A White Christmas Dream Come True

We were dreaming of white Arizona Christmas as we checked the weather apps each day. As the weekend approached, the forecasts kept showing a snowflake for most of Christmas Eve day- and they were right. It rained in the late morning, quickly turning to sleet and then snow- heavy snow that lasted all afternoon. We ended up with about six or seven inches at our house, and it is still here. Beautiful!

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I posted this photo on Facebook- and then noticed the fire hydrant in the foreground, which I have since removed (fire hydrants and garbage cans are what cloning brushes are for!).  After I took this shot, I walked toward the tree- and fell against the curb, cracking my lens hood and banging my arm and knee. Happy to report that the only damage seems to have been to the lens hood (which is a replacement for the one I cracked in Montana. . .)- the camera and photographer are just fine!

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In Bloom

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I looked through my recent photos and decided to break with tradition and go with pink instead of green for today. I took these shots of the blossoms on our plum tree before we left for Palm Springs.  I guess this was a smart move, because, now that we are back, the blossoms are all gone.

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Mini

This tiny apple had escaped my notice until the other day when I was outside looking for something to photograph. The icy wind from Sunday night’s storm had stripped the apple tree of leaves, so that all that remains is this little apple, a storm survivor.

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Company Came!

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Yesterday we woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground- which quickly became 4 or 5 inches at least, as it snowed steadily all day.  It is super cold, as it was during and after our last snowstorm, so snow is still on the ground- unlike in our first two winters here, when it all melted away by noon. We are experiencing a real winter in the Arizona high country!

Around noon, my husband spotted this hawk sitting quietly on one of the birdhouses. It was snowing lightly at the time, and the wind was blowing.  I’m not sure if he was just resting or was waiting for the birds that frequent the bird feeders in this part of the yard. I posted a shot of him on Facebook, and it was suggested he was either a Copper’s hawk or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. I didn’t enter the debate (I have no confidence in this area), but I did read that even experienced birders have trouble telling them apart.

For the above image, I cloned out all the distracting branches and the rocks on the hill in the background, and then added a texture at low opacity to make the background less stark. Below is a more natural photo- with the branches and background clutter.  Both photos were taken through a bedroom window, and he was definitely aware of my presence!

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Snowbound

It has been a week and a half since our snowstorms- and I find myself marveling every day at the slowly disappearing expanses of snow that remain in my yard, not to mention around town.  I took my Velvet 56 outside to capture a few bits of weeds and leaves peeking up here and there through the snow.

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Home Grown Abstract

It was sooo cold when I went out front to shoot these curly tendrils on my spiky plant (someday I’ll find out what its called…) with my macro lens.  Although I’ve photographed them before, my attention was caught by the combination of curves and lines hit by the morning light.  The colors you see in the background were present in my photograph and accentuated by the Color Burst preset in Topaz Texture Effects, turning it into a little bit of art for a Wednesday morning.20151211-MMA_6849_melinda_anderson-Edit

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White Stuff

We had an early snow yesterday! After a blustery day of snow and rain, with nothing sticking, we finally got pretty white flakes for a few hours late yesterday afternoon and evening.

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Knowing that we were due for a day of sunshine, I bundled up and went out this morning so I could capture a few shots of the early morning sun hitting the inch or so of snow we got yesterday- and melting it away.

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Abstract Grasses

The morning light shining through the ornamental grasses out my office window took me away from my computer and out the front door with my camera and lensbaby.  I took about a dozen shots as I knelt on the rocks outside (ouch!) before my knees gave out from the effort.  I liked the resulting photos, which I edited with textures to emphasize the abstract qualities of the images.

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Macro Magic

I bought a Clickin Moms Lensbaby tutorial series back when I only had my Lensbaby Mobile for the iPhone, (no Composer Pro, no optics), because I was so eager to learn how to use these cool lenses.  One of the tips I learned was that the Edge 80 with macro converters does a great job capturing sun rays, especially when taking photos under leafy trees.  I only have one tree at this point that has enough leaves to provide a canopy for the sun to just peek through, so I spent 10 or 15 minutes the other day crouched uncomfortably beneath the plum tree looking up at the sun. I thought I didn’t get anything much until I played with a few images in Lightroom and discovered that I did get some interesting effects from the sun- including sun rays. Fun!

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The image below is the same as the last photo in the collage at the top of the post, except it has some Florabella textures added.

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Backyard Blur

My photography goal for April is to practice with my Lensbaby every day.  We’ve been out in the backyard the last couple days, so the Lensbaby came out with me yesterday.

The fountain is up and running again.  Is it just me, or does this look like a lady juggling?

20150331-MMA_2349_melinda_andersonHere is a macro of photinia leaves- with some added texture.

20150330-MMA_2285_melinda_anderson-EditAnd here is the same basic shot, edited with a black and white preset.  Notice how the lensbaby blur shows up in the black and white- interesting!

20150330-MMA_2285_melinda_andersonThese were all taken with the Sweet 50 optic, macro converters added in the last two.

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