Some recent snapshots; tinkered with HDR this time. Don’t ask me to explain HDR ‘cuz I have no idea! I also don’t believe HDR is particularly suited for macro work but it intrigued me. There does appear to be a difference – at least to these old bespectacled eyes.
Macro of a clematis flower right out of the camera (i.e., no editing):
Unedited. Taken with Canon 70D, 100 mm macro lens, ISO 200, 1/2 sec at f/11
The photo below taken from identical camera position but with “HDR” settings. It was subjected to some post-processing:
Edited primarily for pollen and vignetting. A little color correction.
Other HDR shots:
The following were shot with normal settings:
If your camera is capable, perhaps you’ll give HDR a shot as well.
“Noooo-ah!” But too late. She was the last person to get out of the car…again.
She’s killing me, I tell ya.
My Little Cake Boss Diva.
Even way up in Seattle. Her killing me is not restricted to home. It is unrelenting.
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While some of her photographs will be shown below, a quick she’s-killing-me story first.
We weren’t even in Seattle for three hours when the onslaught continued. (Don’t think she didn’t try to kill me during the flight. Even my warning her of plain clothes air marshals being on board didn’t deter her.).
After quickly checking in, we met my good friend Rick; like any good buddy, he treated my two kids and me to dinner.
My good buddy Rick, a USAF veteran. He liked blowing things up. Still does… but all his Mustangs are slower than mine.
As I had brought some cigars for him but forgot them in the room, we had to return to the hotel. While he and his gal waited in the lobby, I escorted the kids up to the room.
Knowing my Little Cake Boss Diva, I sternly said, “Brooke, do NOT touch anything, OK?”
“Okaaay-ah!” she replied… and I headed back down to the lobby, cigars in hand.
I wasn’t with him for more than fifteen minutes before I returned to the room. Yes, I was worried she was up to something.
So I opened the door. Wham. A rush of frigid artic air hit me. Mumbles (from Happy Feet) would have been pleased.
At the other end of the room, there she was on top of the air conditioner grill…sitting on a blue bed cover sheet with her butt square in the middle with her hands on either side trying to keep the sheet down. She was attempting to stop the flow of air conditioned air blasting out of the A/C. Talk about the Lucy Show. She was Lucy. I was Ricky, down to the “Ai-ya-yai, Lucy!”
Before I could yell, “Brooke!”, Jack immediately ratted out on his sister.
“Papa, she was doing something that she wasn’t supposed to and turned on the air conditioner! She doesn’t know how to turn it off so it’s freezing in here!” He was very pleased with himself for tattling.
Now I could yell, “Brooke! I told you NOT to touch anything!”
“Hee-hee…” she replied with her trademark “I’m VERY innocent” smile making for a happy face complete with adorable chubby cheeks..
I turned off the air then she scampered over to the one cup coffee brewer. What do you all that gizmo? A Keurig? Sure enough, there was one empty slot. She had brewed herself some coffee.
“Brooke! What were you doing brewing yourself coffee?! You don’t even know how to use that thing!”
“Welllll-ah! I was freezing-ah! And I can read (the directions) so I made myself something like a latte, okaaaay-ah? Sheesh!”
She’s only twelve. OMFG.
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Anyways, that’s one of her traits…besides doing the opposite of what I say. She has to try everything…except clean her room.
So as in my previous post – and not being pleased with the way Jack was taking pictures – she commandeered my pretty new bazillion dollar Canon DSLR for pretty much the rest of the trip.
I only gave her one pointer: to cradle the lens with her left hand while shooting. For once, she actually followed my instructions.
But anyways, here are some of her photos taken with my bazillion dollar camera:
Jack and me at the bottom left.Handheld macro!Handheld macro!
My oldest daughter’s Corgi, “Yogi”. He is sans one leg now but never stops loving you to death. His favorite spot is still on your lap.
Adorable Yogi
And some other snapshots:
Textured Notocactus rutilans flowerA textured bloom from a Crown of Thorns cactusAlthough he returned from WWII, we went to visit him during Memorial Day weekend.A Chamaelobivia (Rose quartz)A bloom of an Echeveria harmsii rendered into pastels.A simple ClematisA Chamaelobivia (Rose quartz) rendered into B&WHummingbird sage (Salvia microphylla or “Hot Lips”). Hummingbirds love this flower and come frequently. A lovely scent proliferates when you break a stem.A Notocactus rutilans flower
There is such a thing as luck… but it never relates to winning the lottery, it seems.
But I did hit a jackpot – a photographic one. Its been busy trying to supplement my photographic artwork these past few weeks; being an amateur, it’s not easy.
As there’s been some dew on the flowers outside, I took to shooting them at first light. Fortunately, Lady Luck flashed a big smile as a number of them were selected for flickr.com’s “Explore” which showcases 500 photographs each day for “interestingness”:
Here are a few others:
Unbelievably, there’s been over 100,000 views in the past three days, now nearing 1,000,000 views in total.
It would be nice to have that many visitors to this blog!
I hope you all are well and I pray for our young souls going into combat for our sakes.
In addition to investing time into reading WWII history books, my snapshot side of me still beckons.
“EXPLORE” is a featured group on the photo website flickr.com. Out of the close to 2,000,000 photo uploads daily, about 500 are selected for “EXPLORE” by the website for “interestingness”. Some of my photos have been fortunate enough to be “interesting”, 19 in total.
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The last four are below; hope they are “interesting” to you. Clicking on the images will take you to the actual photograph. 🙂
This is called “painting with light”. You leave the shutter open then use a flashlight to illuminate the subject.
A Lantana
A blue Balloon flower
An Amarcrinum Lily X taken at Descanso Gardens
A summary as of today of my photographs selected for “Explore” on flickr:
As my little 11 year old Cake Boss would say when I would light up a cigar, “Ewwww, Papa! That’s gross!”
Well, you have no idea of “ewww” or “gross” until now.
Unfortunately, I used the last of the soap yesterday… It was too late when I stepped into the shower that I had forgotten to buy soap.
I was confronted with not washing at all…or…
…use my little Cake Boss’ soap… Excuuuuse me. Shower gel.
I now smell of Cranberry Twinkle.
No, I reek.
It stinks.
Ewww.
Gross.
And the smell won’t go away.
Gotta light up a stogie to mask this wretched girlie odor.
Wait a minute.
I can’t. It’s 1:30 AM.
Damn.
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Not that anyone should notice but my attention had been diverted away from WordPress the past month or so. I decided to try and build a small (potential) income stream by (possibly) selling my photographs on websites. You know. Like for prints, greeting cards, cell phone cases and the like. Frankly, I don’t know why anyone would want to buy a photograph versus a painting but what the heck.
So my days outside of dealing with the ex-wife – who thrives on interfering during my supposed time with my kids – has been focused on setting up a (cheap) studio and shooting macros of flowers and the like. Plus having been an amateur FILM photographer in my youth, all this “photo editing” stuff has been a huge challenge. I’m up against young(er) pros who all they know is digital photography. You know. Fred Flintstone meets Captain Kirk. Oh well.
I also don’t know why I focused on macro photography for a niche market since I never had attempted it before… and the only thing I know about flowers is how to kill them. Certainly, other niche markets like patriotism, sports and pets would be broader but macros would be doable and without much expense. Besides, nothing would have to die.
Anyways, here’s a few of my recent snapshots:
And for a finale… Isn’t this a face only a mother could love? It is an actual flower called a Cuphea, or a “purpurea Firecracker”. Aren’t you impressed with this old former mechanic?
If your camera is capable, perhaps you’ll give HDR a shot as well.
Masako and Spam Musubi 