Spring Flowers

As spring nears more and more flowers, plants, and leaves on trees are reappearing. Spring also brings back birds returning from their migration. I hope to get some new bird pictures soon as I have not taken any of them in a while. In addition to birds, spring also brings back bees. And with my macro lens, I was able to take some close-up bee pictures.

Berries

I was biking when I found a bush full of these berries. Similar to the picture two days ago, the sun is also high on the berries. There is a small white circle on the berries which is the reflection of the sun. I enjoy how some of the berries are not perfect in color in shape. Some berries have brown spots and bumps.

Fall's Colors

Either the warmer weather made the plants believe that winter was approaching or the plants' leaves never fell off in the fall. I found it really unusual that these leaves were red, yellow, and green. I also enjoy the detail on the leaves. I focussed the picture around the leaves so I was able to capture the veins on the leaves.

Sunshine

Fortunately, the cold front did not stay long and warmer weather replaced it. I chose this picture because of the lighting on the plant buds. I like how the sun is shining on the plant at a high angle. This gives light to the top of the plant but the bottom is dark. I took this picture looking up at the plant and sky. I did this to make the background the bright blue color of the sky.

The Power of Water

Water is one of the most interesting subjects to take pictures of. It can be a liquid, gas, or solid. Water in liquid form takes a shape similar to this. It is clear and magnifies the surface it is on. It can also reflect objects extremely well is great for mirror photos of an object. Water in gas form is the same as clouds. The clouds help to make the sky or a sunset more interesting. Water as a solid is ice or snow. This is my favorite type of water, especially since any object covered in snow looks better. Speaking of snow, I will begin to post pictures of snow in the coming weeks so be ready for some snow pictures.

Rose

I chose to take pictures of this rose because of the simplicity it offers. It is nothing more than a red rose in the middle of some green leaves. I was biking past this bush when I saw the rose. It was in the upper to high 30s when I was biking and I was about to go home to warm up when I saw this rose. I was shocked to see a rose in such cold weather and I knew I had to take pictures of it.

Stand Out

I was surprised to see a flower in the middle of winter. I guess that because of the warmer temperatures the flower thought it was spring which meant it was time to bloom. I like how I was able to capture the individual hairs on the flower and leave surrounding it. I also like how the focus is only on the flower and the entire background is blurred. It helps to showcase the flower and provide a simple green background

Stigma

The stigma is the sticky objects that stick out of the flower. I chose to take pictures of this flower because of these stigmas. I set the focus on the lower six instead of the main one in the center. I did that since I thought those looked better and had more depth in character than the center one. I also found a new tactic to give the picture a broader area of focus. Stack multiple pictures onto each other and remove the parts of the picture that aren't and focus. I'll try that soon and see how it looks.

Macro Lettuce Plant

This type of plant is always the most interesting to take pictures of. Whether it is a macro picture of the top of the plant or one of the raindrops that collect on the leaves this plant always have something new to take pictures of. I like this picture because of the background and the 'branches' that form off of the leaves. I like how they span out from around the center and create a pattern.

Lunch

Towards the end of my picture session with the ducks, they all started to eat flies and the other insects in the air. I tried to take motion pictures of them eating, but they moved their heads when they ate making it very hard to capture it. I caught this duck in between flies and by the look on its face, I think it just snagged a fly.

Stare Down

What I like about the black ducks is they noticed that I was taking pictures of them because they turned and looked at me, but they didn't seem to care. I was able to walk all around them and take pictures from many different angles without them moving. In this picture, I was able to get really close. But in some of the other pictures with some of the other ducks, I wasn't able to get as close which resulted in poorer quality pictures of the ducks.

Swan and the Pack

The next type of duck I took pictures of was this swan and its pack behind it. While I don't like the background the viewer can see the tree, grass, then concrete, I like the ducks in the picture. Unlike the black ducks, the swans and its pack did not want to have their picture taken. I was able to come within 15 feet of them, but under 15 feet they started to run away from me.

Portrait

I found this duck sitting on the side of the pond staring at me while I took pictures of it. I was able to come within five feet of the duck without it moving. I wanted to capture the entirety of the duck's head in the center of the picture with the most possible focus. I was successfully able to accomplish that and I ended up with a picture centered around the duck's head and all of the details on it.

Blurry Waves

This is my favorite picture of this theme. I really enjoy how the background is the swirly grey-green. I do not understand how the background was this color and shape. I had a quick shutter speed which should have froze all of the objects in the picture. It is possible that the waves were too fast for my camera to pick up, but I think that is unlikely. I believe that the background was swirly because of the shallow depth of field. I believe that because the focus was on something close to the camera, the rest of the picture was completely out of focus making the waves appear blurry.

Cleaning

This duck was cleaning itself when I found it. This duck was harder to take pictures of because it is all black. The black automatically creates a darker exposure in the picture. I had to adjust my shutter speed to a longer exposure to capture the duck and the details on it. I really like the feathers on the duck. While the overall color from the duck is black, there are also parts of green and white that help the duck look better and stand out.

Duck

After biking a few more miles from the macro plant, I found a pond. In the pond were this duck and several other types of ducks. These ducks fascinated me and I ended up taking several hundred pictures of them. There were at least four different types of ducks. This duck, a similar duck to this one but brown, white swans, a small black and white duck, and a larger black duck. Each was different to the other and luckily I was able to go close enough to take some really close pictures.

Looking Down

Taking a break from the birds up in the sky, I looked toward the ground and found this plant. I believe it is supposed to be a flower but because it is winter it isn't blooming. I switched my telephoto lens for a macro lens to take this picture. I started off taking the picture from the side like any other person. I realized that I had to create something more interesting and something that not everyone sees. So I moved my tripod to point the camera directly down at the plant.

Group Flight

A few minutes later, all of the birds near me took flight and started flying in a group. It was very interesting to see them fly. They had a formation that was similar to an oval shape and they stayed in that formation even if they turned directions. It was very hard to take this picture because the birds were flying away from me. I had to continuously change the focus to adjust for the distance they flew while keeping the camera pointed at the birds.

Rest or Fly

During the time while I was taking pictures of the birds, many were resting on the branches for a moment then flying away. This picture is very similar to the last two pictures that there is a bird flying which is out of focus and a bird resting. In this picture there are two birds not one. One is resting and the other is flying, it's like a combination of the previous two pictures.

Takeoff

A few seconds after I took the 'Perched' picture, the bird took flight and flew away. I enjoy how the bird is out of focus and the branches are in focus. It makes the bird seem very quick and too fast for the camera to capture it. Luckily, the bird isn't so far out of focus that the viewer can't see the individual feathers and the shape of the bird.

Perched

This bird was the only bird perched in this section of the tree when I took this picture. I like the picture because the branches and most of the bird is black. If you look closely enough you can see some details on the bird, but other than that the branches and bird are black. This contrasts it with the grey background which I think is very nice. It is a simple black and grey picture.

High in the Sky

Away from macro shots of flowers, I turned to the skies. It was a very nice day when I took these pictures. Temperatures around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy. It might have been the weather or some other reason but when I took these pictures all of the birds seemed to be awake and moving. Maybe they were just happy it wasn't cold and rainy. I was able to take pictures of at least two different types of birds and at least four different types of ducks.

Blues and Reds

In this picture of the sunset, I adjusted the settings so that my camera would capture all of the parts to the sunset. All of the blues, reds, and every color in between. Luckily it wasn't windy that night. When I was taking the long exposure pictures of the sunset, the trees didn't move too much making the picture better in quality and focus.