Hyacinth macaw feathers with opals glued to them.
bookmark_borderMoonfeather
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_borderTiny Purple Flowers
Two of my favorite things: purple flowers and cobalt glass. I found these little flowers growing in the scrabble beside our parking lot and the lower ones at the bottom of the stairs among the day lilies. I made an image of this last spring of violets in this little bottle (which was a take I had done the summer before of 2 roses in the bottle) and has been one of my favorite images. I continue the tradition with these little flowers!
bookmark_borderMoth Face!
This is the same Luna Moth that has been sitting by our side door since Wednesday night. Turns out it is a female who came to lay eggs! We now have a cluster of Luna Moth eggs by our door (which is guarded by a small sign that says “Protected: Do Not Disturb!”).
bookmark_borderButterfly Detail
Now that I am getting the hang of Photoshop I am realizing that I can do some things in Photoshop as well. I did some layers on this so that I could blur the background better and get rid of some of the distractions. And, uncharacteristically did not desaturate at all!
bookmark_borderTiger Swallowtail
Another of my favorite lepidopterans! This is the first time I have ever been able to catch one with my camera. Very pleased to see so many of them around this summer.
bookmark_borderLuna Moth Tails
This Luna Moth appeared at our side door this evening. I love the color, size and shape of these guys. One of my very favorite lepidopterans!
bookmark_borderGodlight
I put into practice something I learned from watching some photography videos yesterday with Douglas Kirkland. He said “Get a different look, think differently” and “move your camera around. What is the strongest composition?” I picked some irises and put them in a bottle and did some pretty basic photos on the back porch. Then I started noticing the light and made some different angels. I realized I was being typical and only focusing on the flowers. Then I looked at the bottle and discovered some possibilities in that (one image is below). After awhile the sun started coming through the trees and making RAYS and I was able to make this beautiful image. This is the first time in awhile I have had images I didn’t have to do much processing of. I processed this image and the one of the bottle, but the other two are exactly what came out of my camera.
bookmark_borderWildflowers
This is one of those days where I just have to pick one and go with it. Ironically we were filming today and I had my camera with me, I just didn’t wind up taking many photos and at the end of the day I wasn’t left with much to choose from. Motivation to make sure I’m more deliberate about making my images I guess!
bookmark_borderIris Detail
Detail of an iris in the back yard. I actually preferred this one in black and white as I was able to increase the contrast and clarity on the stripes in the center of the petal.
bookmark_borderDoglegs
I was reading some photography tips yesterday to get some inspiration and something stuck with me which caused me to capture this image. One of the tips was to think about what attracted you to photograph a particular scene. Is it the light? The colors? The shapes or flow? I was doing pushups on the porch stairs and it amused me that I could just see Steelie’s legs under the gate. When I went to take the photo I realized that it wasn’t Steelie’s legs that attracted me as much as it was the framing of his legs under the gate bottom (otherwise I would have cut it out of the photo). Using that information I was able to create this fun image.
bookmark_borderRaindrops
The rain made me feel unmotivated to do much of anything (including take photographs) until I remembered how it looks on the car windows. I have often thought of making this kind of image and finally did it. Now that I see some reflections in the droplets, I think it would be fun to purposefully have something to reflect in them; a flower, perhaps.
bookmark_borderOrange Cloth
I bought an orange t-shirt today and it became the subject of today’s photograph. That’s it.
bookmark_borderBlack and White Rabbit
My rabbit sitting on his shelf by my desk. When I took the photo I had plans to call it “Whiskers” but most of his whiskers disappeared when I blew out the whites (despite my best efforts to bring them back with Clarity and Contrast). And well, “Eye of the Rabbit” sounded a little too cheesy.
bookmark_borderBright Beetle
Found this bright little guy in the chive blossoms. I like the color contrast (and, of course, the flowers).
bookmark_borderArtemis
Artemis in costume for filming. Nearly every photo I took of her came out too dark (I was shooting, as is typical for me, in Aperture priority at f 5.6, but it was overcast and we were under trees) so I had to compensate with some creative Lightroom processing. I like the effects though, I think they look really superhero-ish!
