Saturday, December 18, 2010

Bullfrog


Here's a little color from this past September to brighten up your winter.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Down the Stretch!


I'm captivated by the harness racing at the Fryeburg Fair in Fryeburg Maine, perhaps Maine's largest agricultural fair, on par with our state fair here in Ohio.  Only better.  Sorry Ohio!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Fall on the Pond



Well now, it has been too long since I have posted here, hasn't it?  I just got my #1 computer back up and running after a serious crash.  A little time away from post-processing wasn't a bad thing, but I was REALLY starting to miss the creative process.

Here's an image from early October, 2010 taken in my in-law's little slice of heaven.  Yes, this is their backyard in Otisfield, Maine. 

Tom

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Norfolk Southern


Trains aren't my typical subjects, but I have photographed them twice in the past month.  While competing an owl survey for my day job (the evening this photo was captured, it was my night job), a trail headed our way down the tracks.  We stopped, watched in come close, and then I realized I had my Canon D10 Point and Shoot in my pocket.  A quick snap as the train sped by, pulling cars full of brand new automobiles. 

Tom

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Moose, Yellowstone, Animals in the Landscape


After reading an article in October's issue of Popular photography, I am re-examining several of my Yellowstone images.  The article focuses on photographing animals immersed in there natural surroundings, a type of wildlife photography that I would like to practice more often.  Lately, I've been trying to get super closeups and tight crops, but I think this style is getting a little boring to my eye. 

This moose was the only one we observed in Yellowstone this past June.  Make sure you follow its legs all the way to the ground- the top of this animal's head must be ten feet off the ground.

This picture is a classic animal in its environment image- The moose is chewing on the tender new growth of willows.  Background and surroundings meet subject as the moose selects an individual willow shoot for a late evening meal.

Tom

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Shawnee Ridge


Morning comes to a ridge at Shawnee State Forest, Scioto County, Ohio.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Blue Mistflower

Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum.  Shawnee State Forest, September 7, 2010.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Folks & Photography



I don't do much street photography- I'm not very good at it.  But there's a reason why I'm not very good- I don't do it very much.  How's that for circular reasoning?  Each Saturday from May through October, our city hosts a farmer's market.  This morning's cool temperatures, low humidity, and crystal blue sky brought the people out in droves.  I'm just glad that we walked to the market and didn't have to navigate down high street through hundreds of shoppers.  As we were headed out of town, we stopped for about twenty minutes to listen to this group from the Columbus Folk Music Society.  Weston wasn't as brave as this little boy- he stayed back from the musicians.  Eventually, he was running around and dancing but all from what he determined a safe distance.  We love the market- and, most importantly, it offers me one of the best opportunities to do street photography- and If I want to get good at, I just better start doing it, shouldn't I?

Tom

Friday, August 27, 2010

Clouded Sulphur


This is the type of image that I was looking to capture with my recently purchased Sigma 180 Macro.  It's simply too bad that Sigma isn't making this lens any more, I'm glad that I bought a copy!

Tom

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Downtown



I don't get down there much anymore- Columubs really does have a picturesque waterfront for a City that is 200 miles away from any decent sized natural lake.

Friday, July 30, 2010

To Be Sheared


As a family, we made our yearly trip to the Ohio State fair this morning.  We watched one round of the senior sheep shearing contest- the four participants had over 200 years combined experience removing the wool from sheep.  If you're going to have a sheep shearing contest, you better have plenty of sheep in need of  a haircut nearby, and these lambs met that need well.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Gerald


This is Gerald.  He's standing on one of the most significant collections of Aboriginal rock art in all of Australia, and our group of 20 or so Hiram College students had the privilege to learn about these ancient, rock carvings.  I spent three months in Australia, and it shaped much of my current being.

This image was shot with a Samsung Maxima Aoom Alpha and film, most likely Kodak Gold or Fuji Superia.  
Tom

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Yellowstone, Old School


Ok, It wasn't done with an 8 x 10 view camera, but compare this to my last image I posted here, this is decidedly retro.

Tom

Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Lamar


The Lamar Valley is a magical place- where the pre-settlement megafauna roam free and predators stalk their prey.

During our four days here, the sun shone on this valley for only a few minutes- I was sure to take advantage of this brief but spectacular light.

Tom

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Polar Encounter


It's not every day that you see both children and adults smiling this much- but that is what is happening at the recently opened Polar Frontier exhibit at the Columbus Zoo.

Tom

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Nymph


Katydid nymph, taken this morning in our backyard in Worthington, Ohio

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Eyes of a Naturalist featuring photography by Tom Arbour and Mike Heisey


I've been extremely busy working on something, and now, I can finally make the announcement.  I was asked to participate in a two person photography exhibit entitled "Eyes of a Naturalist" at the Peggy McConnell Arts center here in Worthington beginning at the end of April.  I am SUPER PUMPED about this exciting opportunity.  I welcome you all to come take a look at my passion for the last few years- documenting Ohio's natural world.  And thank you to everyone who has inspired me as a naturalist, an artist, and a person- you are why I'm here doing what I'm doing.

Tom

Thursday, April 8, 2010

New Film in an Old Camera

If you haven't heard, the Impossible Project is making new film for old polaroid cameras.  This shot is taken with the PX 100 silver shade "first flush" black and white film with a 1970's era polaroid SX-70 Sonar camera that I purchased at Ohio Thrift for 6 bucks.

The sound of the camera booting up again after who knows how many years was just so cool.

For this image, I dialed in as much "black" on the camera's exposure adjustment as I could.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico

Look out on the horizon, on the right hand side of the image, and you'll see Desecheo Island, a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge.  The island was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage of 1499-1494.  I took this image from the shores of Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Villa Cofresi

When we went to Puerto Rico, I was expecting bright, sunny blue skies that I could photograph all day long.  But when we arrived, the weather quickly turned gray.  It isn't gray often in Puerto Rico, but for almost three days, it was more gray than sunny.  On this morning, after being so frustrated with NOT being able to photograph the images I had envisioned, I finally just let my imagination wander.  Why not work with what I had?  Cloudy days can be fantastic for black and white images.  So with my camera still set to capture images in RAW mode, I switched my picture settings to black and white with a sepia tone, and then fired away.  The images that appeared on the back of my screen were wonderful sepia throwbacks to a different era.  And the Villa Cofresi looks like it was built sometime in the 1930's.  It just has that classic look. 

Tom

Monday, February 1, 2010

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Snow Drifts on the Bog



Megan, Weston and I are back from Maine, where we spent Christmas with Megan's family. It is really cold there, and the wind was whipping on this evening dropping the windchill below zero.