Grey Spots

This picture is very similar to the last one, but I think it is also very different. It is similar in the way that I took the picture of an object with snow falling around it. But it is different because of the snow. I like this picture because almost all of the snow is out of focus. The snow only appears are grey spots on the picture. 

Branches

As the day came to an end, the snow started to fall even more. I went to the base of the mountain where I pointed my camera up and started taking pictures of the objects with snow falling all around them. One of them was this branch. I took the picture with my macro lens which meant that whatever is in focus would have great detail but anything out of focus would be very blurred. I like that because it makes the snowflakes look very interesting and you are able to see the differences between snowflakes.

Treeline 

I took this picture as I was going down a ski run in the trees. It was snowing very heavily as you can see the snowflakes falling on the trunk of the tree. I like how the viewer can see the marks on the snow. It gives the viewer something more to look at. Also, I like how similar to the last picture, the trees just appear to stop. This is caused by the low clouds which made for some really interesting pictures.

White

As the snow fell, it covered everything. The snow also caused some clouds to be extremely low to the ground. I like the clouds because they help the picture 'end.' The clouds provide a clean background that doesn't distract the viewer from the foreground snow either on the ground or trees.

Fog

Similar to last year and some of the years before, I was able to capture some pictures of the snow from on the mountain. Sometimes I brought my camera up the mountain but other times I didn't want to waste the moment so I just took the picture on a phone. I took this picture because I found the 'snow fog' interesting. I like how it allows the viewer to see the foreground trees but the trees in the background sort of fade away.

Blurry Drops

I shot this picture from a different angle than the last few of the snow falling onto the pine tree branches. I wanted to capture the snow actively falling while still having the branches in the frame. The problem with taking a picture like this is making sure there is a good background. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a good background for this picture. I recognized this while I was taking the picture, but I was worried about losing the picture so I did not move or find another background.

Big Flakes

There were several different sizes of flakes that fell during the snow storm. Some were bigger and others were smaller. In this picture, the flakes were bigger than average. This is because of the change in temperatures. As the temperature increases, the size of the snowflakes also increases. The temperature when I took this picture was close to freezing making the flakes large. I like the bigger snowflakes because that allows the camera to capture them falling. With the smaller snowflakes, it is harder for the camera to capture them in the picture. But with these bigger ones, you can clearly see them.

Red Rock

The snow covered everything on the ground. Including cars, trees, and this rock. I captured this picture before the snow accumulated too much which is why the rock is not completely blanketed in snow. I enjoy how the snow does not completely cover the rock. It helps to give the picture multiple objects to look at. There is the snow part and the rock part.

Winter

My favorite object that I saw while it was snowing was all of the snow on the trees and ground. It was amazing to see everything covered in white. Unfortunately, I was not able to capture any of the snowflakes falling while I took this picture. Instead, I was able to capture another white tree in the background.

Ice Crystals

All of the snowflakes created these huge walls of snow hanging off of or on top of objects. In this picture, the snow was piled on top of itself and some was hanging off of the edges. I took my macro lens and positioned myself as close to the snow as I could. When I was taking the picture I didn't realize the ice that had accumulated next to the snow. I like how it is there and it is a different texture than the snow.

Sticking Out

This picture is a macro shot of some of the branches. I wanted to capture a close-up shot of the snow on the pine tree. So, I took a picture of snow covering pine needles with the needles sticking through the snow. I took around ten pictures to try to catch snow falling. Since this is a macro shot, there was very little room for the camera to catch the snowflakes in the frame.

Snow

Another snow picture I took was this one of heavy snow falling in front of a branch close to the ground. I enjoy how there is snow accumulating on some of the higher branches but not on the lower ones. It gives the branches a distinction and contrast which I like. I also enjoy the focussed and blurred snowflakes. Similar to the branches it provides a contrast.

Snowflakes

In the past few pictures, I have been talking about how much snow fell. I was able to capture the snowflakes falling in front of a pine tree. Some of the flakes were huge. I positioned the tree in the lower portion of the picture to allow the viewer to both see the snow in front and above the tree.

Snow Fall

For this picture, I positioned myself and camera further from the tree and took a wider angle picture of the snow falling. I chose this plant because I wanted to take a picture of something already covered in snow but also have the snow falling behind the tree. It was also difficult to capture the snow falling behind the tree. I had to adjust my aperture (depth of field) to capture the snow.