Here are some more images I took of Artemis:
bookmark_borderDramatic Moth
Another interesting little moth on our back door screen. I liked his color (rich browns) but preferred this image as a black and white.
bookmark_borderConsidering the Shot
During filming today, considering how to set up the shot. I love this entrance into the field as it’s a great place for dramatic shots. This is my first successful silhouette. And aside from the good contrast, I like the physical expressions of everyone in their hats!
bookmark_borderEastern Gray Tree Frog
This is one instance where subject takes precedence over artistry for me. This (huge!) tree frog was sitting in the leaves right next to my infinity path out back under Moss. I thought she was a toad at first but remembered the coloring of the gray tree frogs. Very glad to have been able to photograph her! I was pretty sure it was a male tree frog we heard calling occasionally from Moss’s branches last summer, and this confirms it. I’m happy to know they’re around.
bookmark_borderChive Buds
I love the color and lines in this image. Like many of my daily images, this one was an afterthought while I was photographing something else (columbine flowers) and I wound up liking it better than the images I was trying to make in the first place! This is also a rare (for me) time when I get to accentuate color before anything else. I brought down the contrast and warmed it up quite a bit and then actually increased the saturation and vibrance (I’m usually prone to desaturating and sometimes increasing vibrance). I really like the result. It’s a learning process!
bookmark_borderIron Gate
Detail of an old iron gate behind the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.
bookmark_borderUnicorn Shadow
Again with the slanting afternoon light (my favorite kind!).
bookmark_borderWood Prism
I caught the slanting afternoon light on my office floor and knew I had to do something with it. But what? I started by photographing a clump of dried hydrangea in various positions but wasn’t happy with what I was producing. Then I saw a flicker of a rainbow from a prism outside and remembered a large prism I have. I like the contrast between the angles of the prism and the texture of the wood (and, of course, the rainbows!).
bookmark_borderArtemis’ Arrows
Movie props spray painted gold and copper. I liked the color and texture in this, so while I was taking shots for our facebook page to show the progress I also got this close-up for my daily image.
bookmark_borderSnakeskin Bubble
Another late-night photo. This one a couple of textures I like: snakeskin and leather. That is actual snake skin from a boa shed glued to the bottom of a glass round and sitting on top of my Kindle case. I like the textures and the bubbles.
bookmark_borderBlack Cherry (blossom)
Another later-evening photo. Cherry blossoms again, this time under my compact fluorescent against the black t-shirt background. I had to use a tripod this time because I had to get so close (and most of the images STILL turned out blurry–I need a remote shutter release). I do like the effect though. I plan to revisit this technique with other flowers…
bookmark_borderBlue Feather
Another feather detail under my giant compact fluorescent bulb. I should make this a series. “Feathers, detail” or “It’s late and I need to photograph something before I go to bed”. I do like how it came out though. The black background is a t-shirt.
bookmark_borderHard Day of Play
He seems to have this otherworldly sense of when I’m about to take a picture of him because he will move just as the shutter clicks and most photos I take of him are blurry, goofy faces or a body part I wasn’t originally photographing! I finally got to take my time making this image when he fell asleep with his paw still on the soda bottle he had been playing with earlier.
bookmark_borderGummy Bears
I’ll admit it; I couldn’t think of anything to photograph so I grabbed what was in front of me (literally, on my desk directly in front of me) and set up something to photograph quickly before it got too late. A bit of a cop-out, I know, but It did wind up with an image I probably never would have created otherwise and I was forced to process it differently than most so I guess it worked out.
bookmark_borderRainy Lilacs
The lilacs are blooming! Another of my favorite subjects, I love the rich color and texture of the flowers, especially when covered with droplets of water. I particularly like the darker colored ones like these. Beautiful!
bookmark_borderCherry Blossom
I can’t help it, I love these flowers. Anyway, nobody said I couldn’t photograph the same subjects over and over again. And today I wanted to photograph Sand Cherry blossoms. Again.
Because I love them.
bookmark_borderSand Cherry Blossoms
One of my favorite blooming trees. I love the smell of these blossoms and I adore the fact that the leaves are burgundy! I always feel as though I have some beautiful exotic Japanese images after I photograph these.
bookmark_borderPeacock Feather Detail
I spent most of the day playing with editing photos that I almost forgot to take one today! So here’s a closeup of a peacock feather spear.