22 Nov 17 Having left the fisherman with his hake, who by the way contacted us today inviting us back to Vienna for a personal tour to see all we didn't see on a tourist visit, we climbed the hillside on the other side of the road encountering not only the vineyard but a lovely little farm community. A fence surrounding the vineyard was open and as there was a doggie pickup bag dispenser located very near it and the gate open, we assumed it would be O.K. to walk in the vineyard. As several others were soon to do the same as we doing I guess we were right. Our view from inside the vineyard wasn't nearly as spectacular as was the view from the boat, but compensation for the lesser view was a lovely stream with small waterfall, a nice statue, and some different views. This is obviously taken at one end of the vineyard and comprises only a small portion of the operation. In the URH corner you can see the beginning of the rapidly approaching storm. Less than 20 minutes after taking this shot we were in the downpour. But at this point in time we were playing with some beautiful light which gave the grape leaves the rich warm yellow color. As we didn't see a single grape on the vines I'm guessing harvest season preceded us by some weeks. As drenched as we got, the walk through the village, vineyard, and meeting the people made it all worthwhile! Straight out of the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/100 sec @ f / 7.1.

21 Nov 17 Today's submission is one of those that is displaying substantially darker on this mailbox than it did on the box I used to create it, so I've lightened it about a stop. Hopefully this won't result in you receiving a washed out image. Our first day in Vienna was a wet one on and off throughout the day but not enough rain to thoroughly dampen the outing. As we were being bused home we got caught in a traffic jam waiting for a long parade of military vehicles (think tanks and such) to pass in front of us about a block away. It was a National Holiday like our 4th of July and all kinds of "support" equipment was being paraded around the city. While we were waiting the rain provided us with a foretaste of what was to come. After dinner we had our (hopeful) weather forecast of better weather for the morrow. We awoke to better weather in that it wasn't actually raining at that time but the skies suggested that things might not stay that way for long. The majority of the folks went into the city for a morning tour but a still significant number elected to remain on board until the evening performance of the opera. About 5 of us hardy (foolhardy?) souls decided to go for a walk along the river and that's the walk I've been talking about in the last two images. Jan and I were so determined to find that one vineyard that we started out unprepared for what we were to encounter. This is a shot I took about a 50 meter walk from the boat and it should have shouted to us go back and get dressed for a storm, but the beautiful light was more of what I saw than the actual storm, so we didn't and blissfully went on our way enjoying the park, the walk, and the river. The shot of the fisherman I shared yesterday was the extent of the walk but at that point having found the vineyard we began walking at a 90 degree angle to the river and not only encountered the vineyard but a charming little village of which the vineyard was a part. Just about the time I finished photographing the vineyard and community - images of which remain to be shared - that sky became black, winds of perhaps 30 knots appeared, and we entered the heavy duty wash cycle. By the time we made it back to the boat all we were lacking was the soap and spin cycle; we were drenched to the bone. At that point we elected to dry out and enjoy the rest of the day on-board with a warm lunch, nap, and few more image captures from the protection of the lounge. This is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/800 sec @ f / 7.1.

17 Nov 17 Our first day visiting Vienna was our introduction to the pending storm and brought with it some more of the rain we had experienced throughout the majority of our visit in Praha. The arrival earlier in the morning had given us our first and only glimpse of a vineyard and it was in stunning full color, albeit yellow. I really wanted to photograph it as we approached our mooring site but we were in attendance of a lecture discussing the concert we were supposed to hear in Vienna that afternoon and didn't - the performers changed what they presented from what they were supposed to present - and I didn't want to disrupt the lecture so I just politely sat in my seat and watched as we passed by the vineyard. So the following day, our second for visiting Vienna and the evening for the opera, we stayed behind for the morning visit to the city and elected instead to walk along the north bank of the Danube hoping to find the vineyard, which we eventually did. Pictures of that to come later. As we were walking along the path paralleling the river, and not very distant from the boat, we noticed several areas which a couple of weeks earlier would have been spectacular, but were now pretty much spent color-wise. However, the leaves remaining on the trees held enough color to remind you of what they would have looked like at their peak. Knowing that, I've elected to "restore" the color that would have been present and that which I had hoped to see all along. Directly below the bottom of the image is the main highway, then a barrier between the road and the park in which we were walking and immediately to our backs, as we were facing the hillside to take this shot, is the Danube. From river to hillside is perhaps 150 feet max. Nice and cozy and a lovely location for a walk, a play date for the preschoolers in the little kiddie park, or just a romantic rest on a bench. I took the base image as it was and just boosted each individual color that was in the original capture. That's it. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/100 sec @ f /10.

