Spider (so click away now if they’re not your thing)

One of the challenges I face when I am running is to keep running.  I’m not always successful, but in this case it means that I got this photo:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/710

I’ll admit if I had seen this spider in my home, I’d have probably squealed like a girl and ran away before dealing with it. On a run however, when I am just passing the web and spider by, I find it beautiful.  On this particular morning there were a lot of spiders out working.  This one I stopped for because I thought the light in the web was just about perfect.  Here is the original shot:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/710

In the edited version I really focused on the warmth that was in the original.  I used Lightroom for my editing. One of the first things I did was increase the temperature slider.  I liked the effect that had on the spider’s legs and on the sun rays. I’ve also used a graduated filter to bring a bit of interest to the sky.

The fun thing about this photo was that I took it with my iPhone, I was happy with the result. What do you think? Do you try to ignore spiders when you are out and about? Do you prefer the original or the edited version?  Feel free to leave a comment below. I’ve added this photo to my Picfair portfolio and to the Daily Post Challenge.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

I snapped this picture while watching this working dog herding ducks:

ISO 320 135mm -1ev f/16 1/100

While it is not the best photo ever, I think it does invite you to look beyond the dog to the ducks that are in his charge.

Certainly this duck was capable of looking beyond the dog, or perhaps this photo is better suited for the photo challenge called “Ignore”

ISO 320 130mm -1ev f/14 1/100

Cheers!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures

ISO 800 50mm -0.33 f/16 1/400

ISO 125 4mm f/2.8 1/120

ISO 800 50mm 0.33ev f/1.8 1/640

ISO 500 135mm f/10 1/50

ISO 500 28mm f/22 1/125

ISO 100 50mm f/5 1/25

ISO 500 50mm f/4.5 1/125

ISO 500 90mm f/9 1/50

This is a gallery of some of my favorite pictures from my blog this year.  It is a response to this week’s photo challenge from WordPress.  A big thank you to everyone who has stopped by my blog this year!

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Green

This week’s challenge from WordPress also includes the challenge of adding a gallery, so we will see how this turns out.  For my “green” I am using some photos I took this past spring at the zoo.

ISO 100 f/5.6 1/60 -1ev 135mm

ISO 100 f/5.6 1/50 -1ev 132mm

ISO 100 f/5.6 1/40 -1ev 135mm

ISO 125 f/5.6 1/40 -1ev 56mm

Cheers!

Humboldt Penguin in Black and White

I took this shot for a competition that has “Animals in Black and White” as its theme:

ISO f/3.2 1/6400 -1ev 50mm

The lighting was a bit tricky because there were a lot of shadows.  This was originally shot in color and then converted to black and white in Aperture.  I also lightened some of the shadows, cropped, and sharpened the image.

I used a 50mm lens, tripod, and high shutter speed to get the sharpest photo possible.

What do you think? Anything you would have done differently?

The image is also available for sale on my website.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Animals

I thought the theme for this week over at Where’s my backpack? sounded fun and if you click the link to the post you will see some great photos of animals.

Here is my contribution for the week.  I take lots of bird photos, but I thought I would go with something different:

ISO 100 28mm f/3.5 1/80

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit

Free Spirit! That’s the theme for the photo challenge at WordPress this week.  I’m looking forward to seeing all the interpretations.  I went with this beetle who can wander where it wants!

ISO 500 f/11 1/30 65mm

Cheers!

Sometimes You Share

In this case it was sharing even when you don’t really want to:

ISO 400 f/5.6 1/60 135mm

I can assure you that this prairie dog was not happy about the idea of having to share.

Cheers!

Can Your Ears Do This?

I am not certain what noise had caught this red kangaroo’s attention, but it was moving it’s ears around in an attempt to hear something.

ISO 250 135mm f/5.6 1/60

ISO 250 135mm f/5.6 1/60

As you can tell, the lighting was tough.  There is quite a bit of detail missing in the kangaroo.

Cheers!

Who’s in your neighborhood?

This is not the greatest photo I have ever posted, but I am sharing it because it is amazing to me what I see out of my own kitchen window sometimes:

ISO 100 120mm f/8 1/13

We have a lot(!) of bunnies that hang out in this part of the yard.  The common flicker that is picking apart the driveway (?!) is usually found out front in a few of our larger trees or at the feeders.  Anyway, these two got really close to one another this morning, which was just an interesting interaction to watch.  I took these photos on the fully automatic setting, just so I wouldn’t miss the moment.

Cheers!