Tealight and melted wax on my bedside table. I like the reds, the out-of-focus areas and the contrast (truthfully I even like the noise in this one!).
bookmark_borderBright Candle Flame
Category: Photo-a-Day Challenge 2014
This is a discipline I put myself on in 2014 to take and upload one photo a day. It started out as a private blog just for myself, but I decided to publish it in July 2019 to show my progress.
bookmark_borderWater Plant
Emergent water plant in my planted bowl. Another late night looking for something to photograph….
bookmark_borderDancing in the Dark
My husband’s daughter demonstrating dance moves to the to the group of actresses behind her. Taken with a high ISO of course to capture the low light and the motion. I like the contrast and the colors and the overblown highlights.
bookmark_borderPeace Lily Flower
Close-up of my peace lily blossom at night under my huge compact fluo at a high ISO.
bookmark_borderGreen Leaf in Blue Watercolor
I spotted this leaf in a chair in our driveway this morning while on my way out the car. The stark contrast of the colors and watercolor pattern grabbed me and I had to photograph it.
bookmark_borderCaterpillar
This is an Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar. I was very excited to find two of these guys on my rue plant this morning. One of my favorite butterflies! I made a few images that I like and it took me a long time to decide but there’s something striking about the image in black and white so I chose this one.
bookmark_borderBanana Stem
Didn’t feel like going out for a photograph today. This was taken in my window. I like the grungy textures and the shadows.
bookmark_borderBlack and White Horses
I seem to have a black and white theme this week! I love horses and would love to have more opportunities to photograph them, unfortunately I don’t see them all that often and am usually preoccupied with interacting with them personally rather than photographing them from a distance. Hence, this is not my best work (I only got 3 today!) but I wanted to put it up for my day’s photo as I haven’t put up any horses yet as my daily image. So here are three eating their lunch.
bookmark_borderMagic Moss
This was the only photo I took today! Not on purpose, I was called in the moment after I made this shot. Glad it came out somewhat decent (though I would have made a better image if I had a bit more time). I think I made up for it by putting some fun effects on it.
bookmark_borderDreamcatcher
This is one of the dreamcatchers in our set for Artemis. I liked how the feathers and ribbon are backlit and there’s a little bit of spiderweb showing as well. As this shot is primarily about light, I preferred it in black and white.
bookmark_borderPrecious
Once again my trusty black shirt and compact fluorescent come to the rescue!
bookmark_borderPlanted Bowl
I like how the light shines through my plant bowl in the morning.
bookmark_borderDaylilies
Somewhat of a departure from my regular focal length, I brought it all the way out to 18 instead of 55 so I could get the other lilies in the background. I really like the result. Especially after tweaking it in Lightroom to bring up the clarity of the foremost lily.
bookmark_borderImpressionistic Betta
I did some experimenting with high ISO photography tonight photographing Galius. As it was even darker than in my office I bumped it up to 3500 and stayed in Aperture Priority on 5.6. Most of my images were blurry and the ones that weren’t he wasn’t in a good position (he was flaring at a blue cup outside his tank and was almost constantly in motion). So I took the blurriest one with him in full profile to work with.
This was another choice: 
bookmark_borderLittle Rabbit
Now that I understand ISO better I found that I can take photos inside my not-so-bright office without flash and still get clear images. My horizons have broadened!
bookmark_borderYeh seb hai.
We got apples tonight and they were gorgeous, all dark and stripey with water condensing on them in a delicious way as they were still cold from the store! Naturally this had to be the subject for the day’s image (especially since I didn’t take any photos earlier!). As a side note, ever since I started using Rosetta Stone to learn Hindi, whenever I see a picture of an apple (not an actual apple necessarily, but a photo of one) I hear “Yeh seb hai” in my head. Hence the title of this image.
I guess it’s working.
bookmark_borderGreen Bottle Shadow
I love it when an image jumps out at me. I had just gone outside to walk around in the backyard and look for something to photograph. I did half a lap and then went back to get a sip of water and saw this fantastic green shadow! It took some arranging but I like the lines and colors in the result (glad I turned the cap so that the star was upright as well). Quite pleased with this one.
bookmark_borderUnderwater World
Not one of my best, I admit. It was late and I needed something. I did, however, do some experimenting with camera settings though, so it wasn’t a complete blow-off. I played with my ISO to get the image.
bookmark_borderCactus Flower
This was a tough choice. I got some photos I really like of the cactus in bloom and then that evening got more fireworks photos! Well, the flower wins for the cover image but I will include galleries of both:
bookmark_borderMarabou Bokeh
This is a marabou feather on one of our outdoor dreamcatchers. I took it in late afternoon and love it rendered in black and white. I’m really pleased with this simple image.
bookmark_borderTiny Snail
A quick close up of a little snail in the low-tech planted bowl I set up. Even though it was a quick simple photo I rather like the colors and textures.
bookmark_borderStar Ornament
I wasn’t happy with how my night shots turned out from our (rainy, dark) film shoot so I went with my old standby and a star ornament. Definitely could have been better…
bookmark_borderNative Light
I LOVE these photos. We were back at the farm filming again and my husband and I were sitting outside eating in the back of the car when I noticed the gorgeous rim lighting on his face and asked if I could take some photos. These are my favorites.
bookmark_borderRed White and Blue
My husband standing in front of our Fourth of July fireworks. It took me a minute to figure out what settings I wanted to use for these images, and I like how this one came out with the long light trails and the colors.
bookmark_borderPreserved Dandelion Puff
This is a giant dandelion puff that Ahura preserved for me by spraying it with polyurethane so it made a perfect subject for a late-night photo in front of the ubiquitous black shirt and compact fluorescent bulb.
bookmark_borderRobin Moth Body
I found the body of a Robin Moth while outside for my walk today and thought it would make a good subject, especially against the weathered wood of our back porch. I would have liked to see one of these guys alive this year (like that awesome Luna Moth last week!) but an expired one makes an easier subject to photograph I suppose. I love the fur textures of it’s body and wings. If I had a more morbid imagination I could probably have come up with some more creative ways to photograph this guy but I wasn’t too keen on playing around too much with a dead creature, insect or not.
bookmark_borderOrchid
It was late and I came up with something quick (using my trusty giant compact fluorescent bulb and black shirt). The image is a bit soft because I was holding the flower pot with one hand and Daisuke (my camera–he has a name now!) with the other. Pretty as the colors are, I prefer the image in black and white.
bookmark_borderLily Detail
Close-up of one of the red lilies growing in front of our place. I love the raised black dots, they bring strawberries to mind.
bookmark_borderBlown Flame
We filmed a night scene tonight and, in addition to a fire in the brazier, we had these tiki torches lit. The wind caught this one perfectly.
bookmark_borderTiny Crab
Found this little guy in the rocks at the beach. It was all I could do to keep him still enough in one hand to photograph him with the other!
bookmark_borderSoup!
Though I did use my camera today pretty much all I took were snapshots (and I didn’t realize until it was too late!). However, it is still within the bounds of my discipline so here is the image; soup. Some friends are spending the weekend with us so we have been busy making some Asian foodstuffs for dinner. This was one of the items.
bookmark_borderSunset Flower
I had the pleasure of spending the day at a beautiful farm today. There were some lovely reclaimed gardens around the property and I got to wander around with my camera during golden hour. This was my favorite.