So, here it is part 2

With less than two hours to go till the new year I shall get the rest of my favorites from this year posted.  Again let see if we can do a better job of showing up here now and then next year.

The ambitious plan for the up coming year is to take a photo of a flower a week and not just some, random throwing together at the last minute BS!!!

When I get into my photography, I really get into it!  Unfortunately, when I allow myself to get side tracked, man do I get side tracked!!!

Of course there is the other side of the coin and that is I am not getting any younger and if this dream of doing this for more than a hobby is ever going to come to fruition, (love that word) I had better get serious or just sell my camera!!!

Well, enough of this caring on!!!  Have a Happy New Year!!  May it be filled with happiness an abundant prosperity!!!  Oh, and here's the rest of the photos...

So that's it in a nut shell.  Hope you enjoy them and PLEASE drop me a line, let me know what you think, what you feel or just say Hi!!!

Peace...

It's Been Awhile... part 1

It's been along time since I addressed this page.  Guess it's time to give it another go.  Expectations are a little more reasonable now though.  Won't be shooting for the one a day routine but more like one a week.  This is also my hope for shooting flowers this year. Once a week for a total of 52 flowers.  Should make for a nice book at the end of the year.  Speaking of end of the year, as this one comes it's end I guess I should share this years photos that I have liked the most.  So here they are!  Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed capturing their beauty.

 So, after going through hundreds upon hundreds of photos I came up with two dozen floral photos that I really liked.  This is just half of them.  I will get the rest up tomorrow and then we can start a new year and many new journeys...

Peace!

Play on light...

Tried something different today.  Added a new element to my photography today.  I used a much smaller light source combined with an extended exposure time.  Still did a little adjusting in Lightroom and PS5, but I kind of like the look and feel.

Still much to learn...

Do we ever stop learning?

I hope not!

Perhaps, still a little dark, but I didn't want to blow out the lighter sections.  Looks a lot better the bigger it is.

Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Let me know what you think.  All comments are appreciated and welcomed....

When you least expect it....

The bears are rather restless this year and I have seen more bears this year then the total of bears that I have seen in the last eleven years. 

I live in a basement apartment in a friends house but I have access to the entire house.  Just about a week ago I was in my room editing some photos I had just taken, when I heard a rather loud noise upstairs.  So, I went up to investigate.  Got to the top of the stairs and I could see a dark shadow at the front door.  Walk to the front door and looked out the side window and there it was, a bear and it had ripped the humming bird feeder down off the side of the house and was drinking the sugar water.

 

As soon as I banged on the door it got up and ran off to the side of the house.  I ran downstairs and grabbed my camera, switched out my macro lens for something that would give me a little distance and shot out through the garage door just in time to almost bump into the bear that was coming back down the driveway.  We looked at one another and he ran off into my neighbors yard.  I followed at a safe distance and this is what I captured.

So the final tally is one dead bird feeder, one dead humming bird feeder and pole and  one surviving igloo cooler.

I have a feeling by the multi tags in his/her ears that it has had a few run ins with a game warden or two and I can only guess that the box around its neck must be a tracking device.


Any ways our friendly bear sauntered up the driveway, across the street and off into the day.  I'm sure it will be back, or one of the others, that have been stopping by for a bite or two.  This was definitely one of the smaller ones.

Oh, just a little side note.  The bears seemed to have open their own little cafe in the woods right behind the house.  Probably once a week, we have to go into the woods and pick up the remains of trash that the bears leave laying all about.  We have gathered that this must be a collection of trash from few of the neighbors homes just by the looks of the remains.  I have thought about putting up a sign that says "the Bear Cafe" "Please pick up after you are finished" Hey, what are you going to do!  Live and let live...

Watercolor Paintings by jdmstudios: Trees for Life Charity Exhibition

Watercolor Paintings by jdmstudios: Trees for Life Charity Exhibition: "I'd like to tell you all about an amazing charity project by Trevor Jones. Trevor is an amazingly talented artist who is originally from Ca..."

White Columbine

My white columbines are in bloom for a few more days so I thought I had better get out there and get some pictures taken before they're gone for another year.  Have three different views.  What do you think and which is your is your favorite?

Love to hear from you...

is there anyone out there.... 

Opps, Pink Floyd playing in the back ground.

But seriously, always love to get others input.

He came in through the bedroom window...