Pine Trees

So much snow fell that every object that wasn't blocked by something was covered in snow. I like this picture because it is snow on top of ice on top of pine needles. I also enjoy how there is a sharp focus on the pine needles and snow. You can see all of the details on both. You can see the yellow tips of the pine needles and the sun glistening on the snow.

Snow and Ice

Some of the snow fell when the temperature was above freezing. This meant that the snow turned into rain on contact with a surface. That is what formed the ice, the snow hit the branch, melted, then froze again except onto the branch. On top of the ice is snow. It doesn't look like much, but that is all of the snow the small branch could hold.

Snow Flakes

I woke up, to snow falling on my first day in Colorado, it was incredible. It ended up snowing all day totaling around 8 inches. I took my macro lens and walked around to find objects covered in snow that would look interesting in a macro picture. Unfortunately, the snowflakes were so small that I was not able to take a close-up picture of only snow.

Bees Head

This is my only picture with the bee 'looking' at the camera. The bee is more facing at the camera and looking at the flower but it still looks good. While I am taking and publishing my new snow pictures, I will not be posting tomorrow (Thursday) and the day after (Friday). Instead, I will post on Sunday. It is supposed to snow while I am still in Colorado so I should get some of the same (if not better) shots than last year.

Nectar 

I was debating whether or not I should take this picture with my macro lens or telephoto lens. I decided on my macro lens because it allows me to move closer to the subject while still having it in focus and it takes sharper pictures. For instance, with my macro lens, I am able to see the tiny hairs on the bee that my telephoto lens would probably not pick up on.

Streaks

Another feature I like about this new type of flower is the streaks in the center. They are crisp and stand out against the light background. Also, what is the plant below the center flower? The leaves with all of the balls on it. It might be that balls are the seeds for that plant and it just happened that the leaves were upside down so I could see them.

Sunset Flowers

These were the flowers I was taking pictures of before the bee. I chose to take pictures of them because they are different than the normal type of flowers. They have a greater variety of colors which makes them look better. If you want a comparison of the two flowers, look at the center flower then the flower above it. I personally like the center flower better but solely because I've seen the top flower too many times.

Buzzing Around

I was taking pictures of flowers when I saw this bee. It was harder than I thought to take pictures of because it was constantly moving. This meant I could not put my camera on a tripod. Instead, I had to hand-hold my camera and hope that the exposure and focus were correct. I eventually set my camera on auto exposure because the bee was moving into sunlight then shade and I didn't have time to change my exposure.

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.

Wide Angle

For this picture, I had similar settings for the exposure but I changed how narrow the picture was. I put on my wide angle lens to take this picture. I wanted to get the entirety of the sunset. From the night sky to the still bright sunset. The hardest part about taking pictures of sunsets or anything at night is making sure there isn't too much grain/noise in the picture. Grain is caused by a high ISO to make the picture appear lighter. For this picture, I kept my ISO at 100 and lengthened the exposure. This resulted in a crisp and ungrainy picture.

Night Sky

I took this picture, late into the sunset when the dark blue sky began to take over the red sunset. I set my camera so that the sunset looked very full and bright. I didn't want to have the sky take over too much of the sunset, but I also didn't just want a sunset as the picture. I settled with this picture and two others. I also like how crisp the rest of the silhoutetted objects are.

Light in the Night Sky

This is my last picture of the lunar eclipse. The Earth had just begun to move up from between the Sun and moon. As more and more light was able to reach the moon, it became harder to take pictures of it. The contrast between the light and dark parts was so vast that either one part of overexposed or one was underexposed. I chose to make the dark part of the moon the star (haha, star and the moon is a star) of the picture and have it be exposed correctly. 

Flower

Happy Sunday! Because I wanted to post this picture but also wanted to make space for the Lunar Eclipse pictures, you get a special Sunday post. On this flower, I was able to get a multitude of information from the focus. The viewer can see the inside, petals, and the dark spots on the petals. This is what a macro lens is made to do. It is built to get close to the object being photographed while retaining a sharp and crisp focus. It helps to show the world small objects that might not be able to be seen by the naked human eye.

Stars at Night

When I was taking pictures of the moon, my camera also captured some tiny stars. In the top left of this picture, there is a little bright spot which is a star. There is also another one on the bottom right. To capture all of the stars, you would want to set your camera to the darkest possible settings. Have the highest aperture, lowest ISO, and slowest shutter speed. This would allow the most amount of light to enter your camera and allowing you to see the stars.