Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 FE, developed in Affinity Photo

Monsoon season is such an amazing time of the year in the southwest. When I saw the sky morphing into a rainbow of colors, I dashed out into our yard to grab a shot of my favorite saguaro cactus against the vibrant background. So blessed by the dramatic skies and amazing nature here in the Sonoran Desert. Wishing everyone a wonderful 2024, Happy New Year! If you enjoy saguaros, here's one of his neighbors: flic.kr/p/2rp7cTF .

This rose is growing in a neighbor's yard in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. Taken with my iPhone 14 Pro Max set to raw and macro.

WC, Pa.

Hibiscus I don't remember where I saw this, but I think it was on a neighborhood street in someone's front garden in NYC.

Another photo from a walk at lunch. It seems that taking pictures of food or flowers has become my go to subjects when I'm running low on motivation or ideas for my Project 365.

Jordan Lake, North Carolina, USA

Cranesbill Big Root geranium(Geranium macrorrhizum), my garden

They threw me to the jungle came out wearing the animals

Compositionally Challenged

Week 26 Celebrate

Happy 10 Year Anniversary to this awesome group

Compositionally Challenged

flickr.com/groups/compositionallychallenged

and a BIG THANKS to the people creating, maintaining it and all the participants for making it such a unique, friendly and fun place! It's highly appreciated.

Shot with Carl Zeiss "Graphikon" lens on a Canon EOS R5.

The Bullock's oriole would have a hard time to conceal itself from anyone entering its space, the beautiful yellow/orange feathers unfold its beauty from a distance

The plant is called Speedwell, which is a hardy, upright perennial known for its long slender flower spikes. They are popular in floral arrangements and gardens for adding vertical contrast.

fall metropark leaves

On a morning walk / hike through one of the Eastern Sierras numerous aspen groves, I came across a group of young aspen trees taking root just beyond a much larger group of mature trees. In kind of a gesture by these mature trees, they seemed to say... "Look over here... these are our youngsters." And they seemed to say it in that "proud-parent-kind-of-way" ;)

A standout in the crowd at the Chilliwack Tulip Festival.

Rusty-margined Flycatcher [Myiozetetes cayanensis]

Canopy Camp

Darien Province, Panama

2159*

I grabbed this shot along my bike route near Lake Lowell.

A 200 foot tall tree stands out on the side of a volcano in Costa Rica...

The tree is nearly a mile from the camera, the background ends around 2 miles distant. This is what lots of humid air looks like...

Dahlia against monochrome background.

Thank you so much for your views, comments and faves! They are encouraging as I continue on my photographic journey.

There were several flowering trees visible from the path and around the lake. This struck me as an interesting scene with the green and white.

Magic On White

The Grand Teton appears through the clouds as seen from the west in Teton Valley, Idaho.

I found this wonderful tree with its stretching branch. via 500px ift.tt/2DC2r7T

On an overcast day, silhouetted against the distant trees this 600mm lens captured one rapeseed flower above the sea of subdued yellow ... enjoying its own light.

Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 FE. developed and stacked in Affinity

Mitakon 42.5mm f1.2 Manual Lens

Wide open this lens isn't as sharp as I would like it, but ah well, I prefer to make the most of the tool.

I wonder if this is how an ant see's the world. I loved the blue background.

I was shooting sunrise one morning and the fog rolled in on an adjacent mountain. As the fog swirled around, this guy stood out against the whiteness.

Early snow in the Wasatch Range with some fall color hanging on.

Another shot from my visit to Bloomberg’s new European Headquarters for Open House on Saturday 22nd September. Many buildings only have one standout area for photography. For this one there are 2 with the spiral stair in the upper atrium in the previous image and this location in the ground floor reception area. It is called the Vortex and is a twisted wood-panelled structure that is part hallway and part work of art. Its 3 leaning walls with no columns to support their weight are a structural first for a building this size. The passage to the left leads to lifts to the upper floors. There is a reflective silver ceiling which is part of an artwork by Olafur Eliasson.

Places were only available by pre-booking which I secured in August as soon as booking opened. The building was only opened in October 2017 so a first in Open House. The building was certainly the highlight of the weekend for me. As with all Open House buildings it is free to visit. Good impressions were added to as while we waited for our 45 minute tour to start free hot drinks, soft drinks and biscuits were provided. Also a 50 page booklet about the building was given out to keep. The Guide told us at the start that photos were allowed but not videos. Later when I started taking shots a security guard came up to me and asked what the Guide told me about photos, I told him and he muttered he was not sure about that and he would go and check with his supervisor. He didn’t bother me again. I have heard that the following day they changed policy to allow pictures only with mobile phones but later reverted to also allowing SLR’s. Certainly from a security perspective the distinction is no longer relevant with the quality of some Smartphones these days.

The picture was taken handheld. The image was taken with a Sony A68 with a Sigma 10-20 mm lens at 10mm. I took 3 shots for HDR processed in Photomatix using Tone Balancer for a natural look. . Then I used Topaz Clarity for more detail and Topaz DeNoise to correct a little noise. Unsharp mask with settings of 42 amount and 42 radius was used for more pop on the woodwork. A layer mask was used to remove the effect from highlights. At the top of the picture one of the moveable lights was pointed towards me creating flare. I got over that by cloning some of the light panels from the left to cover it. I wanted to avoid cropping to keep in the curves at the top.

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Lewes, DE

70020 was in charge of 6G65 Earles to Walsall loaded cement tanks. It's the first time I've seen the tangoed 70 and in the sun it was certainly standout....just south of Dronfield.

Lentille grand angle ReeFLEX GSeries wide angle lens