22 Aug 17 Hope you all had a great eclipse viewing today; we had a clear day with c94% coverage. It was fun to watch and we did it with a group of folks, mostly kids, just down the street. No pictures to share, but by now you've likely seen dozens of beautiful images from multiple sources. It was interesting to note the drop in temperature during the eclipse. I wasn't expecting that. As I've written many times before, we get some significant low tides twice yearly, June and December. Some years they are really low, -4 and lower, some years not quite that spectacular. It varies from year to year. Location plays a role also as the slope of the shoreline contributes to the effect of the lowered water level. About a 90 minute drive from our abode, west of Pt Angeles, one finds Salt Creek State Park, and associated with the park is Salt Creek Beach. It's a reasonably steep walk from the parking area down to the beach itself, and when you reach it you are primarily walking over rocks and not a sandy beach. It is a haven for marine life and the entire beach, of which there really isn't any, is the perfect example of the Pacific Coast inter-tidal zone. On the June tide we visited, a -2.3 tide, the weather was perfect and the water level such that we were able to fully appreciate all the algal forms living in that location. This is a shot giving you a good perspective of the "beach" and with Jan in the photo for comparative size, you get a sense of what we experienced. The top of the brown area on the left of the shot is approximately where high tide covers the algae with the remaining algae being nourished by the splash of the waves against the bank. If you live in our area and haven't visited Salt Creek Beach during a June low tide definitely put it on your bucket list. The is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/800 sec @ f / 8.

18 Apr 17 Well, I finally broke down and entered a photo contest today submitting 4 of my creative flowers to a nursery in Port Orchard, The Brothers Nursery. If nothing else, I'll be published as the nursery puts all the submission into a book which it then sells for a profit. Return to the photographer: exposure. But it will be fun to see how well these creative images fare with all the other standard types. While there I grabbed a few flower shots some of which I'll be sharing later on. Today's submission is a shot of how things will be looking for us in just a couple of weeks. This is a typical May morning in the Hebgen Lake area of MT and although this view is at the other end of our loop road, that same thing will be happening in the side and back grassy areas of the condo. This is something I never tire of seeing and I could just sit and watch them for hours on end. Twenty-two days and counting. While I was working on this image Jan came upstairs with iPad in hand showing me a posting on Facebook from her cousin in N Dakota showing a photo of a condo with a mountain view she found on the web saying she really liked the website. Surprise, the picture is of our condo, but she had no idea about it!! Now what's the chance of that happening? Sorta gave us a chuckle. I cropped the base image a tiny bit, and than applied a filter called Oil Glaze by a friend of mine, Blake Rudis, which is part of the filter set in Topaz's Impression 2, and then used the darken blend mode to achieve the final look. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 8.

08 Jun 16. For today's submission I'm sharing something entirely new in that this shot is directly from the camera with no adjustments, not even the ones I always add. This is a shot taken one morning in early April as we were escorting her majesty on her morning walk. I took shots in both directions down and back and noticed when I was reviewing them that the two sets of images looked different. As I initially looked at these I was convinced that the camera had captured some form of anomaly and so elected to not do any kind of manipulation to the image. The more I looked at it the more I thought it very strange and proceeded to do the narrative based on that concept. After I had completed it and had Jan read it, her comment was that she didn't see what I thought was there and suggested that what I was seeing was the result of branches covering portions of tree trunks. I thought she was missing something in her viewing but when she pointed out how she was seeing it I realized that her interpretation was the correct one. Thar sorta blew my story but in the long run her interpretation makes the image even more interesting. The area that had me confused is the repetitive white column directly above fence post number two from the right. I was seeing it as some form of anomaly as a repetitive stacking of the fence post while she correctly saw it as a white tree trunk intermittently blocked by evergreen boughs. Two witnesses observe the same happening; two different interpretations of what occurred. Happened all the time when I was doing aviation mishap investigations. Guess this was no different. This is the base image, period. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 6.3.

