Fun with Flowers!

I decided to go opposite of what Scott has with his picture as my connection. Mostly because today was rainy so my camera didn't come out. This shot was taken a few days ago. Scott's picture has these very vibrant and bold colors to it. My picture went opposite with pastel and soft. Although it does have the nice "bokeh"(blur) to it like his does.

Nikon D90
ISO-200 +.7 Exposure Step
Aperture F/7.1
Shutter Speed 1/250 sec.
50mm Nifty Fifty F/1.4D Lens
Manual, Natural Lighting, Filter

I very deliberately overexposed this shot to blow out everything on purpose. I wanted to see how it would turn out and I really enjoyed what it did. It gave it a very ethereal look that I accentuated with a pastel filter. I also lowered the contrast down a tad because I liked what it did to the picture and gave me more of the "look" that I was going for. I had shot this in RAW knowing that I would be playing with it.

I LOVE messing around with flower pictures, you can do so many cool things with them. Filters are great fun to play with in these kinds of shots and I have done that a few times to give them different effects.

Enjoy!
Sere

American Pride

My first thought when I saw Scott's picture was to play around with a deck of cards. Not sure why, but his guy reminded me of the jack or king of something. But my plans fell through and I wasn't home enough today to try that thought out. Then we were at church this evening and there was discussion about how far off base America has gotten with different things. I remembered this series of shots that I had taken with the American flag a week or so ago. It made me think about how even with its mess ups I still love this country.

But before I get to my picture I need to take care of Wordless Wednesday. I would love to welcome MamaLou back with us. So if you could contact us 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and let us know when you would be able to post we would enjoy seeing what you have to show us.

My connection was little ones and faces. I LOVE spring babies! That little guy was about 3 days old when I took that picture. He's about twice the size now that he was then. I have a few flowers that were blooming and I really wanted to get spring baby with spring flowers for the shot. So I took baby away from mom for a few minutes to take a couple of shots and then went back and swapped out one baby for another until I thought I had a shot that I liked. I ended up with a few smushed flowers and some cute puppy pics for my work. Moving on, here is my picture for today.

Nikon D2X

ISO-100

Aperture F/7.1

Shutter Speed 1/500 sec.

Lens 18-70mm at 70mm

No Flash, Natural Lighting, Polarizing Filter

For whatever reason the beautiful red flowers with the flag caught my attention at this little park, in this little town of literally like 50 people near my house. It was a windy day, so the flag was just flapping all over the place, but the sky was just soooo blue. I just had to take some pictures so while all the passerbys watched I was laying on the ground, kneeling, moving my body into some nice contortionists positions to see what shots I could get. It was great fun! My connection to Scott's picture would be a part of the main focus running off the camera. In this case it would be the flag pole.

Now I am ready to shut my phone off and chill with my honey.

Take Care!

Sere

Friday Faces with Sere

This was not the picture that I had planned on posting today. But it was just such a beautiful, sunny day (a tad windy) but beautiful that I decided to head out and play with the kiddos (human and animal). I was looking for bird's nests, instead I had fun taking shots of Nanook, you've seen him before here, and my son playing together. Hope you enjoy it.

Nikon D2X

ISO-200

Aperture F/8

Shutter Speed 1/500 sec.

18-70mm at 65mm

No Flash, Natural Lighting

I have no real connection to Amanda's gorgeous shot except for the spring theme. I don't know about anybody else but I am really glad to be able to head outside to take some photographs and not freeze to death. Yay for spring!!!

BTW I am having some issues with spacing, anybody else having any??? Not sure what the deal is because I'm doing the same things I've always done. But my paragraph spacing is WAY big.

Enjoy! Sere

Hoping Spring is Springing!

I am posting this to say I'm ready for Spring! Plus I want to motivate a friend of mine - you know who you are. This is a gerber daisy, as I'm sure many of you know. It might be my favorite flower. They are extraordinary blooms, and when you look through a macro it's even more apparent.

Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Aperture f/14.0
Shutter 1/60
ISO 800
Sunlight

You'll notice the rather small aperture. The idea was to get a good solid depth of field with such a close-up picture. Owing to the small aperture I was forced to drive up the ISO a bit. I found however that when the subject has this much going on the noise is really difficult to notice, especially on the screen. It's there but it doesn't detract like it might from a crystal blue skyline.

So let's give a toast to spring! Here here! And more 60 degree days please.

Scott