One of the recent prompts in the studio is BERRIES, which I have photographed many times and never tire of, so I thought this theme would be a good one for me to do to get back into the swing of still life. As usual, the simpler compositions worked best for me.
My daughter and husband took a walk while we were at Yellowstone and came back with a snakeskin they had found. Despite being a little grossed out, I was fascinated with the textures and patterns and couldn’t resist taking a few photos.
Miles was fascinated as well.
I am hoping this is the last time I photograph anything related to snakes.
My wonderful son-in-law drove me and my sweet and very patient family through a section of Yellowstone to see some beautiful country- and mostly so I could take some photographs. Although it was midday and therefore not the best light, the sky full of white puffy clouds made a beautiful backdrop- and there were wildflowers everywhere!
These were all taken on Blacktail Road. The Gallatins were behind us; the predominant mountain is Electric Peak.
The star of the show this trip, was undoubtedly three month old Penny; she entertained us every moment she was awake (and sometimes while asleep). The puppy cuteness was overwhelming! Miles is her biggest fan; Henry is somewhat of a puppy himself, so he loves playing with her.
I struggled with taking photos of her, because, although she is generally well-behaved, she is a puppy, after all, and in constant motion. One evening after dinner, I looked out the window to see my son-in-law, Justin putting Penny through her paces out on the grass (the elk were off somewhere- yay!). The after sunset light was beautiful, and Penny will do anything Justin tells her to do- this was a perfect opportunity for some puppy portraits!
She’s a beauty, isn’t she?
Penny, the puppy, isn’t the only baby around here. As usual, the house here at Mammoth is surrounded by elk for a good part of the day, and there are quite a few babies in the herd. This one was getting ready to follow its mother across the road.
By the way, yesterday’s and today’s photos were edited on the iPad with Snapseed and posted using the WordPress app.
I still have photos I haven’t posted from Santa Fe! Here are two Lensbaby shots taken during the golden hour of this magnificent building by the square.
One of the first things our little group photographed on our trip to Flagstaff was the Greek Orthodox Church. I was particularly entranced with the gargoyles, which adorned the roof line.
I found this one amusing, because it looked like he was munching on leaves.
I edited this one to give it a dark and foreboding look- could it be because I just saw Jurassic World?
On Saturday, I went with my camera club on an architectural photo shoot in Flagstaff, where we had a map and buildings marked on the map to photograph. I had so much fun tagging along with two expert photographers with fancy cameras, as we roamed the streets, eventually ignoring the map and photographing mostly street scenes. The photographs I took of buildings were pretty uninspired and boring and not very good, but I had a great time with street photography.
This shot of a street musician and his doggie is my favorite.
I processed it with one of the HDR filters in on1’s Perfect Effects and then layered it with the original photo is Photoshop, where I masked out the HDR edit from some of the areas.
Here are a few photos left over from various recent shoots- all in black and white:
My Friday Find is borrowed from my friend, Debbie, who graciously allowed me to photograph it this week. You may see it again, because I have some other ideas before I return it. And my goodness, there’s that straw hat again!
This is a Lensbaby shot with added textures. I like the look that some of my textures give my walls- wish they really looked like that!
And here is the same photo (in the original proportions- I “stretched the canvas” of the top one in Photoshop) with a black and white preset I adapted from one I had gotten from somewhere. I wanted a light-ish black and white conversion, which I sometimes do by adjusting tones etc. This time I decided to save it as a preset, hoping it will work on other photos as well.
First I saw the God-beams. . .
and then the beautiful morning light- a good day for photography!
Have a wonderful day!
Hats on Chairs- catching up on still life challenges for The Studio Online!
If you have been following my blog for awhile, you have seen this chair many times- and if you’ve been following it for a LOOOOONG while, you seen the hat. Oh well- you’ve seen them, because they’re great props for still life photography! And, no doubt, you will see them again!
These were all taken with the Lensbaby Edge 80.
The final assignment in my lensbaby class is a photo essay using mostly lensbaby images, and it can be either narrative or thematic. One can’t walk around downtown Santa Fe without noticing churches and sacred images everywhere, so I chose to focus on this theme for my photo essay.
Notes:
The first image- I’m not sure what building this was!
The next two are the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis, and the third is a statue of Kateri Tekakawitha (1656-1680), the first Indian of North America to be promoted a saint. The simple cross was hanging over our bed.
The rest of the photos are from San Miguel Mission, the oldest church in the U.S., built between 1600 and 1620.
Last Sunday we celebrated my birthday in Santa Fe. We walked around the downtown taking in as many of the sights as we could in one day and sampling northern New Mexico cuisine. Here are a some random detail shots gathered taken on our walk around the city; all were taken with my lensbaby.
We are home now, after a LOOOOONG drive through Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico and a day off to celebrate my birthday in Santa Fe. There are a lot of photos to go through- especially from Santa Fe, where I tried to take enough photos with my Lensbaby to satisfy the photo essay requirement for the last week of the class (even though I’m not a full participant and won’t be evaluated).
So today, I again celebrate the flat horizons and vast expanses of Kansas with these minimalist shots, both taken with the Edge 80 optic.
melinda anderson photography 