I took a morning walk today, determined to get out of my rut of taking photos in our backyard. I spent some time on shots of our neighbor’s Japanese maple, as well as pampas grass, fences, bees, flowers etc. in the neighborhood. As I returned home, I liked the way the plantings on the edge of our front yard look like a forest, so I took a few shots. And those are the ones that I ended up using. No apologies, no excuses- I just like this photo best!
The weather was hot, the company was great, the food was fantastic (the best 6.95 salad I’ve ever eaten), the grandbaby (not mine) was adorable- and the photos? Wellll, not so wonderful.
Each outside table at the Petaluma restaurant where we ate was decorated with a beautiful red kalanchoe in a cute pot- so I focused on that for my photo of the day. When I was editing tonight, I just couldn’t get the colors to look right- the red flowers with the green leaves looked like Christmas to me. The more I looked at the photos, the more I disliked them. I tried a sepia processing with and without texture- too bland. I ended up with a simple black and white conversion- and called it DONE!
But wait- the day wasn’t over! After coming back to it a couple hours later, I still didn’t like it- especially the composition and the lack of contrast in the flower petals. I went back to the color version, changed the crop, and did an HDR cheat on it (only 1 photo with 3 exposures), which helped some.
So. . . it’s 11:00 now and I have wasted entirely too much time on a photo that I don’t really like. There is something to be said for getting a good shot SOOC, Carol!
Texture Tuesday’s theme is LOVE this week. Since I LOVE autumn (my favorite season), I went outside, looked down and snapped this quick photo. Why did I look down? None of our autumn colored leaves seem to stay on the trees in our yard- they just immediately fall off. . .
I textured this photo with two layers of Kim’s autumn burst and 2 layers of fall in. Follow the link on the right to Kim’s Cafe some beautiful textured photos.
TGIMM!
(Thank God It’s Macro Monday)!
I seem to be drawn more to the details than the big picture, so it’s a big relief to me when Macro Monday rolls around. I always forget to link to Lisa’s Chaos, where Macro Monday resides- so this week I’m not! If you have time, follow the links on that page to some beautiful macro photos.
The drooping branches of my favorite Maytens tree often provide beautiful bokeh backgrounds for photos taken in our backyard. Today, I decided to use them as the foreground to go along with the theme for my ODC Flickr group- Starts with B.
So- now presenting Black and White Branches with Bokeh!
I’m having some issues with the slideshow with this new WordPress theme. It automatically takes the photos from the posts on this page and inserts them into a slideshow at the top. Cool! But. . . some of them it changes. I can’t figure out how or why it is doing that. It seems to have something to do with whether they have been cropped or had a black and white conversion. This photo has been cropped to a square AND had a sepia treatment AND a black and white conversion on top of that (all in Aperture 3) AND then a Photoshop tweak and watermarking- so heaven help me. . .
This display of gourds outside Trader Joe’s today reminded me that Fall is here- Happy First Day of Fall, everyone!
Project 365 2011 is 100 Days away from completion! I am feeling such a sense of satisfaction from having honored my commitment to take a photo every day and post it, while improving my camera skills! I’m celebrating Day 265 by changing the look of my blog (or not. . .). I’m experimenting with WordPress themes, so not all my links are showing up. Bear with me as I play with this!
Today I am using the topic from Our Daily Challenge on Flickr- From Ground Level. I took a beach towel and lay on our lower patio, aiming the lens one of the leaves that is starting to litter our grass. Definitely a bug’s eye view!
My constant backyard visitor. . .
Yes, I know I have photographed these webs before- but our yard is SHROUDED with them, and the spiders are HUGE! I feel like I am in a science fiction movie.
Today is Texture Tuesday, so I added one layer of Kim’s tattered texture using the color burn mode. This was the first time I had used color burn, which I thought did a nice job of adding some interest in the non-bokeh part of the photo (I masked off some of the texture in the rest of the image).
I spotted this yesterday in the bushes by our driveway. I think it’s supposed to be a sign- good things to come? an angel nearby? Anyway, it made me smile, so here is my macro shot for today-
f/3.8, 1/200, ISO200, 85mm
I seem to have a yard full of spiders- there are webs and BIG spiders everywhere! I was very glad to spot this little guy, who was eyeing me as I was eyeing him! FYI, WordPress thinks eyeing is misspelled- but dictionary.com says eying and eyeing are both correct. Just so you know. . .
f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 200, 85mm
Out all day- and thank goodness there were roses!
I found this rather large spider working hard in my garden this morning (with two more nearby!). I didn’t really get the shot I wanted (a closeup of a spider spinning a web- all in focus). When I increased the depth of field (closing down the aperture) on later shots, she was moving too fast for the slower shutter speed required. So, I settled for the shallow depth of field. BTW, this photo was not cropped, other than making it square (yes, I was THAT CLOSE!).
Big news in my Flickr world: yesterday’s photo of the day was “Explored”! Not really sure what it means, but I know it’s good. . .
Most of the photo blogs I look at are documenting signs of the approach of autumn, so I decided to look around for some in my garden. We have a moderate climate here, so the color display here is just beginning. I had to look closely- and, in among the greenery, here is what I found!
f/3.8, 1/2000, ISO 200, 85mm
