Shadow Shots: Whirly

When I was a kid, we called maple seeds "whirlybirds" or "helicopters" for the way they spiraled through the air as they fell. These landed on my doormat, which has a sort of whirly pattern of its own. Perhaps a case like calling to like?



  These two reminded of twins, waiting to be born:


Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Fridays Fences: Boys of Summer

What could be more appropriate for the first day of summer than scenes from a hometown baseball game? This was the South Bend Silver Hawks vs. The Dayton Dragons.

Now, I have to confess that my husband had to drag me there. My distant memories of baseball involved deep sunburns and even deeper boredom. But our seats were in the shade, and there were lots of distractions and attractions for those of us with short attention spans. Plus, I had my camera to play with.




The "fence" here is actually more of a net. It's there to keep people from getting beaned by foul balls.

With a deep, booming Voice of God, the vendor calls "Cold beer, peanuts, aaaaaand?"
The crowd response is always, "Craack-er Jacks!" 




Our home boys got their hats handed to them, but it was still a great time.


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Black and White: Moth

Happy weekend, everyone! I couldn't decide which of these I liked better, so I posted both. Which do you prefer?








Posted for The Weekend in Black and White and for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Sugaring Season

My husband's family makes maple syrup every year, and these are some of the shadowier shots from our visit two weeks ago.

They collect sap from about 300 taps and the boiler runs night and day. Family and friends gather in the sugar shack to visit, to enjoy the sweet scented steam, and to down the occasional "maple shot" - a blend of Crown Royal and thin, hot syrup fresh from the pan.

See More Shadowy Goodnesss at Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Shadow Shot Sunday 2: Rest Stop

Shadows of travelers, just passing through.

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Shadow Shot Sunday2: Losing Focus

Photography was a lot more fun before I knew stuff.

In the beginning, I just set my little Canon Powershot G9 on Program or a preset and snapped away at whatever caught my eye. The occasional lucky shot was enough to keep me happy.

These days, I try so much harder and accomplish so much less. I get frustrated and discouraged by focus that's never sharp enough, exposure that's never quite right, "The Shot" that happens a split second too soon or too late or too far away.

So I decided to put away the DSLR for a while, dust off the G9, and get back in touch with my dumb old snap-happy self.





I took the camera to work, shooting from the car at snow-covered roads, tail lights after dark, trees, whatever. No effort at all, just literally point-and-shoot. Predictably, the results were mostly garbage. But since I was just playing, the results didn't matter; anything good was a nice surprise.

I did like this one of the parking lot at the office, taken through my sleet-covered side window.





I experimented with it in Photoshop, cropping and straightening. In the first one, I tried adjusting the color. The second has an "artistic filter" applied, though I have forgotten which one.(Photoshop is still very much an unexplored territory for me.)

It's been a long time since I've actually enjoyed just taking pictures. I plan to do a lot more of it.

See More Shadowy Goodness at Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Shadow Shot Sunday2: Rays

A recent morning, in the space between falling snow and a brilliant winter sun, taken from the far side of the pond.

Winter has been relatively kind to us this year. Snowfall has been manageable, and temps have stayed above zero. I so enjoy the world blanketed in white, all still and clear.

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Shadow Shot Sunday2

More memories of Santa Fe. There is no better place for shadow hunting, I'm telling you.

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Shadow Shot Sunday2: The Wall

And Check This Out:  Smoke in a Bottle. An artist named Jim Dingilian creates amazing images inside old liquor bottles filled with smoke. It's awesome. Go see. (Just sharing.)

* The url is http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/the-bottled-smoke-artworks-of-jim-dingilian.html?utm_source=scribol.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=scribol.com

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Shadow Shot Sunday 2: Wings

Would you believe I'm still uploading photos from a vacation we took over a year ago?

In my defense, there are literally hundreds of them to sort through. (It was, after all, the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.) These are from a side trip to the butterfly house at the arboretum there.

Fresh shadows are hard to come by in Indiana just now, where the days are overcast, grey, and snowy. So as long as I'm fussing around in the files I thought I'd share a couple of shots from sunnier days.






I debated whether to Photoshop out that bokeh in the second one, but I kinda like it. What do you think?

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Elegant

Peace lilies are such common, simple houseplants. Mostly boring leaves with an occasional, unassuming inflorescence, they're easy to ignore. 

But look at the way the light hit these, turning them all shadowy and dramatic. Kinda surprising, isn't it.
 


 

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shot Sunday: Kate's Garden

Hey, everyone! Hope you're all having happy holidays.

So here I am, playing with my photos when I have a million things to do for Christmas. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The rest of us work on perfecting our skills of procrastination.




