Day 335 (30 Nov 2012) Bokah

Nothing spectacular tonight; just trying to get some bokah practice in for when I can find a great outdoor Christmas tree 🙂  These were trees in a shopping center parking lot, strung with some white lights.

Day 244 (1 Sep 2012) Mt. Marcy, ADKs

Back on Sept 1st, 3 friends and I climbed Mt. March, which is one of the ADK’s “46ers” and the tallest peak in the state of New York at 5,344 feet (1,629 m).  It was the second attempt for two of us, who attempted to climb it back in May, when the last several miles of trail were still covered in snow and ice.  This time the trail was dry 🙂

It was a great hike, with some spectacular views from the top, and a great time with friends!  Here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

Reflection

Spiders Web

Edge of the Path

Nestled Berries

Cloud Break over Mt. Marcy

Marsh Crossing

View From Mt. Marcy’s Summit

Carin
Rock Pile

My Accomplishment

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 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 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 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 88 (28 March 2012) The Empty Bench

Driving to class tonight I took a different route and noticed a bench sitting across a pond from the road I was driving.  I made a point to stop and do a single 6 min exposure and hoped it turned out well.

I loaded Magic Lantern firmware onto an SD card today and wanted to try to use the bulb timer function (it makes it possible to set an exposure longer than 30 sec w/o an external timer or remote).  As I’m still figuring out this new suite of tools, I didn’t realize that long exposure noise reduction was turned off, so the photo is slightly noisy.

I also took a couple minutes between work and class and shot a few of the flowers sprouting up in my front garden and got one that I think is nice.  I’ll shoot these again under better light w/ more time; I want to get it right 🙂

23 mm, 6 min, f/8.0, ISO 100, 18-55mm kit lens (Bench By The Pond)

60 mm, 1/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Purple Flower)

Day 81 (21 March 11) More Macro

I’m so in love with this new lens; and I got it just in time for spring (esp. since yesterday was the first day)!  I spend about an hour after work walking my woods/yard shooting some new growth.

I never realized how unsteady I am w/o a stabilized lens; many shots didn’t come out because I was swaying ever so slightly and it was enough to move out of focus when the shutter activated.  I’ll have to either bring my tripod out next time or look into getting a monopod (or use a piece of string to step on).  It didn’t help that the slightest breeze more than “compensated” for the times I was steady, lol.  I know I’ve got a lot of learning to do with this new lens 🙂  Any and ALL suggestions are welcome!

60 mm, 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Oak Blossom)

60 mm, 1/60 sec, f/11, ISO 400, 60mm macro lens (Oak Blossoms)

60 mm, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 60mm macro lens (Wild Rose)

And just in case you didn’t guess yesterday’s puzzle, It was the surface of the Pepsi I was drinking, the light coming out of the can caught my attention as I was shooting “Redemption”

Day 78 (18 March 2012) Spring Time

Since we never had a real winter here, I’ve been ready for it to actually become spring and warm up some.  Give me a season where I know what to expect! LOL

Today I took out my macro filter (my real macro lens is due to arrive Tuesday!!) and just wandered around my yard for a little bit between homework and dinner.  Nothing spectacular, but it was nice to be out in the warm sunshine (I was even studying on my deck today) 🙂

18 mm, 1/25 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100, 18-55mm kit lens w/ 10x filter (New Growth)

55 mm, 1/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100, 18-55mm kit lens w/ 10x filter (Awake)

This is the work that awaits me in the yard!

55 mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 18-55mm kit lens (Briers)