Week 31 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 211

 One again I did not get far from home. Fortunately home ground had lots of photo opportunities from dawn to hummingbirds to flowers.

Day 212

 Dawn and dusk offers swarms of humming birds to try to photograph. High speeds in dim light. And later this week close to hundreds of birds looking like swarms of bees. The photograph above has 21 birds. Or can you find more?

Day 213

 And then there is Day 213 where I decided to see if I could focus in with the long lens before it flew away. They pause and wait for their opportunity at one of the three feeders. I fortunately have things they can roost on so you focus on their favorite perches and wait for one to land.

Day 214

 The water lilies were on my drive path to two cats I was sitting. They were a pleasant surprise. And proof you should never go out of the house without your camera.

Day 215

Back at home there was raindrops on hollyhock buds.

Day 216

 And pansies.

Day 217

The monsoon rains continue. They keep me rooted at home as much as the absence of time in my schedule to free roam in a wider circle. Some opportunities next week. Want to get down to Las Vegas to photograph their old buildings but I have been saying that for a month.

Week 33 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 225
Hummingbirds waiting their turn

The first two photographs were actually taken this week. The remainder are finds during my culling of photographs. I found during this process that especially in large folders from treks that yielded a lot of photographs that I would just post process the highlights and move on with a mental promise to return for a second pass at some time in the future. Hypothetically the next very windy and cold day when I did not want to go outside.

There were so many of these gems lying undiscovered in folders next week will be totally from that resource. All photographers must have treasure troves of unrealized brilliance. It was true in film days. And in digital era it remains true. To save developing and printing costs during film era I used to have a contact sheet or a box of slides. I would look at them through a magnifying viewing scope for contact sheets or a small manual projector for slides. Uploading from scan disc to computer is probably the equivalent. There is even a function in your photo editing software called slide show. You rate with stars or scribble a list on scrap paper beside your keyboard. And then post process those.

I have begun a notebook where I scribbled down dates or file numbers which have gems to go back too. And I have gotten better in rating current photos because it is a gold mine of 4 and 5 stars cached away to post process on a blizzard day.

Or a rainy day like days 225 and 226. But I took the first from inside my studio with door open. And the second rushing just outside in bare feet with raincoat over head.

Day 226
Hollyhocks after the rain

A day trip to Las Vegas, NM yielded a lot of photographs already heralded in these blogs. But even in this well mined open pit, to continue the mining analogies, I found others of merit like the antique store front of an antiques store.

Day 227
Antique shop in Las Vegas, New Mexico

 I bypassed it the first time because I did not like the closed sign. So I tried a filter to make it less prominent. A friend says she doesn't notice it but I know it is there. Yes, I could clone it out but given its location it would be less than successful. I find cloning is less detectable on edges of photographs, definitely off center or in a background.

I figured it might just be the color, so I tried a black and white treatment. Closed is more insistence but so is other lettering like on the marque reflection across the street. All this raised another issue in the order in which I process new uploads of photographs (or is it downloads). Yes, I go for the spectacular in my mind, but I will also go for the easiest.

There much to be gained by fiddling with the less than perfect image. It can be a huge learning experience.

Day 228
Same shop in black and white

I have taken lots of photographs of this old tractor. But I am always sure I can take a better one. And as I have access to it I can always come back in better light and try again. Besides it is there in the photo files to go back to. Ergo I deduce that in addition to being lazy I am also rather jaded at times. I will treasure the images I captured on a day trip or vacation over those of a walk about in the hood.

But Ansel Adams proved the merit of photographing the same thing like the Ranchos Mission or the National parks. Familiarity with your subject can give you valuable clues as to how to get a better shot of it.

Day 229
Neighbor's tractor

The crumbling hamburger joint below comes from a huge file of photographs taken on a trek with a photography buddy, Terry Atkins Rowe. I admit to coming back exhausted and euphoric from these treks with an impossible number of photos. More photos to mine from this Trek with Terry folder.

Day 230
Specials at the Crossroad

Next week more of Las Vegas and the three day trips there. And a couple from the Zuni Mountains with my sister, another great photo trek companion.

Sometimes You Get Lucky - The lucky shots of 2014

Butterfly on Flower

Another photographer friend who does the 365 day challenge with me brought up the concept of doing a few blogs on the best of her photographs. This is not a competition because she is a better photographer. But I welcomed the opportunity to look back at the 365 and see if I could pull out 5 or 6. Would you believe 32?

That is a bit many for one blog so I decided to separate them. These are the lucky shots which stood out during the year. They are not a culmination of my skill but of familiarity where I live and my equipment and plain dumb luck.