27 May 16. Today's close-up is likely one of those images that speaks for itself. I took this shot of a baby Canada Goose in Lake Whetstone the spring of our departure in 2006 from both the community and the navy. We always enjoyed watching these little critters swimming between an adult pair, and I use that term as considering the number of goslings we used to see with one pair of adults we are both certain that the adults took turns baby (gosling) sitting. This little one was looking a bit forlorn and was by itself when I took the shot. We watched it for a while - Jan of course wanting to catch it to save it - but with time it was reunited with a larger group and paddled happily away with the others. This is a straight shot but with some cropping. Nikon D70; 70 - 300; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 9.

21 Apr 16. It being Theatrical Thursday you know anything goes! After filing taxes on Monday we spent a little time walking around Port Orchard looking for things to shoot that I thought might be interesting. I really wanted to walk the piers shooting reflections like I used to do in Ballard at Fisherman's Terminal, but the folks over on this side are apparently a bit more snooty and wouldn't allow us out on the finger piers, so I just shot a couple items I thought might be useful later. As it turned out one was just the ticket for today's submission. Now, I don't know how your mailboxes work, but mine frequently gets these mailings containing lot of pictures of old things with catchy titles suggesting there might be something wrong with you if you can't identify them. Generally the lists or series of pictures are of things from the 40s or 50s, occasionally the 60s. I'll admit that one or two of them are fun, but after a while, well, you understand . . . . . . But . . . . . considering which day it is, I just couldn't help myself and had to make up such a list to share with you, only difference is, it contains just one item. Now you have to tell me what it is. I'll provide the answer but you have to guess before looking. The base image was straightened some, cropped, and then I applied a filter to it twice, each time creating a different effect, then layered the two and blending them together with the multiply blend mode feature. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f /14. Answer: cell phone

18 Dec 15. Unlike last year's fall when spider webs were literally everywhere, this year they were relatively few and far between. On all of our daily walks I found acceptable webs on perhaps three outings. This one taken in late October was my favorite of all of them and even though the subject is basically dead center, I thought it worth sharing. Besides, I LOVE to break all the rules. I had Jan make the choice of which version to share and she selected this one. It is obviously manipulated but not so much so that it looks unreal. My goal in this manipulation was to make it look as though it was either a) shot through a plane of glass or b) in the form of a stained glass window. However, without the leading normally found in a stained glass window option "b" would be more of a stretch than option "a." This spider had fashioned her web between parallel layers of fencing, electric fencing to boot, so I was thinking that what she had in mind was a two pronged attack. If the sticky didn't get them, the "juice" would. We promptly elected not to test the juice theory and also decided to forgo the sticky test as I wanted the web to remain intact. Besides, by not messing with the web we would be leaving it for others to enjoy as well as not interrupting the meal planing of the spider. The base image was adjusted for max tonality, given a tiny amount of micro contrast adjustment, and then I applied a creative plug-in against it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/200 sec @ f / 6.3.

27 Nov 15. Welcome to the day when we all line up to buy more stuff after having celebrated the day before for all we have. Guess we'll never learn. The last few mornings when it hasn't been raining have been rather frosty and depending on when we take the queen out for her walk we get to see either frosty foliage or results of same. This is a shot of what the frost looks like after it melts leaving the leaves with a few droplets of moisture. Several days this week have provided for ample opportunity and I'll share a few of the shots as the week progresses. I've added a tiny amount of enhancement to this shot to really bring out the water droplets but otherwise it is a straight shot. The base image was first adjusted for max tonality, then given a small amount of micro contrast adjustment. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1 / 60 sec @ f / 5.6.

