25 Jul 13. As part of our Lavender Festival exercise we concluded our day with a drive up to Deer Park. Having been told that it was a lovely sight to see, and that there were large numbers of deer to see and even feed from your hand, we thought it would be the fitting end to the day. Little did we realize at the start of the drive that the final portion of the approach would be 8 miles of very bad and twisty road. When we finally got to the top we located a single deer, who refused to even turn around and look at us, and some very limited, but majestic nonetheless scenery. During an earlier portion of the drive we had seen13 deer reasonably close up, so this one critter didn't make up for the long drive. As difficult as the drive up was, it was nothing in comparison to the downhill return portion which we did with a horribly dusty windscreen and and evening sunlight glaring off it. I had to stop the vehicle several times as the glare completely blinded my vision and I had no idea where I was on that 1.5 lane road. Had we not had the cherubs, I do believe I would have stopped several other times to shoot the absolutely beautiful back lit alpine flowers, but with them in the car I wasn't comfortable so doing. Just prior to starting our return portion of the trip Jan spotted a clump of Sitka valeriana which appeared as though being highlighted by Super Troupers so intense was the back lighting. I took several shots but didn't really like what I got well enough to share straight from the camera, so I manipulated my favorite of the set and converted it to a water color which I do like quite a lot. So, to achieve what I have, I cropped the original to isolate just one triad of the flowers, added a small amount of detail enhancement, and and adjusted the overall contrast to recover a small amount of detail in the strongest portions of the back lit stalks. That was then converted to get the water color look. D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 9.
26 Jul 13. Something totally different for today's submission in that it is provided for you to make up your own story. Two seagulls; one sitting on a rock, part of the sea wall,, and the other in flight approaching it. There are several stories that I could come up with, a couple of which might be that they are parent and chick and it's feeding time, or that one is defending "its" rock from the other. But that is just a starting point. So you have a little fun and write your version for today. I've cropped the original a bit, and added some very slight structure enhancement to the feathers, but that's it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/2000 sec @ f / 7.1
29 Jul 13. With a weekend of lovely weather, and lots of activities going on in the greater community, it was a perfect setting for taking advantage of some of the flora offerings. We visited one arts and crafts fair which I'll write about later in the week and followed that up with a visit to one of our two favorite nurseries, one close enough that we could walk if we were certain we wouldn't be purchasing something, an experience we've yet to encounter. Not having time to work over any of the weekend stuff, this shot is from a couple weeks back taken in the same garden where I shot the humming bird. This little gal was hard at work and spent the better part of a full minute working over this particular daisy. Not sure what this blossom offered over the others, but she was intent on going over it several times before moving on to another flower. This shot could be cropped a bit tighter if you like, but my intent was to showcase both the entirety of the flower as well as the bee. I've added just a small amount of structure enhancement in addition to the cropping, otherwise, it is pretty much as the camera captured it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1250 sec @ f / 7.1.
