Tuliptree Blossom with Guest
Another Day at Work
Apis Workers' Party
Predator
Some of Your Beeswax
Sedum Bumbler
Look of Defiance
Chicory Bee
Bumbling Bees
Garden Cafe
Buzz By Here - To Infinity and Beyond
Pick Your Poison
Blind Side Attack
On a Mission
Honey Bee on Sedum
Covering the Cosmos
Center of the Cosmos
Three's a Crowd
Popular Spot
On A Pedestal
Big Harry Fireworks Display
To Impress the Girl
Different Perspective
Sweet Ride
Perfect Little Piggies B&W
Flipping the Light Fantastic
Festival of Flights
To the Crowd's Delight
Amish Go Round
Wondersome One
The Stars In Her Eyes
Tuesday's Child
Sleeper Hold
Considering the Next Move
Sugar and Spice
Front Porch Portrait
Caged Competitor
Early Adoration
Child In the Ligtht
Stroll Through the Weeds
Attention Grabbing
Eye Contact
On the Line
Eyes of Wonder
Rounding the Curve
Troubadours of Basin Spring Park
Down by the Creek
Sun Day
Catching Some Light
EAA Fireworks
Hear Me Roar
Sony SLT-A55V
Petunias
There is uncommon beauty all around us that we often miss because we fail to “stop and smell the roses.” These aren’t roses, but petunias that Sara has in a planter by the back door. I pass by them several times a day with hardly a notice.
Well, I stopped for a moment to notice…with a camera in my hand, of course.
For me, that’s one of the great benefits of photography. It increases the awareness of my surroundings. With a camera in my hands, my eye becomes acutely sensitive to beauty, symmetry, bold colors, subtle hues, the dramatic, the sublime. It is a good thing for my soul.
In your all-to-busy life, every once in awhile, pick up a camera and take some time to stop and smell (and snap) the roses.
(To see a larger version of this image, click on it.)
The Calm of Sunset
I always have an eye to the sky at sunrise and sunset. As you can tell from browsing the post on this blog, I capture a lot of dawn and dusk sunlight.
Even though I have a lot of sunrise/sunset photos, they are all unique.
The panorama image below is of the same sunset, taken a little after the above shot.
Clicking on either image should bring up a larger view.
Conspicuous Display
This is another shot from this year’s fireworks show at Kewaunee’s Trout Festival. (7/15/11)
Again, the firework’s bold burst, the reflection off the water, the full moon and the detail of the harbor at night combine to make this one of my favorites.
I have a hand full of other images of the Trout Fest fireworks that I will be posting now and then. Check back regularly. And, by all means, feel free to share the link to theses posts with others.
Depending on the size of your monitor, you may be able to see a larger version of this image by clicking on it.
Harbor Lights
The full moon staged a dramatic entrance near the Kewaunee, WI lighthouse on Friday, July 15, 2011.
It was the first night of Kewaunee’s annual Trout Festival. I had scouted out the area and selected a spot to take photos of the upcoming fireworks show. While waiting, the moon slowly emerged from the horizion – starting out to the left of the lighthouse and moving directly behind the lighthouse and beyond, as you can see. 
I was excited to be able to be in the perfect spot to catch the two together. There was one spoiler, though. The pier to the lighthouse happens to be the site of the fireworks launch. The technicians putting on the fireworks show were on the pier, as were their vehicles and equipment. Photoshop to the rescue!
The image to the right is the original, untouched, photo that I snapped. The moon and lighthouse together still make a cool image, but I thought they would be better without the distracting clutter. It took a little time to digitally clear the pier, but I think the final product was worth it.
Feel free to leave a comment and give me your opinion.
If you like this post, spread it around by sharing it with your friends.
To see a larger version of the main image, simply click on it.
Hollyhocks in Digital Paint
One of the things I love about digital photos is the way you can easily manipulate the images. I almost never post a photo straight out of the camera. There’s always tweaking to be done. It might be simply cropping the image for maximum effect, straightening a crooked image, correcting the color, contrast, brightness, etc. Even beyond making a photo look it’s best, you can easily make a photo look totally different. This is a perfect example.
The other day I returned a book to the Algoma Public Library and on my way in I noticed a group of hollyhocks. My artist’s eye thought that would be a good image to experiment on. I liked the colors and the texture of the stone wall behind them. To the right is the original photo I snapped. I left myself plenty of room to crop it. When I look at the original, I really don’t see anything particularly special about these flowers.
I opened the image in Photoshop and tweaked the brightness and contrast, cropped it, then saved it. I then opened up another image editing software called FotoSketcher. It’s a free program I recently found and am just starting to play with. It allows you to convert a digital photo to a variety of different art styles, such as pencil sketch, oil pastel, watercolors, etc. It also has a number of options for aging a photo, increasing saturation and adding a frame or text.
I imagine any real artist who works with oils would probably snicker and scoff at this type of creation. Yet, if I were to actually pick up a paint brush or pastels, you’d get a lot of stick-people level images. Not being familiar with those kind of mediums, I really don’t know what I’m doing with things like brush size, number of strokes, edge intensity and such, so I trust the software to do the heavy lifting. There are a lot of adjustments the software allows you to make. I just fiddle around until I find something that appeals to me. A true artist, could probably do much better.
