Category: around the yard

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

Unfinished is one of the topics suggested in a Flickr group I just joined.  Each day a new topic is posted, which you can ignore or not, and you have about a week to complete and post a photo for that topic.  No photos may be used that were taken before the topic was posted.

I’ve been doing Project 365 for eight months now- longer than I have ever stuck to anything requiring discipline! But, I have needed some inspiration- and this Flickr group should help on those days when I can’t think of anything to shoot.  Yay, Flickr!

I actually took a photo yesterday of this same tomato plant for Facebook (not even thinking of my photo of the day- and that it could fit into a topic!).   When our family was here, Miles loved to water the plants with his Papa, so I was posting the picture to show him that they are finally turning red. So out I went again this morning, to photograph the “unfinished” one. You may recall this earlier post.  Similar photo, similar theme, same plant, but not the same exact tomatoes! 🙂

f/1.8, 1/125, ISO250, 35mm

Scott Kelby shared his favorite HDR settings a few days ago on his blog, so I tried it out!

I went on a mini HDR kick when I first started photography, downloading a free trial of Photomatix.  I lost interest when I quickly realized that I didn’t understand what I was doing (still don’t really. . .), although I liked some of the images I produced. When I bought Photoshop in January, I tried it again- but none of my images that I edited had that Photomatix look to them.

I think for someone like me, a preset is the answer. I just copied his settings and saved it as a preset- easy. I realize that this isn’t an outstanding image- just a quick look up at the the sky with clouds this morning- but it is interesting to see what happens to it.  I played around with it some more in Photoshop- even tried using it as a layer above the original image and blending it different ways (I want to try that again- interesting effects!)- but am posting it today just as is, the Scott Kelby way.

And here is the original shot (with a little definition and midtones boost).

As I understand it, HDR uses three images at three different exposures which are then blended into one. When I used Photomatix, I made 2 copies of an image- and made one lighter and one darker- then the software merged them. For this process, I used a single image- I have no clue what Scott does!

 

With a really busy day ahead of me, I actually thought about what my photo of the day would be last night. It is Texture Tuesday with a Back to School theme (a natural for me), so I planned ahead what my photo would be. Because of my 365 project, I am a stickler for taking the photo on the same day I post it, so I can’t work on the photo ahead and then just post it on the appropriate day.

But when I got up early this morning, I became entranced by the changing light out the window as the sun rays began to peek through the fog. Although I was planning an inside still life for today, I wandered outside in my nightgown and began snapping photos.  The light was changing quickly, so my original foggy shots were changing into sunny ones.

As I shot over the back gate (having abandoned the front porch for fear of what the neighbors might think of a nightgowned photographer photographing the fog over their houses), I became more interested in the details of the gate itself- hence this photo.

f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 320, 85mm

So from back to school to fog to sunlight to gate hardware- all in 27 photos. Symptoms of ADD? Hmmmm…..

When we got this tomato plant, we were told that it was an early variety and that we would have tomatoes in May.  We just ate our first red tomato last week, but the rest are still green.

f/5.6, 1/160, ISO 250, 200mm

Yesterday I took 171 photos; today I took 3. It’s called balance. . .

Since I’m still editing (and deleting many of) my Carmel photos, I haven’t been too inspired today- so here are some early morning shadows on my deck. I think they make an interesting composition.

 

 

 

For weeks I’ve been trying to photograph the elusive swallowtail butterfly that dances merrily through my yard each day.  One day there were two of them, zigzagging back and forth and around the shrubs and trees, never lighting.  Today as I was trying unsuccessfully to focus on my daily visitor, I noticed a small, brown, sort of Plain Jane butterfly calmly going from blossom to blossom right next to me.  It wasn’t very pretty, as butterflies go, but when I zoomed in on it, I noticed the proboscis (I hope that’s right- I’m not well-versed on butterflies- let’s call it a tongue) in a lovely spiral that would unfold and extend into the blossoms- fascinating! Since I had not yet been able to capture a closeup of another butterfly, I had no idea this happened. The things I’m learning about in my retirement!