Nature
I'd like to tell you that this flower was plucked from my wife's beautiful garden. But it wasn't. Instead, it was plucked from an assortment of flowers at our local Super Walmart. We are still waiting for Spring in South Dakota, though my wife tells me that she sees evidence of the possibility of spring sprouting up from the cold ground in her garden. I can't wait.
Canon 5D Mark II 1/60s f/4.0 ISO400 100mm (Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro)
The Hana Highway on the east coast of Maui covers 50 miles of some of the beautiful scenery I have seen. There is an amazing variety of vegetation but the eucalyptus trees that grow here caught my attention. They are so different from anything South Dakotans like me are used to seeing - especially their colorful, camouflage "bark."
My family waited while I got out of the car and photographed a small grove of these stately trees. From all of the photos I took, this is the one that seemed to best represent the nature of this tree.
Canon 5D 1/320s f/13.0 ISO400 24mm (Canon 24-105 f/4.0L IS)
By Scott Shephard
My wife and I had made our annual October trip to the Black Hills. Where our cabin was, it had snowed lightly; but a few miles away, there had been freezing rain followed by several inches of snow. I spent about 30 minutes walking through ankle-deep snow to photograph ice-encased leaves and branches. Altogether, I took about 75 photos but this is my favorite.
Canon 5D 1/200s f/3.5 ISO160 200mm (Canon 70-200m 2.8L IS)
If you go to Olympia, WA, be sure to find the Japanese Garden. It is a beautiful, serene enclave surrounding by fairly busy streets and office buildings. I was there is late November and it was raining. (Is that the norm at this time of year?). I had taken a few photographs of this tree from the front and then decided to look at the tree from behind. And this is what I saw.
The color is striking, of course, but so, too, are the twisted, near-black branches. I could have photographed for quite a while but the rain and my wife suggested that I should move on.
Canon 5D 1/60s f/4.5 ISO400 58mm (Canon 24-105 f/4.0L)
One morning after one of our first frosts, I went looking for interesting things to photograph. In the alley behind our house I found a 1950s era Chevy parked near our neighbor's back garage. What drew me to this subject was the soft, rust color or the car's body (which is barely visible in this picture) and the cool, blue-tinted frost on the front window.
This shot is almost an abstraction in that the eye may not know exactly what is pictured here. Frost is also "almost abstract." It seems random in many ways; though if you look carefully, there are patterns. What is the cause of the patterns? You'll have to answer that question yourself.
5D 1/200s f/4.5 ISO400 105mm (Canon 24-105 f/4.0L)
I often find that some photos become favorites more for sentimental reasons than for aesthetic considerations. This photo is perhaps the best example I have of that. Pictured is the Mission Creek area near the Little Bend of the Missouri River. I have spent the night in my sailboat, Ariel, which is named after a sea spirit in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. I have walked up on to a bluff and am looking northeast over a glass-smooth body of water.
Is this a great photo? No. Is is one of my favorites? Yes. But only because it helps me remember what it's like to be in (for me) the perfect place: warm, quiet and utterly peaceful.
Incidentally, I use this photo to illustrate the rule of thirds and the principle that the eye is typically drawn to the brightest part of the picture, which is my sailboat.
No photo info: this is a scan of a film image (so 20th century!)
This is a good example of something as prosaic as wild grass growing in a country ditch becoming more interesting with the right lighting. In this case I was heading to an old farmstead I like to photograph when I noticed how the low sun seemed to bring the heads of the grass to life.
Like the gold oak leaf posted here several days ago, this grass wouldn't have caught your eye if you had seen it from the sunny side.
By Scott Shephard
I'll let you in on a secret: I sometimes play the role of Mother Nature. In this case, I misted the flowers with a spray bottle. The beads of water add interest and I'll bet I'm not the only photograper who does this.
NOTE: I'm going where there is no wireless and because I am behind in my photo a day project, there will be no commentary on the next few photos. I have a feeling no one reads this stuff, anyway. :-)
I took this photo in Mexico a few years ago. I don't have much to say about it other than I like the the geometry of the palm leaf. The paradox of nature is that there are so many things that seem random and chaotic. And then there are things that are precise and ordered - as in this leaf. Scientists and philosophers have certainly written about this. I just took a picture.
Canon 5D f/4.5 1/80 Canon 24-105 4.0L 67mm ISO 320
One oak leaf back lit by the morning sun - it doesn't get much simpler than this. Since I was shooting into the sun, the challenge was to find shade for the lens to avoid lens flare. From the sunny side, this leaf looked dull. But with the sun shining through it, the leaf came to life - which is a bit of an irony for a leaf about to fall.
Canon 1D II f/5.6 1/250 lens unknown 240mm ISO 100
