Photography of the Hills

Self portrait

2010-08-27T17:00:00.001-04:00

Self portrait -
Looking into my soon-to-be studio from the outside

Beech nut

2010-08-26T16:52:00.000-04:00

Empty Beech nut hull

deck

2010-07-07T20:21:00.001-04:00

I don't know what it is about weathered wood the just gets to me, but it does. The color and the texture... all that it has endured just because we put it there, in this case, to walk on.

To be continued...

Impressions of a Daisy

2010-06-11T21:20:00.000-04:00

All images were taken blurry intentionally, and various other treatments were applied using Picasa to give the images an impressionistic feel.

Daisy looking down

2010-06-06T20:18:00.000-04:00

strawberries

2010-06-04T22:14:00.000-04:00

I "stylized" these photos in 2 very different ways using Picasa... manipulating the saturation, shadows and highlights, tinting, etc. The first has a kind of "dirty around the edges" quality to me. The second one reminds me of something you would see in a magazine from the 70's or something with the tan/yellowish cast that I added to it.

Please let me know what you think makes these work... or not work! Do you find the images appealing?

Face in a tree

2010-06-03T21:25:00.000-04:00

Do you see it?

Vine

2010-05-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

Virginia Creeper vine on abandoned shed

bike

2010-04-29T18:46:00.000-04:00

I don't really do "urban" photography, mostly because we don't live in a very urban area, and rural photography is my preference anyway. I spied this bike sitting in front of the local Long John Silver's restaurant weeks ago, but was too shy trying to take a picture of it. The sign on the restaurant caught my eye, and that bike added something special to the whole thing. I pass this spot every Friday night when I go grocery shopping, and every time since I first noticed it weeks ago, the bike was either not there when I drove by, or there was a car parked in front of it, obstructing the shot. Tonight it just happened to be there, so I thought I better take advantage of the situation. Several things could be better about this image, like the placement of the bike and the lighting, but sometimes you just have to work with what you have. It was a big deal for me just to stand there with my little point-and-shoot and take the picture, since I'm more of a "private" shooter, not really liking others to see me while I shoot (I imagine much the same as someone might feel self conscious being watched while they are painting).

Overall, the shot is not as awesome as I had hoped it would be, but I'm still glad I took it anyway.

dandelion collage

2010-04-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

I've taken so many dandelion photos recently that I thought it might be nice to make a collage of them. I put this one together with the aid of Picasa (i.e. choose pictures and click a button), but it's not quite what I had imagined. I might have to try a different one that I put together myself.

look up

2010-04-26T20:00:00.001-04:00

Itty-bitty baby oak leaves
Southeast Ohio, April 25, 2010

dandelion sunset

2010-04-25T17:17:00.000-04:00

Transformation

2010-04-24T17:26:00.000-04:00

Remember this?

Now... it looks like this

Taking chances

2010-04-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I let my camera do the seeing for me, especially when my subject is close to the ground and turning my head upside down doesn't seem like the best idea. I never know what's going to happen when I take pictures in this way, but there are always some pleasant surprises, like the sunlight streaming through these Wild Phlox flowers. Taking chances is one of the best things you can do with your camera. Get out there and play!

bottle

2010-04-16T21:06:00.002-04:00

collage

2010-04-13T20:23:00.000-04:00

"What are those?!" you might be wondering. They are catkins. A catkin is "a dense, elongated, and drooping cluster of flowers without petals. Most commonly, the flowers found on a catkin are of one sex. In some trees, such as the poplar, both male and female flowers are present. Catkins are typically found on trees which are wind pollinated, such as oak, birch, willow, and hickory." [source] I believe these catkins came from one of our Aspen trees (aspens are a member of the willow family). I left them inside the house for a few days after I took these pictures, and when I picked them up, they dumped yellow pollen all over my hands and the table. I didn't realize the important role these fuzzy little clusters played until the evidence was in-hand (get it?).

Awakening

2010-04-12T20:22:00.000-04:00

Today's Picture Spring prompt is "Awakening," where Tracey encourages us to "Capture something that is just waking up with the welcoming warmth of the season and honor it, I see you little one."
This is some Lily of the Valley that is coming up in my garden. I really doctored this one in Picasa, boosting the saturation multiple times, plus a few other modifications. I like the glowing effect that I ended up with.

