Petunias bedazzled…

I recently read another photo blog that was discussing the art of shooting ordinary objects and through the photographer’s eye, creating something extraordinary. This theme really resonates with me; I often find myself yearning to act on my creative impulses photographically, but finding myself “limited” to house and home. I say “limited” in quotations because I am using that term in an ironic sense. There really is nothing limiting about photographing your everyday environs. In fact, as I have said here before, it’s perhaps the highest form of challenge to seek and find creative subject matter right under your nose, as compared to iconic national park scenes or exotic wildlife on safari. (Not that I’d turn down a chance to shoot either!) My subject for today is my very non-exotic petunia pots on my front porch. They’ve been bedazzled with a soft misting bottle to create a little sparkle and drama. I also experimented with some depth-of-field layering, and while I have a lot more to learn about that technique (this is my first attempt), I think it holds some real creative possibilities especially for macro photography. It’s always exciting when you teach yourself something new. So to get back to my original point, as a photographer, whether you are born with a photographer’s eye, or you develop one over time, take that eye, and make sure you really “see” the world. It’s right in front of you. Hope you enjoy…

Signs of spring…

 

I know it’s practically summer already, but this image of a newly hatched baby Robin certainly screams “springtime.” Of course, Baby is probably screaming something more along the lines of “Breakfast!” I was lucky enough to have mama Robin build this nest and lay her three eggs right near a corner of my house. Lucky me–a short stepladder was all that was needed to provide me a surreptitious peek into the first hours of life of this tiny chick. I will attempt to sneak back over the next few days, and see how the little family is doing. Hopefully we’ll have siblings, soon! And more than ever, this shot proves that you don’t have to travel the world over to find engaging and rewarding photographic images. Sometimes you just have to open your eyes, and be open to what is in front of you. In fact, with all the technology, gear, and high-tech equipment we sometimes feel we need as photographers, I have to say thanks, Mother Nature,  for giving me the perfect photographer’s gift! Hope you enjoy…

The Supermoon consolation prize…

There were quite a lot of shots flying around photo sites this last week after the famed Supermoon made its appearance, and I’ll admit I would have been right there, too, if a fair amount of cloud cover in my area hadn’t knocked my opportunity out of the running. Oh well. The day after, however, I was up around 5:15 when I looked out and saw this striking image. The moon was simply glowing in the dark sky, which only had whispers of morning light beginning in eke in. Now, not having seen the actual Supermoon, I cannot say how much bigger it would have appeared to the naked eye, but to me, this was simply stunning. So I moved quickly, set up the tripod and gave it my best shot. Taking a high contrast shot like this is tricky, so I ended up bracketing and merging exposures after the fact, because I wanted to capture the halo and a bit of the sky and trees without blowing all the highlights out of the moon. Sometime I hope to perfect this technique, but for now, it’s a fairly good representation of the way my eyes saw it that morning. I have a few other shots I am working on from a few minutes later, as the sky turned blue, then purple, then pink… so those might appear in subsequent posts. I’ll just leave you with this one, for now. Hope you enjoy…

Meet Uber Bunny (or, the rest of the story)…

So some of you may remember my little teaser post a week ago where I alluded to a second half of the story involving a certain bunny on “high alert.” So now, here is the rest of the story. I noticed my little bunny friend in my front yard the other morning and at the same time, I noted that there were two or three large crows gathering around. They piqued my attention, so I paused at my front door to observe. The crows were walking around, circling the bunny, who was eyeing them steadily, as you can see in this first shot.

 

Then, here is where it gets interesting. After eyeing the crow and the crow circling a couple of times, out of the BLUE, the bunny turns into “Avenger Bunny” and attacks (yes, I truly mean attacks) the large bird. As startled as I was, I managed to capture this action in this shot below. Over the course of the next two hours, the mama bunny repeated this defensive action multiple times–chasing the crows around the yard, and leaping at them to scare them away. See below!

