6-30-12 Daisy, Daisy, daisy

Not counting the parts of daisies on edges of this photo, there really are three daisies in this photo. "Really?!" you say. Really. This is a layered HDR photo that I made (not took) with my Canon 5D Mark III. It has HDR capacity built in. The things you can do with the new-fangled cameras. . .Incidentally, the title of this post pays homage to the famous scene in Stanley Kubrick's fiLm "2001: A Space Odyssey," where an astronaut "kills" HAL, the on-board computer. (HAL, by the way, is an acronym that is only one letter away from IBM. Coincidence?).When that film came out in 1968, 2001 seemed so far away. And now it's 2012 and we have cameras that are smarter than those who use them. Like me and my 5DIII. . .

06-13-12 Pink and Blue

I learned just now that a group of flamingos has a variety of designations. You can call a group of them a pat, a colony, a flurry, a regiment, a stand or a flock. Though my favorite is a flamboyance.These flamingos were flying in rough formation for our benefit as we rounded the east end of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. I was lucky to have my telephoto lens on my camera when then suddenly took flight and circled overhead.

06-10-12 Alien Life Form

I'm off on an adventure for a couple weeks and I'll be off the wifi "grid" for much of that time. Thus, I'm auto-posting things that aren't necessarily new or unseen. Most of the photos you'll see are some of my favorite Instagram photos.

06-02-12 Flowers For Katie II

I'm off on an adventure for a couple weeks and I'll be off the wifi "grid" for much of that time. Thus, I'm auto-posting things that aren't necessarily new or unseen. Most of the photos you'll see are some of my favorite Instagram photos.This one is new, however, and was one of the 92 photos I took a couple days ago.

06-01-12 Flowers For Katie I

Once again a photo found me. I was engaged in the mundane task of putting our garbage receptacle away, when I noticed that the late evening sun was offering perfect, direct light on Deb's beautiful Siberian iris patch, which had just gone into bloom. Knowing that I only had a few minutes of this particular light, I literally ran into the house to get my camera.I took 92 photos of these flowers - I just couldn't help it! Compositionally, this one made the "first cut," in part because I am a slave to the rule of thirds and this photo exemplifies it. I shot this with my Canon 70-200 2.8L lens so I could get very good selective focus. And, I used a tripod.Canon 5DII 1/640s f/2.8 ISO320 200mm

05-19-12 About To Bloom

I'm practicing my macro technique again, this time on an Iris that is probably one day away from full bloom. Somehow an iris bud reminds me of the super compact foam toys that blow up to huge proportion when you add water. I guess with an iris you just add water, too.

05-16-12 Standing Out

Yes, another pink tulip, misted by God with morning dew.Or did the photographer use a spray bottle?

05-15-12 Life Star

I took exactly one photo of this flower, in part because I had ventured into my neighbor's back yard to look at her flowers. To get one photo, I had to step carefully into the middle of her garden and I felt awkward doing this - especially without her blessing. I need to go back.As for the title, the inspiration was the Star Wars Death Star. Somehow, a cheery purple spherical flower seemed to be the antithesis of the menacing structure in the movie.

05-14-12 Going To Seed

I've said before that a photographer can get you to look at things in new ways. Add a macro lens to the camera he/she is using and you really see things differently.It's hard to see a dandelion that's gone to seed as anything but beautiful when seen close up. But in a day or two, it will spread hundreds of seeds on the wind in an attempt to take over the defenseless grass in my yard. :-(

05-13-12 Wind Swept

This is an HDR photo I took on San Juan Island in Washington state.

05-10-12 Singled Out

05-06-12 Warped Reality

If this is too abstract, I'll tell you what you are seeing. These are water drops on the window that I look through when I am sitting at my computer. It was raining on Saturday and I was captivated by the look of the rain. I took several photos that focused on the rain drops but this photo is focused on the lens effect of the water drops.And, through the lens of the rain drops, you can see the mesh of the screen on the window and the grass and trees in our back yard. But it is all upside down because that's what lenses do. In fact, the lens of our eye turns the world upside down and then our brain turns it right side up again. The human body is a weird machine.Click here to see another version of the same subject with a different point of focus.