Look inside

2010-04-11T20:47:00.000-04:00

Flower power

2010-04-10T21:19:00.002-04:00

Solitary

2010-04-09T22:26:00.000-04:00

No "Picture Spring" prompt today. The prompts from the last few days have just done nothing for me - brought me no inspiration. So I decided to strike out on my own for today's photo. I couldn't choose just one to share, though...

There's a freeze warning in effect for tonight, so it's very possible that I'll lose all the lovely daffodils that have been blooming in our front yard. Such a shame!

Pastel palette

2010-04-07T19:30:00.001-04:00

Today's Picture Spring prompt is the pastel pallet. Even though we are naturally drawn to bold, bright colors after months of blah colors, Tracey wanted to remind us that muted pastel hues can help to "soothe our senses and calm our souls."

Look in the mirror

2010-04-06T19:57:00.000-04:00

Look, it's me again! Today's Picture Spring prompt was "A fresh face," meaning it's self-portrait time. I almost wanted to skip this one since I put up two self-portraits on the first day of the project, but I decided to just go with it. I really prefer, as you may have noticed, to convert my portraits into black and white or sepia - somehow that's much more flattering to skin tone and all that. Maybe I should have stepped outside of my comfort zone and posted in color instead!

Getting grounded

2010-04-05T20:30:00.000-04:00

Today's Picture Spring prompt is "Getting grounded." That's right, take that camera, put it on the ground and press the shutter and see what happens. (This is our dog Emmett, by the way. I think he's sticking his tongue out at me.)

Look around

2010-04-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't follow today's Picture Spring prompt, which was "The Sky is the Limit." We were supposed to take a photo of the sky, but it was pretty bland up there today, and I was already taking wildflower photos anyway, so.... here are a few of my favorite photos from today of my favorite "weed," the Dandelion.

Stepping out

2010-04-03T11:25:00.000-04:00

Today's Picture Spring prompt involves 30 steps. As in, take 30 steps in any direction from where your camera is sitting and take a picture of what you find. The idea is that you don't have to travel great distances to get a great image.

My 30 steps landed me in our driveway, where I saw lots of things, but I ended up honing in on our birdbath and the little artful chickadee that sits there 365 days a year, hoping for a friend to join him from time to time. This is cropped from the original size and the saturation was greatly increased to give it a more surreal quality.

Morning ritual

2010-04-03T10:42:00.000-04:00

Here's my image to go with yesterday's Picture Spring prompt to photograph a morning ritual. These are items that are part of my morning ritual on the weekends when I count birds for Project Feederwatch during the winter months: binoculars, paper and pen, and DSLR camera.

What items would be in your morning ritual image?

Through a window

2010-04-02T20:13:00.000-04:00

The Picture Spring prompt for today was about photographing a morning ritual, but by the time I received the email with the prompt, I was already at work, and I didn't want to show work as a morning ritual, so I'll have to try that one tomorrow.

I did, however, want to post a photo today, so I tried taking shots of something that I had previously framed in my mind earlier in the week.

This is a house across the street from my office building. Interestingly, this is the only shot I took cropped in this close (and I even cropped it a little further with Picasa). All of the other shots included much more of the window and the outside view. I really like this image because it has a much more intimate feel than the other 16 shots I took, and because it's the most unconventional of them all. Just a note that the frame around the subject is not something I created - it's naturally part of the window frame. Also, the waviness of the old glass in this window gives a certain quirkiness to the image.

New projects, new beginnings

2010-04-01T21:19:00.001-04:00

The face behind the camera.
This is a month of new beginnings for me! I'm participating in a photo-a-day project called Picture Spring hosted at Big Picture Scrapbooking. As a result, I'll be posting a new photo per day for the entire month of April!

I'm also writing a poem a day for National Poetry Writing Month over on my new writing blog.

I look forward to meeting my creativity head on!

Booked

2010-03-17T21:14:00.004-04:00

Forget the Kindle or the iPad... I'll take a book that I can flip the pages of any day.

stuck on flowers

2010-03-13T15:31:00.002-05:00

Sorry, I'll move on from these flower photos eventually. I decided to play with this one in Corel Painter Essentials, using a watercolor option, and this was the result. It's always fun to play around with images, to turn them into something new.

More manufactured sunshine

2010-03-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

I have to admit to using the "I'm feeling lucky" function in Picasa on all of these pictures. That's what makes these really pop by bringing out the contrast and making the white really white (among other things). Perhaps some day I will figure out how to make such vibrant photos in-camera.

Manufactured sunshine

2010-03-06T20:27:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was cloudy and snowy. I hadn't seen the sun for days. So I decided to buy some flowers and make my own sunshine.

