Day 234 (22 Aug 22) Morning Flowers

This morning I grabbed my camera and marco lens to shoot some flowers (aka weeks) growing in my yard as soon as the sun peaked up over the hills.  I was really tempted to spend an hour shooting dew on grass (cause I love the images and it’s fun), but had to work, so I limited it to a couple subjects 🙂  Plus, I’ve shot dew a couple times already 😉  Let me know what you think of these images:

60 mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 400, 60mm macro lens (Dandelion)

60 mm, 1/100 sec, f/8.0, ISO 400, 60mm macro lens (Flower and Fly)

60 mm, 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Clover Flower)

Day 233 (21 Aug 2012) Black Eyed Susan

How to grow Black Eyed Susans: don’t mow your lawn!  Well, thats how these have grown.  I haven’t gotten to the mower in a couple weeks (and almost got to it today, good thing I didn’t!) so these survived long enough to be memorialized forever in my blog 🙂

The last shot is of one flower I’ve shot before.  It sadly is past it’s prime 😦  But it had a good life, brining cheer to me many days as I left my home, and to you when you saw it the first time.

60 mm, 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200, 60mm macro lens (Sisters)

60 mm, 1/20 sec, f/8.0, ISO 800, 60mm macro lens (Little Sister)

60 mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400, 60mm macro lens (I Lived A Full Life)

60 mm, 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, 60mm macro lens (Waiting For Tomorrow)

Day 192 (10 July 2012) Flowers and Bugs

One thing I like about doing yard work s that I get more than a drive-by look at my yard, and the flowers, plants, and nature that it contains.  As I was mowing after dinner tonight, I spotted some flowering plants that I had not seen/noticed before.  And while shooting one set, I noticed the beetle in the last photo.

Shooting at home is a great way to relax after a day at work, IMO.  Especially since I don’t have to drive anywhere, and I have plenty to shoot with my macro lens 🙂

60 mm, 1/10 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60 mm macro lens (Looking Up)

60 mm, 1.6 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 60 mm macro lens (Purple Flower)

60 mm, 1/4 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60 mm macro lens (Beetle)

Day 185 (3 July 2012) Yellow Flowers – Macro

I saw this flower blooming in my yard a couple days ago, and finally got around to shooting it!  I’m not sure what it is, so if you know, please tell me!

I find “random” flowers and plants blooming at various times of the year; I’ve not worked in the flower beds, so whatever the previous owner put in still pops up to surprise me 🙂

60 mm, 1/15 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100, 60 mm macro lens (Soft Flower)

60 mm, 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160, 60 mm macro lens (Yellow Flower)

60 mm, 1/15 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200, 60 mm macro lens (Pollen)

Day 171 (19 June 2012) Wild Sweet Pea Blossom

On my way into work I happened to take a slightly different route (avoiding a red light) and saw a patch of wild sweet peas in boom.  I just knew I had to stop and use them for today’s post.  I tried a few shots in the field, but being in my work clothes (slacks/shirt), I wasn’t able to get a great shot w/o getting dirty, so I plucked a particularly nice set of blossoms and took them home to shoot.

When I was a kid growing up in Northern California, I used to see these growing all over the place.  We used to eat the peas, though I just read that when ingested in large quantities, they can be toxic!  Good thing we didn’t eat a lot of them 🙂

60 mm, 0.3 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Sweet Pea Blossom)

This second photo is one of my entries for the Photo Scavenger Hunt I’m participating in.  This on is, “Unusual Perspective”.  Not often to I see a photo of a flower taken from behind.

60 mm, 2 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Unusual Perspective)

Day 168 (16 June 2012) Beach and Clouds

Today I was in Westerly, RI, for a pancake breakfast fundraiser, and decided to take the LONG way home, including a stop at the shore and a few other places along the way.  I had lots of time and my camera 🙂

Turns out that the beaches are so popular that they charge for parking, so I drove to a rocky portion of the shore where there was limited free parking (gotta save my money for more camera goodies, right? 🙂 ).  The painter below allowed me to take a couple photos of him.  However, I can’t decide which of the three images from the photo I like better.  I’m leaning towards the first one.  Which is your favorite?

