Author: Harold Pollack
Harold Pollack is Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He has served on three expert committees of the National Academies of Science. His recent research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. He writes regularly on HIV prevention, crime and drug policy, health reform, and disability policy for American Prospect, tnr.com, and other news outlets. His essay, "Lessons from an Emergency Room Nightmare" was selected for the collection The Best American Medical Writing, 2009. He recently participated, with zero critical acclaim, in the University of Chicago's annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate. View all posts by Harold Pollack
Harold,
A simple trick that you may already know:
If you have a tripod mount the camera and take slow exposures of waterfalls, streams, etc. You'll need to experiment with exposure times a bit, but that's easy. The waves smooth out and can get dreamy, and sometimes, especially if there is colorful foliage around, you get some remarkable abstract color patterns.
If you lack a tripod, but like shooting landscapes, it's a worthwhile investment. Get a decent one.
like this: http://imagovitae.org/ColoradoPoudreLandscapes.ht…
Since we're showing off, :-), also like this or this.
These are great.
Thank you, Harold.
Fine, fine. The first particularly as an abstract.
Wow.
sdean's image:
Lovely.
Thanks!
I trust it was the slip not taken.
I tried embedding Bernie’s code, which commenters can’t do:
Thank you, James.
The blues and oranges in the top image don't appear as bright as they should, at least on my screen.
The main point is that this is just the result of standing next to a stream in the fall with lots of colorful foliage around and shooting slow exposures. Not much to it. On a good day it looks like someone is pouring paint into the water upstream.
Your site allowed an embed code but not an image download, which is what I used for sdean's and my images, with better results. Readers are invited to click the links to your site to get better versions. Still, the advertising was worth it.
James,
Just to be clear, I'm not a professional photographer and don't sell prints. I had no intention of advertising here or otherwise promoting any business for myself.
I happen to use that site for complex reasons.
My clumsy wording. I was advertising your site, not you. Good work deserves to be known.
Sorry I misunderstood, and thank you again.
My standard offer – if you like one of the images well enough to want it, I'll send you the file – no charge – and you can get it printed. Just send me an email – not to my yahoo address if that's the one on file.
All a bit Romantic and melancholy, no? Shades of Caspar David Friedrich. Here is something still watery but more festive – not by me worse luck, it's from National Geographic.
OMG, Trump lost his toupee in the surf!
I was going to post a thank-you to Harold Pollack for the pictures he's been posting and to express the hope that he continues to do so. They are a source of much-needed mental refreshment these days. (Unfortunately, they have the side effect of making me want a good camera.)
But now I can add thanks to everyone else for their contributions to this post. Wonderful set of photos. And, byomtov11, yours are amazing, with the stunning combination of so many shades of blue and reddish brown.
I'll make an offer here to readers who want to post photo contributions in comments. Send me the photo as an attachment in an email, and I'll try to add it to your text comment. I am very bad at checking my email and the mechanism will be unreliable. You could also consider using Flickr and posting a link; if I spot it I'll embed the photo in a reply, as I've done above.