Spring Moon

Spring Moon

Spring is finally here. Dogwoods and other trees are blooming. Remember those blooming trees I photographed from my son's school a couple of weeks ago? There are several of those trees all around the campus. When we went out to the school the other day, I spent some time photographing some that were near the playground. I noticed that the Moon was clearly visible in the afternoon sky. So, I played around with it and the flowering trees. This image is my favorite. If you zoom in on the Moon, you can clearly see the craters and texture of the Lunar surface. I thought that the blurred flowers around it made a nice frame.

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Schools (continued with pictures)

Palmetto's Finest

As a continuation from yesterday, and bringing the blog back to photographs, I went out to my son's school yesterday afternoon. While we were there, I took some snapshots of the banners for the awards they received. Not the greatest photographs to be sure, but nice to share the results of the staff and faculty's hard work.

Title 1 Achievement

I promise something a bit nicer for tomorrow.

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Schools

Sorry for the non-photography post today. With all of the negative press that our schools receive in the media, I thought I would just take a moment to mention that we really do like and appreciate our son's school. Yesterday, it was recognized with a couple of awards; one at the state level and one nationally. Here is a link to an article about it in our local paper.

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Fly Away!

Fly Away!

To end the week is this photograph of one of the statues at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. This was taken late afternoon when the light was starting to turn really nice. It filtered through the trees and illuminated this statue with a nice golden glow.

Have a good weekend.

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During Class

Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens

This was one of the images I took during the afternoon class session. We were supposed to be practicing with our depth of field (DoF), i.e. the amount of the photograph that appears in focus. For this particular picture, the idea was to get as much of if in focus from foreground to background. I'm happy with it, plus it helped to have a good, interesting sky that didn't blow out to all white.

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Strutting Around

Courting Pose

Finally, today we have the male lizard strutting his stuff for his lady. Isn't he a handsome little devil? I'm quite pleased with how all of these photographs of these lizards turned out. A few things about them that could be better, but some of those were due to the location in the conservatory and the lizard's position which didn't lend itself to trying different angles. There was basically only one angle available to see him, so I was kind of stuck with some of the background that I don't like. All-in-all though, I like them.

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And the Suitor

Lizard

This is the male lizard that was trying to court the female in yesterday's photograph. He was moving around on that big leaf trying to get a good view of the female and get a position where she had a good view him. Periodically, he would buff out his neck sack while "singing" to her. It was quite a little show he was putting on for her, although it did seem like he would look at me sometimes wanting some privacy.

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The Lady ...

Playing Coy

I was back out at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens this weekend for a couple of photography classes. The classes were taught by Charlotte, NC based wildlife photographer Dave Kelly. The morning class was on metering light for proper exposure, while the afternoon class was about using depth of field. Both classes were well attended and I recognized several of the people from last weekend's photography show. I enjoyed both classes and look forward to taking some more of Mr. Kelly's offerings at the Gardens.

More after the jump.

This particular photograph is one of several I took of a little scene that was pointed out to me by some other visitors in the conservatory. While the class was in the conservatory practicing our morning lesson, a group of visitors got my attention and said something like, "Here's a picture for you!". Curious, I went to look and found a couple of lizards engaged in courting. This was the female lizard who was kind of hiding and playing playing coy. You can see that she is changing colors between green and brown, which I thought was kind of a neat catch. The real star of the scene was the male who we'll see tomorrow.

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Purple Beauty

Purple Orchid

Here is another orchid from last weekend's trip. Rather than use a macro lens (which I don't have) or my telephoto lens with an extension tube (to fake a macro lens) I used my ultra-wide angle and got as close as I could to the flowers. This is a different way of getting close-ups, but can be effective at times.

Have a good weekend.

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Orchids

Red Orchids

Here are a couple of red orchids I photographed in the Conservatory at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. I liked this because of the long stamen coming out of the petals as well as the red, waxy petals themselves. Very different from many of the other orchids in the Conservatory.

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Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

Yellow Flower

This past weekend I went to a small photography show near Gastonia, North Carolina. It was held at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. The show it self was called "Picture Perfect" and had a program of speakers as well as a small vendor exhibit.

More after the jump.

I also got to spend a couple of hours walking around the gardens and in particular their Conservatory. Currently, they have a nice collection of orchids in the Conservatory. I'm certain that the gardens are quite beautiful when Spring is in full bloom.

The Gardens also has a series of photography workshops / classes in association with a Charlotte, North Carolina professional photographer. I've signed up for the two classes that are being held this next Saturday. So I hope you like seeing photographs from here as there were be quite a few more over the next week or two.

I don't know what the flower in this photograph is called. Someone told me it was a "Shrimp Plant/Flower", but I don't know conclusively. I just thought it was pretty and would make a good subject.

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Cowpens Flock

Turkeys in the Woods

Last Friday, I took my son out to the Cowpens National Battlefield. We had not been out there in quite a while, and it was a nice afternoon, if a tad windy. The park has a nice walking path through it. The highlight of the the outing was when we encountered a small flock of wild turkeys in some of the woods. We stalked them for a while. The birds were quite aware of us and stayed a safe distance away. Luckily, I took my camera bag with me, instead of leaving it in the car like my first intention. You see, I had planned on sticking with just one lens to see what I could get with it rather than carrying everything with me for "just in case" situations. If I had left it behind, then I would not have had my telephoto lens with me. As it was, I did have the telephoto with me and was able to get a couple of shots of the flock as we circled each other in the woods.

Sometimes carrying everything on you works out. A lot of times, it just seems to add weight for nothing other than exercise.

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A Bit Late Today

In the Car

I meant to post this earlier today, but forgot because I took my son on an impromptu exertion after school today. Photographs from that next week.

This photograph was taken while I was waiting to pick my son up from school the day it snowed. School was canceled early so the buses could get get the kids home safely. At the time, it did look like we were going to get a couple of inches at least. Of course, that didn't pan out, but it all worked out. Since they were in school until 11:00 am, they won't have to make the day up later.

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And here is the rest of it.

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More Snow

Sharp Cold

We had another bout of winter weather a couple of days ago. No where near as much as we had that last time and it stayed around for even less time. Still, it did give a chance to play with the camera. I was trying to convey the sense of cold in this shot by blurring out the background. I'm happy that I was still able to get some visible snow falling through it, just not sure that the picture "feels" cold enough.

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