Beautiful Sunday

Happy Mother's Day, all!

A wonderful day was spent today in the company of my Mom, her friend and my sister. We went to a brunch that was held at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The food was tasty and the price of admission included a live performance by Esteban.
For those of you not familiar with him, he plays a Spanish gypsy flamenco-style guitar and his technique is self-taught. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would certainly pay to attend one of his shows again. Oh, and I met my new grand-daughter today too. Her name is Buffy and she's a Boston Terrier. She's black and white and full of it! And, she's got a crazy pair of ears. Babe the Pug was quite fond of her.

Two shots from today.

Esteban:



And, introducing Buffy, approximately 14 weeks old:

Better Luck Next Time

My friend got a new kitty yesterday. I was hoping to show up with my camera and snap the first pictures of it, but the cat had other ideas. It was probably just bad timing on my part. A new cat in a strange environment plus two kids and a pug = cat hiding under bed. What was I thinking? Anyway, I moved on to the next unwilling candidate and was able to bribe a couple shots out of him with the promise of a shiny, new matchbox car the next time I saw him.

These were taken with my 105mm Micro. (This seems to be my lens of choice lately)

ISO 400/ 4.5

Through The Tulips

The first two images were taken with natural window light and the third image was taken with available light from incandescent bulbs above.

After many failed tries and a broken vase, I produced a handful of images that I am happy with. I really liked the shallow depth of field of one and two. It's a shame that the life span of these beauties is not very long.

Second Try

I went out again today to shoot more flowers. Specifically, prickly pear cactus flowers and bees. Yesterday, the wind was my nemesis. It's nearly impossible to shoot flowers when there is even the slightest bit of movement. Add to this a higher magnification of macro shots and your troubles only get worse.

Today I had some reprieve from the wind and shot a few images. I went out around 10 o'clock when the lighting was still somewhat soft. This way, I get the most color as opposed to shooting midday. I had my 105mm lens again. However, I did not have my tripod. I don't recommend shooting without one but fortunately I was able to kick up the SS enough to keep the subjects in focus.

Here are a few that I liked. I believe they were shot at F16.

(click on photos for a larger view)









This last one was F11. I'm not sure what kind of cactus it is.

Love This Lens

Yesterday, I spotted the brilliant yellow blooms on our prickly pear cactus so I grabbed my camera along with one of my favorite lenses, the 105mm Micro VR. This is a solid piece of glass and it takes great macro images. I also love using it for portraits and it functions well as a general-purpose lens.

Here is a full macro of the flower. It was quite windy so I wasn't able to come away with a lot of shots but this is one that I thought worthy of processing. It reminds me of some sort of a sea anemone. This image was shot at F16




This is a candid portrait taken with the same lens. I love the bokeh!

Natural Light Portrait

Good results can be achieved by using available light only. While it's important to get a grip on working with artificial light, i.e. strobes, flashes and continuous lighting, natural light portraits definitely have their place.

Here are a couple that I shot today. These were taken with window light that was coming in from camera left. I probably could have used a reflector for fill but I'm happy how they turned out.

Shot at 105mm at F3. I dropped in the backgrounds in PP. I think they look pretty cool

Flagstaff Trip

I visited Flagstaff this past Friday. It wasn't a productive trip regarding landscape photography. I went out on Saturday morning but didn't come back with much. I missed sunrise and the skies were uninteresting. (I prefer to shoot with a sky full of puffy clouds to add some punch to an image.)

A good time was had by all once we got past the shockingly cold temps. Yes, it was 27 degrees at night, excluding the wind chill factor. Quite a difference when compared to the warm weather we're having in Phoenix. I took a few snapshots and my friend got a tattoo that she's been wanting. Overall, I would say it was a successful trip.

Mount Humphreys still blanketed with snow:





I got a bit artistic when processing this image. I'm not sure if I pushed the processing too much but I really liked the colors.




Thought I would throw in the tat montage because I love how it turned out. The artist (Jay Arellano, Burly Fish Tattoo and Piercing) really did a nice job, I think.