped. Fewer farmers are working more land.
Some who
left the area left their homes as well. The image above shows but one of several I saw during my recent time in the
state. These homes sit silently, the ever-present wind whistling through the broken windows, the empty doorframes, the
broken planks of siding. It seems as if they want to share their stories, to tell of the family that lived there, to
recall the times of warmth and better times. But all one can hear is the wind, the occasional creak of a door or
plank. Nothing more.
The image above was shot with a Nikon D300 and an 18-200mm zoom lens. Some adjustment
to the levels and contrast were made in PhotoShop.
Summer fun is almost here - and for us, that means our annual trip to Bear
Lake is coming up.
Bear lake is a beautiful Alpine Lake on the Utah-Idaho border. At an elevation of 5800
feet, the summer season is short. The water in the center of the lake can be downright cold, even in August. However,
along the west shore of the lake the water is shallow and in August, when we go, the water at wading depth is very mild.
Perhaps the most unique feature of Bear Lake is the color of the water - an aquamarine blue that is Caribbean-esque.
The image of the Jet-Skier above was taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XT with a 70-300mm zoom lens. Despite
the fact that the camera/lens combination does not have image stabilization, the image is reasonably sharp.
The photo was taken near the 300mm end of the lens at a shutter speed of 1/500.
SHADOW FAMILY
 Sometimes it's good to carry a camera.
It was Labor Day weekend and
our family was camping in southern Utah. We took a day trip to Snow Canyon state park, and in the early evening found
ourselves hiking up a gentle red rock slope. The sun was getting low in the western sky as we stepped up onto the next
level of rock. I happened to look back and saw our shadows were falling back on the red rock we had just crossed.
The rise we stepped up onto was only about 18 inches high, so I was unafraid to ask our kids to stand close to the
edge so our shadows would extend more fully onto the rock below. After a few moments we found the correct pose.
Holding my camera in my left hand, I took 3-4 images before the kids were clamoring to continue with our hike.
I
wasn't sure if I had captured a good shot until that night when I downloaded the days' images to the computer.
Fortunately we did have a good one. This image was captured with my Canon Digital Rebel XT at about 50mm on auto. A
bit of Photoshop cleanup was done to enhance the color of the rock to something closer my eye remembered it. Other than
that, it was simply a lucky shot.
If you have
a camera and have come across a beautiful garden, a field of wildflowers or your neighbors tulips, you've taken a photograph
or two. Come on, there's no shame in admitting it. It's hard not to be attracted to colorful flowers in
the right light.
It's also hard to take a photo of flowers that hasn't been done a thousand times
before.
I admit, I'm the first one to fall into the trap. Every year my wife plants the same flowers
in the same flower bed, and every year I take the same back-lit photos, each time thinking this will be the year I get that
hero shot. And every year I find I've taken the same photo I did last year and the year before that.
This
one is different. Taken in late afternoon light in a local community garden, I was struck not by the colors, but by
the shapes of the stems and the lines they created, complimented by the soft fuzzy circles with their little back-lit halos.
In fact, outside the green in the background, the colors are fairly muted, drawing attention, again, to the stems and circles.
You may not find this image as captivating or attracive as I do. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all
that. Still, as a flower photo is it not your ordinary tulip - and that, in itself, is an achievement for me.
This image was taken with my trusty Canon Digital Rebel on a tripod, shutter speed at 1/500 to freeze motion in the gentle
breeze. Lens is a 70-300MM at somewhere north of 250mm with a shallow depth of field.
 If you have seen the movie 'CARS' you'll remember one of
the themes is what happened to the small but thriving rural towns when the Interstate Highways came along. Poor old
Radiator Springs, along the famous Route 66, all but dried up when I-40 allowed all the traffic to bypass the town.
Most of you know of real towns that have experienced what happened to Radiator Springs in the CARS movie. I took the
time on a drive from southern Utah through northern Utah to swing off of I-15 several times and visit several towns that have
experienced, to some degree, a loss of traffic due to the efficiency of the freeway.
The service station
in the image is in the town of Holden, Utah. I was drawn to to take this picture by the pattern the peeling blue paint
on the exterior of the building, as well as the missing letters over the service bay doors. It is visually interesting,
and at the same time sad. I'm sure at some point in recent history this was a thriving business.
The
image was captured on a Canon Digital Rebel XT. I used a tripod and a slow shutter speed to capture as much texture
as possible.
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| Empty rural road |
In a rural valley in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, a lonely
two-lane road undulates toward the horizon. The pavement is not the traditional grey, but rather has a dull reddish
tint. This gives the road a character unlike most of the other roads like this one I've explored across much of
the West.
I took this photograph in the early afternoon on an overcast day. The cloud cover allowed for patches
of sunlight and shade to give a mottled texture to the distant background that adds some character and interesting changes
to the frame. The image was taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XT and a 70-300 Zoom Lens at about a 200mm focal length.
I used a tripod, bracketed for exposure and experimented significantly with framing and composition. This take, one
of over fifty, pleased me the most.
As a side note, I don't recommend standing in the middle of a road to take
a photograph, even on a road as deserted as this one. It is far too easy to get caught up in setting up your shot,
framing your composition, bracketing your exposure and testing exposure lengths, all the while forgetting to look over your
shoulder to see if a semi is barreling down on you.
With that said, I was able to stand in the middle of
that road for nearly 20 minutes without a single vehicle coming from either direction.
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| Fall in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah |
This photo was taken in the fall of 1994, back in the days when I had a Hasselblad camera,
three lenses and four different film backs. At the time I was a Television News Cameraman and and did freelance still
photography on the side. I did weddings and portraits, but my real love of photography came out in my 'walks in the woods.'
It was then, alone with my thoughts, my camera gear and occasionally my iPod, I would wander about and look for interesting
image opportunities. I've always enjoyed rushing water, and this image of the fall foliage felt peaceful and tranquil
to me. It was taken with a Hasselblad on Fuji Color transparency film at f16 @ 1/2 sec.
This image languished
in my 'film file' along wih dozens of negatives and transparencies for many years. One day I decided to go through
them and selected a few for some test scans. The transparency for this image was scanned on my Epson 3170 scanner at
2400 DPI. Reasonably extensive Photoshop work was required to repair scratches and remove dust spots from the scan.
No color correction, balancing, enhancing or level adjustment was used - I simply repaired the damage to the image and cleaned
up the inevitable dust spots.
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