28 May 13. Combining monochrome with creative aspects is how I achieved the image for today. This was nothing more than a bunch of grass growing near the edge of Buck Lake, a small lake a few minutes from our home. The grass caught my eye do to its appearance of a normal distribution curve as well as its coloration. I played with it for a while and wound up with a fairly nice image, which I also thought would look O.K. in B&W, and it did. Then I figured why not go for broke and see what it might look like with a little fuss'n. And what you see is how it eventually turned out. Of the three versions I actually like this one best, and so I'm sharing it with you. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/125 sec @ f / 8.
29 May 13. Setting out to shoot some low tide stuff at Scenic Beach State Park in the Silverdale area of WA, we encountered not only a lot of fun stuff on the beach, but a nice grouping of wild Rhododendron, WA State's claimed flower. While you can now get over 1200 different varieties of the plant, thanks to careful genetic engineering, courtesy of Mendel, I still prefer the color of the wild plant over all of the newer colors/color combinations. This plant was in the playground area of the park, and was showing the effects of the frequent rain showers we were experiencing. One lonely pollinator was doing her best to try and get some food from the damp environment. The bee was a bit too dark in the original, so I've selectively lightened her to better balance the image. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/200 sec @ f /8.
30 May 13. Over the weekend with the extreme low tides and the cherubs visiting, we took several trips down to the beaches to see what we might encounter. After 3 such excursions, they had had enough, and declined to see any more. On our first trip to a beach just 1.1 miles from our house, walking distance actually, we roamed a fair amount of beach looking at what was available, only to "discover" that the best part of the low tide was a small pond up at the shore edge that they found to be of far greater interest than anything on the beach. As I was sitting on a log watching them play, I absentmindedly tossed a rock into the pond and watched as it made a nice splash. I then had the cherubs toss rocks into the pond as I tried to capture the splash. I got a few I liked, and this one reminded me of a fish jumping out of the water to take a fly, a real one in my thinking, but for you fishermen, it could just as well be one on the end of a line. After getting the image to look as I desired, I altered it to take on a water color-like appearance. The technique is called under painting which I imagine means that something is first laid down on the paper prior to the actual watercolors being applied. Or at least that sounds good. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 9.
