In My Garden Today

"We Can Work It Out"

 "We Can Work It Out"

Try to see it my way
Do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on?
While you see it your way
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone.

Pond Queen

POND QUEEN

The Watchman - Zion National Park

The Watchman

By the time I arrived at this very popular location for landscape photography in Zion National Park, it was dark.  Usually the bridge where this view is seen is packed with photographers and their tripods, as well as a second group waiting for their turn to photograph this iconic scene.  When I arrived, the last photographer was packing up his gear.  It had been a beautiful sunset, and I had missed it.  I sat in my car wondering if I could make it back here while the trees were still adorned with the beautiful, bright green leaves of spring. I didn't know when that would be, so I got out of my car, and decided to shoot a couple of images anyway.  The good news was that I had my pick of anywhere on the bridge to stand as I was the only one there.  The bad news was that it was dark and I couldn't see where I was going or what I was doing.  I knew that to capture any of the remaining light I would have to keep the shutter open a fairly long time, but even so, didn't think I'd get anything worth keeping. I took several shots exposing for different parts of the scene.  I was surprised when I downloaded the images, that by combining parts of each exposure, I was able to bring out much of the detail in the shadows.  I was surprised at how many warm colors were still present even though the sun had set long before.  I often talk about how a camera can't record as much as the human  eye can see.  In this case, the camera saw a lot more than I did!

The Fire Within

The Fire Within

Here is the LINK to the photos I used in the FLOWER POWER class I taught last night.

Here's How I Did it!

Here's the story behind the previous post.  We were with our grandchildren at a butterfly park and I took the first photo.  I was mainly concerned with getting the butterfly in focus and didn't have time to worry about composition.  Later, as we made our way around the park, I noticed this flower with a little water puddle captured in the center.  I loved the texture, the reflections, the swirls and the dots of light so I snapped a shot with the sole purpose of using that photo to create an interesting background for another image.  I enlarged just the center and then cloned parts of it into the first image, overlapping, and making multiple adjustments along the way.  Then I flattened all the layers and cropped out all the distracting stuff I didn't like.  Easy peezy!! 

In a Butterfly's Dream

In a Butterfly's Dream

I'm preparing for a class I'm teaching next week on creating unique flower photos.  Check back tomorrow to see how I combined two images and ended up with this.