The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee: tree

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Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Carol's Garden and Akela

During a recent visit to my sister-in-law Carol's house, I snapped some photos of her amazing garden, and of her Seppala Husky dog as well. The garden is the result of an intensive project begun during Covid to revamp the front yard from mostly grass to mostly gardens. The gardens are filled with intense color blooms which make it a joy to observe and walk through. Below are some of my favorite photos taken during the visit.

Her garden contains magnificent dahlias.

Delightful Dahlia

... and some other purple blooms, much loved by several insects.

Small Yellow Flyers

Bee on Task

While not as colorful as many of the plants, this blue spruce tree has plenty of camera appeal as well.

Bristling Blue Spruce

Here we take a brief intermission and introduce you to Akela, a Seppala Husky (also called a Seppala Siberian Sleddog). Check out the movie "Togo" (2019) to learn about Seppala Huskies. They're an intelligent and amazing sled dog, now considered a different breed from other Siberian Huskies.

Seppala Smile

Akela is one of, if not *the*, most alert dog I've ever met. He is always paying attention.

Eye on the Prize

Now back to more garden photos of a much smaller animal: a praying mantis.

Natural Pest Control

Special Garden Visitor

New Dahlia

Dancing Joyous Petals 1

Dancing Joyous Petals 2

Outreach

Bee Bliss

I enjoyed the textures displayed in the large petals of this hibiscus.

Sails Up

Once again, back to the glorious dahlias.

Basking Petals

Dahlia Derriere

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Cardinals in the Snow

We have a flowering pear tree that produces berries that Northern Cardinals, at least, seem to really like eating.

After a recent snowfall, the Cardinals were quite easy to spot, their bright red color contrasting nicely against the snow.

I decided to try to photograph them through the window, an effort that is not always rewarded with particularly sharp pictures. They were approximately 50 feet away through the glass.

While both a male and a female Cardinal were present, the photos below are only of the male. I like the muted colors of the female as well, but none of those photos were quite blog worthy, perhaps partly because she was hidden behind branches.

These are taken with my 300mm (600mm equivalent) zoom lens at 258, 179, and 240mm respectively. The first two are cropped in post, the last is not.

Snackin' in the Snow

Bird in Winter

Happy in the Trees

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Morning Sun

I'm the first to admit that most of my "Golden Hour" shots are the setting sun golden hour. Getting up early to see that other oft heard about sunrise golden hour is not normally part of my routine.

Today I was up early and found the morning sun's rays too photogenic to pass up. I grabbed these shots before I went on the road.

All taken hand-held with my 60mm (120mm equiv.) lens.

We *love* our Paperbark maple tree!

Paperbark Arm

Sunrise Branch

Swoosh

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Life is a Tree Full of Cherries

By some wonderful quirk of fate, we happen to have the most enjoyable cherry tree in our very own front yard. Not only is it pleasing to behold, it serves up massive amounts of delicious tart cherries this time of year.

Photographing the tree and its cherries is an annual challenge of mine. While prior years have yielded some okay photos, I've not been overly pleased with the results. This year, I chose to make an extra effort to see if I can display the cherries in a way which really shows off their "cherriness." You be the judge, but I think at last I've succeeded.

Note that the cherries are not quite fully ripe in these photos, and that is why their color leans toward orange, rather than true red. Even in the two days or so since these photos were taken prior to this post, they have turned just a bit more red, and less orange. I think the deep orange color shown here gives them a kind of translucency in the sun and gives them more "pop."

Take a look. They are as yummy as they appear. Go nature!

Portal to Cherries

Sun Drenched Cherries

Cherries Up Close and Personal

Cherry Burst in the Sky

Semi-hidden Cherries

Sky-backed Cherries

Cherries Coming At You

Points of light becoming round diffuse blobs is sometimes referred to as "bokeh" in a photograph. This is a side effect of the background of the image being beyond the current depth of field (area of the picture which is in focus.) The quality of an image's bokeh refers to the smoothness or harshness of the out of focus background blur. It doesn't need to contain smooth round blobs, but if there are any bright lit areas in the background, that is how good "bokeh" typically makes them look. Often this renders photos more pleasing to the eye, and is usually preferred to having everything in sharp focus. However, having the entire frame in focus can be perfectly desired for, say, a wide landscape/scenery shot.

I don't really know who's reading this blog, so I occasionally describe such nerdy photography details as this. If you already know about "bokeh", or don't really care, and just want to look at the pictures, my apologies for the interruption:) After checking out the overall image, look at the bokeh in this next photo.

Dancing Cherries

Cherries Above