End of June? Already!?

 

I can’t believe June has zoomed by so fast.  It is usually my favorite summer month – but at least I get to see fireworks in a few days!  Anyone going to try to photograph fireworks?

I’m a bit behind in editing photos.  I’ve got a few modeling sessions in the queue that I hope to get done tonight.  I’ll post a few examples when I am done.

In the meantime, the office squirrel was outside the window again yesterday.  He’s being quite lazy again, even though the temperature was quite nice.  Not too hot at all.  I grabbed the camera and fired off a shot – then went to go get a longer lens to do a better job.  Apparently, he was camera shy as disappeared by the time I was prepared to do a decent photograph. 

But, just for laughs – here’s a SNAPSHOT (yes, that is ALL it is.)

I’ll post in a day or two with updates of the modeling photography.

PJ

Become a fan at my Facebook page – click the button below:

Invaded Again.

 

I took some photos of wildflowers along the highway on my return to South Dakota from Minneapolis yesterday.

They were tiny, but they looked great.  I pulled out the macro lens that I’ve been working with the last few days, sat in the ditch and worked on the photo.  Being the wind was gusting, it made for a real challenge.  Had to be very patient to get anything.

When I tried to identify the flower this afternoon, I kept striking out.  I found a few other photos of the same flower, but no one seemed to know what it was.  I finally found the flower on a website in the UK here.  Once I knew the name, I searched for the flower in Minnesota and found out that this is another non-native plant to the prairie and the Minnesota DNR considers it an invasive species that causes trouble on the prairie.  You can read about it here.

So, twice in a week I find what looks like a pretty flower, but it turns out they probably shouldn’t be growing here.  I’m for protecting the prairie and all environments for their native species.

ISO 200, f/11.0, 1/160 sec, macro – Nikon D300

Check out more photos and discussion on my business Facebook Page:

Invaded Again.

 

I took some photos of wildflowers along the highway on my return to South Dakota from Minneapolis yesterday.

They were tiny, but they looked great.  I pulled out the macro lens that I’ve been working with the last few days, sat in the ditch and worked on the photo.  Being the wind was gusting, it made for a real challenge.  Had to be very patient to get anything.

When I tried to identify the flower this afternoon, I kept striking out.  I found a few other photos of the same flower, but no one seemed to know what it was.  I finally found the flower on a website in the UK here.  Once I knew the name, I searched for the flower in Minnesota and found out that this is another non-native plant to the prairie and the Minnesota DNR considers it an invasive species that causes trouble on the prairie.  You can read about it here.

So, twice in a week I find what looks like a pretty flower, but it turns out they probably shouldn’t be growing here.  I’m for protecting the prairie and all environments for their native species.

ISO 200, f/11.0, 1/160 sec, macro – Nikon D300

Check out more photos and discussion on my business Facebook Page:

The One that Got Away.

 

Sometimes I think photography is like golf.  You go out there and take your swings.  When you are on, you are on.  Every shot goes exactly how you envisioned.

Sometimes though, even if you have all the mechanics right and the right equipment, you still can’t make the shot. 

Sometimes even when you are on – the environment plays against you – the weather,  or critters,  or a branch that is in the wrong spot.

Here’s my example of why this popped into my mind today.  Yesterday evening, I was sitting outside talking with my parents when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.  Turned out it was a massive bumblebee.  Biggest I had ever saw!

He was so big – I wondered if he was some other kind of critter masquerading as a bumblebee.  So, off I went to get the camera to try to get a few shots.  I figured we could then search the internet to find out what it was.

Had a macro lens on and I decided just to go with that.  I figured by the time I got back, I might miss the photo if I took the time to switch lenses.  However, this bumblebee was in no hurry.  I sat and took several frames.  The light was bright and harsh, but I figured I nailed a few.

While looking at the photos in Adobe Lightroom this afternoon, I realized I might have shanked my shot (with no hope of a Mulligan either!)  The photo that was the best, unfortunately wasn’t as sharp and focused as I like.  So, I worked on one that was.  Well, it is an “ok” photo.  Nothing that I’ll get to excited about – but it will at least give you a feel of what I saw.

ISO 200, f/9.0, 1/125 sec – Nikon D300

 

THIS is the one that got away.  The light is better, I like the composition better.  My problem is some key parts aren’t in focus – in particular around the front of his face!  Maybe not so noticeable on this little computer image, but it is enough to make me not quite satisfied.

ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/60 sec – Nikon D300

 

So, back to the old golf analogy.  I suppose I came up with par today.  No birdies or eagles!   BUT, when you think about it – that’s what makes golfers (and photographers) go back out and keep trying!  So, I’ll see you on the links tomorrow!

PJ

The One that Got Away.