Have been living in the northwest corner of this state for, oh, over eleven years and have never once seen a Luna moth.  Well that ended this evening.  My house mate was surprised by this male Luna moth (she is going to probably kill me for posting this second picture).  Of course the second picture is perfect because it really gives you an idea of this magnificent moths size.

The sad part of this encounter is that I found out that the male Luna Moth only lives for one week.  Seems that it does not have a mouth and its only purpose is to breed.  I'm sure you probably are saying, "well, how do you know it's a male, been checking...lol"  But according to the article I read it says that the males have the bushier antennas.  Of course, the fact that he decided to visit my housemate should have been another indicator of his gender.

Guess you never know when a photographic opportunity will present itself. Well, have a nice evening.

Back side, looking up...

Two shots from different angles of the same purple/blue anemone.  Thought they might look good hung opposite one another.

Finally getting a grip on the editing in Lightroom 3 combined with PS5.  Still it would be nice to be able to do everything in one program.  Really slows down the computer going back and forth.

Another Day, another flower...

Fabulous purple anemone.  I really love the way this came out.  The lighting really makes this come alive!

As soon as I get my butt in gear this will be available in various size prints and cards in my Artfire Shop.

Will also get a link up to my other pages soon...

Thanks for putting up with me and being patient!

Listen

Listen, a photo by Nature of Art Photos on Flickr.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.  
                                                 "Baba Ram Dass" 

It's been awhile but some times the wait is worth it. This is my latest beauty

changes in the air...

Hoping to make some substantial changes to the layout of this blog in the coming weeks.  Just not feeling it, you know what I mean?  So, if there is any suggestions, please chime in!

Also thinking about going with one subject per day, just multiple possibilities, putting something out there to allow for some feed back!  I love feed back!!!

I bought a beautiful lily yesterday and was getting ready to do some shooting when I looked up and saw this yellow and orange gerber that came home with me a couple of days ago.  It just stood there and was kind of saying, "Hey look, it's now or never!"

I have to add, that the flowers I select, you may think this strange but, they talk to me.  I walk into a shop and look around and someone will always say can I help you but, I look and look, until one of them says, "Hey, I'm the one."  I have tried forcing the issue before and just gone in and said "Okay I'll take that and that and that" only to get home and just not feel the magic that helps me create these, warm intimate flower portraits.


So, without further noise here are six, yes six views, of this awesome Gerber Daisy.  Pick your favorite and let me know which one it is.  Perhaps it will be the next one that makes it to my Artfire page.

 #1

 
  

  #2

 #3

 #4

 #5

 and last, but not least #6

So there you have them, let me know what you think and I'll see you tomorrow...

almost missed it...

It's 9:30 and I have come very close to missing my plan to post everyday.  It's been a rough couple of days.  Don't know if it was just a stomach flu or food poisoning, but whatever it was, it almost knocked me out of the box.

Well, any ways here are the latest two:

Liked playing with some of the presets in Lightroom so I thought that I would take this cannon back in time.  Kind of rough, but with some more time I think it would look even better.

And it's that time of year again.  Trillium, which grows in my backyard.  Love this time of year because I don't have to go very far to find some excellent subjects to explore.

Time to call it a day and do some reading before I crash.  Have a nice evening and I'll see you tomorrow...

on going study...

Back again with the white gerber daisy, an on going study.  I don't believe that I have ever shot this many pictures of one subject and I don't feel finished yet.

So, here are two more views.  Any favorites?

Up close and personal from the side.

And then from the same side but lower.

Little under the weather today so, have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow....

spring at last?

Got up this morning and it had to be at least 50 degrees outside, finally! Should be a lovely day, let's see what we can find today, or what finds me.

Interesting day yesterday to say the least and with it a large variety of weather conditions making for a variety of images.

The first image today has been edited but I was playing with some of my captures from yesterday and this is how one came out, hope you enjoy it.

This is the results of playing around.



This is the original, what do you think?


For the second image today I jumped back into my old passion. I bought this gorgeous white gerber. Extraordinary flower.




I did do a little tweeking of this image as well, brought the green out a little and not really sure that I like it. Must have spent hours with this flower and not done yet! Thank goodness for digital. I can honestly say that I took over 100 pictures of this gerber and if I had done it with film it would have gotten quite expensive.

I have a lot of additional keepers and I will probably share some of them over the next few days

Looks like it will be a glorious day today and I have a family commitment to go to today so I hope everyone has an outstanding day and...I'll see you tomorrow...