02 Mar 15. Picking up where we left off with the initial presentation of the birches, we travel back in time to an earlier hour where we were visiting in Brinnon, WA wherein resides one of our favorite nurseries. Close to it, walking distance in fact, is the local visitors center. We generally stop in to see what these local store houses of information have to offer and on this particular day Jan noticed on the bulletin board a photo of a rather nice waterfall. We inquired as to how far away it was and the directions as well. Just about 3 miles distant up a incline we found the location of the falls which, sans the info we received at the visitors center, we would have likely never found since there is absolutely nothing to give the location away let alone a parking lot. But we did locate it and made our way up the approximate 6 block trail as directed. BIG surprise, it wasn't even a 2 block walk, and the entire walk was absolutely beautiful. While the falls is not huge, you can walk right to the base of it from which vantage point it seems quite large, that is, IF you don't mind your equipment getting a bit damp! As the water spills over the rocks it creates its own rainfall, and even at a decent distance the lens was being pelted with water. No mater, there are ways around that little problem, and even if there weren't any, the trip is well worth it! This is the first of a few shots from the shoot that I'll be sharing. To get this particular view you have to walk off the trail and out into the rocks and water at the base of the falls. On the day of our visit there was a fair amount of water spilling over the top, but "our" host at the visitor center suggested we come again after a heavy rain to really appreciate it. I do believe we shall do just that. The base image was adjusted for max tonality, given a couple of curves adjustments with masking to even out the exposure, then masked for painting in a blue sky to remove the ugly gray that we had that day, and then given a tiny bit of contrast adjustment. Finally I ran it through a filter to give it some dynamic contrast. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/100 sec @ f / 8 on a tripod.

10 Feb 15. One generally does not use the format of B&W to show off botany images, but I think that the removal of color from an image forces the viewer to take a more careful look at the subject and as a result get a better feel for what is being showcased. This is a very busy composition, but I'm hoping that the brighter fern in front is what pulls your eye into the image and, for the most part, holds it there. I'm also betting that the monochrome presentation causes you to spend more time looking at the detail and not just glancing quickly at it because one fern looks just like the next. That is as true of ferns as it is of snowflakes, albeit there is greater difference in the snowflakes. This is a roadside shot, the ferns being part of the shoulder vegetation along the edge of our county road. As it was shot in the winter time (Feb) the original is composed primarily of browns vice greens, but I'll bet that if you looked at it first, and then came back to read this, you were thinking that they were green. The base image this time was not altered for max tonal range, was just converted into B&W with a plug-in, and saved out. Nothing more was done to it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/300 sec @ f / 5.6.

02 Jan 14. Welcome to 2014 and the start of year 9 of the Daily Image. Here's hoping that all your teams won, that you didn't party too much last night, and unlike in our neck of the woods, if there were fireworks that you were able to clearly see them. The day after Christmas I took a couple of guests down to the Point-No-Point Lighthouse and the neighboring nature reserve. Lining the path that traverses the reserve is a plant that has, in the winter, some very nice berries on some very prickly branches. While I'm sure Br'er Rabbit would find the bushes conducive to travel, most humans would likely not. But it is very photogenic and I found that I was having a good time trying to capture something a bit different from what I would normally shoot. After critically looking over what I got, I elected to go with one particular image and adjust the colors to a pleasing set of soft reds and then further adjusting the entire image to give it a fog like appearance. Not exactly a big stretch considering our weather these past few days. I placed a small border around it with a color selected from within the color set of the image but if you find that distracting simply make a small crop of about 5 pixels and it will go away. Obviously a creative image to start the year but it is Thursday so right on schedule. Think I'll dedicate Friday's to macro, so perhaps another from this walk but one likely concentrating on just a berry or two. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 9.

