In honor of the Independence Day holiday, following are some photographs of American flags:

Flag waving in the wind American flags American flag on building Flag drop Window flag Chalked American flag Flag in the clouds

Soon, I will be leaving for an extended photography trip to some of the most scenic locations on the planet--Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks! The last time I visited Grand Teton and Yellowstone was in 1995. I haven't seen Glacier National Park since 1988. Here are a few scanned slides from those past trips:

Camping at Grand Teton Riverside Geyser West Thumb Jackson Lake twilight Cold morning at Yellowstone Lake Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River Storm over terraces During this upcoming trip, I hope to capture many scenic locations in the best possible light. My Prius RV concept should make getting to some of these remote sites a little more convenient. Minimizing driving time is critical when attempting to capture photographs at 5:30 AM!

I enjoy using Photoshop to create Amazing Circles from certain images. Here are a few of my favorites:

A zebra:

Swirled zebra stripes A flower:

Flower A needlepoint:

Southwest needlepoint Please CLICK HERE to view more than 30 other Amazing Circles.

Now, let's take a recent picture and turn it into an Amazing Circle.

Red and orange coneflower

Open the image in Photoshop

Crop the image so that the frame is square

Select Filter, then Distort, then Polar Coordinates, and then choose Polar to Rectangular, then click on OK

Select Image, the Image Rotation, then 180 degrees

Select Filter, then Distort, then Polar Coordinates, and then choose Rectangular to Polar, then click on OK

We now have an Amazing Circle!

Colorful flower

In a recent blog post, I shared a technique for creating an abstract by rotating the lens during a long exposure. Another approach for creating an abstract is to zoom the lens during the exposure. This subject is the same as in the last post--lights on the wall of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After some experimentation (good thing for digital photography!), I ended up with a 1.3 second exposure to create this effect:

Points of light abstract

Lately, I've been shooting a lot of staircases and hallways. While watching a baseball game at Wrigley Field, I expected to grab a few shots of the park and the crowd. However, the photograph that I liked the most from the day was captured underneath the leftfield grandstands!

Wrigley Field tunnel Nikon D700, Nikon 24-70 2.8

I came across a colorful autumn scene in Northern Michigan. I decided to create an abstract photograph from the scene:

Forest abstract To create this abstract image, I secured the camera (Nikon D700) and lens (Nikon 70-200 VR2) to a tripod. I then panned the camera vertically during a relatively long exposure to add the blur to the image. After several attempts (good thing we are in the digital photography age!), I settled in on a shutter speed of 0.3 seconds to achieve this effect given the speed of my pan.

It's been a while since I've been out shooting, so I must be getting desperate. I ended up taking some photographs at a parking garage this afternoon! This image is my favorite of the series. I like the triangular shapes along with the texture in the concrete.

Concrete stairwell Nikon D800, Nikon 24-70 2.8, 1/60th @ f/8, ISO 1600

Another method for creating an abstract is to rotate the lens during a long exposure. I used this technique to capture of photograph of some light bulbs on the wall of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I attached the Nikon 70-200 VR2 to the tripod. I then loosened the tripod collar on the lens so that I could spin the lens freely.

The shutter speed for this picture was 3 seconds. During the exposure, I rotated the lens at different rates--checking the LCD panel to see which effect was most effective. Finally, I used multiple exposures to add another element to this abstract image.

Spinning points of light abstract