 

Sometimes I think photography is like golf.  You go out there and take your swings.  When you are on, you are on.  Every shot goes exactly how you envisioned.

Sometimes though, even if you have all the mechanics right and the right equipment, you still can’t make the shot. 

Sometimes even when you are on – the environment plays against you – the weather,  or critters,  or a branch that is in the wrong spot.

Here’s my example of why this popped into my mind today.  Yesterday evening, I was sitting outside talking with my parents when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.  Turned out it was a massive bumblebee.  Biggest I had ever saw!

He was so big – I wondered if he was some other kind of critter masquerading as a bumblebee.  So, off I went to get the camera to try to get a few shots.  I figured we could then search the internet to find out what it was.

Had a macro lens on and I decided just to go with that.  I figured by the time I got back, I might miss the photo if I took the time to switch lenses.  However, this bumblebee was in no hurry.  I sat and took several frames.  The light was bright and harsh, but I figured I nailed a few.

While looking at the photos in Adobe Lightroom this afternoon, I realized I might have shanked my shot (with no hope of a Mulligan either!)  The photo that was the best, unfortunately wasn’t as sharp and focused as I like.  So, I worked on one that was.  Well, it is an “ok” photo.  Nothing that I’ll get to excited about – but it will at least give you a feel of what I saw.

ISO 200, f/9.0, 1/125 sec – Nikon D300

 

THIS is the one that got away.  The light is better, I like the composition better.  My problem is some key parts aren’t in focus – in particular around the front of his face!  Maybe not so noticeable on this little computer image, but it is enough to make me not quite satisfied.

ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/60 sec – Nikon D300

 

So, back to the old golf analogy.  I suppose I came up with par today.  No birdies or eagles!   BUT, when you think about it – that’s what makes golfers (and photographers) go back out and keep trying!  So, I’ll see you on the links tomorrow!

PJ

Flowers in Macro

 

I made a promise to myself to get up early this morning to get out in the garden to take a few photos with a macro lens as a few of us in the network have been having a bit of a conversation around that.  I was also inspired by Lisa’s June 21st posting that has an excellent macro photograph of a dandelion!  Check out Lisa’s blog here: http://joyinthesimplethings.spaces.live.com/

I had a couple of obstacles this morning – first being I am not generally a morning person!  But, in addition to that – it was raining a little bit and the breeze was kicking around the flowers slightly.  With macro photography, objects have to be VERY in focus and VERY still.  Any minor shake is going to be magnified at this level.

Fortunately, the sky cleared up and with my tripod, remote shutter release, a cup of coffee and a little patience – I ended up with a couple that I liked!

First off, the same Cone Flower I posted last night – just looking at it in a different way!

ISO 800, f/9.0, 1/60 sec, macro – Nikon D300

 

Next up is the old standard – a Daisy.  I know this photo has been done over and over again by many photographers.  Here’s my entry into the foray.  I’m so happy I was able to capture a couple of rain or dew drops here!

ISO 500, f/16, 1/100, macro – Nikon D300

 

Finally, the next flower is one my wife and I discovered growing up the trellis with our Honeysuckle.  We didn’t plant it, so we thought it was kind of cool.  It is a pretty flower, but we’ll have to discuss if we let it go as it apparently is not a native flower to North America and is considered by some to be a noxious weed.  The name I found is Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara).  The link will take you to the Wikipedia article.

While the jury is out deliberating – take a look at the photo.  It is a VERY tiny flower.

ISO 500, f/9.0, 1/60, macro – Nikon D300

 

I’ll be traveling this evening and away for a few days.  Hopefully, I’ll have a few more photos for the weekend!  Just want to say a BIG THANK YOU – to those of you that comment on my photos.  The feedback is always helpful and inspires me to do more and better!

Patrick

Flowers in Macro

 

I made a promise to myself to get up early this morning to get out in the garden to take a few photos with a macro lens as a few of us in the network have been having a bit of a conversation around that.  I was also inspired by Lisa’s June 21st posting that has an excellent macro photograph of a dandelion!  Check out Lisa’s blog here: http://joyinthesimplethings.spaces.live.com/

I had a couple of obstacles this morning – first being I am not generally a morning person!  But, in addition to that – it was raining a little bit and the breeze was kicking around the flowers slightly.  With macro photography, objects have to be VERY in focus and VERY still.  Any minor shake is going to be magnified at this level.

Fortunately, the sky cleared up and with my tripod, remote shutter release, a cup of coffee and a little patience – I ended up with a couple that I liked!

First off, the same Cone Flower I posted last night – just looking at it in a different way!

ISO 800, f/9.0, 1/60 sec, macro – Nikon D300

 

Next up is the old standard – a Daisy.  I know this photo has been done over and over again by many photographers.  Here’s my entry into the foray.  I’m so happy I was able to capture a couple of rain or dew drops here!

