Paperwhites - Day 39

Check Up - Day 132 #CY365

Today prompt - "Check Up", take care of yourself and make your next doctor's appointment. Well I already had one on the books, so I pulled up my trusty "Sentara My Chart" app to double check my appointment for next month. My Valentines Day orchids and my office helped to fill the frame. Canon G15, 1/250 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 200.

Arranged - Day 71 #CY365

Today's challenge was to arrange something in a stack and use a shallow depth of field to create a blurred effect. I love photography books, well to be truthful, I love everything about photography. Anyway, I stacked some of my recent favorites, used a couple of LED litepanels, a macro lens and voila - we have a photo of the day. But back to the photography books - someone once said the two most important things you can do to improve your photography are: 1) take lots of pictures, hence the 365 project and 2) look at lots of photographs with a critical eye. While digital photos on a computer screen are pretty cool, in my opinion nothing beats the printed photograph for appreciating the work. Photography books are a great place to both see good photographs and understand how they were made.

Canon 5D Mark II, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400.

Caged - Day 21

One of the scrap iron birds caged in at the Chenman Scrap Metal yard in Norfolk Virginia. Each of the gates along the 24th Street side of the scrap yard are adorned with dozens of these amazing recycled birds. Canon 5D Mark II 1/400 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100.

Squirrel!

This is a California ground squirrel and a resident of La Jolla California's coastal buff. Canon 7D, 1/640 sec @ f/10, ISO 200, zoom at 390mm focal length.

My Buddy

My buddy is wearing a little evidence of a pre-Christmas dinner cookie. Canon 7D, 1/60 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 400, bounce flash with a little direct flash from a white reflector.

Hanging On

This dragonfly is hanging on to save energy on a windy day. Canon 7D, 1/200 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100, zoom at 400mm focal length.

Swallowtail

This swallowtail butterfly was photographed at Virginia Tech's Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center off Diamond Springs Road in Virginia Beach. This garden is one of the area's best kept secrets. Home to acres of plantings the garden was a buzz with, butterfies, bees and dragonflies. It's well worth a trip. Canon 7D, 1/125 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100, 100mm macro.

Dragon Fly Bokeh

This slightly backlit dragon fly's wings sparkle against the water drops on the lilly pads in the background. Canon 7D, 1/400 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100, 100-400mm zoom at 400mm.

Echinacea Purpurea

- Echinacea purpurea a.k.a the Eastern purple coneflower or just Purple coneflower. Echinacea is believed by many people, including me, to stimulate the immune system. A 2007 study by the University of Connecticut combined findings from 14 previously reported trials examining Echinacea and concluded that Echinacea can cut the chances of catching a cold by more than half, and shorten the duration of a cold by an average of 1.4 days. Case closed. Canon 7D, 1/4000 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 200, zoom at 300mm.

First Sunday

- This is my first "First Sunday" project. A soon to open Iris bud stands among the tall green foliage. Snapchick issued a challenge on the first Sunday of each month to focus on composition and creativity rather than high tech camera gear. The challenge was to use your oldest digital camera, set it on a high ISO and a low resolution. The idea is to show what the photographer can do rather than what the camera can do. This photo was taken with my first DSLR a vintage 2003 Canon Digital Rebel aka 300D, 1/2000 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 1600 (the camera's highest setting) using a 50mm prime lens.

Morning Dew

- This morning's heavy dew left little droplets of water on each of the points of these brand new Knockout Rose leaves. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/15 sec @ f/11.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens.

B&W Wildlife

- Just finished reading an article on making black and white images of wildlife. I took this picture of the West African Crowned cranes at the Virginia Zoo. I know - not exactly "wild". These birds are so photogenic. Canon 40D, 1/325 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L lens fully extended at 400mm on a monopod. Converted to black and white using Lightroom 3 with the Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in.

Imagine

- Just close your eyes and imagine the beautiful Lotus blossom that will soon emerge from this bud. The Lotus is often photographed in full bloom but even the unopened bud has beautiful color and texture that just hits at what is to come. Canon G11, 1/400 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 100 in macro mode. I'm digging the cool bokeh from a point and shoot camera, admittedly, it's probably one of the best point and shoot cameras.

New Pez!

- As regular followers of my blog know, I collect PEZ dispensers. Since I have several hundred it is a rare treat to get a new one, especially when its a gift. My grandson Robert brought me this new style Disney Dalmatian dispenser last week. So this picture and blog post is a big thank to Robert for expanding grandpa's wall of PEZ. He and I have a good arrangement, I get the PEZ dispensers he gets the PEZ candy.

This photo is a good example of shallow depth of field and bokeh. You will notice that his nose and right eye are in sharp focus at f/4.0 but the left eye which is just a few millimeters farther away is beginning to fall out of the shallow field of sharp focus. The background is completely out of focus with the soft highlights known as bokeh. Canon 40D, 1/50 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens, room light.

Holiday Bokeh

- Our Christmas tree lights captured out of focus. The out of focus lights are blurred into the shape of little Christmas trees by using an aperture disk I created with with one of Cindy's scrapbook punches. This effect in photography is known as bokeh and is usually seen in the soft out of focus backgrounds of photos taken with a large aperture opening on a normal lens producing a very shallow depth of field. Interchangeable aperture disks are one of the very cool creative features of the Lensbaby Composer that was used to make this photo. Canon 7D, 1/20 sec @ ~f/4.0, ISO 800.

Bauble

- Bauble - according to Wikipedia is "a virtually worthless decorative object." So does that make the picture of one also virtually worthless? Canon 7D, 1/15 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 100mm macro lens.

Rethink Your Lash Look

- Check out those eyelashes on Astro one of the kangaroo mob at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk Virginia. I know many women would spend a fortune to get lashes that long and thick and these are wasted on a male kangaroo who doesn't even have a female roo to bat those lashes at. You see the mob at the zoo are all males, apparently its the only way to keep the peace. Canon 7D, 1/2500 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200, zoom at 170mm focal length.

Dandelion

From 2010 Blog

- The dandelion is often treated as a scourge of the finely manicured lawn that has become a symbol of suburban America. The plant has been used beneficially for thousands of years and was introduced to the Americas by early colonists. But today it mostly gets treated to a dose of herbicides. The flower matures into this spherical clock containing many single-seeded fruits each attached to a pappus of fine hairs, which enable its wind-aided dispersal. Canon 7D, 1/800 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, 100mm macro.

The Star

From 2010 Blog

- I have been watching a bud develop on a long stalk over the fence at my in-laws house. My mother in-law called me this morning to tell me it was starting to bloom. This is the Star of Bethlehem as it begins to flower. Soon it will be fully open. Canon 7D, 1/400 sec @ f/10.0, ISO 100, 100m macro lens.