 

The bunny launched out at the crows time and time again until eventually they tired and flew away… only to return three to four times that morning–each time receiving the same treatment from Avenger Bunny. I surmised (rightly so, I later saw) that they bunny was protecting a burrow nearby and we’ve since seen baby bunnies around the yard. I had just never witnessed such aggressive behavior in what is assumed to be such a mild-mannered creature (insert Monty Python joke ) So now that you get the full picture, I’ll leave you with a couple of other images from my little version of Wild Kingdom. They may not be award-winning, but are pretty interesting nonetheless. Hope you enjoy….

Chasing the crows…Go bunny!

The standoff…

Another frontal attack…

 

And finally… time to rest. WHEW. 

I have to say, it was a pretty entertaining morning. Stay tuned here for more episodes of Avenger Bunny  (haha)! Just goes to show, you never know what you’ll see if you just stop and pay attention. More later!

On high alert…

Well, hello there, Big Ears! This mother bunny has been a resident in our yard for a couple of years now, and I have photographed her many times. (She has a little notch in her far ear that makes her distinctive.) But the story that unfolded the day I shot this image was something I’d never seen before. If she looks like she is on high alert–pink ears standing at attention–it’s because she is. Paraphrasing the veteran radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, stay tuned to the next post for “the rest of the story.” Hope you enjoy…

Serenity…

Muir Woods offers visitors a serenity that seems worlds away from the day-to-day life most of us lead. I am posting an image of these magnificent Muir giants early this Monday morning, in the hopes that it will offer me, and perhaps others, a sense of peace and calm to carry throughout the day. No matter how stressful life can get, I can close my eyes, or revisit these images, and remember that there are places in the world, where serenity and balance exists. Hope you enjoy…

 

f/6.3, 1/100th, ISO 800, 11 mm

Local flavor…

Mmmm. Ok, so it’s early, before breakfast, so maybe that had some influence on my choice of photo today. Those berries look mouth-watering! But the real reason I am posting this image is to mention something I love to do when traveling. Beyond the obvious sights–the skyscrapers, landscape vistas, and must-see tourist stops–one of my favorite things to do is isolate small aspects of a locale that really bring home its local flavor. In this case, I eyed these bountiful strawberries at  a produce stand near Pier 39 in San Francisco. I remember passing by these overflowing bushels of berries  and stopping to think of the rich history of farmland that the Pacific coast has long been known for, and that my favorite writer, John Steinbeck, loved so much. It was a nice moment, and one that these berries take me back to each time I view this shot. Now… for that breakfast! Hope you enjoy…

Desert blues…

My title for this shot relates to the fact that one often thinks of the desert in browns, oranges, and tans, but when I visited the high desert of Arizona a couple of months ago, I found it to be quite the opposite. This shot, over the beautiful Sonoran Desert, was thick with vegetation and in the early morning when this was taken, a soothing blue cast was reflected from the deep azur sky above. So gorgeous, you just wanted to drink it in. Hope you enjoy…

Morning moon…

 

I knew the minute I looked up in the sky yesterday morning, at about 6:15 a.m., that this shot was begging for a post. Sometimes images just speak to you. Yes, the moon’s been shot countless times, and yes, to some, this may appear quite ordinary. But the vision of the beautiful moon in the early morning, with the delicate rays of the sun just brushing across its surface, was a poetic moment, so I acted swiftly, set up the tripod, and tripped the shutter. It was the light that drew me, and the peaceful way it reflected off the moon’s surface, hanging softly in the quiet, hazy blue blanket of the morning, that urged me to yet again, shoot the moon. Hope you enjoy…

Pacific giants…

Sometimes a photograph needs a bit of perspective. This shot, of one of the starkly beautiful craggy rocks that jut out from the Pacific coastline, is given a more awe-inspiring perspective by the rowers who are dwarfed by its presence. It adds a nice element of interest to the shot, too, and while I wish I could brag that I’d planned it that way, the truth is, the final product was more of a happy accident. I did see the canoe approaching, quickly previsualized the image, and waited until they hit the sweet spot in my composition. What I did plan entirely was the soft yellow flowers in the foreground, which I felt would soften the overall scene and provide a natural contrast to the sharp edges of the rocky subject. In the end, this was one of my favorite images of the Pacific shore, which is awe inspiring to behold, but whose magnificence is more difficult than one might think to portray in a single image. Hope you enjoy…

 

f/9, 1/250 sec, 115 mm, ISO 100