Most Commented Photography Blogs (166)

These past few months, despite my best efforts, I haven't arisen early enough to capture a sunrise and I haven't found a place that strikes me to take sunset photos. Both times of the day have me in awe of the amazing colours painting the sky.

Saturday morning, I awoke at 4:30 am, determined to capture the rising sun. Unfortunately, there was only one little cloud in the sky, so the colour was minimal. However, the full moon was still very evident, and I managed to capture a cool shot of the moon as it was fading.

Taking my normal route through the farmers fields and dodging the blackberry vines that have grown over the foliage tunnel, I rounded the curve and came back out on the gravel path next to the hayfield.

The sun had risen just above the mountains and it's rays highlighted the mist laying across the field. I thought it was an 'okay' photo, but as usual, the sun is blown out (white), although the rays can be seen emanating from it, turning the mist a beautiful warm gamboge yellow, along with the sky, due to the lingering smoke from forest fires.

I posted it on the local community page and was shocked at the number of views and comments on it. Only one other photo I've taken has received the kind of comments and views that this one has. Wow. The funny thing is, I just don't see what's so 'special' about it.

I'm on another group page for posting photos of BC (where I live), and have been incredibly impressed at some of the photography on there. Every week or so they choose someone's photo as the fb header for the page - and believe me, there are professional photos that I couldn't even begin to compete with. I don't post there often, but thought I'd post the photo that everyone seemed so enamoured with.

You could have blown me over with a feather when one of the admins asked if they could use my photo as the header for the page for the next little while. Uh, yeah! And honestly, I still don't see why everyone seems to love it, but who's arguing? lol

I've sold one copy of it to a resident already, and I'm absolutely tickled pink at the response. Never, in a million years, would I have thought it would be so popular. It just goes to show you, that beauty's in the eye of the beholder, and you just never know what will appeal to people.

As part of a photography group, we have monthly assignments that challenge us to photograph different subjects and step out of our comfort zone. This month, Fractals in Nature is the theme, and our photos have to be in by Wednesday at midnight.

Of course, I've been out on numerous occasions, looking for the perfect fractal to photograph and submit. Fractals in Nature, are, essentially, repeating patterns. Ferns are a prime example and my favourite subject for fractals.



Choosing the wetlands to hunt for fractals, on the particular day that I chose to take photos, as I stood at the top of the hill and looked across the lake, I squinted my eyes at the distant gorge down the mountain, wondering if that was water I saw cascading off the cliff.


(In the above photo, this is where I stood to take the photo below. The 'seam' you see running down the mountain is where the mudslide occurred).

Putting my zoom lens on and aiming it at the area, sure enough, it was water and chunks of snow tumbling over the edge.



Thinking it was just spring run-off, I headed down the hill to lake level, crossing the marshes and back into the woods. Walking through the poplar and alder trees, an odd roaring had me looking up into the trees, wondering what it was. As the wind had picked up, I assumed it was just the wind in the trees.



The gravel path loops around the beaver pond, which I have yet to see a beaver in. Ferns grow in abundance in the area, the fiddlehead greens unfurling in the deep shade under the evergreens. The wetlands are made of up of open areas that are largely populated by alder, birch and poplar trees and abruptly end in dense forested areas of Douglas Fir and Cedar trees, where the ferns reside.

Walking through the poplars, a snail on one of the saplings caught my attention. A perfect fractal with the spiral on it's shell! Although I hate bugs and slimy things, behind a lens, everything takes on a different perspective. I spent a long time photographing that snail from numerous angles, and was rewarded with it crawling out if it's shell to move down the slim limb.



Next, the ferns. As dusk's fingers crept in amongst the evergreens, it was time to head home before the park warden closed the gates. Logging on to my computer to download my images, someone had posted on fb that a mudslide had occurred and did anyone see it?



I realized then, that the roaring sound I'd heard had to have been the mudslide, about 10 minutes after I'd taken the photos of the water running off the cliff. Too bad I'd had no idea, or I would have waited a few more minutes and captured the actual slide. The next day, I went out to the bottom of the gorge and took photos of the after effects of the slide.



All in all, a pretty exciting and worthwhile outing. Speaking to another photo club member, noting that the pussywillows had interesting patterns when they went to seed, I told him that in going to the wetlands, I'd been in fractal heaven!

