Loaded on Liftoff....

 Finally the heat has relented, and you can actually go outside without worrying about it being melanoma weather. Wow! That was one hot Summer! But, as usual, a couple of days after my birthday, the weather cools off, and I have to say that for me at least, it was more than welcomed. It seems that I spent the whole Summer in the house with the A/C running full blast. I just paid the Utilities bill, and it wasn't pretty. Anyway, enough whining....today I took a little excursion into my back yard, which is overgrown with weeds, and took a few pictures. The tools chosen were my Sony a77ll, and attached to it was my Minolta 500mm f8 mirror lens. Since it is a crop sensor in this camera, that 500mm supposedly is equivalent to a 750mm lens. There are lots of arguments about that, but I couldn't care less really....This little image was taken hand held, and I think it was more good luck than actual skill on my part....but I'll take it. This bee is lifting off from the Rose of Sharon blossom, fully loaded, and I was not sure it would be able to fly at all. Usually, these sorts of shots are taken with a macro lens, which I have, but was not using at the time. The 500mm was being tested, to see if I really needed to buy the SONY 200 ~ 600 mm lens, for bird photography, and such. But I have to ask myself....is it really worth spending the bucks? Will I become a REAL bird photographer overnight? Nahh, I don't think so. I will be saving the money and spend it where it will be more useful. Maybe I'll buy another accordion....LOL! Cheers! 

Somewhere on the French River.....

At what point is photography no longer photography anymore? There was a time I recall that I was very much a purist, when I would spend many many nights in the darkroom, making black & white photographs. Yes, they were called photographs back then, but these days of digital, your photographs are referred to as images. This image is no longer a photograph, even though I took the image with my digital camera. However, after shooting it set to the Illustration Mode in the camera, and then putting the resulting image through various filters in my Corel software, I came up with this rendering. It has a painterly effect, and for what ever reason, I have grown more appreciative of the various filter effects....sort of. I usually ask myself a question when I finish an image.....would it look good hanging on my wall somewhere? That is all dependant on others who might also be exposed to the image on a daily basis......So for now, I will content myself with putting my "images" here on my blog, and hopefully there are those who will enjoy it. Cheers!
 

The French ~ 2

 For this second rendering of The French, I thought I would try putting a frame around the image. It gives me an approximate preview of what it would look like as an enlarged wall hanging....sort of.  Capture specs are the same as the image below. Hope you enjoy.....

The French - Illustration

From the days of the Coureur des bois fur trappers and traders to modern times, the French River which empties out of Lake Nipissing and flows down into Georgian Bay, has been a place where the canoe has been a primary means of travel. The many rapids on this river meant that you have to plan on a few portages to get to your destination. The painterly effect of  this image was achieved with my SONY a7ll camera set to Illustration Mode, using my FE35mm f1.4 lens. Hope you enjoy it....Cheers!
 

Petals and Patina

 These purple petals are what fell from a bouquet that was on an end table in the living room. As in the image below, I decided to give them a bit of a send off, before I threw them into the garbage bucket. They are old, and somewhat faded....just like me I guess....but I still enjoy the colours, and my head keeps churning out crazy ideas of what to do with stuff that is just ordinary. The background is of my own contrivance. It originated as a bouquet of different coloured carnations, and I took a photo of it, all the while moving and zooming the lens, to give the image a painterly effect. Then in post editing, I can control the opacity levels. In the original image, the background was a blue/grey wall that had a few flaws, so instead of trying to perfect the wall, I replaced it with this multicoloured one instead.....works for me. Have a great day! Cheers!

A Pile of Petals.....

Usually when some of the flowers in a bouquet start to die, and drop to the table, the petals are taken to the garbage container. Instead of doing that, today I decided to give then a bit of "glory" before they were thrown out.....just a crazy idea of mine on a very cold and rainy day. Hope you enjoy.....Cheers!
 

Calla Lily.....

It was a rainy dreary day today, so I decided to busy myself with taking a few shots of this lovely Calla Lily that my wife received for Mother's Day. We were trying to keep it outside, but the weather turned so cold and windy, so we decided to bring it indoors for a few days, until Spring decides it is going to stay for a while. The lighting is provided by a portable flash bounced into a white umbrella, and the on camera flash bounced into a silver reflector. No "special effects" were applied, to make it look more "painterly" or abstract. The darker vignetting around the edges is deliberate. If I have a lens that is not quite perfect, and shows a bit of vignetting, that is just fine with me, although most folks who do the online lens reviews give this a thumbs down as an optical flaw.....whatever! It was a fun way to pass the day...hope some folks will enjoy this image also.....Cheers!