14 Nov 13. Not having any animals to photograph that first morning due to the "biker congestion", we pulled over into an area alongside the river that was teeming in tall grasses and reeds. As it was still relatively early in the morning, the sun was still low, and back lighting a lot of the land. Not being able to ignore such beautiful lighting, I walked over the small embankment and set out to try and capture some of the back lit material. In doing so I shortly found myself walking along trails obviously currently being used by bison based on material splatter along the way. It was as close to bison as we were to get that day in the western part of the park, but as I had the light to entertain me, it made no matter. I spent probably 20 minutes playing with the light pitting it against the various botanical offerings, among which were many areas thick in reed like plants. The result of having the plants strongly back lit was to turn them into a multitude of yellow like hues, from brown to gold. It being Theatrical Thursday, I've elected to make the first capture of this lovely morning walk a creative one, with stunning color, lacking only a large mammal of your choice. So let your imagination put the one you want somewhere in the frame browsing on the various plants. Nikon D30s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f /6.3.

05 Jul 13. Eglon Road is a very short run traversing barely 1.5 miles in total. The first mile travels east off of Hansville Road and makes a 90 degree turn heading south at what was known at one time as Johanson's corner. It then travels less than a half mile before once again turning east and having a name change. It is a bit unique in that for almost its entire length it divides land that has been used for farming since it was built. While there is farming activities along the neighboring and adjoining roads, none have the farm density as does Eglon Road. At the 90 degree bend was my grandparents home which now is occupied by a family that seems to be either raising or boarding horses. At the end where it changes name resides the farm you are viewing today, still owned by members of the original family that homesteaded here at the turn of the last century. Assuming that the smoke from all the fireworks last night has blown somewhere else, this is the view you should be able to see today. It is still used for raising beef, and if you look closely you will see a lone beast a bit right of dead center in the image, its meadow mates somewhere off up in the trees. I've done a small amount of cloud enhancement to this shot but otherwise straight out of the camera. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; 1/640 sec @ f/10.

24 Jun 13. Something very simple for today but in my eyes very elegant. Walking along the road from our home to the beach we pass through what would have been underbrush before a section was chopped out to make the road. As such, the sides of the road are rich in vegetation, much of it fruit producing and protected by stickers! The fruit comes in yellow, orange, and red colors, but the plants producing the fruit are all green, and many hues of it. If you look very closely at the leaves you will notice that there are occasional portions of the leaf where the sugar manufacturing engine is not functioning, and you get a hint of how the leaves will look come Autumn. If you tease that color a bit with software you can create a rather lovely representation of how things will look come October, or thereabouts. To accomplish this I first cropped and cloned out any element not necessary for the final image on a dupe layer, then added a clarity layer to enhance the fine texture, and finally did a hue adjustment for the hues yellow, orange, and green to accentuate the color that was lurking underneath the green. All simple and easy adjustments. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 7.1.

21 Feb 13. With the apparent success of B&W Tuesdays, I'm thinking of dedicating Thursdays to creative images. That would force me to work in the two areas and try to improve that type of work. We'll go with a creative image for this Thursday, one of some ferns that grow alongside our road. Now ferns are really a wonderful plant to work with as they offer so many different views from the initial unfurling, to the fully mature plant, followed by the beautiful change of color in the fall. This shot was of the ferns in frost, and I worked on it from several different approaches, those of pattern, color, and design. The choice for today was that of design, and I made several different versions of the design aspect. My final choice was to select one that emphasized the frost which is represented by the color white sans any texture. Where the image is more of a copperish tone are areas where the frost had already melted. Might make for either a good puzzle or wall paper pattern. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 5.6.