I haven't been around much lately because I haven't taken a decent picture in weeks. These are salvaged from a recent trip to a little park with a sculpture I've been wanting to shoot. I didn't realize until I got there how many lamp posts and assorted ugly stuff it has to muck things up.And winter probably isn't its best season.

On the plus side, I got some practice at converting to greyscale, and I learned how to clone out background distractions like light poles on this one:




I'll go back and try the sculpture again when there's snow.  Maybe I'll have better luck. For now, its shadow will have to do.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Warm

December 1 already. Time to haul out the big old basket that holds cozy, warm afghans in the TV room. Because pretty soon, it is gonna be cold.

I always loved the texture of this, and the way it catches the morning light. And I like it better when we just toss the afghans in, rather that folding them neatly. I don't know why.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Made in the Shade

In celebration of my upcoming retirement, I just bought a fixed 50mm lens and a macroscopic lens adapter to play with. (The combo was less than half the price of a real macro lens, and offers more uses than just a macro.)

I tried it out this morning on the frost on my tubular bird feeder, which offered two layers of fern-like crystals. They only last while the shadow of the house protects them, which isn't long past dawn.

I should have had a tripod. But for a hand-held macro shot I was pretty happy.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: I'm Catman

This is Gatsby, familiar to some of you from my home blog, Havenwood, where I wrote about nearly losing him and the effort to find a commercial cat food that wouldn't kill him. (Update on that - he turned up his nose at the pricey raw food, but he's doing fine now on a mixture of the Prescription kibbles.)

Here he is admiring his shadow, fantasizing about raining terror on the rats of Gotham City. Or maybe just dozing off. It's hard to tell with a cat.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Frosty

 These are the weedy remains of a flower bed, photographed at dawn. Only the uppermost leaves were illuminated, floating over a still pool of night shadows. The thick frost began to melt as soon as the sun touched it.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Into the Dark

I've been saving this macabre little subject for my Halloween Shadow Shots offering.

There is a deer skeleton, or most of one, in the south woods. A scattering of ribs, vertebrae, long bones and this wonderful skull.





The bones have obviously been there for some time, developing  an amazing texture and delicacy. I've gone in a few times to photograph them in place, but the fallen leaves have now covered most of it up.

So, yes - I picked up the skull and brought it home.

Wouldn't you?

 

These were taken in the last few minutes of light, which seemed appropriate. And I couldn't resist sharing my own loooong silhouette.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Over the Rainbow ... Another Rainbow

The day was grey, and we had just tucked in to our evening supper. It was still raining when the sun came out, and The Hubby announced, "There's gotta be a rainbow."

We hustled out to see and were rewarded with not just a rainbow, but a double rainbow, a full half circle over the eastern woods.

With no wide-angle lens, and having to shoot from the shelter of the garage, I could only get part of it in the shot. I  wish you could have seen the whole thing. It really was spectacular - well worth letting dinner get cold.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2 and Skywatch Friday

Sunlight and Shadow

Friday was one of those spectacular, gold-and-blue autumn days that makes life worth living. AND it was my day off. AND I had a new monopod (my first ever) that was just begging to come out and play. So off I went into the woods around the house, hunting for shadows and shirking my housework.

The first shot is the road where I live. That's the beginning of our driveway off to the right. It was taken from the maximum height of the monopod, about six feet up. I like the perspective from up there:




The next one is in the woods between the road and the house. I'm actually standing in the shadows, looking west toward the late afternoon sun. The hazy light cast a magic spell; it felt like walking in a dream.





This last one was near sunset. It is the path behind the house that leads down into the northern woods, a much denser, darker place. By this time the sun was quite low and only touched a few spots here and there.





 I really love the monopod. It's so much easier to carry around than a tripod, and I found it steadied my shots almost as well. If you haven't tried one, I highly recommend it. I found that a polarizing filter worked wonders on the fall colors, too. ( Probably not news to any of you. I know. I'm such a newbie.)

The leaves are falling in earnest now, and they say we have storms coming tonight, so I doubt there will be another opportunity like this until next year. And really, who cares if the laundry didn't get folded, and the place is a bit dusty, and dinner was late?

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Shadow Shots: Land of the Giants

Welcome to the Children's Fantasy Garden, a slightly creepy but magical section of the vast, wonderful Albuquerque Botanical Garden. 

Visitors explore a giant vegetable patch  from the vantage point of the three-foot-tall ants that inhabit the landscape:







All your picnic are belong to us.







Honey, I ate the kids.



 



Inside the Great Pumpkin. I loved this thing. The floor was even spongy.
  






Home sweet ant nest.  We found lots of cool, shady tunnels to explore and one little hobbit taking a rest:



  

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2