Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Today's Encounters-From-Afar

Sitting on my deck this morning, I heard a dull tapping up in the tree. It was our birch vandal -- a red breasted sapsucker, adding more bird graffiti to the trunk!


Went for a nature walk later (I covered two miles in about two hours) and came across various interestings --




Eek! This looks like a bald-faced hornet! Thankful for a telephoto lens!

I'm allergic to yellowjacket stings, but such an amazing insect!



Loved being able to get this view of the lake --



Just for fun, I zoomed in on the cattle resting across the lake. It wasn't until I edited photos tonight and super-magnified them that I noticed this fellow's horns! Glad I was far away.


Sunday, July 19, 2015

Can I Just Say That God Ate My Homework?

This week's assignment... shooting a single subject with varied focal lengths. It took me a couple of days, but I figured out what props I wanted to use and how I might set the scene. Here it is, up close and personal, without background or variances:


The sun was very close to dropping below the horizon, so I hurried off several shots with the wrong shutter speeds, incorrect apertures, and no sun filter. Meh and bleh. Good ideas, but bad light. But then, this began to happen:


Are those sky jellies?
Meanwhile, off to the east...
Add moon...
and eight tiny reindeer...

And there you have it -- my excuse for not finishing my photography homework tonight.   

                   
Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
They faithfulness reaches to the skies.


Well... so maybe I shouldn't use God as my excuse... but still... He did this... and it was amazing!