ISO 500, f/16, 1/100, macro – Nikon D300

 

Finally, the next flower is one my wife and I discovered growing up the trellis with our Honeysuckle.  We didn’t plant it, so we thought it was kind of cool.  It is a pretty flower, but we’ll have to discuss if we let it go as it apparently is not a native flower to North America and is considered by some to be a noxious weed.  The name I found is Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara).  The link will take you to the Wikipedia article.

While the jury is out deliberating – take a look at the photo.  It is a VERY tiny flower.

ISO 500, f/9.0, 1/60, macro – Nikon D300

 

I’ll be traveling this evening and away for a few days.  Hopefully, I’ll have a few more photos for the weekend!  Just want to say a BIG THANK YOU – to those of you that comment on my photos.  The feedback is always helpful and inspires me to do more and better!

Patrick

Cone Flower – the sequel

 

First off – the macro photos are still coming!  But, I played around with one adjustment to the Cone Flower image I posted last night.  To my network friend Kevin – I know you aren’t much into border effects, but hopefully, you’ll permit me one more tweak!

I decided I wanted some of the petals to pop out of the frame.  The tools I used to create the frame in the first place made it SUPER easy to go into the layer mask and “paint” the petals right back into the image – making the petals show over the frame.  Hope you like this new version!

Cone Flower – the sequel

 

First off – the macro photos are still coming!  But, I played around with one adjustment to the Cone Flower image I posted last night.  To my network friend Kevin – I know you aren’t much into border effects, but hopefully, you’ll permit me one more tweak!

I decided I wanted some of the petals to pop out of the frame.  The tools I used to create the frame in the first place made it SUPER easy to go into the layer mask and “paint” the petals right back into the image – making the petals show over the frame.  Hope you like this new version!

Cone Flower

 

I had planned to attend a photography webinar this evening – but after about a half hour, it appeared technical difficulties were going to make it impossible.

So, I decided to utilize the time I allotted to this session in just going out and shooting.  The evening light was fading, but I hauled out the camera, tripod and remote shutter release out to the garden.

I love the way this Cone Flower looked in the evening light!  Thought I’d share this one.  I utilized another border from onOne Software’s PhotoFrame 4.0.  I like the way the frame is translucent and the petals of the flowers show through.

ISO 200, f/6.3, 3 sec, 60mm – Nikon D300

I think this one would make a decent computer desktop.  I’ll probably post this one to my Zenfolio store – once I start making digital downloads available.

Planning on getting out in the morning to shoot a few more photos (going to go for some macro work – so head’s up for network friends: Lisa and Workinprogress!)

PJ

Cone Flower

 

I had planned to attend a photography webinar this evening – but after about a half hour, it appeared technical difficulties were going to make it impossible.

So, I decided to utilize the time I allotted to this session in just going out and shooting.  The evening light was fading, but I hauled out the camera, tripod and remote shutter release out to the garden.

I love the way this Cone Flower looked in the evening light!  Thought I’d share this one.  I utilized another border from onOne Software’s PhotoFrame 4.0.  I like the way the frame is translucent and the petals of the flowers show through.

ISO 200, f/6.3, 3 sec, 60mm – Nikon D300

I think this one would make a decent computer desktop.  I’ll probably post this one to my Zenfolio store – once I start making digital downloads available.

Planning on getting out in the morning to shoot a few more photos (going to go for some macro work – so head’s up for network friends: Lisa and Workinprogress!)

PJ

Hot and Humid

 

It is a rather hot and humid day here in South Dakota.  Thunderstorms are predicted for later and I always love those.

However, the squirrel that is a regular outside my window made an appearance a little while ago and the heat and humidity are even getting to him it seems!  Either that or he and his squirrel buddies were up WAY too late goofing around!

I shot this through the office window (obviously needs to be cleaned!) so this isn’t a work of art – but it made me laugh.  Hope it has the same result with you.

That “pillow” he has his head on, is a piece of rubber hose that is holding up a hanging basket of flowers under the branch.

Always good to have a camera handy when Nature proves she has a sense of humor!

Patrick

Hot and Humid

 

It is a rather hot and humid day here in South Dakota.  Thunderstorms are predicted for later and I always love those.

However, the squirrel that is a regular outside my window made an appearance a little while ago and the heat and humidity are even getting to him it seems!  Either that or he and his squirrel buddies were up WAY too late goofing around!

I shot this through the office window (obviously needs to be cleaned!) so this isn’t a work of art – but it made me laugh.  Hope it has the same result with you.

That “pillow” he has his head on, is a piece of rubber hose that is holding up a hanging basket of flowers under the branch.

Always good to have a camera handy when Nature proves she has a sense of humor!

