Hummmmmm!
This summer the Prescott hummingbirds have finally discovered us! In fact I’ve seen as many as five flitting around at a time, buzzing each other in a seeming fight for territory. Our feeder is right outside the window by the kitchen sink, so I’m constantly watching them. I took my camera outside a couple days ago and had fun taking photos as the little hummers flew around me. They got closer and closer to me, trying to scare me off- but I held my ground!
Hummingbirds can be a challenge to keep in focus- but this out of focus one ended up being one of my favorites of the session. BTW the bokeh is from the morning light shining on the plum tree in the background.
I like this darker, textured version as well.
Yes, I did take some shots that were actually IN focus!
I love this one- he was staring me down! What a bully!
Wednesday iPhone
I’m linking up with App Happy Wednesday today with a couple iPhone photos, both edited in Snapseed. I didn’t do much to the first one, but the second one has the tilt shift filter applied to give it a bit of a lensbaby look. My actual iPhone lensbaby should be arriving this week- I’m excited!
Summer Fence
This flower lined fence caught my eye as we were heading out of town for a drive the other day. After spending a couple hours taking photos of rural scenes and the countryside, I was too tired to stop and take photos of the original fence I had seen as we started our outing. We went back the other day, and I had a great time photographing all the flowers. You’ll be seeing more of them in the near future; today it’s just one photo of this pink beauty, textured with Kim Klassen’s touchof for Texture Tuesday.
Approaching Storm
On Saturday, dark clouds were beginning to fill the sky as my husband and I toured the Phippen Museum, a few miles north of our house. One of the docents nicely unlocked the door to the deck so that I could take a few photos of the view of the Granite Dells and the beautiful clouds. By the time we got home the monsoon storm had begun- thunder, lightning, and rain!
Evening Light
We had some rain late yesterday afternoon- and a rainbow.
After I took a few rainbow photos, I turned around and took these two photos of the pre-sunset light shining through the Russian sage. Always turn around!
Of course, I had to convert one to black and white.
And saving the best for last:
This was taken about 15 minutes later with my iPhone.
Morning Bokeh- Two Ways
These days our morning walks are taking place earlier than before. We used to say that we needed to be finished by 9:00 to beat the heat. Now we say 8:00 is too late; we need to be on the trail before 7:00. The upside is that there is some beautiful morning light!
I processed these photos first in black and white (my preference most of the time). But I cannot deny the beauty of color in nature- even in weeds and grasses- so there is a color version as well.
I couldn’t resist this one as well- the two of us on the trail.
Spooning
I have just one photo to show so far from the last BeStill 52 lesson on light. The challenge was to photograph spoons with the light hitting them from different angles. You would think this would be easy for me, as I have many, many spoons, but the light was the problem- the sun kept going behind the clouds, which took away the shadows I was trying to capture. Perhaps I’ll get it right next time!
I chose to photograph a few spoons from my grandmother’s souvenir coffee spoon collection from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. I used to play with these spoons when I was a little girl, and I still treasure them today.
Catching the light
I photographed my huge Russian sage (although not a native plant, it seems to pop up everywhere), on two different days over the weekend- and what a difference a day makes.
Here is Saturday’s photo.
And here is Sunday’s! I have to give my husband credit for this one. He looked out the window while we were watching TV (still binge-watching Damages!), and exclaimed over the light in the clouds. While he paused the TV, I ran out and captured this one before the light changed.
Both photos are textured with Kim Klassen’s textures- golden and waterfront11 on the first, 1301 on the second.
Linking up with Texture Tuesday today.
Feather Fun
Photographing a feather we found at Lynx Lake last week was fun with my macro lens. And then I varied the processing- more fun for a rainy day!
A clean edit.
A warmed up black and white.
An infrared preset- check out that grain- whoa!
Textured to the max!
The rain- and after . . .
We had our first HUGE monsoon storm yesterday- thunder, lightning, heavy rain, flooding (not at our house) and power outage!
After hours and hours of rain and sky drama, the rain subsided in the early evening. The hummingbirds dashed to the feeder, and all was back to normal in the high desert.
And then the storm resumed . . .
Just a few more
On Tuesday, I posted my favorite photo of the cooperative swallowtail that had been visiting our yard. Today, I am posting three more photos and am hoping he will make a return visit!
Desert Backroads
While my friend Carol was visiting (she flew home today, alas), we took the required drive to Sedona which we do with all our visitors. This time, we decided to drive to Cathedral Rock, because we had seen several photographs depicting the rock formation reflected in Oak Creek. We chose late afternoon/early afternoon for our visit, so that the light would be right. Unfortunately neither route recommended to us took us very near where we wanted to be, and the sun was beginning to set as we finally decided to do our shoot from the road. With only one small cloud in the sky, we took our photos. On my photography to-do list is finding the spot to get that reflection.
Backyard Wildlife
A few weeks ago we had some drama in the front yard involving a brave bunny and a scared (and scary) snake. The short version is that, as I was looking out the window, the cute bunny in the front yard hopped, almost running, across the yard and leapt onto a LONG snake (which I had not noticed was there). In a flash, the bunny and the snake were rolling around, the snake was attempting to climb a post on the front porch, and then the snake slithered to safety inside an small evergreen tree out of the bunny’s reach. The bunny stalked that snake for two days- and then no more action.
Flash forward to yesterday. . .
Carol (who is staying with us) and I were getting ready for the day, when my husband informed me that there was a “little snake” in the back yard. I went out and was horrified to see a very large (probably 4 feet long) snake slithering around under the apple trees. It looked like the snake in the Snake and Bunny Saga. I grabbed Carol’s camera with its fancy 400mm zoom lens and clicked away- from a safe distance. When she joined us, I reluctantly gave her camera back and eventually got close enough to take photos with my 18-200mm zoom.
Carol identified our heretofore unknown snake as a Sonoran gopher snake- and, sadly, we found that he has a hole under the apple tree where he apparently- ummmm- LIVES!
To sum up, we have a big snake LIVING in our back yard. I thought the bunny had scared him away for good. So, besides birds and butterflies, we have lizards, toads, bunnies, and a snake. And at least one tarantula- but that’s a whole other story. I considered this as we sat outside last night drinking wine and enjoying a delicious grilled meal- about 10 feet away from the snake’s “HOUSE.”
I’m trying to be a grown-up about this.
Hi there!
We’ve had the most cooperative swallowtail in the yard the last few days! It allowed Carol and me to get however close we wanted while it sipped nectar from our butterfly bushes. Carol, true to form, looked up this particular swallowtail online and determined it to be the Two Tailed Swallowtail, Arizona’s state butterfly.
I took dozens of photos of the butterfly, but am partial to this almost out of the frame shot of it checking me out as it drank.
Textured with Kim Klassen’s 2203 for Texture Tuesday.
melinda anderson photography 