11 Feb 13. All of the homes along our street are set back a considerable distance from the road, some quite so. But no matter how far back they are set, they have in common a drive way that leads to them, some of gravel, some of dirt, and some landscaped by nature that are truly beautiful. A few doors to our south there is a drive way that has to be the winner for beauty, with two sides and a center of moss and two "maintained" paths separating them that serve as the place for the vehicular contact. It is of course all in green, many shades of green, and when I took the picture it was that which I had planned on sharing. But while I was working on the image it felt as though there was more to tell, and so I began playing with it to see if I could tease out that additional information. After trying several different color approaches, it struck me that it might want to tell its story in B&W, so I converted it to that and really liked it, but it still wanted to say more. So I tried working with it using a couple of my favorite filters, and then I realized what was needed. The landscape I was viewing is the product of eons of buildup of foliage that has been provided by the trees, so why not attempt to represent that aspect of the forest scene I was experiencing on a daily basis. When I did I finally was able to produce, at least in my mind, what I thought the scene was trying to tell me. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/30 sec @ f / 5.6 hand held.

26 Jun 12. First, a couple of corrections, normally found buried on some page in the paper you never read. I inadvertently left off a most important word in my story about the sun dial yesterday; the word "local" should have preceded Granddaughters. We enjoy three such, two in WA and one in MD. Had my mind on the story and wasn't thinking thoroughly. Several weeks back I promised to share an image of a white Christmas Cactus, and working on the sun room all day it brought to mind that promise. Tomorrow should see the sun room almost finished, at least sufficiently so that Jan will be able to move all her plants into it and get them situated, as well as reclaim the dining room where they have been hanging out for the past couple of weeks. With glass on three sides and access to it on the forth, there will be ample opportunity for the plants to enjoy the light and us the plants. This particular shot was taken at the Ballard house in the glassed in entry way area where all the plants seemed to flourish. Now they have about 20x as much space to spread out and show their stuff. If they are like us, they will not only enjoy the area but the view which is now providing us with wildlife on a somewhat frequent basis. This last several days we have enjoyed the visit of a Black Tail doe on several occasions, a fawn strolling along the street side of the property, and, while we haven't seen for ourselves, our immediate neighbor has reported two Black Bear sightings within the week. We are anxiously awaiting a visit from one or both bears, hopefully soon. The image of the cactus blossom was taken hand held with fill flash; I've left in the grain (noise) to help reveal the texture of the flower which would be lost if I removed it. That would make for a showier flower, but you would loose the detail in the petals that are part of what make this particular flower so beautiful. As I've mentioned prior, my paternal Grandmother grew these in her flower room, and it is from her that I believe I gained my love of this particular plant. Jan now has replaced my Grandmother as the preeminent grower of Christmas Cacti. ISO 200; 1/60 sec with fill flash @ f / 9.

07 Jun 12. The winter of 2010-11, such as it was, and that was mainly one of rain, devastated the lavender plants all over western WA, and that included the majority of ours as well as roughly, my estimate, 20% of those in Sequim, the home of the Lavender Festival which we attend annually. When we visited the fields last year for the festivities, I was amazed at how much empty land I saw where previously there had been only green and lavender. But that emptiness paled in comparison to how our yard looked. I couldn't understand the degree of loss we had experienced until one of the growers explained that it was do to the soil not sufficiently draining, as lavender liked VERY dry roots. So when one nice growth appeared in the front of the Ballard house earlier this spring, I was delighted. Hopefully, several more plants that we thought we had lost will also make a comeback. We'll just have to wait and see. Having that one plant showing so well I opted to try and get at least a portion of it to show, and after a few trial and error shots, got this one which I like. The image captures the flower in a somewhat earlier stage than any I've both taken and/or shared prior. It wasn't until I began working on the shot that I realized it was quite different. So here you have a young flower without any insect activity to distract form the plant itself. Almost straight from the camera; I've cropped it a very wee bit. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 7.1.