On the image above, I simply selected one of the oil painting modes and fiddled.
My artistic medium is digital photography, and I don’t expect that to change, but adding another digital twist to the images and a free tool to the digital tool box keeps things interesting.
If you’re interested in the FotoSketcher software (remember, it’s Free) you can down load it here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/
To see a larger version of the main image at the top of this post, simply click on it.
Full Moon and Fireworks
The folks who attended the 2011 Kewaunee Trout Festival enjoyed two spectacular displays…the fireworks show and a full moon.
I positioned myself at nearly surface level with the Kewaunee harbor in order to capture the reflection off the water. I think the reflections are as appealing as any other part of the images. In fact, I’m considering combining a number of the firework reflections to create a colorful image of its own.
This was my first opportunity to capture fireworks with my Sony SLT-A55V. I wish the fireworks show was a few hours long, rather than a few minutes. I need that kind of time to really experiment with settings and angles, etc.
For my photography friends, here are some of the specifics… Of course, I had the camera on a tripod, had it in manual mode, on the “Bulb” setting and used a remote trigger…F/11.0, ISO 200, 13-seconds, 28.0 mm.
I’m pleased with a number of the images I captured and will be posting more, so check back. Or, better yet, just subscribe to the RSS Feed.
Both of these images (especially the smaller one) are better when bigger – so click them to see a larger view.
The Bee – Close Up and Personal
I don’t have a lot of time to travel to scenic places around the world – or even in my own area – so a lot of my photos are taken around my rural Kewaunee County, WI home. I often take a walk around my yard and photograph whatever catches my eye. Here’s what caught my eye recently.
I enjoy experimenting with macro photography. Getting a close up view of small things and capturing detail that is not apparent to the casual observer gives me a kick. Like in this image – that little thing that sticks out of the bee’s head and the cellophane look of the wings interests me. I think the eyes look more like a pair of over-sized sunglasses, too.
This photo was taken at one of my wife’s flowerbeds on the side of our house. There were a number of bees working over these little yellow flowers.
Thankfully, no bees or humans were harmed in the process of getting this image.
(To see a larger version, just click on the image.)
Spider Assassin
Sure…she looks sweet, petite and innocent, but beneath that tiny hummingbird breast beats the heart of a skilled killer. She is a spider assassin! (By the way, that heart beats at about 250 beats per minute while resting and about 1,260 beats per minute while flying.)
This photo could be used as evidence in an avian court to convict her. You can clearly see strands of spider web stuck to her beak and a bit on her head. As further evidence, take a look at a photo I entitled Delicate Delight; posted a few days earlier. If you look closely at this image of another female hummingbird captured in flight, you will notice little bits of spider web stuck to her beak, too.
Most people mistakenly think that a hummingbird’s diet consists solely of nectar from flowers and feeders that people hang in their garden. Hummingbirds also need protein. They get that protein from a variety of bugs…including spiders.
And here’s another fascinating fact about the world’s tiniest birds – hummingbirds use spider webs to build their nests.
Here are some notes from worldofhummingbirds.com – –
Hummingbirds love to eat small bugs like gnats, aphids, and spiders. The hummingbirds will even eat all of the bugs out of the spider web, eat the spider, and then steal the web to help build a nest.
[To build a nest] She likes to use nice soft material like moss and lichen. She also likes to use cotton fluffs, bits of willows, soft plant pieces, dryer lint, and leaf hairs. She will bring these items back to her nest a little at a time, gluing it all together with spider webs. The spider webs make terrific glue for the nest, allow the nest to stretch and be flexible as the baby hummingbirds grow, and make it easier for the mother hummingbird to repair the nest when kids do what kids do.
If you learned something new and liked the photo, please share this post with a friend and leave a comment. (Thanks!)
(This image has been enlarged a great deal to make it easier to see the spider web. If you’d like to see an even larger version, simply click on the photo.)
First on the Scene
Make a note on the calendar – the first lily to display its beauty at our house this season happened on Wednesday, June 29th. As you can see, there will be many others to follow, but there’s something noteworthy about the first one. 
I’ve been keeping my photographer’s eye on the flower bed and could see the bloom was about to begin. The slender, green pods were beginning to blush.
For comparison, I took a picture of the same lily at the beginning of its opening, in the early morning light of the rising sun. (The smaller image on the right.) This would have been a good time to set up a time-lapse camera – if I had one.
The “grand opening” continued through the day until full bloom, as captured in the larger photo, taken in the early evening of the same day.
(You can see an even larger view of the top image by clicking on it.)
Water Wings
I took this photo at a small wetland area on my drive home. They were closer and on dry ground when I drove up, but as soon as the mama spotted me, she took the kids for a safe swim.
Canada Geese have become so prolific they are often considered a nuisance…but how can you not love the goslings. I counted 11 little ones in this brood.
(Click the image to view a larger version.)