Add your own caption(s) for the following photo, if you like.

My first one is; 'She's got a LOT to smile about.'

Here's the photo;

Over the past couple of years, I've immersed myself in my photography, loving every second of it, and being challenged to do more and create more in the photo club. It's been a fantastic journey, and now that I'm officially retired, my down time from Dec to May with my business is now spent with my camera.

I can honestly say that I've improved significantly with my photos, but still have lots of room to grow. It's heartwarming to have a 'following' on facebook on my photography page, which I finally launched only a couple of weeks ago. I've received several requests to purchase photos, which, in itself, is quite an honour.

As a result of my immersion in photography, my artwork has taken a back seat. I haven't drawn or painted in some time, mostly because I'd rather be outdoors. The camera allows me to combine my sense of adventure and curiosity with creativity. As a result, photography's the winner. lol.

Although I've retained membership in the watercolour club, I rarely go to the meetings as they're in my old community - a 45 minute drive each way. I don't like driving at night, and my interest in the club has waned, significantly. Partially, that's due to being ousted from the jobs I'd been doing, without any consultation. I was just informed one day that someone else was taking over my jobs - things I enjoyed doing. I told the president that never again would I volunteer to do anything for the club. I'd put up and regulated a fb page, administrated their web site, and designed their bookmark - yes, for free.

As I didn't attend the meetings, that's fine if they wanted someone else to take over, but not to say anything to me ahead of time was, imo, rude and inconsiderate. It wasn't that I hadn't done what they'd needed done, it was simply politics. So fine, don't ever ask me or expect me to do anything again.

When I got home on Wednesday night, there was a message from a member of the club (of course, not the president), would I be interested in scanning and photographing their art work for a calendar for them this year? There'd be up to 36 pieces of artwork to scan and/or photograph and they wanted it all done in one evening.

Ha ha ha ha!!!

No.

I told the guy no, I had too many commitments and my own calendars to put together. It wasn't an 'honour' to be asked. It's a sh*tty job, scanning all that artwork or photographing it. And there's no way I was going to be responsible for someone being pissed off because their artwork wasn't the right colour tones or whatever. And do I want to photograph someone's art work? Hardly. Like I said, it's a sh*t job, because it's not just taking the photos or scans, it's adjusting and editing everything afterwards. For free? Nope. G.F.Y.

There are some people in the watercolour club I really like, and why I continue to stay, but the president can pound sand if he thinks he can send a minion to ask for a job obviously no one else wants to do. It's mind-boggling how many people are trying to pick my brain about making a calendar and my success at it. Just amazing no one wants to know you until you're successful at something they want. Then they expect you to give it to them for free, after they've shunned you. lol.

Anyway, it's another beautiful day here, there's photos waiting for me to take, and orders to get ready. I'm going to enjoy every second of it. :)

If you like, have fun adding your own caption(s) for the following photo,
or just enjoy the other entries. Your choice.

My first entry is;

"Holy mother of God, thy bounty is blessed."

Here's the photo;

Or add your own photo caption(s), if you like, or just enjoy those that do.

Here's the photo;

Smoke from a forest fire 6 miles away is so thick you can almost bite the air and chew it, if you could inhale enough air not to choke on the smell. Yesterday, I braved the murky skies to take a bike ride, constantly checking where the sun would be rising.

As I took my normal route around the town, although there were a couple of birds chirping near by, everything seemed muffled and muted due to the smoke. Wildlife was noticeably absent, as were even the local cows, hiding amongst the trees.

Riding by the cow and weeks old calf sleeping in the far corner of their paddock, I headed back towards the river, past a hay field with irrigation sprinklers working to keep it green and growing. Bordering the hayfield, 10 ft high corn stalks hide everything else within visibility, other than a faint outline of Mt. Cheam behind the screen of smoke.

Taking my left hand off the handle bar, I reached up to scratch my right shoulder blade under my bra closure. As I scratched, a finger of my bike glove got caught on one of the hooks of my bra, and I couldn't seem to move my hand to unhook myself.

Panicking a little, with my hand stuck up my back, a hill loomed before me - I needed both hands to be able to shift gears and ride uphill, or to even stop without going over the handle bars. The right hand brake stops the front wheel, and the left, the back. So if I hit the brake with my right hand, I'd go a over t over the handle bars.