Icy surprise

2010-02-23T22:07:00.002-05:00

I spent some time this past weekend at Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills region.

While I'm all for the wide-angle shots that seem to be required of something as large as this ice formation, I'm more about the macro shots as I'm sure you know by now.

Some subjects lend themselves to macro photography more than others, and ice is actually kind of tricky when it comes to macro. I had to really keep my eyes open to find something unique. Finally something caught my attention. Tiny limbs that were frozen just below the surface of the ice.

Interesting, but not terribly unique. But then I looked around and found a few more twigs under the ice, finally landing on one that was very unique.

I didn't really even fully realize what was going on with this until I looked at the pictures when I got home. The ice twig was cupped upward when it landed in this spot, and the ice grew up from the tips of each offshoot...

...giving the impression of a hand reaching out of the ice. How cool is that?

To see other icy images from this visit to Ash Cave, please visit my nature blog.

Pendants and jewels

2010-02-21T16:54:00.000-05:00

For the record

2010-02-17T19:36:00.003-05:00

I think some people may be wondering what kind of lens I used to capture the snowflake photo that I shared a few posts back:

Keep in mind, that photo is very tightly cropped, so my lenses did not capture it at that size. (See the original post for the full-size shot this was cropped from)

These are the lenses that I commonly refer to as "macro filters":

They are also referred to as diopters and close-up filters. After much consideration and research about how to dive into macro photography without breaking the bank, these filters are what I decided on, and I have been nothing short of pleased. You have seen many of the results on this blog and my other blog. I think this set cost me $25 US. They work best on a "short" (i.e. wide-angle) lens. I pair them with my 18-55mm lens. I tried them on my telephoto lens (55-200mm), and was never really able to get them to focus correctly.

The lenses can stack one on top of the other to give you ultimate magnification, but I have found that if I stack all 3 of them together, image quality actually suffers. I commonly stack the +2 and +4 filters together for my closest shots.

Here the +2 and +4 are stacked together to get a super-close shot of the +1 filter.

You'll notice "52mm" is printed on all of them. That is the filter attachment diameter of my two main lenses. This diameter differs by lens, so you need to find out what size lens you have if you decide to try something like this. You can find the filter attachment size listed in your camera manual.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

The approach

2010-02-10T20:15:00.001-05:00

perfection

2010-02-07T22:45:00.002-05:00

bark

2010-01-24T18:04:00.004-05:00

One of the many things about trees that fascinates me: bark. This is the bark of the Eastern Hemlock.

Photographed this weekend at Old Man's Cave in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio, where I spent a couple of hours hiking with my blogging friend Meg (Art of Rustic). If you want to read some fantastically descriptive ruminations on nature and country living, go check out Meg's blog. You won't regret it!

Eyes - the window to the soul

2010-01-18T20:43:00.003-05:00

eye of the American Bison

eye of the Persian Onager

eye of the Southern white rhinoceros

All photos taken at the Wilds, Cumberland, OH.

bumpy

2010-01-12T19:39:00.001-05:00

Sycamore seed pod, in the lightbox

Brrrrr

2010-01-06T18:39:00.000-05:00

2009 in review

2009-12-30T22:00:00.004-05:00

I decided to go through my archives and pick one photo from each month of this year to show as a round-up/review kind of thing. I tried my best to pick images that I haven't shown before, but a few here and there were part of collages over on my other blog.

One thing I learned while going through folders of images is that there were some months where I really didn't do much with the camera. May, July, October, November - all months where I struggled to find a good image to share.

January '09 - empty peanut feeder

February '09 - porch swing detail

March '09 - shepherd's hook in dew and fog (detail)

April '09 - Tools

May '09 - Too hot and tired to move

June '09 - box turtle shell remnant

July '09 - extreme close-up of hummingbird identification bands

August '09 - Sycamore leaf

September '09 - Lift off! (Great Blue Heron)

October '09 - early autumn woodland sunset

November '09 - Oak leaves in the lightbox.

December '09 - Aspen tree trunk fragment (detail)

Here's to 2010 - a new year, full of new photographic opportunities and explorations!

Frozen

2009-12-20T08:54:00.002-05:00

From the photo archives, February 2007

Rainy day

2009-12-15T19:00:00.001-05:00

Suspended

2009-12-13T21:15:00.001-05:00

In anticipation

2009-12-07T19:19:00.002-05:00

snow and ice storm, January 2009

We have finally had our first taste of snow in southeast Ohio. We had some light accumulation on Saturday, most of which has since melted, and we had some very light flurries today. The snow and ice accumulation which produced the above image kept us stuck at home for several days, as our driveway and the rural roads were impassable for some time. That's okay, though, because when the weather gets that bad, I just want to stay home and play in the snow anyway!

