Last Commented Photography Blogs (166)

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;

Rocky Knob, VA

The Channels, VA

Burke's Garden, VA

Molly's Knob, VA

Buffalo Mountain, VA

McAfee Knob, VA

Stone Mountain, NC

Grandfather Mountain, NC

Here's a photo I saw recently,
that it might be fun to come up with captions for.

Why not have some fun.

My first entry is;

Susie invents the new game - kickballs.

I may add some others later.

Feel free to add your own entries.

Here's the photo;



Have a super Sunday !

As I mentioned yesterday in my introductory blog, I took up photography a couple of years ago when I purchased my first DSLR camera. I'd had an SLR camera, but never really got into photography at the time.

After my purchase of my DSLR, I just loved the photos that came out of my camera, and found myself venturing out at all hours to various and sundry places just to take photos. I was totally hooked. Initially, sunrises and sunsets were my 'thing', although macro (close ups) of plants were also vying for top place.

A lady I knew is a photographer and she asked me if I'd like to join the local photo club, seeing how enthused I was about my new-found interest. The answer was a resounding yes, and although it's been frustrating at times, it's a great learning experience and challenges one to continue improving. There are four or five levels in the club and one has to attain a certain number of points in order to attain the next level. I'm finally in level two. Yay!

Monday nights are photo club nights, with the first Monday of the month being our exhibition night (unless it's a holiday, then it gets moved to the following Monday). Mondays are also my border run days where I ship orders out of the US to my overseas and US customers. As I've moved away from the community where the photo club is, it's a bit of a drive now to get there. As the border is in the same community, I go later in the day to combine both trips into one.

It still means a few hours between dropping off the orders and when photo club starts at 7:00pm. No problem, of course. Take my camera and visit the local park, Mill Lake, that I used to bike around daily, before dinner at Mom's and off to photo club. I have this!

My first stop would have been the cherry blossoms in the park, but that particular tree was pretty much done with it's blossoms, so that was a bust. Next stop was around by the pier where the magnolia trees were in full bloom. Yes!

The usual ducks and Canada geese were quacking and honking on the water, and a cormorant on it's log perch in the lake flapping it's wings. Redwing blackbirds flitted in and out of the reeds and saplings near the floating boardwalk, their red and yellow epaulets flashing brightly in contrast to their black feathers. I was too slow to capture their movement, but did capture a couple of them in song on branches. I haven't downloaded them yet, so have no idea how they've turned out.

As I was standing on the floating boardwalk photographing the Redwing blackbird singing up in the willow tree, a little brown bird flew right into the reeds and did not fly back out. Peering through their dead leaves and stalks, I saw the edge of a nest hidden, and the bird moving around in the nest. More photos, naturally.

On my way back from the boardwalk, I noted two Canada geese, doing what I thought looked like a mating ritual. They had their necks curved and heads close much like you see swans do, forming a heart shaped silhouette. It quickly went from that to ducking their heads under water then bobbing up again. One would put it's head under water and come up, then the other would.

This went on for a few minutes, then the next thing I know, the male is on top of the female, she's totally submerged so it's a good thing their mating habits only last a few seconds. That was it. The head under the water thing, and off they went. Alrighty then.

One guy walked by me and asked if I got a good photo of the geese. I'm like, uh, no, I'm not into goose porn. So now I know how Canada geese mate, and it's probably something I could have gone to my grave not knowing.

This morning, still in my nightie and before I even had my cocoa, I had my camera out taking photos of the tulips that were on their last legs on my dining room table. Is photography a passion, an obsession or an addiction?

You know you have it bad when it precedes your morning beverage.

Here's my first caption for the following photo;

Sharon seemed to take dieting a lot harder than some people.


Add your own caption(s), if you like.

Here's the photo;

"Hey ! What the hell is this cold wet stuff ?"

or suggest your own photo caption for......................

This is my Ginger, A rescue cat. When things go bump in the night here, it is usually (but not always) her.

Yesterday when I added the 41 photos to my webpage,



I neglected to add 8 others.

I'll blame it on doing it from the library here in FL, rather from the comfort of my own home.

Nonetheless, I just got done adding them now.

Seven of them are of deer. So, if you don't like deer, there's no need to go to the website to see these new 8 photos. :no:

6 of those deer photos are of one group of 3 deer; a big buck, a small doe and a little doe, that was most likely a fawn earlier this year.

Indeed, I am posting 2 of the deer photos (large doe alone and the 3 other deer together) below and also one of a European Starling perched in a tree.

I hope you enjoy them.

.
I just uploaded 41 nature photos to my Flickr website;
all taken last month.

You can see them all and their descriptions there, as well as many more.

For those of you who are terrified to wander off of Connectingsingles,
I added 7 of the 41 below for your viewing pleasure here.
On Flickr I was able to rotate the photos correctly, but on imgbb it seems that I am unable to do that.
So the one below of the Redtail Hawk perched is sideways.
It's upright on the Flickr site.















Which is your favorite of the 7 ?
Which is your favorite of the 41 ?

Have a terrific Tuesday.