View from Lake Josephine. Glacier National Park, Montana.

Near Oxbow Bend, Snake River, Teton National Park, Wyoming.

The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" on the 9th of December is "Christmas decoration in black and white". What a perfect theme to have, because I had to look no further than my craft basket for inspiration.

This Christmas bauble was hand beaded with sequins and pins by me. I have a Christmas tradition. I bead Christmas baubles for a select group of friends every year and give them as gifts. I take several photos of each one on my tree before I wrap them up, so that I have a visual record of what I have given to whom. This one has already winged its way half way across the world and arrived at its destination, where I hope it is now hanging with its counterparts on my friend’s Christmas tree.

I decided to use this shot for today's theme because without the distraction of colour, you will notice that my baubles feature different kinds of sequins: in this case, round one, stars and flowers. I know flowers are not necessarily something one associates with Christmas, however these are not ordinary Christmas baubles, even if I do say so myself. Each one takes between two and three hours to make, depending upon the complexity of the pattern. I do hope that you like my choice for the theme and that it makes you smile.

Black and White Studies

I like to create Black and White images where I can. These are just a few that have been taken lately, chosen at random, no general theme, just as they come.

Last year I bought a Nikon D300 with only 8400k shutter releases, I wanted a pro body for my Laowa macro lens. Because my Nikon D5300 doesn't recognize my fully manual lens, I'm not saying I can't use it but issue I have with it is that 1 I can't use my external flash and 2 it doesn't recognize my lens there fore I need to use the histogram and the Lcd screen to get a feedback of how the picture is exposed... but after a while I got used to it. But in a pro body ( like the D300 ) I don't have these issues because it recognises the manual aperture ( the lens mount is for nikon f mount ) and can get a somewhat good exposure feedback. As for the sensor... the d5300 sensor is better than the d300 but.... to be honest I don't really care, If I want more dynamic range I'd put the camera on a tripod and do HDR pics. Although the main reason I like the D300 more than the d5300 is because it has 12 mpx ( ironically ) because I want to perfectionate my stacking photography technique and 24mpx vs 12mpx.... It kills my pc with 50 picture stack my pc freezes and I got 16GB of ddr4 ram, It show me that it needs 20+ ram for 50 pics ( 12 mpx )... so that is why I use a 12 mpx sensor. Now.... I bought two lenses the sigma 70-200 f2.8 and the sigma 24-70 f2.8 ( the D300 and these two lenses was my childhood dream setup ).

The issues :

pfff the 70-200 f2.8 works good my D300, mostly getting the focus ok..... but sometimes it doesn't.... But I am used to focus manually ( I got used to it while doing macro pics.. again, my macro lens is fully manually )

The autofocus DOEN'T WORK ON THE D5300.... I mean I don't understand the logic why...

The 24-70 f2.8 on the d300... well it has autofocus, but I don't really know if I have a issue with lens of it is in conflict with the D300 but... it hunts allot and doesn't get the focus right ( if it even gets the focus right ) and for that reason I use it on manual focus ( the barrel distortion is terrible at 24mm (34 in aps-c)

The autofocus DOEN'T WORK ON THE D5300.... Again I don't understand the logic why...

So mostly I manually focus my shots, and in these scene I just did that. And I missed, The scene was beautiful but I missed the focus... oh well. But in every bad thing there is a good. and I imagine this pic as more a painterly-photo rather than.... well it is what it is the scene was beautiful. I must do it again someday. Thanks for the visit and have a nice day 😊

smile on saturday

selective colour

Waterton Lakes National Park (Canada).

On the way from Yellowstone National Park to Teton National Park.

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Rio Tapajós

FRANCE 2018

This year we took another wonderful trip to France. We went to Wimereaux, Ambleteuse, Boulogne-sur Mer, Le Touquet to name but a few of the places we visited. We had great food, weather and met great people. As usual I took a few photos.

Here are a few of them………..

Ireland

We have had three trips to Ireland, 2015, 2017 & 2018. There are lots of breath-taking views along the way, good company, good food and yes, good weather. It has always been very enjoyable. Here are the second of many posting. Combining and comparing colour and black and white photography.

"Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality."

-Emily Dickinson

The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" for the 7th of July is "eyes (selective colour)". The theme for the group for the 16th of June was "spices and condiments", and I used some star anise and cinnamon sticks that I had photographed after a friend gave them to me to use. Whilst I do use both these spices in cooking, I was actually struck by the wonderful shape of the star anise that she gave me, so I decided to photograph them before putting them away. When I saw one star anise in particular in the box, I immediately thought how like a large beauty patch it looked. I had to ruminate this idea for a while. I took a few rather uninspiring images using a star anise as a beauty patch on my own face, and then I thought of a Pierrot with a tear on his cheek, and I thought I might be able to do the same using my illusive model, who has featured in some of my photos before. When I was processing the photo, I decided to make it selective colour, highlighting my model’s eye and the star anise, never imagining that I would be able to use it for a photography theme in the future. I know this is perhaps a more unusual take on this week’s theme, but I do hope you like it, and that it makes you smile.

Ireland

We have had three trips to Ireland, 2015, 2017 & 2018. There are lots of breath-taking views along the way, good company, good food and yes, good weather. It has always been very enjoyable. Here are the second of many posting. Combining and comparing colour and black and white photography.

Group of trees on the hillside of the Hoad in Ulverston, sunshie behind against dark looming rainclouds.

Black and White Studies – An Alternative Point of View

I like to create Black and White images where I can. These are just a few that were whilst in Rome 2015. I’ve taken them from a above street level and used the shadow as my focal point. Some are upside down and some aren’t, it depends on how you view life.

Views from the Piazza del Popolo.

la nature s'emballe, neige, pluie, grésil...vivement le printemps!

Miscellaneous Images

This collection of images is as it states, miscellaneous random items. Using Photoshop Elements 11 I have changed all of these original images. This is the first series …………… more to follow.

Looking across Lake Sherburne in Glacier National Park.

The theme for “Looking Close on Friday” for the 21st of January is “bubbles”. And what could be more deliciously fabulous than deliciously crisp French champagne in a champagne coupe? The champagne used for this photo was Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve from France, and the glass is a fine 1920s crystal champagne coupe, one of a pair, given to my partner and I as a gift by friends on our anniversary. I do hope that you like my choice, and that this photograph makes you smile! Cheers!

USA 2016

We went to USA in September 2016. These next set of images are from just a few of the places that we visited. It is a fantastic place to explore. These images are from Boston and other places and represent a few of the buildings and architectural features that were photographed at the time. Only one problem, you’re never there long enough so much to see and experience.

This is the third of a number of postings.

It depends of kind of organism you are...trees could be a whole universe, a toothpick or a toilet paper.

Black and White Studies

I like to create Black and White images where I can. These are just a few that have been taken lately, chosen at random, no general theme, just as they come.

Santarém(PA)

Sepia, Black and White Photography

This is the start of yet another series of images. I’m becoming more and more a fan of monochrome photography. The posting are any subject, from anywhere in the world. Many more to follow………

Belém(PA)

View to the south from the top of Elberta Bluffs (Michigan) looking toward Arcadia and Onekama. A mixture of sun rays and light rain on the horizon.

View from near Paradise Point, Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park.

A Heidelberg 6 Colour Press.