One of the recent prompts in the studio is BERRIES, which I have photographed many times and never tire of, so I thought this theme would be a good one for me to do to get back into the swing of still life. As usual, the simpler compositions worked best for me.
When I saw that my daughter had a bouquet of peonies on her dining room table, I couldn’t resist carrying them over to the window for a quick still life shot. The house Caitlin and family live in is over 100 years old and is part of what used to be Fort Yellowstone. I love the old windows!
I used one of Kim Klassen’s presets (darklight) for the edit in Lightroom and then added textures in Photoshop. The peonies were actually hot pink, but I wanted more of a vintage look to go with the window.
I have recently been introduced to canva.com through Kim’s Studio group. What a fun and easy way to make collages! This was a quick layout done totally online (nothing to buy) of Henry smelling peonies outside his house.
My daughter and husband took a walk while we were at Yellowstone and came back with a snakeskin they had found. Despite being a little grossed out, I was fascinated with the textures and patterns and couldn’t resist taking a few photos.
Miles was fascinated as well.
I am hoping this is the last time I photograph anything related to snakes.
My wonderful son-in-law drove me and my sweet and very patient family through a section of Yellowstone to see some beautiful country- and mostly so I could take some photographs. Although it was midday and therefore not the best light, the sky full of white puffy clouds made a beautiful backdrop- and there were wildflowers everywhere!
These were all taken on Blacktail Road. The Gallatins were behind us; the predominant mountain is Electric Peak.
Several times over the last few years, we’ve seen owl babies in a huge nest waaaaay up high in a tree by the Visitor’s Center at Mammoth in Yellowstone. When I’ve photographed them, the images were never sharp, because they were too far away. We came later this year, after the owl babies had already fledged, so I didn’t think we’d be able to see any. However, the babies were still in the area, and one evening, I managed to get photos of this guy on the roof of one of the residences near our daughter’s. Despite being a juvenile, he still has the fierce, don’t mess with me look of his mother!
The star of the show this trip, was undoubtedly three month old Penny; she entertained us every moment she was awake (and sometimes while asleep). The puppy cuteness was overwhelming! Miles is her biggest fan; Henry is somewhat of a puppy himself, so he loves playing with her.
I struggled with taking photos of her, because, although she is generally well-behaved, she is a puppy, after all, and in constant motion. One evening after dinner, I looked out the window to see my son-in-law, Justin putting Penny through her paces out on the grass (the elk were off somewhere- yay!). The after sunset light was beautiful, and Penny will do anything Justin tells her to do- this was a perfect opportunity for some puppy portraits!
She’s a beauty, isn’t she?
We are back home as of 1:00 this morning. Our travel day began with our daughter discovering a flat tire on her wonderful new car just as we were starting the trip from Yellowstone to Bozeman to catch our flight to Phoenix. We transferred our luggage and the kids and ourselves to Justin’s huge truck, which is not Caitlin’s favorite vehicle to drive, and off we went. We got to the airport with time to spare, had a quick dinner, and then waited at the gate for the incoming flight from Phoenix to arrive so we could board. As we looked out the window we could see dust clouds across the tarmac and debris being lifted into the air and swirling around. The inbound flight couldn’t land, so was diverted to Missoula. Although we didn’t see rain or thunder and lightning, it was all around Bozeman. Justin’s roof rack on the vehicle he was driving blew off as he headed into Bozeman from Missoula, and Caitlin and the kids had rain and thunderstorms the whole way home. Finally, two hours late, the flight came in from Phoenix (via Missoula), and we had an uneventful flight to Phoenix (Mesa Airport). Lightning flashed around us on our long drive home, but no rain. Ahhh summer storms!
I seem to have taken around 2000 photos on our trip- lots to go through! My plan to upload photos to the iPad and post from there didn’t work out too well. I think the number of photos on my 64GB SD card might have overwhelmed the iPad, even though I was only selecting a couple each time, and I found uploading seldom worked. Now that I’m on my computer, I see that my owl photo doesn’t display correctly (you can see about a fourth of it!), although it looks fine on my iPhone and the iPad; I’ll fix that next.
I’ll be posting more photos over the next week or so. You can look forward to seeing an adorable puppy, more photos of two handsome boys, a baby owl, wildflowers, a bison, and who knows what else?
We were taking a walk after dinner, when I heard the distinct sound of hooting from the tree in front of us. I looked up, and there was a Great Horned Owl on a high branch! This owl was in a better position for me to photograph than the nest of owls was last year. I don’t have a lens with a long reach (and didn’t have a tripod), but I was still able to get some decent photographs- and, amazingly, there were no other photographers around.
I’m finding importing to the iPad pretty frustrating; even if I select only 5 or 6 photos, they don’t all come in. I’m sure I’ll be posting more Yellowstone photos when we return!
Penny, the puppy, isn’t the only baby around here. As usual, the house here at Mammoth is surrounded by elk for a good part of the day, and there are quite a few babies in the herd. This one was getting ready to follow its mother across the road.
By the way, yesterday’s and today’s photos were edited on the iPad with Snapseed and posted using the WordPress app.
We’re at Yellowstone visiting our daughter, son-in-law, grandsons, dog, and . . . their 3 month old golden-retriever puppy, Penny!
Could there be anything cuter?
And yes, there are even more Santa Fe photos to post today!
I still have photos I haven’t posted from Santa Fe! Here are two Lensbaby shots taken during the golden hour of this magnificent building by the square.
One of the first things our little group photographed on our trip to Flagstaff was the Greek Orthodox Church. I was particularly entranced with the gargoyles, which adorned the roof line.
I found this one amusing, because it looked like he was munching on leaves.
I edited this one to give it a dark and foreboding look- could it be because I just saw Jurassic World?
As I wrote the other day, I had such fun doing street photography in Flagstaff! The gals I was with were both accomplished, experienced photographers, but what impressed me most about them was how confident and BOLD they were taking photographs out in public. I was carrying my most unobtrusive camera bag (the Lowepro Passport Sling) with the bare minimum of gear (camera, 18-200 lens, and my Lensbaby Composer pro with Edge 80). I- thank goodness- also brought a rainsleeve for the camera, which really came in handy during the downpour around lunchtime. I brought a tripod, which I kept in the car- and only brought out for a couple hours in the afternoon. My companions, however, wore big backpacks filled with gear (no clue what it was) and carried tripods as well as their (very large and expensive!) cameras.
I used to always feel self-conscious out in public with my camera stuff, especially on a tripod. I’ve somewhat gotten over it, but, introvert that I am, my shy self still emerges at times when shooting in public. But last Saturday, I found the spectacle we were creating fun and amusing. All the gear and tripods often caused a lot of attention to be focused our way, especially from young people, who I think were hoping we were doing a magazine shoot- and it made for some fun photographs.
These young guys were eager to pose for us, although you can see how cool they were being about it. I think they liked the idea that it looked like a potential album cover!
I took my camera along to the cemetery when we attended my father-in-law’s graveside service last month, with the intention of getting some family group shots. There was a short service with military honors, and my husband was presented with the flag. It was a very emotional moment. When my husband got up to leave, he walked in front of me and paused at the casket. The photographer in me couldn’t resist reaching for the camera and snapping one quick shot.
Unfortunately, the autofocus on the camera had been turned off, because I had been using the Lensbaby previously- and, although this photo was in pretty good focus, all subsequent photos were out of focus until I realized what was going on- arrgghhh! I edited this one with Topaz Simplify and added some textures in Photoshop.
melinda anderson photography 