Red Photos
Monday, April 2, 2012
Fire Skimming Dragon
Looking back I see it has been a while since I posted a nature shot. For that matter it has been a while since I really spent some time outside with my macro lens, which is something I'm going to have to work on. In the mean time I found this beauty who was waiting in an old shoot of images from a small duck pond in Goleta.
This little Dragon is called a Flame Skimmer. The detail on his (or her) wings is so beautiful. I have always loved chasing them with my camera. This shot was taken while hanging akwardly off of a bridge over a small duck pond, it seemed that was his favorite spot. And while he would land other places, the perch over the side of the bridge was where he was comforatble enough to let me get close. It took some patience, but I was able to get close enough over the period of about five minutes to get the shot I wanted.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Icelandic Poppy
Although it's been a rough winter spring is just around the corner. Of course it's never far away here in California. The winter gives us beautiful sunsets, but now it's time for some amazing spring flower images.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Curvy Pepper
So we are trying to eat a little better. We stopped at the Farmers' market today to see if they had any good fruit. (The grocery stores have been a little weak lately.) We found some good peaches and strawberries then we found the cool peppers. My wife and I were looking for really interesting ones which caught the eye of one of the guys behind the counter. He started telling us that people even used to take these really nice black and white photos of these kinds of peppers. Like he was reading my mind. Well, except for the black and white part. But maybe tomorrow!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Tulip Feather
More plants followed us home from the grocery store the other day. One of them was this beautiful Tulip. The bellows was still out from the recent Ladybug fest so this shot was inevitable really.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Red Dragon
I like dragonflies and this guy and his friends
were putting on quite a show. They were diving
down to the surface of the water and skimming
across it (hence the name I guess,) I got a few
action shots but this is my favorite!
While I was trying to identify this guy I found
many sites incorrectly identifying damsel flies
as dragonflies. The way you tell the difference
is by how they hold their wings when they are
resting. This is a dragonfly, wings perpendicular
to the body. A damselfly holds it's wings back
against it's body.
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Red Lady
This morning I was playing in our little garden, and I found this little guy on one of our interesting plants. I don't recall ever seeing a Ladybug with no spots. The leaves it was exploring are on a small Plumeria tree (think of the sweet smelling flowers that most Hawaiian leis are made of) The tree has been with us for years but many times it has been fighting for life with no leaves at all. As you can see it is very happy now.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
First Tomato of the Season!
I am sooo excited, this year is our second attempt to grow tomatoes in our small back yard. And I think my wife has figured out the secret as you can see. This guy is beautiful and smells perfect! (smell is one of THE most important things in picking a good tomato IMO) It is a "Pink Grape Tomato" it is only about an inch long, which is about how big it is supposed to be. And as you can see there are more on the way.
Friday, May 5, 2006
Bottle Brush
Well it is some sort of Callistemon anyway, there are quite a few
and some of them are similar. Anyway, it seems to be from Australia.
'Course this particular one lives just up my street.
I was actually watching a bee, trying to get her photo, if you look
closely on the right side of the flower you can see her through
the red flower, and just make out a silhouette.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Nun Bee
The sun came out today!!! Not something that would normally
be such a surprise in California, but this year you have to
take it one day at a time.
In honor of our beautiful sunny day we decided to take a
bit of a rose garden tour. We went to the Mission rose garden
and the rose garden at Fess Parker's Resort on Cabrillo.
This was one of my favorite roses of the day. I was actually
taking pictures of it before the bee flew into the picture.
She was quite the ham! She hovered all around in front of the
rose for me.
Saturday, April 8, 2006
Palm Saturday Roses
Today we went to the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market to find Palm Fronds to decorate our church for Palm Sunday. We didn't find much in the way of palms, but there are always fun things to look at anyway!
Friday, March 17, 2006
Playin' With My Food (AKA This Little Piggy)
I am really enjoying the food photography thing.
Two of my favorite things, how could it be wrong!?
It doesn't hurt that we have a variety of very cool
props around. This little piggy has been on our cool stone
table for a while and I decided that it was time for his photo
shoot! ('Course, the coffee table is not usually that clean :)
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Satin Bud
This is another image from the same trip
to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
as this one.
And, like the odd lighting on that image,
this one benefits from the tight quarters and
strange shadows. This is pretty close to a raw scan,
the deep red color is real and I love these flowers
for their intense colors. This is not the
first
Dahlia to be the photo of the day.
Incidentally, these are named after the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Valentines Rose
Ahh yes I have been slacking off a bit lately.
(Actually it has been a very busy week!)
But, I thought this image from one of my cards
was a good image to get back on track with!
I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Bougainvillea Bracts Close-up
This is one of those plants like a Poinsettia.
The red things are actually technically more like
leaves than actual flowers, they are called "Bracts." The real
flower is a small white bloom that comes out from
the center of the groups of red leaves. You can see
a couple of the buds in this photo.
