End of Summer Roses.....

Another Summer has passed, and a couple of days ago, I went out to the back yard and snipped a few blossoms for the kitchen table. The aroma was just lovely, and it forced me to take a quick picture before they wilted. This is the result, and I hope it brings a smile to your face......Cheers!
 

Old Tyme Fiddler.....

He left us a few years ago, and when he would tune his fiddle and I would join him on the Hohner diatonic accordion, we spent many many evenings making the rafters ring, while other family members danced in the kitchen. He had a pitch perfect ear, and did not need any tuning aids or devices. He was 99 and played right up to the end when he passed. I loved that old man.....

Surround Sound on a Detroit Night.....

 This is a re-post of a coloured rendition that I had posted about 3 1/2 years ago. I had wondered what it would look like as a Black & White, and I accidentally came across it today, and decided to drop it on here.....with a different title. It is a composite of at least 3 different images that I decided to play with one evening, and it took several hours of editing in Photoshop and Corel PaintShop Pro software. Anyway, for what it is worth, here is the mono version....Thanks for looking in. Cheers!

The Black Hat.....

 This image is a Black & White rendition from the same session as below. As I said, I have been away from the portrait end of things for a while, and there is a lot that could have been improved. Making mistakes is a part of the process of learning and improving, no matter the endeavour. Someone once said that the perfect photo has yet to be taken, but I have to suggest that I have seen a lot of them that come pretty close....not mine of course. At any rate, I have to say that playing with a set of studio lights and some of the gear that goes with it, is a very nice diversion from my flowers and still life stuff that I have been doing for the past several months. There have been many times that I wished to have been able to go out about town with my camera, but reading the many headlines in the local newspaper of the various assaults on folks of all ages, makes me more content to hide away in my garage or back yard, and do my thing there.....and focus on the positive. Cheers!

Mysterious Woman.....

Lately I have been dabbling with studio portraiture, and this is my first attempt in a very very long while. It is fun to experiment a little with some off beat styles, and this lovely lady decided to go a little on the "dark" side for me. She was a thespian in her high school days, and I was fortunate that she has not lost her "joie de vivre" for this little session. The lighting is not what I was hoping for, but it will do for a start. It would probably look not half bad as a black & white, maybe I will give it a go sometime. Thanks for your time. Cheers!

Red Roses in a Vase.....

 While I was doing something else tonight, I got side tracked with this image that I accidentally came across. It was fun to take something that I had passed over many times before, and finally make it into something that I personally find somewhat pleasing. If I remember correctly, I originally shot this image while watching a hockey game, that wasn't going my way, so I set up an extra flash to the left of the flowers, and triggered it with the on camera flash. Flash photography used to terrify me somewhat in the past....not so much anymore. I put a poster efx filter on it in Corel, and this was the final outcome.....hope you enjoy it a little....Cheers!

First Rose of Sharon Blossom - 2024

 

Looking out the kitchen window this morning, I was most pleasantly surprised to see this lovely Rose of Sharon blossom greeting me. It is the very first blossom to open on the bush beside the back deck, and within the next few days, this bush, and the others in the yard, will be covered with these, and should continue to bloom until well into late September or early October. Unfortunately, there isn't much scent to them, but to be surrounded by their vivid colours makes a morning beverage very pleasant indeed. Sometimes I think that I am a bit crazy to be spending money on expensive lenses, but while it is not a work of art, these lovely blossoms make it worthwhile....well, to me anyway. Hope you enjoy it  also....Cheers!

SONY a7Mk2, and 90mm f 2.8 Macro Lens