Nature

Signs of spring

Shot at the equivalent of 416mm,  ISO 200, 1/15 of a second at F8, laying on my belly.

Morning’s First Light

I don’t know how productive it will be but I’m practicing one-handed shooting with a point-and-shoot camera while taking my dog for his morning walk.  So imagine me with a dog leash in one hand, the camera in the other and me being pulled in the middle.  This was today’s capture.

Words of…

I came upon this tree and saying in Oakwood Cemetery.  I stripped out the color from the original image by adding Adobe Lightroom’s “Red Hi-Contrast Filter” preset.   What may (or may not) be obvious is the other photoshopping I did to the image to increase the “canvas” size around the carving to make it more horizontal that it actually was in real life.

(I have gone back to re-shoot it and this version does not have the expanded canvas.  I have put a smaller copy of the photoshopped version down below.)

Here’s a wider shot of what the tree looks like.  The rope hanging from the branch is a nice “touch”.  I’m guessing / hoping that it was from an old swing.  How long the chair has been there is anybody’s guess.

Text carved in a tree

 

Oh, like me you’re probably asking yourself “What does it say?”.  My best guess is this:

“WE ARE HERE TO CREATE NOT MERELY SURVIVE”

 

Words carved in a tree
Photoshopped version.

Princess Pine in the Snow

To give you a sense of scale these little gals are about 3-4 inches high and seem utterly resistant to winter.  This close-up does not show you how they tend to grow in patches.  This particular forest has a beautiful area where these are everywhere.  But if you walk a couple more minutes along the trail, there are no more to be seen.

Monarch Night

I shot this one back in the fall (Sept. 2015).  It was a fun experiment seeing how long the Monarch would tolerate being held and photographed.  The little guy was a great subject allowing me to play with all sorts of flash/drag-shutter images.  You can see more in the FB gallery here.