Patrick

More Flowers from Itasca State Park

 

Maybe some are getting tired with the flower photos from Lake Itasca State Park, so this will be the last one (until I make another trip there anyways!)

Three flowers this time.  The first is a Bellwort and they were out in number throughout the park.

ISO 1000, f/7.0, 1/125 70mm – Nikon D300

This next one is a wild Columbine

ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/125, 280mm – Nikon D300

 

Finally, fortunately, I had my good friend Steve with me that has a wealth of information on the flora and fauna of northern Minnesota.  He spotted the wild Ginger to me and pointed out how the flower was at the base of the stem.  I did some looking and found this plant has a number of other ‘common names’ such as: Heartleaf, Indian ginger, Colicroot, Heart snakeroot, Vermont snakeroot, False coltsfoot, Canada snakeroot, Asarabacca, Little Brown Jugs

  ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60 28mm – Nikon D300

Once again, a flower had me crawling all over the forest floor to get the right shot!  Always worth it to get a different perspective of the world.  One we often miss!

More Flowers from Itasca State Park

 

Maybe some are getting tired with the flower photos from Lake Itasca State Park, so this will be the last one (until I make another trip there anyways!)

Three flowers this time.  The first is a Bellwort and they were out in number throughout the park.

ISO 1000, f/7.0, 1/125 70mm – Nikon D300

This next one is a wild Columbine

ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/125, 280mm – Nikon D300

 

Finally, fortunately, I had my good friend Steve with me that has a wealth of information on the flora and fauna of northern Minnesota.  He spotted the wild Ginger to me and pointed out how the flower was at the base of the stem.  I did some looking and found this plant has a number of other ‘common names’ such as: Heartleaf, Indian ginger, Colicroot, Heart snakeroot, Vermont snakeroot, False coltsfoot, Canada snakeroot, Asarabacca, Little Brown Jugs

  ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60 28mm – Nikon D300

Once again, a flower had me crawling all over the forest floor to get the right shot!  Always worth it to get a different perspective of the world.  One we often miss!

The Historic Itasca Park Sawmill

 

Most of my photos in state and national parks revolve around nature, but while hiking with my family in the Itasca State Park in Minnesota, we explored the old sawmill.

When the trail opened up and I saw the operation, I realized that I could shoot at that location all day!  Unfortunately, we were racing the rain and so I only had a short time.  I hope I’ll get more time on a future trip.

Being that the subject was mostly machinery, on many of the photos I added an “acid burn” frame in Photoshop using the PhotoFrames 4.0 plugin from onOneSoftware.  I thought it really added to the feel of this old machinery.

There are really two themes seen here.  The first is interesting perspectives of portions of machinery… where I might not look at the whole of the piece of machinery, but smaller parts.  This probably dovetails nicely with how much I enjoy photographing tiny details.  The second theme is nature’s reclamation of humankind’s machines.  Hope you like what I’ve done!

Close-up of Saw Blade - ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

 

 

Gears and Chains – ISO 800, 1/60 sec, f/6.3 – Nikon D300

Nature Moving In – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

 

 

Nails in Fence Posts – ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

 

Pressure Gauge - ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

 

Blades, Hooks and Tongs – ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

 

End of the Line – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/4.5 – Nikon D300

 

Rusting Wheel – ISO 400, 1/80 sec, f/8.0 – Nikon D300

Reminder – please do not use my photos without permission.  Prints are available at a reasonable price as well.

The Historic Itasca Park Sawmill

 

Most of my photos in state and national parks revolve around nature, but while hiking with my family in the Itasca State Park in Minnesota, we explored the old sawmill.

When the trail opened up and I saw the operation, I realized that I could shoot at that location all day!  Unfortunately, we were racing the rain and so I only had a short time.  I hope I’ll get more time on a future trip.

Being that the subject was mostly machinery, on many of the photos I added an “acid burn” frame in Photoshop using the PhotoFrames 4.0 plugin from onOneSoftware.  I thought it really added to the feel of this old machinery.

There are really two themes seen here.  The first is interesting perspectives of portions of machinery… where I might not look at the whole of the piece of machinery, but smaller parts.  This probably dovetails nicely with how much I enjoy photographing tiny details.  The second theme is nature’s reclamation of humankind’s machines.  Hope you like what I’ve done!

Close-up of Saw Blade - ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

 

 

Gears and Chains – ISO 800, 1/60 sec, f/6.3 – Nikon D300

Nature Moving In – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

 

 

Nails in Fence Posts – ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

 

Pressure Gauge - ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

 

Blades, Hooks and Tongs – ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

 

End of the Line – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/4.5 – Nikon D300

 

Rusting Wheel – ISO 400, 1/80 sec, f/8.0 – Nikon D300

Reminder – please do not use my photos without permission.  Prints are available at a reasonable price as well.