More From NY

Since my foot isn't really getting any better, the doctor now has a soft cast on it along with the Cam Boot. This is really limiting my ability to get out there and shoot. So, until I'm able to get around better, I'm going to have to post some of my older stuff.

While I was in NY, I got up early one morning before the kids got up so I could have some time to shoot alone. I walked up and down the road looking for whatever caught my attention and lo and behold, I came upon this cute little scene in my son-in-law's neighbor's side yard.

For whatever reason, it reminds me of olden days on a farm. I'm sure the bench is just decorative; at least it doesn't look like it would hold much weight--and I love the old milk can with the Daffodils in back of it.

So, what are your impressions of this little scene?

Montage

For the last five days, I've been working on a challenge with my photography students to spend 5-15 minutes every day creating one photograph of something they've found in their back yards.

While I was looking for something to photograph, I remembered seeing something that I wanted to try. This is my result. I photographed subjects that looked like the letters in my first name, then created a montage. It only took me 15 minutes to find all the letters.

It was fun looking for these, and I'll tell you that it's quite a challenge to find a new photograph every day in your own back yard. The exercise is to help my students to develop their photographic eye. It also proves that you don't have to drive 50 miles to a "great" place to make a "great" photograph. A good photograph can be found right under your nose if you just look hard enough. The previous four posts in this blog are other things I found to photograph in my yard.

If you want to develop your photographic eye, this is a simple, yet very effective way to challenge yourself. Give it a try; you'll be surprised at what you might find that you've never seen before.

Blue Dasher Dragonfly

My photography students haven't been posting a lot to the photo albums and haven't been very active on the board in the last couple weeks. So today I gave them an assignment for a week--and told them I'd do it with them to give them ideas about subject matter.

This Blue Dasher Dragonfly is my today's contribution to the assignment.

After explaining to them that the best way to learn photography is by making pictures, looking at others' pictures and critiquing pictures. I'm sure they feel intimidated because they are beginners and they don't know how to critique, but it's all about forcing them to look--I mean REALLY look at photos taken by others and their own. In order to critique a photo, they need to look at it long enough to decide what they like about it and what they don't like. By analyzing what they like, they're enforcing that concept in their brain and getting ideas which will eventually develop their own style. Be looking at what they don't like, will make them remember that, and they won't make the same mistake. Again, they'll be developing their own style.

Back to the assignment, just in case you want to try it for yourself. They were asked to spend 15 minutes in their front or back yard every day and make a photograph. The first thing that comes to mind is there's nothing out there except grass! That won't work because in the grass, they can find all kinds of critters to make photos of, there's all kinds of detail on the house, maybe a rusty spigot, a coiled hose, well you get the picture (no pun intended).

Everyone is busy these days, and there's very little time--so we think. However, 15 minutes or 5 minutes in your own back yard will definitely yield some very good photos. Once you've made the first one, they get easier to do. People think that they need more time to make a great picture, because they have to drive 50 miles to a great place. That's not true at all. We all need to see right under our noses. Sometimes the best photographs can be found right there. Today, I went out to make the first picture. I was out there 12 minutes, I took photos of 9 totally different subjects. I'll admit, some of them weren't great, some were pretty good, but I'm trying to prove a point here. They don't all have to be great. Although I'd like it if they were.

So, those of you who are wanting to better your photography. Why not give it a try?

Honey Bee on Shephards Needle

Lately it's been really busy at work and between that and running 3 photo clubs and trying to get a wedding business started, I haven't had much time to go out shooting. Actually, I haven't had much time for anything.

One good thing is that I can always find subject matter in my own back yard. I spotted this Honey Bee hanging on for dear life trying to sip this nectar. They seem to prefer the nectar of yellow flowers. At least that's how it seems to me. I usually can find bees around yellow or white flowers with yellow stamen. It just might be my imagination, but that's the way I see it; and I've photographed lots of them.

I have to keep my distance when I'm photographing bees and most insects because I'm deathly allergic to their stings. Due to the allergy, I have to shoot them with a fairly long lens so I don't get too close. Sometimes, the lens has enough magnification to keep the photo full frame, rather than having to crop in to get close.

This one was shot at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Tricky light, most of the time, but it was pretty cloudy and I got lucky that I didn't have more of an exposure latitude problem. The settings used for this photo was a shutter speed of 1/1000 to stop movement at F5.6 to sufficiently blur the background at 0 eV (exposure compensation). I used an ISO of 400 to guarantee that I'd have a fast enough shutter speed with partial metering at 250mm with my 55-250mm lens. As it stands, I didn't have to crop it. I was lucky enough to be able to get a close enough focus by shooting at an angle from up above him.