A Taste of Summer
I decided to escape the harsh winter with its dastardly polar vortex by travelling to Milwaukee’s Mitchell Domes. The sheer joy of heat, humidity, and plants in the tropical dome was well worth the visit. The show dome was a bit less impressive (in my opinion anyway), but I still enjoyed the cute model trains. It didn’t seem like the kind of establishment that would bless the presence of my bulky old “made in West Germany” tripod that was actually made for smaller motion-picture cameras, so I shot with a high ISO and fairly open apeture.
Next Time: Still Life or Black on Black
Buds, Blooms, and Bees
I went for a walk in the woods last week and found the bees swarming over the late summer blossoms. Although I’m just as afraid of bees as the next person, the prospect of getting a good shot becomes more important to me when I have a camera in my hands. Enjoy the last week or so of summer!
Next Time: Plants on White or Tools
I might uproot/cutoff some remaining plants and bring them indoors to shoot them on white under more controlled conditions. Either that or I’ll take a close look at hand tools.
Nature Macro
Since the macro lens was sitting all forlorn and abandoned in my camera case, I thought I should use it. Mid to late summer is a good time to photograph remaining small flower and maybe some insects. My subjects range from weeds to strawberry flowers. Since the subject is not still, outdoor macro shots like these can be more difficult than indoor or studio shots.
Barking Up the Wrong Tree?
I hope I’m not barking up the wrong tree with this post. May is high time for some nature photography, but the only flowers out right now are small and the weather isn’t conducive to macro photography. So, I photographed bark. Don’t quit on me yet, I found some unusual examples. Promise.
This rough yet somewhat orderly old tree trunk is shrouded in a kind of green lichen. I love the color. It really gives the whole tree a surreal quality.
Near the base of the same tree, there is this cute Shamrock shape.
It looks like there’s been some controlled burning in the woods. Most of the bark fell off of this tree, leaving some charred remnants and unusual marbled patterns. What shapes do you see?
Closer to home, I found this small tree trunk with a coral-looking lump of lichen growing on it. Since it was pretty still, I did a little macro lens practice.
And just incase you wanted to see for sure, this is about where most of our flowers are.
Next Time: Flowers or That Awesome Old Phone
Pink Spring
It never occurred to me before, but a lot of the plants in our yard have pink flowers:
Next Time: Shiny
Time to photograph more reflective metal. It looks good in portfolios.
My Camera, My Friend 