Slowing down and peddling steadily, I kept trying to work at getting my hand free. No luck. Finally, I twisted and turned my hand to free it from the glove, and fortunately, it's worn enough to be loose.

After much manipulation, I finally pulled my hand free, my glove still attached to the hook on my bra. Finally being able to stop without falling, I reached back and managed to free my glove and put it back on.

Thank goodness I ride at such an hour that I don't see anyone, as I'm sure that must have been a funny sight, riding my bike with my hand stuck up my back trying to free it. It didn't feel too funny at the time, and road rash definitely would not have tickled my funny bone.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, the sun finally making an appearance as I returned home (who would have thunk I'd be too early!). I took a couple of shots of the sun creeping over the mountain, bright red behind the smokey veil.

I think I'll travel west today for a bike ride closer to the ocean, and hopefully, less smokey skies. And if I get an itch on my shoulder blade, I don't think I'll be scratching it with my glove on.

The predicted polar vortex hit us last night, with high winds and freezing temperatures that continue into today. Braving the winds this morning in my slippers and sweats, I refilled my heated hummingbird feeder to ensure my delightful feathered friends have enough to eat in this cold weather.

As I slid open the patio door, I could hear the familiar 'click, click, click' of the hummers in the hedge, probably thinking, get that thing filled, woman! After the last time of making their nectar and burning the daylights out of my pot, I've since found that I can just boil water and pour it over the sugar instead of boiling the mixture. Good. I might save a few pots from being burned again.

Life has been exceptionally busy with photography, as I've been asked to join a number of sites and find that has taken up most of my time. This coming Monday is our exhibition night with the assigned subject of 'circles'. Originally, I was thinking of doing a physiogram, but I didn't get my act together to set it up in time. Having come down with 'something' last week, although I went out to take photos, I didn't have the energy to set everything up inside.

On my journeys to wherever, I noticed an old Austin truck on the top of a container and stopped to take a photo. The yard that it's over top of is filled with 'junk'. I'm pretty sure the guy is a hoarder, but he does have some very cool stuff there. I asked him if I could poke around the yard (it's a commercial building with a gravel lot in front), and not only did he say yes, he showed me all kinds of neat stuff and even pulled it out from behind things for me to photograph.

First, there were the Austins. What treasures! In all kinds of aging and disrepair, they offer all kinds of photo opps. I've been back three or four times to photograph just those guys. There are four Austins and a Rover that he's going to be painting this year (I wonder how many years he's said that?).

Then there's the old wringer washer that apparently still works. That brought back memories of standing on my grandmother's back porch with her while she did laundry in the wringer washer and being told to keep little hands and fingers away from the wringer.

He has bikes galore, and one really old rusted one has probably the first baby carrier ever attached to it. One of the really cool things he has that I photographed for circles is a series of round steel pans that look like different sizes of cheesecake tins nested inside of one another. In the centre is a solid piece of steel that's free floating. Setting it on a tire so I could get over top of it, it was very cool and would have been perfect for 'circles' except for the fact the light was too harsh.

Asking him what it was, he told me it was a rock grinder for mining companies to test minerals in the rocks. Interesting! There's so much there, one could spend days just poking through all the stuff.

Today, I'm back to photographing old barns. Our assignment next month is serendipity and the one after that is abandoned buildings. I have some awesome photos for the abandoned buildings and continue to find more. There's one that I haven't quite got the photo I want. It's a burned out old house that the earth is waiting to reclaim, with weeds, trees, and shrubs taking over. The peak of the house and front face of it are leaning backwards as the roof has fallen in. Again, I haven't been happy with the lighting, so need to go back when the light is more favourable.

Looks like it's blowing snow outside now, so today may not be the day to head out. If I get time, I might add some photos later. Or not.

I gave myself a birthday present last week and paid for a workshop on Street Photography in June. I'm contemplating a watercolour workshop in March, as well. I'm certainly loving this retirement thing! Who has time to work?!

Yep, it's about time for some fun on here.
If you want to join in, add your own caption(s)
for the following photo.

My first one is; "Honest, it's not what you think !"

Here's the photo;

Just took this today

And one else see the face,?