We have a hummingbird feeder hanging outside our window by the kitchen sink, and nearby is a hummingbird swing. The hummer in this photo (a quick snap taken through the window glass) was not swinging for fun. He was guarding the feeder from a hummingbird who kept trying to come in for a drink. Never mind that there are three feeders- these aggressive little guys do not like to share!
Every summer, I take photos of these prickly poppies, and I usually am not happy with them. This one was shot at the end of a walk at Watson Lake just as it was thundering and clouding over. A few raindrops were coming down, and the clouds softened the usually harsh noon light, which brought out the details of the petals.
Warning- these prickly leaves are sharp, which is why I’ve never succeeded in picking one of these poppies. Next time- heavy garden gloves and clippers!
If you seen eryngium, you might hesitate to call it a flower. It looks like a thistle, but is supposed to be an herb, common name sea holly. Although I took many shots, the one I like best is this multiple exposure with a bit of intentional camera movement on one layer.
This butterfly has been fluttering by the windows that look out on our back yard, but it never seemed to land. Today, I caught a glimpse of it through the front window and saw it land on a bush at the edge of our property. I grabbed my camera and spent about 10 minutes watching and photographing it with my zoom lens- my first butterfly photo of the summer!
Here is another view of the hummingbird I posted yesterday. Although it’s not my favorite pose (the wings forward), I love how you can see the flower, sky, and part of the head through the wing as the morning light hits the front of the bird, its wings frozen in place with the high shutter speed I was using to photograph bees.
It was my lucky day! First of all, I was trying out my new macro lens- a gift from my good friend, Carol of infocusdaily.com , who is changing out her traditional Nikon lenses for lenses made specifically for her Nikon mirrorless system. I brought a chair out to the front flower bed so I could sit by the lavender and try out the lens. My intention was to to capture some of the buzzing bees, but as I sat down and raised my camera, I was “buzzed” by this little hummer (likely a black-chinned hummingbird). It was not intimidated by my camera, but was letting me know I was in its territory. It continued sipping nectar out of the blossoms as I snapped these photos- and I was very impressed by how well my Nikon with the new macro lens was able to capture the details on this little bird, who was probably 6-10 feet away. It was all over within five minutes, but I felt very lucky indeed to have this wonderful new lens and to have its first subject be this sweet hummingbird! Thank you, Carol!
I’m continuing to have fun with the native plants and weeds growing in front of our house. I love how the lightbox brings out the details, and how photoshop layers can create magic with this image.
We have a beautiful Russian sage (the purple flowers) at the end of our driveway- and another down by the street that grows wild. Also in front of the house we have some Apache plume- the weedy mop top. This made a very Arizona composition on my lightbox- fun!
A nosegay for you with flowers from our yard!
Just two of our roses…
Although I have taken a lot of photos, I haven’t been posting for some reason. The iris image above is an in-camera multiple exposure shot with intentional camera movement from a couple months ago. It is similar to one I have posted already, but I’ve just gotten around to editing this one.
My father always referred to flowers or plants that appeared out of nowhere “volunteers.” Is that the right word? Anyway, a couple years ago I noticed a prickly pear leaf growing out of the ground behind our rose bushes. We left it alone, and this year it developed several leaves and a couple dozen buds. I worried that they would open while we were gone for the week, but they waited until our return. Over the last few days, we’ve been enjoying the blossoms “volunteering” to add color and beauty to our garden.
I’ve been going through old photos. Like most photographers, I have so many on my hard drives that have never been edited. This is from a trip to San Diego (Mission Bay?) about ten years ago. Our son was living there and was still single- how things have changed!
Our photo group “final” was last week, one of the two topics being “Impressionism”. Since our irises are in bloom, I chose to create an impressionist image. I used intentional camera movement layered with a standard shot and some brushwork and a texture to give it a painterly quality. I’m delighted to have a camera, warm weather, and flowers in bloom as an excuse to sit in the backyard for hours at a time.
It finally looks and feels like springtime around here! Trees have leafed out, flowers are being planted, and the barbecue is going- it’s wonderful time of year!
melinda anderson photography 