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A Hummingbird. May 24, 2012

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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I wasn’t satisfied with last evening’s photo of a hummingbird in our dooryard.  It was dark and slow, due largely to the waning light of evening.

So today I set up again on the porch, expecting our hummingbird to make frequent visits in somewhat better light.

I’m still not satisfied with what I came away with, but it’s a step in the right direction:

That second one is my favorite, as it speaks to the joy of drinking nectar right from the blossom.

I’ll keep trying to get these right, and hope that you’ll keep rooting for me to succeed.

 

Dooryard Alliums And Guest. May 23, 2012

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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This evening, with the light unfortunately waning:

A ruby-throated hummingbird amidst our dooryard flora.

That’s by Gizmo, from a chair on the porch.

Dooryard Irises. May 21, 2012

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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Here in The Berks, it’s an odd bit of a season, somehow suspended in between Spring and Summer.  March gave us 80 degree temps and a false start on the growing season, then April whacked us with stiff frosts.  It felt unnatural, and hung a lot of local plants out to dry, so to speak.

Still, some of the heartier specimens have pulled through, like these irises in our dooryard:

…fronted by their neighboring Alliums.

The bumblebees are loving these guys, just as hummingbirds are digging the alliums.  They’re a joy to watch on a warm evening, sitting on the porch and listening to the river run.

At any rate, that’s what’s happening just outside of my front door.

Thanks to Elliot for capturing it.

A Visit To The Bridge… May 18, 2012

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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…of Flowers, of course!

I’ve been photographing here for enough years so that I now seldom bring my camera when visiting.  Our town’s art spaces and galleries are full of images from here, some magnificent, some pretty OK.  And frankly, I’m not looking for a place in that queue.

But still, whenever I’m in town I find the short walk across the Bridge of Flowers to be irresistible, and if  I don’t have my camera with me I regret it.

So the challenge becomes to take a photo I haven’t before, to see things a bit differently.

Enter Elliot, and the prospect of limiting  the area of sharp focus rather than increasing it.  It’s counter-intuitive for me, as I usually try to extend my depth of field in my landscapes, but the distinctly non-planar landscape of The Bridge demands a somewhat different approach.

Well, enough words, and on to the images from yesterday, some more pronouncedly limiting focus, some laying a plane across petal-tops.  All the result of my undying love of The Bridge.

The depending blossoms of Solomon’s Seal:

A blossom on a bush peony which would easily fill both of my hands:

Alliums, thigh-high and beaming:

Azaleas (at the far end of the A’s):

A sprig of blue lupines:

…all taken on a breezy day, with a great deal of effort expended to counteract that fact, except for in this image of wind-whipped wisteria wound around a bit of superstructure:

I courted both the stasis of the woody vines and the kinetics of the dancing leaves, and am happy with the take-away.

All of these were hand-held, experiments as it were in tilt-shift photography, and encourage me to get back there with a tripod and attempt to do it right.  A more deliberate approach might yet yield fresh images.