Backlit

2009-12-02T19:00:00.000-05:00

At odd angles

2009-11-30T21:04:00.002-05:00

At the foot of Marblehead Lighthouse, Lake Erie, Ohio

After the rain

2009-11-23T20:15:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving. See you in a few days!

Shadow and shape

2009-11-22T20:05:00.003-05:00

I would like to say a big "Thank You" to Tricia at Bluff Area Daily for passing the Best Blog Award along to me. Please be sure to check out her blog of daily photos from "southeast Missourahh." Thanks again, Tricia!

Lightbox, part III

2009-11-19T18:00:00.004-05:00

More seed head photos from my first day playing with the lightbox. These images were actually taken quite early in the day (before noon), and the light was bright and direct. I played with many variables here: shutter speed, white balance, aperture settings, etc. Here are some results based on those variables:

Personally, I like the degree of shadow that appears in these images. What do you think?

Also, I messed around in the GIMP a lot to come up with a triptych. I crashed and burned several times on this, but I finally ended up with something I like. All a part of the learning process!

P.S. These are garlic seed heads, in case you are wondering.

P.S.S. I didn't bother with giving camera settings for any of these images for fear of boring and/or overwhelming my dear readers, neither of which I want to do. BUT, if you are interested in that kind of information, let me know and I can provide it.

Lightbox, part II

2009-11-17T18:00:00.002-05:00

My lightbox experiment continues. I had a theme going during my first day with the box: seed heads. The top 2 photos are of ~~a plant that I am unable to identify at present~~ Wingstem (thanks to Jim McCormac for help on the ID!).

The bottom 3 images are of one of my favorite autumn-blooming wildflowers : Tall Ironweed. All that remains of the vibrant purple flowers are these wild, tufty seeds.

More to come...

Experimenting with a lightbox

2009-11-15T21:02:00.002-05:00

Today I FINALLY got around to making a piece of photo gear that I've been planning on making for months: a homemade lightbox. As soon as I finished making it I immediately set to work giving it a test run. I will share some images of my first tries with the box over the next few days. It's super-easy (and cheap) to make, and you can find out how to make your own at the Strobist blog.

Here's mine in action:

And a "finished" image.

So far I have only taken images using available, natural light (i.e. no flash, no lightbulbs). I look forward to playing with this lots more and seeing what new possibilities will open up as a result. Wish me luck!

Upon reflection

2009-11-12T21:55:00.002-05:00

Reflections of the sky in the rear window of my vehicle...

... and in a puddle.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Of air and water

2009-11-09T20:37:00.002-05:00

The Ring-billed Gull, a beautiful bird, whether in the air...

... or on the water

Photos taken in Lakeside, OH, during the Midwest Birding Symposium, September, 2009.

Lotus

2009-11-05T21:35:00.002-05:00

A photo with endless possibilities, here are two variations of this American Lotus seed head. May your weekend be peaceful.

Burst

2009-11-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

In remembrance of summer, my dear friend...

And in honor of a new year dawning for me.

Opening up

2009-11-01T19:34:00.001-05:00

I decided to give this photo several different treatments. Which do you like?

Wooly and the gourds

2009-10-28T22:29:00.000-04:00

Breathe

2009-10-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

Fracture

2009-10-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

Gone fishin'

2009-10-14T21:54:00.003-04:00

Lakeside, OH - September 2009

Ducks on water

2009-10-07T22:16:00.003-04:00

These photos are very "noisy," I realize, but I think that the noise gives the images a bit of a painterly look (i.e. pointillism).

"Taking Flight"

"Floating Formation"

Autumn photo illustrations

2009-10-04T19:00:00.002-04:00

These are some photo illustrations I made in Photoshop several years ago, based on pictures taken in the woods around our home.

Sidewalk flowers

2009-09-04T21:08:00.002-04:00

downtown Petoskey, MI

Relic

2009-09-02T20:36:00.002-04:00

Quiet

2009-08-05T17:21:00.000-04:00

Sometimes one just needs quiet. I'm going into one of those phases right now. And so... I'm off to be quiet for a while. I'll check in with you all when I can.

