It was very exciting and gratifying to get the first participants in this brand-new photo challenge. This installment of the Tuesday Photo Challenge was all about texture.
Today is definitely starting with some Premier League football, as I’m currently watching my favorite team, Liverpool, and plan to watch the Leicester City game, as this Cinderella story has sofar exceeded all expectations. The next order of priority will be to take the final to the MITx on-line data science course that I’ve been taking and then practice some guitar.
Simple Beauty
Yesterday, I went with my wife to Connecticut to have our little Dora practice a bit of herding on ducks in anticipation of her herding trial next weekend (today, she’s doing agility, so it’s a busy weekend for Dora). I brought my camera along with a macro lens attached; I have been dabbling with a bit of macro photography over the past couple of weeks, and was in the mood for some more exploring.
Spring’s Here!
Tree blossoms were everywhere as well. There were also some other subjects that attracted my attention, which I will hold back until the Tuesday Photo Challenge post.
Guitar practice time will include two songs today. The Beatles’ Yesterday will be my main focus, as I need to work on the (for me) tricky bass-line integration with the melody of this song. Combining that with a couple of interesting barre chords has its challenges for me.
The attentive reader noticed that Sir Paul McCartney is playing at Liverpool’s home stadium. Oh yes, the other song: Purple Rain, for all the obious reasons.
One of the factors beyond our control during our travels is the weather; you can go during the time of year when the weather is usually nice, but still not be lucky enough to enjoy sunny days. Scotland, as it is part of an island and consists of many islands, is known as one of those places to visit where you can not count on the weather.
Beach on the Moray of Firth
This first image shows how wonderful the weather was during our stay. This is a lovely beach view east of Inverness in a small town, whose name escapes me at this writing.
We knew that visiting Scotland during the end of May and beginning of June was no guarantee for perfect weather. Lucky for us, we saw just a couple of showers during the 12 days that we were there with the sun being visible during the most of our stay.
Carriden House garden
As you can see here, this weather was just stunning! This view of the garden at Carriden House, where we stayed for the final 3 nights of our visit, is just stunning.
You have also seen the weather on Skye in Friday Travel Photos – Skye, so I’m closing this post with a rather unusual view that I caught in a castle yard on Skye:
This week’s Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge is a show and tell about admiration. My first image in this week’s series is still among my favorites.
Persistence
This image is of another one of my favorite trees, and immediately got its name: ‘Persistence’. I was impressed with its enduring spirit, as shown in the windswept stance that has stood the test of the elements and time.
I also admire this same spirit of indomitable fortitude in the people of Japan, particularly in the face of disasters that have befallen them across the ages. In response to the 2011 tsunami disaster, I used this print to raise funds for the Japanese Red Cross; the mat of the print had the Japanese 不屈 (Fukutsu) stamped on it, which means fortitude, indomitability or persistence.
Hope you enjoy this image!
Technical Details
This image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mk II camera with an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens. It is made up of a series of 5 images that were processed using Photomatix Pro to get the contrast and dynamic range that I was looking to get.
Wrapping up the week with something along the abstract, yet not so abstract lines with today’s shot…
Color and Beauty
This was just one of those quick shots, because I noticed that the pattern of leaves was interesting (to me). When I look at this, it still grabs my attention with the warm tones against a blue sky.
Technical Details
This image was shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mk III using an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens. Exposure settings were 1/640 second at f/6.3 and 320 ISO.
Dear Reader, last week’s challenge was a bit devilish, but clearly not hard enough, as several of you figured it out; you are impressive! This week’s location should not be too hard to guess…
Which lovely place is this?
This location was one that I almost overlooked in my travels, as I had not put it on the itinerary. As my wife and I were driving to our next stop on our travels, and in truth we were looking for some spot to eat some lunch, I caught this beauty out of the corner of my eye, as it was a bit obscured by foliage.
We figured out where we could find access to the location and had a fun time exploring it; lunch was served late, and delicious!
Dear Reader, this week I decided to go for pure, unadulterated cuteness with these little stars.
Aren’t we cute?
On this particular day, I was photographing an in-door agility trial in Manchester, New Hampshire, which was a lot of fun. During this trial, the owners of these lovely Norfolk Terriers approached me to see, if I wouldn’t mind taking some portrait shots of them. Of course, I couldn’t say no with this pair!
Taking a quick look around the grounds, I found this little area that would provide a nice backdrop, particularly with the pink flamingoes!
So, what do you think? Are they too cute for words?
Technical Details
This was a Canon EOS 5D Mk III using an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens and Speedlite 580 EX II flash. I metered for the background and adjusted the flash power accordingly, so that I got exposure settings of 1/100 second at f/5 at 200 ISO.
There’s nothing more likely to find representational concepts in abstract form than the human mind. The Yoga Tree is a fine example of this!
A Proper Asana
Yes, in essence, she is a mere tree, whose form has been shaped by years of growth in a climate and environment, for which the current shape was an optimal adaptation. Being on a farm, she had to deal with growing around a discarded oil tank, which almost certainly contributed to the curvature.
To our human mind, she presents an intriguing shape that we look to interpret; as she presents this shape, we see arms stretching to the sky in a pose that might remind us of a yoga asana: the Yoga Tree is born!
During the Summer, when she is ensconced in a fine set of foliage, there are other shapes to discover. I’ll be sure to touch upon these in a future post!
My question to you: what did you see first time you laid eyes on this tree?
Technical Details
This image was captured with an iPhone 5S using the standard Camera app and enhanced using the Instagram app.
This Wednesday, it’s once again time to take a look at the wonders of the world around us. Today’s inspiration is drawn from the current Northern Hemisphere season of Spring: the time of re-birth and regeneration of the massive scale that only Nature can conjure up!
Regeneration after generation
In early Spring, this tree was just about ready to get its juices flowing again to start the truly amazing process of accelerating its growth processes slowly, but surely. In another couple of weeks, leaves would start showing, first as little buds, then quickly advertising their green presence to the world and hogging all the sunlight for themselves to provide what we call, appreciatively, shade.
It doesn’t cease to amaze me that trees can play this balancing game in the harsh climate of New England and further north, where they retreat from the onslaught of weather to conserve their energies for the next cycle.
Hug a tree today, and thank it for the breath that it provides!
Technical Details
I captured this image with a Canon EOS 5D Mk II using an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens. Exposure settings were 1/25 second at f/18 and 160 ISO (leaning against a tree can make even 1/25 second shutter speed very steady).
I did perform a bit of post processing in Photoshop for basic sharpening and minor adjustments. Additionally, I used Topaz Labs Texture Effects with a mild application of the Bluesy Trees effect to get that feel of images processed in an earlier age.
Continuing in the theme set by the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge of ‘Abstract’, it’s time for yet another interpretation with loads of color!
Colors of the Wind
This is one of my earlier digital images, as I took this one in 2005, while I was photographing an agility trial. It was a nice breezy day and I had noticed this little wind spinner and figured it might be fun to experiment how it would look at different shutter speeds… This was the one that I liked best!
Hope you like it too!
Technical Details
This was shot using a Canon EOS 1D Mk II and an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. The exposure settings for this image were 1/20 second at f/20 and 100 ISO.