I am not a tripod sort of photographer. Not enough patience. But I have learned a lot of yoga like bracing moves, I have a new 55-300mm lens which I love, and together with my 23 megapixel camera I am able to get some nice macros at a distance. On the particular day I captured this butterfly on a flower I was about 15 feet away and leaning against a support of a deck so I could take pictures of flowers in a bit of a breeze. I was totally surprised when I got home to find the details were clear enough to see the center of the butterfly's eye. It is rather like the fish that didn't get away this summer.

Hummer taking a break

This was another of those surprise captures. A bit of a chilly morning on a busy feeder day and this tiny, smaller than the average, hummingbird was all fluffed up taking its time getting in line at one of the feeders outside my studio. I grabbed the camera and braced myself against the door jam and took just a couple shots before he got annoyed.

Two Red Tail Hawks on a power pole

And this lucky capture was at the Maxwell National Wildlife refuge. And the two hawks (mother and offspring?) did not stay on this post for long. I had a tripod in the car I was in, but I ended up bracing the camera across the hood. I think hawks look ever so much better on tree limbs but a photographer never looks a gift shot like this in the f-stop. I can go back and look up the specs on this shot. Nikon keeps them all on the image file but when a friend first asked I said, "whatever the camera was set on when I saw the birds."

Darkeyed Junco on Hollyhock stalk

I was in the studio painting this December when I noticed the Juncos and mountain sparrows were going crazy over the suet cakes hanging where the hummingbird feeders had been this summer. They were all on the other side of double pane windows that had been through several storms without being washed. Who am I kidding? I think I last cleaned outside and inside in June. What the heck, the camera was there and with digital you do not pay for film. I was shocked at the clarity of the photographs I took. Sometimes with digital cameras you reach a sweet spot on the focus where even a dirty lens does not register. I have one long lens with a horrid scratch right off the center and it very rarely registers on an image.

Hollyhock in a morning shower

This was the summer of flowers. Taking flower pictures is my sister's forte and not mine but I decided to practice this year. I will be doing another blog of the flowers of this year. But this one was really special because it was gently raining as the sun broke through the trees one morning. I was standing under the deck trying to keep the camera dry. My long lens captured this distant hollyhock against the dark forest. Because of the light and the focal depth I ended up with a black background and dawn illuminated raindrops. Oh, and again braced against the deck pillars to make the low light exposure work.

These are all favorites of mine from the 365 posted photographs this year. Not necessarily the best technical shots but the luckiest in my opinion.  My favorite photograph this year, however, is the one below. I have photographed the buffalo on the Vermejo Park Ranch which runs along the highway a lot. First you are lucky when they are in the field.

The Crown Prince

But lucky part of this photograph was how close the herd was to the fence given that there were several young calves. The cows were so very intent on the great long grass they forgot about us. The calf was very interested indeed, however. It made for a fantastic composition, and without that buffalo are just big furry beeves. Which, I am reminded, can go through from standing still to 40 mph in a very short distance.

Week 33 - 2014 in Images

Day 225

The photograph before is not dawn. It is a sunset looking east. West was in reds and the clouds behind me were in pastel hues. One of those rules I try to follow is always look behind me. You can get to focused on the view before you in photography and miss so much. I think I will start always making a full slow turn when out with my camera.

Day 226

I finally have two flourishing hollyhock plants. I have loved hollyhocks since I was a kid when I and my friends used to make hollyhock dolls with toothpicks and float them on the pond. They are wonderful with water sprinkled on them. So when it had not rained I sprinkled them with the hose and then took the picture.

Day 227

My geraniums have not done well outside this year so the largest geranium I left inside the studio. It has gotten very large and bloomed all summer long. The pot contains three different colors of geraniums but the pink is one of my favorite especially with the early morning light coming through the studio windows. Photographing flowers inside means no worry about wind changing the focus.

Day 228

True dawn. But the clarity of the trees silhouetted against the glowing clouds is what I like about this photo. I usually have my wide angle on when taking dawn or sunset pictures but on this particular morning I had on my 55-300 mm and knew the light would change too much if I stopped to change lenses. I was surprised at how close the trees were on this distant hill with the 300. And I remembered to back off just a hair to ensure all in focus.

Day 229

Duck eggs are grey. I found that out with a purchase of them at the farmer's market. And the artist in me could not eat them until I had photographed them. They looked perfect in this silver serving tray. Had not done an arranged still life for a while.

Day 230

Hummingbirds are the opposite of still. But in the evening after a long rain they are so hungry and metabolism down they will sit on my garden fence and wait for an open spot at the feeders. After a summer of me feeding them they have gotten quite used to my presence and the camera so this little one just sat while I took a photograph with my long lens. I get good macros with this particular zoom. And it very nicely puts the distance out of focus on the right setting.

Day 231

My closing scene is looking south as the sun moves toward setting in the west. It was taken on the same day as the first photo. I was turning around to go back inside when I caught the quality of light in the south. No photo to the north. That is where the house sits blocking my view. But I did turn to check if the light of the setting sun was doing anything fabulous on it.