Although they are not technically part of the flower
the bracts serve an important role in the pollination
of the plant. They act as kind of a beacon
for pollinators that might otherwise miss the small
white flowers as they fly by.
Daisies are another type of plant
with a similar structure. What is commonly called a
daisy flower is actually a cluster of small flowers
(called the Capitulum) surrounded by bracts.
In this image the
bracts are white and the capitulum is yellow.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Soft Rose
This is an early photo I took when I first got my close-up lenses on eBay. The low aperture gives a nice softness that we have dubbed the "Fuzzy Flower Filter".
Monday, December 26, 2005
Birthday Sunset
This one was posted a little late. But, it is a belated birthday present for my best friend who is now (January 16th) my wife. Yesterday, she asked me what picture she got for her day. And, due to some major wedding preparations at that time I was getting behind on the photo of the day so she got to choose her own.
Monday, December 5, 2005
Icing Inspiration
I'm starting to practice decorating cakes for a special event the end of this month. I have seen some beautiful roses created in icing and decorated with powdered food coloring so I was looking for an image to use as a reference. If I come close to this I'll post a photo of the buttercream version. If not... well, I'm sure it will be a delicious failure. :-D
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Dahlia in the Sun
This is another image taken as
a reference for my best friend's
watercolors. An earlier Dahlia appeared here
on April 12th.
Strange though, I haven't seen any watercolors come from these yet.
I'll have to talk to her about that!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Rancho Super
I like taking photos at night and this was a great subject.
This guy lives at a carwash off of highway
111 in Palm Desert near Palm Springs, CA.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Possibilities
My favorite roses are yellow in the middle
with red edges. Yellow roses stand for
friendship, red for love. My best friend
recently told me that yellow with red edges
means "possibilities".
I guess that makes sense.
Monday, November 7, 2005
Hovering Bee
If you have been watching the
site for a while you know that I like
to chase bees. So far this has turned out
well for me. I assume my luck will
run out eventually, but for now
it's making for some really nice shots.
This one even made it to
one
of my greeting cards.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Lucifer Canna
My mom gave me this Canna many years ago and it is blooming again.
It was never very happy in a pot until we got two very tall (2.5 feet)
skinny (12") pots. It seems to love to put its roots down, way down.
It is called a Canna "Lily" but it
is more closely related to Ginger and Banana plants.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Orchid
I grow a lot of my flower pictures. But this is one that I
purchased while it was blooming from the Santa Barbara Orchid
Estate. And, they are having an open house and sale in the
beginning of November. So, I'm thinking it is time to
buy some film. :-)
Perhaps while I am there they can refresh my memory
as to the proper name of this guy so I can stop calling it
the "red and Yellow Orchid."
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Award Winning Rose
Award winning, but maybe not the kind of award you might think.
Last August was the first time I put my photography on display.
I was very excited about doing it, but I did not really know
what to expect. I have received many kind words and great
stories (especially stories about humming birds,) but one of the
highest complements yet was on Sunday at the
Santa Barbara Arts and
Crafts Show.
This rose was framed and sitting on an easel near the sidewalk.
A young girl, about 10 or so, walked by talking to someone
I assume was her mom. Neither of them were really paying much
attention to the show. But, she stopped in mid sentence and said
"WOW! Look at that Rose!."
Now that is the kind of complement I like. There are
many artists out there trying to impress people (especially
people with money)
with their "deep interpretation" of things. And, that's not to say
none of them have great work. But, as far as I am concerned,
the complements of children (and animals) are among
the highest you can receive!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Swirling Sunset Petals
Another print from my first show at the
Santa Barbara Public Library, Townley Room.
Flower close-ups are one of the first
things I started to tinker with when
I got a real camera. But, by real
I don't mean expensive or brand new.
I got a manual Canon AE-1 and some cheap
lenses off of eBay. (This was back when
I could look through all of the items in
the photography section on eBay in one evening)
Because of working with anything I could find a good deal on,
the combination of lenses I put together causes a
slight halo at the edges. Rather than giving up on the lenses, I found the
softness makes for beautiful flower close-ups.
My friend and I dubbed them my "Fuzzy Flower Filters."
The important thing if you want to get into
photography is to tinker and have fun.
You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on the latest equipment.
You don't need digital this and auto-focus that, I have the
most fun with my trusty, all-manual AE-1. That's not
to say I don't have an auto-focus camera and a small digital
for quick shots. But, I find myself more inclined to carry
a cheaper camera all over the place with me than I would an expensive
top-of-the-line camera. If you don't have your camera with you,
you can't get the cool spontaneous things you see on a daily basis.
And the combination of an $80 AE-1 from eBay and a high quality slide film
will result in sharper images than all but the most expensive digital cameras.
In the end you have to find what works best for you personally so you can have the most fun with it.
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