15 May 12. The image for today has been submitted for competition so I'll be curious as to how it fares. Pressing my luck and going with two more poppy images this week, the one for tonight and likely the last image this Friday before we move, but that one will be blue. I believe I submitted a blue poppy once prior, but that was one I created employing color replacement tools using a digital editor. On my top 10 favorite flower list resides the blue poppy, a flower that is hard to find and even harder to grow. Two members of this list, both local, advised me today of where I can go find and shoot them this week, so a break in our packing schedule will have to occur so I can take advantage of the opportunity to both shoot them and share with you. The site has limited hours, none of which are during the times I would like to be shooting these delicate flowers, so between then and now I have to decide the time of the shoot. If I can locate a phone number for the location I'll likely call for advice on what the best time of day would be which undoubtedly will be affected by how the sunlight hits the location. do stand by. Meanwhile, the three days of shooting the local group of CA Poppies was both fun and a challenge, the challenge primarily being courtesy of the wind. The lighting however was fantastic, plenty of it, and coming from behind to provide for some dramatic back lighting, my favorite as most of you are aware. This image obviously enjoys that type of lighting, and it helps greatly to convey the absolutely lovely orange colors of the CA Poppy. The shot probably suffers a bit from the two diagonally departing stalks in the two bottom corners, but it was not of sufficient concern for me to remove them. Other than some cropping and a small curves adjustment for added contrast, this is basically what the camera saw. ISO 200; 1/250th sec @ f / 7.1

12 May 12. About 10 minutes after sending out the image for Friday, I received a return email from a friend and fellow photographer on the East Coast saying that she liked my shot better than the one on the cover of the June issue of Outdoor Photographer. As I hadn't yet seen that issue due to total mess of packing up the abode, I asked Jan if she had seen it and she said its near the couch, so I went looking and found it. Sure enough, the two images were very similar. Now OP does a very nice job of crediting the photographers whose work they feature, and for the cover photos there is a regular column talking about the photo. The OP cover photo of poppies was taken in Antelope Valley, CA, and there was a discussion about getting to Antelope Valley CA. Poppy Reserve and the trials and tribulations of getting the poppy image in that location. As I was reading the complete article I couldn't help but think how often it is that we travel, in some cases, all over the world, to get what is literally right under our noses, or feet, in this case. If we would just stop for a moment and observe what is around us we might find our photographic lives far more satisfying. Of course, taking a shot, as I did, of some flowers growing in what is no more than a small patch of dirt against a stone embankment can't possibly compete with the grandeur of Antelope Valley, but if all one is looking to do is a macro shot, and I'm not putting down macro work by any means, you don't have to travel very far to get the shot. My location was walking distance from our house; I visited it again today, and will likely do so again tomorrow because it is fun to have the chance to photograph something so photogenic so easily. As the patch is situated for perfect evening back lit shots, it is the perfect way to begin the evening. I'm sharing with you tonight the shot from the first shoot that is Jan's favorite of that series. It is very different from both my Friday submission and the OP cover shot, but you may appreciate it equally for the differences between the two. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

11 May 12. Returning home Wednesday evening I noticed a grouping of California poppies alongside the road not far from the house. I told myself that if Thursday's lighting was good, I needed to take a few minutes out of the day and do a little work with them. Since Thursday was to be a day off from the project, to catch up on the plethora of things not being attended to with all the cross county work, it seemed like the perfect plan, and it was. My original thoughts were that I would tackle the project in the evening light, but returning from an errand in the early afternoon turned out to be about as good as I could ask for, so I took about 10 minutes out of the day to see what I could do with a long but narrow stretch of sidewalk bulkhead flowers. After transferring the shoot to the computer, I found I was pleasantly surprised at how well the material presented and elected to work up several different versions of the poppies. This is a straight shot save for some critical cropping - to get the effect I wanted - with the exception of one spent blossom which I toyed with removing but in the end didn't. I'm thinking however that I may well remove it in another effort to see if I prefer the difference. You might also want to try playing with the image by removing that one spire to see if you like it better. The purists in the photographic world would definitely want it removed, but I have mixed feeling about it. In once sense it is a bit distracting, sticking up all alone like it is, but in another it provides for added perspective of the entire garden. So I leave it up to you as to which you would prefer and imagine that at least one of you will send me your preferred rendition. ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f /10. As things are turning out, I will likely be signing off at the conclusion of next Fridays' mailing (18 May 12). I expect it will be between 10 days to 2 weeks of downtime and then back on-line.