Hunting

This squirrel was hunting for some food when I found it. There was some cloud cover, so my shutter speed wasn't as high as I would have liked it to be. This meant that my pictures were blurry and not in focus. I normally like my pictures in focus, but I like this picture when it isn't in focus. It helps show that the squirrel is moving and hunting for some acorns. 

Macro Photography

Close-up pictures like this one, are macro photography pictures. Pictures that have a small object fill the frame. The problem with macro photography of animals, is they get scared of you. As you move closer, they feel threatened, so they move away. For this picture, I wanted to have the butterflies in a very sharp focus with the background blurred. 

Fall

As fall hurries in after summer, the plants and animals become harder to find. The leaves fall off and some animals try to stay warm. One of the good things about winter is it makes bird spotting easier. One of my favorite birds, one that I don't take many pictures of, is the bluebird. They don't migrate for the winter and since the trees have no leaves on them, it makes them easier to find and take pictures of. 

Monarch Butterfly 

On the same flower as the other butterflies, there was this monarch butterfly. I like the colors on it. It has a dark background with lighter circles. The circles on the butterfly are supposed to look like eyes to scare away birds from eating it. 

Butterfly

On a theme of capturing animals that need flowers, I found this butterfly. Like the fly, it took several attempts before I could get a perfect focus on the butterfly. I like how the head is off of the flower. It helps define the head and give detail to it. 

Bubbles

Not long into my bike trip, I found this water fountain in front of a house. It was incredibly sunny that day, so it was easy for me to increase the shutter speed. I  set the shutter speed on the highest it could go, and I started taking pictures. I chose this picture because of the bubbles in the water and the big bubble on the middle left side of the picture. 

Pumpkin Season

As October begins, so do the Halloween decorations. I want to try to get a night picture of a pumpkin. One with a carved face and a candle inside. Have the candle lit and have a long exposure on it. Hopefully, the picture will catch the movement of the candle and make a very interesting picture. 

Little Fly

Near the bees that were on the flowers, was this small fly. I wanted to get level with the fly so I could get the best shot. The problem with being flat with the fly, was the focus points become a lot smaller. From this picture, we can see a very focused line, then everything else is out of focus. It took many tries to try to get the perfect focus, but I was able to. 

Summer Shower

After a brief but powerful summer storm, this leaf was covered in rain drops. I chose this leaf because the drops have different colors on them. Some have a blue tint and others are more yellow. I believe that this is from the sun and how it is shining on the drops. The more sun that shines on the drops, the more yellow it is. The less sun, the bluer the drops are. 

Banana Flower

On a bike ride in Texas, I saw this bright yellow flower. If a banana was a flower, I think this would be what it might look like. It is a tall and skinny bright yellow flower that comes from a green stem. I wonder how it tastes, probably not as good as a banana.

Bush Man

In the shrub part of the flower, there was this green lizard. I like how in focus it is. You can see the individual scales on the lizard. I wish I had the head in a little more focus, but it still is interesting to see a lizard this close up.

Buzzing Around

Near the first pink tree, I found this grove of flowers. In the beginning, there were no bees. After waiting for a minute, many bees came to the flowers. I took 300 pictures trying to capture the perfect picture.

Hidden Flowers

As the Seattle series ends, we return back to Texas. In Texas, there are many flowers and trees still blooming. One of the trees was this bright pink color. I couldn't get a clean shot of the flowers, so I just found the densest part of the front tree and shot through it.

Seattle

The last picture from Seattle is this one. It was a sunny day which made it one of the best. The cloudy picture of downtown Seattle was good but with it sunny, it makes it much better. I made the picture as wide as I could to capture all of Seattle.

Second Wave

I also think this is one of my best pictures. Most everything close to the camera is in focus. The rocks on the beach, the wave, and the droplets from the wave. I took so many of these pictures because this is one of the only places I can take them. Dallas doesn't have a beach or anything like this that I can take a picture from.

Wave

This is my second best picture from Seattle. It is a picture that I can almost never get in Dallas but it is also a great picture. You can easily make out the individual water droplets that make up the wave. As the water gets closer the droplets get less and less out of focus. I like this effect because it seems like the wave is splashing into the lens (which it did do a little of).

Splash

After I took the first picture of the waves crashing, I tried to take some more just to make sure I had the perfect picture. This picture isn't as great, but I still like it. The waves still divide into small droplets and fold onto the beach.

Beach View

This beach wasn't like the beaches I had seen before. This beach was rocky and the water was cold. While the rocks weren't the best for walking barefoot, they add another element to this picture. The rocks are in lines that are like the waves. I also enjoy the boat in the water. It shows just how far the water stretches.

Seagulls, Sea Gone

Once the seagulls felt they were in danger because I was too close, they flew away. I chose this picture because the seagull is in focus and the shoreline of the opposite side is visible. The clouds are in interesting shapes and the water isn't just a flat surface. It all came together to see the seagulls, sea gone.

Seagulls

On one of the beaches were these seagulls. There was a group of about 15 of them all looking for food and resting. I crept up slowly trying to get the closest shot I could get. This was my closest shot before they flew away. But I also to pictures of that, which is coming tomorrow.