David VanKeuren's Photography

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!

Another shot

I was going to crop most of the stem out of this shot but I really dug how the shadow in the background looked, so I kept it in. Enjoy!

Same shot, different lighting.

As you can see different lighting can dramatically change an image.
Which do you prefer?

Macro Work

I felt the need to practice some macro shots today.
This shot was taken with my Canon 18-55mm efs lens on a reverse mount.
Exposure was 1/8th of a second at F22.
ISO 100. Shot in RAW format.

Same image, pseudo HDR

Which is better?

Looking West Toward Black Butte

Barbed Wire

Between Bend and Sisters, Oregon.

Moon and Sky

New Self Portrait

A new self-portrait, I used filters to create a gritty look, (yes I do wash my face) not sure how I like it. Took this photo at the end of a difficult day, I thought I might be able to capture how tired I felt.

Crater Lake March 9th 2008

Click to view full size

Went to Crater Lake today, this is a panoramic image that I shot, 15 feet higher than where I would usually shoot this during the summer. Thats right, there was about 15 feet of snow there. The new visitors center, the 3 story structure? Had snow up to the roof. I could've walked to the roof. Amazing. Also quite beautiful. More images to come.