And for something totally different ... [news]

Here is a photo I took last fall for a magazine article.  I wrote about Grandma Opal's Cookie Dough, a frozen food product produced by an Oklahoma farm family using their own hard red winter wheat.  And this is about the most product photography you'll find me doing.

I wanted to show the frozen product, and of course, the final product.  The finished cookie product was easy enough - you slap some cookies on a plate and shoot it; or you can just shoot the cookies straight out of the oven with a little bit of moisture still on them if you're like me and don't want to delve into any food prep voodoo.

For the frozen cookies (oatmeal raisin, if you care to know), though, I wanted to show the fact that you baked them at home.  The only thing that would do is a baking sheet of dough and a red-hot oven element in the background. 

So I heated my oven to a very low temperature, pulled one of the top cooking racks out a bit (as to get as much separation from the glowing element as possible so my flash didn't hit the bottom of the oven) and set the sheet on the rack.  I shot a single reflective umbrella with a 50mm f/1.8 lens at f/4.0.  I used a slower shutter speed to get the right amount of red glow, which required me to use a tripod and cable release.  And after several minutes of the mind-boggling inefficiency of taking photos with the oven on and door open, this is the shot.

The final version for the magazine layout was cropped square.

I say all that to show you a picture of frozen cookie dough.  Oh, and the cookies were delicious.

From the millet's point of view [news]

Photography is fun when you get dusty, dirty and muddy.  Here's a shot that left me with muddy jeans and thorns in my hand.  But it was worth it.

This is one of our members, Paul, in a millet field in central Oklahoma.  An ultrawide lens, off-camera wireless flash and a beautiful day make this one of my favorite images from this fall's photo-taking spree.

I'll be posting more of my favorite photos from the past few months after the holidays.  Until then, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.

A shot forgotten [news]

Sometimes, I take a photo, then get back from shoot and forget about it.  Sometimes I'm more excited about other photos and other times it takes a few views for a photo to grow on me - even if I do some post-processing.  Both these factors contributed to this photo being forgotten by me until I was rutting around my hard drive today.

It's a photo of Treasure Lake in the Wichita Mountains in southwest Oklahoma.  While it's a really fun place to hike, this shot was taken near the parking lot as I was returning from a farm family shoot.

It's not the best photo ever, but today it struck me.  And maybe it'll strike you sometime, too.

Here, have a pano [news]

I'm still going through my shots from this summer, finding different images that I'm not drawn to more than right after I took them.  This is a panoramic image comprised of several photos taken near the Many Glacier Lodge in Glacier National Park.  It wasn't looking to be a very promising morning at first with lots of clouds, but with a few peeks of diffused sun and a few patches of blue sky, it was a very moody morning with a few great photo opportunities.  I don't usually like "taken just off the road" photos from Glacier, since i have the most fun hiking in, but I'll make an exception for this photo.  This would make a nice print at the standard 6" by 18" panoramic size.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Fall in (almost) Oklahoma [news]

Here's a fall color shot from extreme south east Colorado.  It's not a great photo, but I guess it proves that I actually still take photos outside of work.  That, and it also shows that I do occasionally update my Web site.

Near Hunter, Oklahoma [news]

I recently stumbled across another image I had forgotten.  This wheat field shot was taken on my way to a shoot and interview in northern Oklahoma.  It's very simple, but sometimes that works.

Uploads and an 'oops' [news]

I've uploaded four new photos - one and old favorite and the other three from a recent trip to Montana.  They're all available in the landscape gallery.

As for the oops - my Web server was changed and I neglected to follow up on ensuring my files were transferred properly.  If you tried to access the site recently (both of you), you probably hit a really old page telling you the site was down.  As it turns out, I just needed to delete and old file that was somehow reintroduced on the server.

If you enjoy the site, or have comments, please feel free to let me know!

Dustin

More uploads - July 4, 2009 [news]

I've uploaded more photos, including some new ones from my recent trip home to Montana in June.  I'm still sifting through those photos, as well as older ones, trying to decide what to upload. If there's a photo of mine that you liked, but you don't see it on the site, please let me know and I'll be glad to get it up on the site.

Work portfolio album uploaded [news]

I've started a new work portfolio gallery, which includes some of my favorite photos I've taken while at work, thanks to my employer.  I'll update this new gallery, along with others, as I continue to review photos taken in past months and years.

Of course, I'll update the albums with new photos as I've taken them.

Welcome to my new site [news]

I finally got around to working on my new site.  And it's still not done.

I've installed software that will allow for easier (and hopefully more frequent) updating.  As a result, I'm letting the site go live while I work on it.  Over the next months (or years?), I will be changing the site.  The look, layout and anything else may change over this time.  Thanks for your patience.

I'm also hoping to get photos up from my "day job."  Since I don't take as many photos for my hobby, these work photos will let you see what I've been up to recently. 

This new software will also allow me to post blog-style updates, which could be a fun feature.

Hang on, and we'll find out.