David VanKeuren's Photography

Paulina Lake as seen from Paulina Peak

Its a panoramic, click on it to enlarge.

Heres a close up macro shot of a damselfly at Diamond Lake. I didn't actually set out to take macro images on this trip, but I had my cousin along with me and I wanted to demonstrate how to use a reversed lens as a cheap alternative to a more expensive macro lens. The shot was taken at dusk and the damselflys had settled down for the evening in the reeds surrounding the lake. I managed to find one and I set up my camera on its tripod. Preset my aperture, removed the lens from the camera, reversed it and remounted it using a reversing ring. Took a guess at my exposure time, and took the shot. I took several shots, and this is one of the better ones. I would have tried more shots, but we were getting chewed up by mosquitoes, and I was really trying to get a landscape shot of Mt. Thielsen anyways. The only thing I don't like about the image is that the eye is out of focus. I guess I should have tried for a tighter aperture. Stats: Canon 20D with reversed 18-55mm lens. ISO 400, 1/60th second shutter speed, flash used, tripod used. I think the aperture was at about f8 or f11, I can't remember.

Waterfalls along the Umqua River

Whitehorse waterfalls at the top and Watson waterfalls at the bottom.

Another from the set "Drop"

Assembly Line

My son has this little lucite cube that has two different liquid mixtures in it. One liquid is heavier than the other and is colored as well. The colored liquid falls down these little ramps inside the cube and also spins a wheel encased within it as well. I finally realized that a close up macro shot would be pretty cool with this toy and here is the result! Enjoy.

2008 Pilot Butte Fireworks Finale

Midnight Lightning Near Bachelor and Broken Top

This image was taken late last night at the highway 20 viewpoint between Tumalo and Sisters.
Taken with a tripod mounted Canon 20D using a Canon 28-70mm F2.8L lens. ISO 400, 1 minute exposure @ F2.8. In all honesty I should have taken this photo at ISO 200 or even 100, but I wasn't getting any good bolt lightning, so I bumped the ISO to 400. Of course THATS when the bolt lightning starts up! The original image was totally flooded with too much light and would have been unusable. Fortunately I was shooting using RAW and I was able to tweak the highlights and brightness in Photoshop to bring the image back together. Also, I wish I had used a tighter aperture, but I didn't because I needed to get as much light as I could and also, I wasn't sure if it was necessary for this kind of shot. I just focused on infinity and opened up the shutter and hoped for the best! As it is, the ridgeline seems a little blurry to me, but its still an enjoyable shot overall.

Hey! Its my birthday! Trip down memory lane.

Wow, 37 today. Feels.....not all that different than 30. Holy cow, 3 more years closer to geezer like status. Seriously though, I was asked if I felt old. What exactly am I supposed to say to that? I do remember when I was in my 20's thinking that 37 was downright ancient. Hell, I'm at my prime! Nah, I don't feel old. And we won't talk about the little bit o' grey that was cropping up in my beard until I shaved it off.
Lets think back to the things I remember as a kid. Rotary phones, black and white television, typewriters, 12 television channels, the internet didn't exist, I saw the first Star Wars film in a movie theatre when I was 6. H.R. Puff n stuff (The Flute in that show was creepy.) Land of the Lost (Sleestacks!) My first home video console was "Pong" and it had like 2 or 3 settings to it. What else? I remember seeing the Pontiac Firebird at a carshow back in the '70's, the same style Burt Reynolds drove in "Smoky and the Bandit". Jimmy Carter. I remember thinking how awesome 8 track tapes were. I remember that the poster from 'Jaws' scared me as a kid, although I wouldn't see it until much, much later in life. Happy Days, the Muppet Show, Thats Incredible!, The Gong Show, Greatest American Hero, Mork and Mindy, Stretch Armstrong, Mattel Electronics Football, Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition, Star Wars toys, Wham-O magic window, Atari 2600 (Combat and Space Invaders blew my mind) The TI-994a, commodore 64, tape drives on computers, 5 1/4" floppy disks, The Six Million Dollar Man Action Figure. (AWESOME!), Big Wheels! (mine was crushed by a drunken neighbor parking his truck, I barely escaped, Damn you Mr. Glass!), Shag Carpet, polyester suits, ABBA, Blondie, (I had a crush on Deborah Harry!), Dynamite magazine, My Empire Strikes Back lunch box, The Brady Bunch (The Hawaiian Vacation episode was the best), Shazam (couldn't a superhero find a better ride than an old Winnebago? Seriously).
Good grief, I could go on and on, and I've barely even touched on anything during the 80's. I you've got a comment or a happy birthday wish, please leave one and I'll post it up!

Balloons Over Bend Night Glow

Another shot from tonights event. This was a particularly difficult shot to get, as I needed a long exposure and the damn balloon kept moving around in the wind. Finally I got a semi-decent shot. Out of about 20 shots, this was one of the better ones.

Fire Dancers at Balloons Over Bend Night Glow

I wish I had caught the name of the group doing the fire dance performance at the Les Schwab Amphitheater, but they were almost done with their performance by the time I arrived. Pretty cool stuff though! I wanted to capture the fluidity of their performance, so I left the shutter open for about 4 seconds for each exposure. Had I more time, I would have tried to use shorter exposure times, but I wasn't in a good position as it was to photograph them and they're performance ended right after I took these images. (NOTE: Just got an email from an anonymous viewer, the groups name is "FireFlyte" and they were excellent).

I for one, welcome our new robotic monkey overlords.

I just read this article (link). Talk about a surreal moment. Using electrodes planted in their brains, monkeys have been able to control a robotic arm with their thoughts to feed themselves. Obviously this technology has fantastic potential for people who have artificial limbs, but perhaps also there are applications for future telepresence applications. And if you need to, you can reference the inspiration for the title post here.

I hate this time of the year

Ugh, my head feels like its been underwater for the past month. Ears plugged up. Allergies have become the bane of my existence. Coughing fits so bad that it makes me gag. Unable to sleep without the help of cough medicine and then feeling sluggish the entire next day. I feel like I can't get a full breath. Lousy, lousy, lousy, lousy. Hopefully the pollen count will be down soon and I can breathe again. Ugh!