The Mighty Acorn

Of course, the saying is, "From tiny acorns mighty oaks do grow." Or something like that.But when you get down on your belly and point a macro lens at them, they seem plenty big.

Misty Sunrise

This is another shot taken a little north and west of Lake Okoboji this past August. This photo has a look that reminds me of the famous painting by Millet called "The Shepherdess."

Mysterious

This photo was taken on a foggy summer morning north of Lake Okoboji in Iowa. And, yes, it's been enhanced with Photoshop.

Our Back Yard

This is a volunteer tree growing in our raspberry patch that really should be cut down. I worked hard most of the summer trying to ignore this weedy treeBut, with the right light, a proper point of view and good timing, even a "weed" can be glamorous.

Yellow

My wife and I were out for our morning walk the other day and even in the relatively poor light of a street light, I could tell that this tree would be worth seeing in sunlight.So I went back yesterday morning and took several photos. I'm not sure if the people who own the house where this tree is saw me in their back yard. But I figured my camera would explain everything. . .

Textures

I wandered into our backyard looking for color in the soft morning light. I found color. But instead of subdued light, I found a couple leaves lit by the angular sun. And this relatively bright light also brought out the texture of these leaves.I say it over and over, but I like the fact that photographers have the power to get people to look at things that would otherwise be missed. These small raspberry leaves, in their last days before our long winter, would most likely be ignored.

Still Green

We are closing in on the end of September in South Dakota and that means that fall is here. While there plenty of leaves on the ground, there are also tenacious plans that aren't quite ready to give up.When I saw these leaves, what caught my attention was the subtle backlighting caused by the low western sun. When I pointed my camera at this leaf, I was hoping that I could isolate this one leaf from all the rest. In fact, when I took the photo, I was thinking of using it here with the title "E pluribus unum." But who wants to figure out Latin in a photo blog?

Manipulation of Another Kind

In yesterday's post, taken yesterday morning, I was commenting on how manipulative HDR photos could be. Later in the day, I was taking a few photos of some fancy gourds my wife bought at the farmers' market on Saturday and I realized that these gourds must be the product of manipulation, too.I think some geneticist somewhere sprinkled his/her magic mutation powder on regular gourd seeds to see what would happen. And this green, white and yellow thing is one of the products.I think that software manipulation of photos is much less insidious. Just imagine what would happen if the geneticist dusted you or your children with his/her special powder. . .(PS: My friend, Jim, inspired this post because of a comment he made on my Facebook page. Thanks, Jim.)

Shadow and Light

This is the fourth in a series of sunrise shots that were all taken within 30 minutes or so of each other. This photo was almost rejected (which is my way of throwing things away - kind of). The rejection would have been based on the fact that so little is well exposed on this frame. In fact I would say that as much as 1/2 of this photo is almost pure black. In my mind, that's not good.But, when I looked at this picture again, I like how the black parts of the photo frame the incipient sunrise. I think that how the water goes from black to deep blue to orange is especially interesting.So this one became a keeper.

A Sign of Summer

I'm not sure if this macro photo of an ear of sweet corn is too abstract or not but when I was unwrapping this ear to prepare for tonight's supper, I knew I had to stop what I was doing and photograph it.I liked the beautiful soft glow of window light on the deep yellow kernels. I also liked the symmetry of the rows, though there is an interesting asymmetry at the focal point of the photo. Nothing's perfect, I guess.I was about to take the tenth photo in the series when Deb told me to put my camera down so we could eat. I think the 11th photo would have been the masterpiece of corn macros. She's a bit of a spoil sport sometimes. :-(Canon 5DII 1/60s f/4.5 ISO800 100mm

Standing Out

If you saw yesterday's post you might recognize this flower. Is it really the exact same tulip that Katie is holding? Only the tulip knows.But, like dandelions, this tulip is a genetic clone. It is an exact duplicate of all the other lavender tulips that came in the package of bulbs my wife planted. That's what you get when you have self-pollination and asexual reproduction. Humans, on the other hand, are a rich and varied species. Human duplication (I'm trying not to use the word "sex" here) is a little less convenient but the results are worth it.Which is to say that I'm glad I'm not a tulip. . .

A Bit of Color

I generally don't like selective coloring, which is what this photo illustrates. It's done in Photoshop. Compositionally, this is very simple photo but the software processing wasn't - I ultimately had 6 different layers in this photo. A goal was to emphasis the flower, which would have been the focal point even if I had done nothing to the photo.But I also wanted to soften the skin texture in Katie's hands, blur parts of the photo but keep the detail in the bodice of the dress.