Shadows

2009-08-04T08:00:00.003-04:00

I can never predict what will attract my attention for a photo. Anything is game, really. Like this rock along the lake shore, with nearby vegetation casting a shadow onto it.

Original on the left, a sepia-toned version on the right.

water for the weekend

2009-08-01T14:23:00.002-04:00

I love taking pictures of water...

...its constant motion just lures me in, and can make for some interesting effects when you slow the shutter speed (and also play around with the colors in your chosen editing program).

Repairing the break wall (SWF)

2009-07-30T14:45:00.000-04:00

While spending some time in Petoskey, MI recently, we noticed they were doing some work on the break wall. The weather was perfect while we were in town, giving me a great opportunity to get some nice shots.

Along the pier (I can't decide which I like better, the color or B/W). What do you think?

The sky is universal. See other sky images from all over the world at SkyWatchFriday by clicking the badge below:

Flower power - part 2

2009-07-29T20:00:00.001-04:00

Day lillies

Flower power - part 1

2009-07-28T18:09:00.000-04:00

Echinacea

Relfections at the pier

2009-07-25T16:19:00.000-04:00

Still life

2009-07-22T18:43:00.000-04:00

The sky at the Wilds

2009-07-17T19:00:00.000-04:00

I have talked about the Wilds, an incredible conservation destination in southeast Ohio, a lot over on my other blog. I have visited there twice in the last year: most recently for a Birding by Ear camp, but I was also there last September for camp specifically for photographers. It was awesome, and I learned so much. Last year's photography camp was the very first one, and it was such a success, that they are doing it on two different weekends this fall. Barb and Jerry Jividen are the photography facilitators. They are a kind and knowledgeable couple when it comes to nature photography, and I guarantee you will be in for a treat if you participate in any of their workshops. The photo camp weekends at the Wilds this year are scheduled for September 25-27 and October 2-4. Registration is limited and pre-registration is required. Go to the Wilds website for more information.

Here's a very small sampling of the photos I got during last year's camp.

Sunrise at the Wilds

Storm brewing

Magical rainbow

Sunset safari

Rhino sunset

Thunder and flowers

2009-07-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

As storm clouds rolled in one recent evening, I decided to grab my camera and my polarizing filter to see if I could get any interesting shots. Here's what I came up with. Composition could use a lot of work, but I was somewhat limited in how I could put things together because I basically had hillside on either side of me here, so I had to hold the camera below the flower (instead of level with it) to get the sky in the shot.

The one on the left is the original; the one on the right had some tint adjustments made.

Original...

Crop, version 1

Crop, version 2

These 2 photos are shown exactly as they came out of the camera.

Flash was used on all of these photos. I tried to get a few without the flash, but it just wasn't possible.

Gad zukes! Project #2

2009-07-13T19:00:00.000-04:00

When I harvested zucchini the other day, the other thing I had in mind for it, besides the pickles, was to make a zuke pizza. Specifically modeled off of this recipe, which just happens to involve lemon juice (which is ingenious and delicious!) from my fave new food blog, Smitten Kitchen. I love the recipes on her blog, and I love, LOVE the photography on her blog.

I'm one of those people who buys cook books (and cooking magazines) more for the pictures than the recipes. I have a couple of cookbooks (mostly about bread) that have very little in the way of photos, so they have to inspire me in a different way. But good pictures of food... wow, I love it. The Smitten Kitchen site, in fact, turned me on to a blog called Still Life With, which is solely devoted to food photography and food styling. Absolutely crazy, but I love it.

So, my point in telling you all this is that these food blogs (and others) inspire my photography. As a result, sometimes I just have to bring my camera into the kitchen and record the moment... and then share it with you! And so I give you Zuke Pizza (mostly in monochrome, because that's the kind of mood I'm in).

Gad zukes! Project #1

2009-07-12T19:00:00.000-04:00

We have an over-abundance of zucchini in our garden this year. Already. In the middle of July. It's ridiculous. To deal with some of it, I made pickled zucchini. Here's a few snippets of the process...

slice, dice, salt

Boil up some brine and soak those zukes

Can it!

Jill and the bean

2009-07-09T20:27:00.000-04:00

Food foto

2009-07-07T17:22:00.001-04:00

Scones, anyone?

Welcome to Photography of the Hills

2009-07-05T10:45:00.001-04:00

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my new blog! While this is a companion to my nature blog, it will focus primarily on photos and photography.

As I mentioned over on my other blog, we will be heading off to Michigan for vacation soon. Here are some photos from previous trips up north. Enjoy!