Fall Scenes plus a few Dogs and a Swan

The crisp fall air, deep blue skies, colorful leaves, and a few animals provide good fodder for photos. I'm glad to share these recent highlights.

Leaf Color Zones

Red and Blue

Paperbark Maple Knot

Some dogs just love water; ...including this handsome animal.

Cold Water Doesn't Slow This Dog Down

A Rock in the Water

Late Fall Color

Fisherman Catching Some Rays

Sun Drenched

Graceful Swan

Halloween Colors

Branch Design

Reflections

Time to Unwind

Pondering

Gold in the Water

Fluffy?

All photos © 2015, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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Wide-ish Angle at the Res

Normally I use my 150-600mm equivalent lens when I walk around the "Res" to take pictures of ducks and other wildlife, but on this occasion I thought I'd step out of my comfort zone and see what a wider angle might bring me.  This is the polar opposite of shooting close up details of everything which is my usual photographic leaning.  While I don't have a true "wide angle" lens, my Olympus 12-40mm pro lens is fairly wide angle-ish on the short end, where its 24mm equiv. focal length does begin to distort things a bit and gives one that classic wide angle perspective.  All photos on this page were taken with the 12-40 lens.  I had my 75-300mm lens with me as well on the day I took these photos, but I never had the urge to swap lenses.

Part of my inspiration for trying to take more wide angle photos is that my son took some outstanding wide angle shots on one of his recent hiking treks into the Sierra wilderness.  I really appreciated the beauty in this form of photographic expression.

Do you agree?

A Stand of Trees

View of the Island

Curved Shoreline

At Reservoir's End

I love that I can shoot at f2.8 and freeze water with this lens on a not very bright day.  This shot was at 1/500 sec. at ISO 200.

Dog Fishing Action Shot

Drip, Drip

Low Perspective

Blues

Duck Wake

Other Worldly

Branch and Leaves Over Water

Dam Glow

Don't Trip on the Roots

Triangles

Late Sun

All photos © 2015, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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Seven Different Animals

Noah's Ark this is not, but over time I do manage to take pictures of various animals. Amusingly, I'd picked this set of animal photos to share in this post, and only after making the selection did I realize that these happen to be seven different animals. Only one of them is a bird. I don't think you'll have any problem picking out which animal is a bird.

The first two photos were taken with my Panasonic ZS40 travel zoom.  Both of these were taken with a 35mm equivalent focal length of 720mm.  That's a lot of zoom!

Notice the Striped Colors All the Way Along This Snake's Skin

Turtles Always Seem to Be Basking in the Sun

The rest of these were taken with my Olympus gear.

Believe it or not, I took this picture through a glass window at a not-so-great angle.  I admit I removed a few glass reflections after the fact.  This critter was looking in on us at a local tech college where I was taking, of all things, a photography class.  The instructor took some shots of this visitor as well.

Checking Out the Classroom Offerings

Vertical Climbing Oficianado

The picture of this little fellow was taken from 45 feet away with my 60mm lens, and heavily cropped.

Crossing Front Paws

Can you count the well-camouflaged children in this photo?  Taken at 1/60 sec. at ISO 1600, also with my 60mm lens; about 50 ft. away:

Gobblers During a Family Stroll

Shirley Temple Hair?

All photos © 2015, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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A Summer Day

Today's post contains all pictures taken today, a typical summer day for me.  I began with a walk around the reservoir, capturing some Queen Anne's Lace, yet again, this time with some wonderfully colored insects visiting, followed by several shots in the garden and other photos taken during our walk around the neighborhood later in the day.  This was an overcast day, without bright sun.

This is a photo of water only!

Branch Reflections

Colorful Visitor and Tiny Friend

Black and White Stripes With Reddish Brown Translucent Wings

One of my favorites:

Pure Queen Anne's Lace

Masterful Design

The next three photos are of our Crocosmia in our front yard.  Very tropical!

Depth of Field Demonstration

Fine Color and Stucture

Lollipops

Busy Center

Here's a tighter crop on the same photo:

Central Nervous System

Athletic Neighbor Having Fun

 I once heard a news story that black dogs are less likely to be selected from shelters because they don't photograph well! Absurd, wouldn't you agree?

Well Behaved Friend

Late day light was still good enough to show us this local color.

Delicate Display

A closer crop:

Little Skis in the Air

Sunsets don't have to be red to be enjoyable.

Evening Sky to End the Day

All photos © 2015, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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