Is This a Hawk?

Canon 20D, Raw, f4.0, 1/800, ISO400, Imageomic Noise Filter, Levels

Willie was outside in the back yard and came running in the house saying, “Grab your camera and come outside! There is a hawk on top of the telephone pole!” Well, I grabbed my camera, but my wide angle lens was on the camera! I had to shoot as fast as I could! I took a few photos and Willie went into the house to get the telephoto lens. Of course, it flew away by then. I had to crop this quite a bit so it is a small image. Please forgive me but I wanted to show it to you. It is hard to be ready for what ever will come along! I do the best I can!

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Blowing in the Summer Breeze

Canon 20D, Raw, f4.0, 1/400, ISO 100 55 mm, Nik Film Effect Velvia 100 Filter

Willie and I were outside with the dogs this afternoon in the backyard. I looked over at this large “bush” of basil growing next to a pot of geraniums. The sun was shining from the back and the breeze was blowing the flowers. It reminded me of wheat in a field blowing in a field. I hope you can get an idea of what I saw from this image. I took several and this was the one that was the closest to what I saw.

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An Antique Image of a Rose

Canon 20D, f5.6, 1/160, Nik Silver Efex Antique Plate II Filter with Curves and Levels adjustments

 This is an image of a rose I took that is blooming in my front yard. I love the effect the filter I used gave it. As I said the other day, I love these filters and the black and white effects they produce. I will be doing much more of it and sharing the images with you here.

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At the Barbecue

Today was Larry and Shelley’s Labor Day barbecue. Here is a shot from one angle of their back yard. It was great seeing old friends and making a few new ones. The hamburgers were great, along with the salads and all the other good stuff people brought. There were a lot of people there. What was good is that it was not a late night. We were home before 10:00 P.M.

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Round Two

This is the start of year two of one photo a day. Things will be changing on my weblog soon. I am hoping to have it all ready by the end of next week. Willie told me about these roses this afternoon in our front yard. He said I should go take a look. Well, I did and I liked what I saw. I seem to be on a black and white kick right now. I got some new filters called Efex Silver and there are a lot of options with buttons and whistles to play with. I have barely scratched the surface of the possibilities!

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Radio Flyer

I saw this and thought it would make a great photo for the weblog. I believe I was right! I really like the black and white. It shows all the texture and the vignette around the edges looks good too. I didn’t really do any planning to take this photo – sometimes those are the best, the spontaneous ones. Please let me know what you think of it!

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Heavenly Bamboo

I was out walking in my front yard today looking for something to photograph. There are a lot of things and I took a lot of photos. I took a lot of the little round berries, pods or whatever they are on the heavenly bamboo plant. None of them seemed to work. I went back outside with my lensbaby and +10 macro filter and saw this beautiful leaf. Aren’t the colors great? I am very happy with it. I love the lensbaby and maybe one day I can get one of there “better” ones.

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Giving Kyla Equal Billing

The day sort of got away from me today! I was busy doing a bunch of errands and appointments, but I was able to get this photo of my beautiful baby girl! I love my Kyla and she is not as theatrical as Donnan is, like in yesterday’s photo. She is a young lady, but she does like to play rough with Donnan! I liked this photo because it is difficult to get a dog to look right at the camera. See how much her hair has grown? She is looking good!

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See My Little Guy Jump!

 

I have been trying to get this photo of Donnan for over a year! That is a six foot high wall he is peeking over. As you can tell, he is very nosy! I think our neighbors got a new dog or one was visiting this morning. Donnan took a running start and jumped. He can usually get 2-3 jumps per run. We do not encourage him to do this. Normally he won’t do it if I am outside but I guess he couldn’t help himself today. I kind of cheated and put my camera on sports mode instead of dealing with manual. Forgive me!

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Bachelor Buttons

These are Bachelor Buttons growing in Larry and Shelley’s back yard. I think Shelley started them from seeds. She has quite a green thumb! Isn’t the color pretty? We were over there for a little while this afternoon after having a birthday lunch for Willie’s dad. It looks like their sunflowers are going to seed – I guess they are done for the summer. I love the color of these flowers and they look so delicate! My mother used to grow flowers like these.

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Another Great Cactus

I took this photo a few weeks ago with my Lensbaby. I keep going back to it because I like it. I finally decided to share it with you today. It is a photo of a cactus we have had  for many years and it is now over 4 feet tall.  Every time we have moved it also moves.  It  looks like it has white hair growing on it. I wish I knew what this cactus is called, but I don’t know that much about plants. Those thorns are very sharp, whatever kind they are!  Awed that it was a 2 inch plant when we started…

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A Still Life Photograph

As I was loading my dishwasher earlier today, this vase with sitting on the counter with the beautiful rose buds I cut yesterday for my photograph. I love the vase they are in. It was given to me by a very dear friend many, many years ago. I thought the roses looked so I pretty, how could I not photograph them!? I took the vase outside on the patio, changed my lens and took a few photos. I wanted to make sure I got the flowers and the vase, but nothing too distracting in the background.  I didn’t do any retouching on the roses – just a little vignetting. Do you like it?

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Back With My Lensbaby

I walked outside this afternoon and looked over at my rose bushes. I did a post a while ago where I stated that my neighbors have all the pretty roses. Well, I guess I was  wrong!  Isn’t this a beautiful rose? I used my Lensbaby +10 macro filter. It is so much fun to use. I think I finally got my diopter at the right setting. My focal point is closer to where I want it to be. I guess it will never be perfect as long as I have to wear glasses! I first wore glasses in the 3rd grade so I guess I am stuck with them!

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My HDR Orchid

 Not that long ago we thought the orchid was dying. I asked Willie to cut it down because it was getting so tall. He put off doing it and then, surprise, surprise, a bud appeared on the top! I thought it might be fun to try another HDR image. I got the tripod out and put a white board behind it. Willie held a piece of cardboard to try to block the breeze. It worked at the top but there is some movement at the bottom. I used five images in this process. That gives me more info to work with than just using three images.

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Another Up-Close Photograph

This appears to be the month of up close flowers! It is not intentional but I guess I will need to intentionally put a stop to it! This one, in case you you could not tell, is with the Lensbaby +10 macro filter. It is a photo of my mother’s Christmas cactus. These are buds  from which the beautiful pink flowers emerge. We are going up to Pasadena tomorrow and that is always a great place to take photos!

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White on White

This photograph was taken with my Lensbaby 2.0 with the +10 macro filter. I showed you the buds the other day so now I show you the orchid as it is just beginning to bloom. To me it kind of looks like an alien space ship! Willie mentioned the body snatchers! I think it looks good and I like the white on white look. 333/365