Last Viewed Photography Blogs (166)

Here are 5 of the 12 photos that I presented last week in my photo club.
They loved them. Perhaps you might enjoy one of them too.
All were taken with my Canon T6i and a Sigma 50 to 500 mm lens.

The first 3 are somewhat difficult. They are of a flying hummingbird feeding from a flower.
They were at a huge garden, where there were literally thousands of flowers.
So, one has little idea as to when the bird would appear, or which flower the bird would feed from. In addition one needs to choose a very high shutter speed (these were taken at 1/3200 of a second) and thus a high ISO ( = 3200).







The next one was of a Monarch Butterfly.
However, while I was just about to press the shutter button, I noticed (something?)
out of the corner of my eye to the right of the butterfly.
So, I shifted the camera a bit to the right to include it in the picture.
I was very happy that the butterfly turned out very well and the other
tiny insect turned out well enough to at least get a look at it.
However, I still don't know what the heck that tiny insect is.



Lastly, I went to a jazz festival last month. Got right up front, center stage and met
a couple of the band leaders. One a female singer and the other one a terrific guitarist,
that I own several CDs of. His name is Mark Whitfield.

While I was taking photos, I sat right next to the guy the festival hired to take photos of the
event. I asked him if he was familiar with Mark Whitfield. He was not. I told him, that I had
never seen him in person, but I owned several of his CDs and that he is an excellent guitarist.

We both took hundreds of photos of each band. After Mark Winfield's band was done, the other photographer commented to me, "Man, he just gave us his all." I said, "Yeah. But the challenge with him, as I saw it, was that whenever he plays, he plays with his eyes closed." He responded with, "Well, I took a lot of photos of him. I'm sure I got several with his eyes open."

I then saw him go through all 84 photos he took of Mark, and not a single one had him with his eyes open. Because I noticed the challenge early on during his set, I got 11 photos of him with his eyes open. While I got plenty of his eyes closed while playing, I intentionally waited to the exact moment that he opened his eyes, to get several of those too, giving options for perhaps a CD cover. I did hand Mark my business card after the concert.

What the other photographer said next, made absolutely no sense. He said, "Well, we just looked at the JPEG photos. Some of the RAW ones probably have his eyes open."
I did not reply, because the RAW and the JPEG photos are exactly the same photos,
simultaneously stored onto the same memory card, except the way the image is stored is different.
I just let him 'save face' (pun intended).

Here's one of the photos of Mark, with his eyes & mouth open.



And here's a short little taste of some of his solo guitar work;

According to NASA, the Lyrids are one of the oldest meteor showers. They typically peak during late April. Best seen in the Northern Hemisphere after the moon sets and before dawn.
The shower was most active Sunday night through Monday morning and I was out a 2am checking, but I'm in the city and the streetlights made it impossible to view the night sky.

April's full moon, known as the "pink moon," will crest at its full phase Tuesday at 4:49 p.m. Pacific.

I was able to zoom in on the moon from the parking lot. Not a clear shot, but something I couldn't photograph at all with my previous phone/camera.




Lyrid meteor showers...

Just took this today

And one else see the face,?

Due to the pandemic, it gave me time to look at some of my photos from 2 years ago, that I really didn't get the chance to appreciate. I am posting 6 of them each week. This is my 4th posting of photos in this series.
If you don't mind, let me know which is your favorite of the 6. Thanks.

Rather that give you 6 different species of animals as I did in some of the previous photo blogs, this time I will focus (pun intended) on one species.

The following photos are of adult Brown Pelicans. It's a bit of a misnomer, as actually the juveniles are brown, while the adults are more white. The juveniles are hatched more interior away from the shoreline, while the adults migrate more to the shores, where fish are most plentiful.

Brown pelicans can live about 15 to 25 years of age. However, in captivity they have been known to make it past 31 years of age. Adults can weigh 6 to 8 pounds and have a 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 foot wingspan, which is larger than a bald eagle. They rear 2 to 4 eggs. A group of pelicans flying together is known as a pod, but also has been referred to as a fleet.

With no further ado, here are the photos;

... I have decided to treat myself to a new camera, a new DSLR camera to be more specific. My last DSLR camera bought around 18 years ago, a Fuji Finefix has outlived its usefulness and its time for an upgrade.

My sad little Fuji finepix is going to be retired:



After a great deal of research I have decided on a Nikon D500 (see image below)



I've read several reviews and it seems to be a perfect unit with many of the features of the Nikon D5 included without all the extra weight and expense.

Of course I will also equip myself with a set of AF-S DX Nikkor lenses up to 300mm zoom and a SB-5000 Speedlight flash as the D500 does not have a built-in flash unit.

Do we have any shutterbugs on the blogs that would like to comment or advise about my choice, for or against?


.....

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?!

Just for fun (you do remember having fun don't you ?),
add your own appropriate caption(s) for the following photo;



My first entry is; 'Shake, shake, shake. Shake your plastron.'

Just an array of random pics. That I take of day to day things that interest me or peak my interest. Some are from my cheap phone camera, while some are from my NIKON. I am not a professional by any means, this is just a passion of mine. I've been told, and wanting to myself, to join some classes to expand my limited knowledge of photography. Tell me what you think, like, dislike or enjoy about my photos please!

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.