The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Iris Frenzy

Deb's garden contains some wonderful Irises that showed their full colors and textures during the Spring just passed. With my renewed interest in photography, I found I spent much time enjoying the flow of their colors and textures. We think our Irises are mostly of the Bearded and Siberian variety, though we might have some Japanese Irises too. Per the Internet, source of all knowledge, Siberian and Japanese Irises can sometimes be confusing to tell apart. Well, at least one other person thought so...

All photos are shot handheld, many with my 60mm macro.
These are definitely some of my most favorite photos, and they proved to be especially fun to photograph with the macro lens.

I've included the focal length used to take each photo at the end of each caption.

Red Beard 300mm

Lit Veins 300mm

A Closer Look 60mm

Amazing Display 60mm

Amazing Display Even Closer 60mm

Flowing 60mm

Amazing Display Closer Still 60mm

Sunlit Elegance 40mm

Nature's Colors

Though summer is upon us, it is the purpose of this post to not forget the petals of recent past.

Enjoy!

Boy Reaching Up?

Wild Colombine

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Spotted

Blowin' in the Wind

Purple Passion

More Than Splashes of Color

Violet Delight

A Classic

Monday, July 6, 2015

Before and After

Generally speaking, I usually keep my post processing to a minimum, and share images little changed from their "out of the camera" version. Mostly I'll adjust a few Lightroom sliders to improve the dynamic range and/or contrast of an image to give a little more punch, but I try not to go too crazy.

Just for fun, here's an image I took in a skateboard park, before I decided to modify it in Photoshop. I rarely use Photoshop, and I did only a mediocre job with it here, but it is amusing what I was able to do.

Skilled Skateboarder Performing a Trick

I wasn't happy with the way the bicycle rider's head was directly behind the skateboarder's hand. And this was after I defocused the bicyclist's upper torso and head slightly in Lightroom. So I round tripped from Lightroom into Photoshop and back and here's what I came up with:

A "Cleaner" Trick; The Cyclist Has Vanished

Here's an instance where I liked the "Before" shot composition just fine, but wanted to create another perspective with a different emphasis for variation:

Beetle and Flower

Here's the second version, created in Lightroom by simply rotating and cropping closer. This version is more about the beetle than the flower.

Beetle Displaying its Colors and Texture

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Here is a Cat

A neighborhood cat.
What else else is there to say? It's a cat.

Cat Eyes

What?

Ready to Rumble

Friday, July 3, 2015

Serenity

While I had several successful captures today, I feel like sharing just one for now. This photo makes me feel serene and relaxed. Taken today during a stroll. I hope it makes you feel peaceful as well.

Serenity

Evening Grocery Trip Side Benefit

An after dinner grocery shopping trip had an unexpected benefit: I happened to be traveling past a picturesque spot at sunset. Thankfully, I had my "backup" Panasonic ZS-40 camera in the car. So I pulled over and took some photos. There were two other photographers and one fisherman at the site. The fisherman informed me the previous night's sunset was equally enjoyable.

Not only was the sunset wonderful, but the first photo shows a Great Blue Heron appreciating the nearby waterfall. I was amused that the two other photographers, who were also photographing the Great Blue Heron, were using gigantic heavy lenses on their "full frame" and APS-C gear. One had a 500mm lens that must have been three feet long; I never got a proper answer on the focal length of other one, which was also a few feet in length. Little did they realize my travel zoom (with its smaller sensor) has a 720mm lens on it, and the entire camera fits in my pocket.

Enjoy the photos!

Foot Massage

Sunset View 1

Sunset View 2

Sunset View 3

Sunset View 4

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Blog Title Theme Revisited

How about some more cormorants, dragonflies, and bees?

For cormorants, we have this capture:

Daily Neck Exercises

For dragonflies, here are a few new specimens:

Not your Regular House Fly

Silvery Wings with Shadows

I have *lots* of bee pictures. It was a challenge to select just a few to show here. These are three of my recent favorites:

Bee Nestling In

Defying Gravity

The Orange Butterfly Plant Attracts Many Bees

While not officially part of the blog theme title, a cicada paid us a visit today, and since cicadas have incredible detail when viewed through a macro lens, I thought I'd share what I saw:

Front Portion of Cicada

Rear Portion of Cicada