Day 172- Mystery!

The topic today is MYSTERY!  I had a great idea, which I couldn’t quite execute.  We’ve had a group of crows hanging out in our backyard, and they leave whenever we go outside. I almost got a shot today, but they are smarter than I am. So this is all I can offer- not quite a MURDER of CROWS, as I had planned.

OK, bird rescuers (and you know who you are!), I wasn’t planning to MURDER the crows! A group of crows is called a MURDER, but if you are a bird rescuer, you probably know that. . .

 

So here’s the real mystery. What are these plants/things (Carol, you can’t guess the last one)???

 

 

Melinda2 Comments

Day 171- Critter

I sat outside and waited for some critters to show up (today’s theme).  The birds seemed to be avoiding the yard today, so I went in search of spiders, which were not hard to find.  I first tried using my zoom lens, but had to go back and get the macro in order to get a more detailed shot. This is MUCH bigger than life size- it was a very tiny spider.

f/8, 1/100, ISO 720, 85mm (using Aperture Priority with Auto ISO- still feels like cheating!) -1 2/3 EV

I had a chance to use Lightroom’s famous noise reduction, and I think it worked fine.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 170- Saturated

Today’s topic, saturated, made me think of saturated fats, soggy soil, and saturated color.  I went with COLOR!

Here are some flowers with beautifully saturated colors, specifically reds and purples:

 

 

BTW, I cropped one of my images (I think it was the third one) and discovered that I could choose from different kinds of crop overlays- rule of thirds, golden triangle, golden ratio- I think there were five- very cool!

 

Melinda2 Comments

Day 164- Macro Cat

My dollhouse china kitty (made in Japan) has survived all these years.  I remember my other dollhouse figures being plastic; I’m not sure why the kitty wasn’t. He sits in a wooden coke bottle crate that hangs on the wall in the kitchen and is the subject for today’s photo of the day (in response to the topic, macro).

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Day 86- Bending

My paper white stems grew really fast and quickly bent under the weight of the flowers. They are still graceful, however, and I often notice the new shapes as they fold and droop lower and lower. Today’s theme is mono, so I converted a photo I took this morning of my droopy stems to a black and white.

BTW for anyone interested in the Zone System, I metered off the green leaves at +1 (Zone 6)- and still had a few blinkies on the edge. It was probably a Zone 7.

Here is the black and white version.

 

 

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Day 66- Strung

Buttons is the topic today- and I know I’ve already photographed buttons for the blog. I thought my button necklace would be a good subject, but after 20 years of calling it that, I realized today that it isn’t really made of buttons- just flat beads.  Funny what you notice with a macro lens. . .

But here it is anyway:

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Day 65- Macro Attack

Just because it’s Monday, I walked around the yard with my 85mm looking for something small to shoot up close. I noticed our pink breath of heaven plants are blooming, so took a couple photos of their tiny flowers.

When I came in the house, I randomly took a photo of the head of my mother’s tiny doll from her childhood- and decided that her dreamy look (my daughter says nightmarish. . .) expression qualifies this as the photo of the day for my Flickr group’s Dream theme.

This was textured with Kim Klassen’s bent edges.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 56- Not Yet Iris

The topic today is art.  It could be your photo as art, art supplies- anything art related.  I am waiting to see if my photo buddy, Carol, posts a photo of her brother, Art.

But, seriously- art?

Although I stated yesterday’s blurry photo was art (in the loosest sense of the word. . .)- deliberately setting out to create a photo that would be considered “ART” was a little daunting to me today.

Then I remembered the advice I read to just look for light- so I did. I took seventeen macro photos outside in about ten minutes, and this one was the first I took.  I don’t know if it is particularly arty, but it is almost abstract- and I love the light. FYI, it is the leaves of one of my irises, not yet blooming.

 

Melinda4 Comments

Day 54- Looking down, sort of . . .

The topic today was something about a view from above. I tried to get a cool macro of some of my husband’s birthday ribbon from one of his presents, but could only seem to capture it from the side. I’m afraid it looks a little Christmassy. . .

So my view from above is of my husband (who works from home) on a coffee break.  BTW, I used the speedlight on both photos today.

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Day 43- The joy of seeing. . .

The chrysanthemums beckoned today. . .

One of the things I’ve learned about my Project 365 this year is that it is OKAY (even GOOD!) to photograph something I have photographed before. Every time it is in a slightly different light or I am seeing it in a new way.  The joy of SEEING!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 38- Rainy day flowers. . .and a berry

Hurray for rainy days- the first in a LONG time!  I doubt we have had an inch, but I know we need it.  The theme for yesterday was water, so I went out with the intention of capturing some raindrops on flowers.

Raindrops on a geranium bud

I got distracted by the stamens on my azalea blossoms and ended up focusing on them rather than the water drops.

I submitted yesterday’s blackberry photo to my Flickr critique group for the topic, negative space. It was criticized for not having enough negative space, for the negative space being white, for not showing the whole berry, and for having a shallow depth of field (which was a deliberate choice I made for that image).

I went back and found this photo from yesterday which I do like, except I don’t like the shape of the berry.  I submitted this one to the group- the jury is still out. . .

Melinda4 Comments