55 mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 (Beach Painter – 1)

55 mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 (Beach Painter – 2)

55 mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 (Beach Painter – 3)

39 mm, 1/250 sec, f/10, ISO 100 (Peace Sign)

55 mm, 1/160 sec, f/4.0, ISO 100 (Field of Dreams)

42 mm, 1/82 sec, f/11, ISO 100 (Power Lines)

Day 163 (11 June 2012) Daises, Ferns, and Dandelions, Oh My!

Today between work and a study group, I took out my camera with my favorite lens (my 60mm macro) and shot some of the plants in my yard.  I really love that lens 🙂

60 mm, 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm Macro Lens (Dandelion)

60 mm, 1/40 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, 60mm Macro Lens (Ferns)

60 mm, 1/800 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100, 60mm Macro Lens (Daises)

Day 155 (3 June 2012) Flowers

Today after church I went to ride my mountain bike at Bluff Point in Groton, CT with some friends from church.  After the ride I dropped off my friend’s son and went back out there to shoot.  It rained while we were en route, but the sun was back out when I returned.  There were so many wild flowers that I had a blast shooting with my macro lens 🙂  I started out with my 18-55 zoom and as I was admiring the flowers, I asked myself, “is it worth it to go back and swap out for the macro lens?”  Stupid question!  I had to correct myself for even asking such a question!  🙂

60 mm, 1/200 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100, 60mm Macro lens (Wild Flower after the rain)

60 mm, 1/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 (Protecting the Beauty)

60 mm, 1/200 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100, 60mm Macro lens (Future Beauty)

60 mm, 1/200 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100, 60mm Macro lens (Basking in the Son)

60 mm, 1/00 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100, 60mm Macro lens (Yellow and Green)

Day 111(20 April 2012) Front Yard Flowers

Today I wanted to shoot some of the reaming flowers in my yard (most will die off as spring progresses 😦 ), especially the patches of small white flowers (no idea what kind they are).

And as a note, this afternoon I leave for a weekend-long retreat, so I may not get a post up tomorrow, but I will snap something with my phone, if nothing else, to keep from breaking my streak.  Not sure what interesting things I may see where I’m going, but I’ll try to resist the urge to use all the fancy filters/effects on the phone software.  But who knows, stay tuned to find out what happens!

60 mm, 1/320 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Yellow and White)

60 mm, 1/60 sec, f/22, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Flowers)

60 mm, 1/320 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Field of White)

60 mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Drive Way Beauty)

60 mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Thorns)

Day 98 (7 April 2012) Busy as a Bee

Today is what my employer would call a ” day off.”  But it’s funny that I always have tons of work to do on my day off.  Not for my job, but home work, yard work, auto work, house work, etc.  It seems I never have enough time to get it done, but that’s ok.  Most of it will still be there for my next “day off” lol.

On one of my errands, I swung into the local high school parking lot since I noticed a lot of trees blooming.  I swapped out the kit zoom for the macro lens and spend about 20 min shooting the flowers.  Today was bright and sunny, and shooting at about 2:30 pm meant the light was bright and harsh.  So could that with the challenge of shooting white flowers against a back-lit sky, I was happy that I was able to get some good shots 🙂

60 mm, 1/1600, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Busy Bee) {cropped}

60 mm, 1/2000, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (White Bliss)

60 mm, 1/80, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Azalea)

And this is a sight I’m never tired of seeing!

60 mm, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Old Glory)

Day 95 (4 April 2012) Spring Flowers

Today is such a wonderful spring day; I wish I didn’t have to leave shortly for school, or that I didn’t have to work today.  But at least I was working from home so I could have my door to the deck open to let in the fresh air, and I had some time to go out and enjoy it for a few min.

I took some macro photos in my yard, using a tripod this time.  There was a gentle breeze that made it a little difficult; I had to use a wide open aperture and fast shutter speed on most of them to snap the moment the flowers paused their swaying.  It was fun, though 🙂  enjoy!

60 mm, 1/30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Three Amigas)

60 mm, 1/30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (I'm First!)

60 mm, 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60 mm macro lens (Ready to Bloom)