More puppeh pix

Since I so often have my macro "filters" attached to my lens now, I thought I'd take some pictures of the mutts with it on. This requires me to get very close to my subject in order for the camera to get in focus.

Jupiter wasn't crazy about me putting the camera so close to her face. She vacated the deck soon after I took this picture.

Maybe I can take a picture of your foot instead?

Sorry Emmett, but I couldn't help posting this one. You just look so silly!

Of course his nose isn't really that long - the macro filters exaggerate long lines.

This is more like it.

Emmett, you're such a good model for the camera!

I'm off to the Wilds this weekend for some birding by ear, so I'll catch up with you all next week!

Hills entries

This past weekend I had lots of fun up in the Hocking Hills. I took LOTS of pictures (over 400 for the competition, plus almost 175 more the next day at a fun wildlife photo shoot). Since it's a competition, you can only submit a limited number of photos, so that means I had to whittle my 400+ shots down to only 6. That part was NOT fun.

I'll start off by sharing the photos I submitted (click on any photo to be taken to a larger view in my Picasa web album):

Category: Abstract
Subject matter: Leaves of Dutchman's Breeches

Category: Flora
Subject matter: Round-lobed Hepatica

Category: Flora
Subject matter: Dutchman's Breeches

Category: Human Interest in Nature
Subject matter: Reflection of me in stream at Ash Cave

Category: Landscape
Subject matter: Reflection of surrounding trees in strean at Ash Cave

You are not allowed to manipulate images in any way for this competition - the photos must be submitted as they were captured in your camera. For this reason there were a lot of photos I took that I knew would be better cropped down (like photos of waterfowl that I just couldn't get close enough to). Also, I feel that even some of my entries look a little better with a flip of the "monochrome" switch:

This, however, is my favorite photo taken during the entire competition. I played around with my camera settings a lot to get this coloring.

I submitted this photo to the "Photographer's Choice" category. This category was voted on by all of the participating photographers rather than the judges, so it was a peer-based category. Any guesses as to what the subject matter might be?

Unfortunately, I did not win any prizes for my submissions. Oh well. There were almost 200 folks competing this year, so I was up against lots of other super photographers. Maybe next year!

Tomorrow I will be sharing some VERY cool bird photos I captured after the competition was over.

Collage for the weekend

Okay, so I'm not quite done with the collage thing. I call this "Industrial."

Care and Maintenance

While taking photos outside last week, I snapped this one off and happen to really like it...

photographie in black and white

Some black and white architecture photography... because I want to...

Where me and my camera went

Yesterday at the end of my post I included 3 pictures that were taken inside something. I tried to encourage some audience participation and asked people to guess where the photo was taken, but didn't get any takers (party poopers!). Oh well. I'll reveal the answer anyway. But first, a reminder of the "clue" shots I gave...

If anyone else besides my husband guessed the inside of a rotten log (but didn't bother to tell me that's what you thought.... guilt, guilt, guilt), then you would be correct. Here's the grand log, looking straight up the trunk.

And from farther back... it was a pretty tall tree, a good 10 feet at least!

This kind of looks like a ghastly face - would have made for a good Halloween shot. I stuck my camera's lense in the "mouth" to capture all the interior shots.

Here's a shot from the side. You'll notice it's being supported by a live tree.

From this view you can really get a good sense for how rotten this tree is - it looks like the woodpeckers and Mother Nature have done a pretty good number on it.

By the way, for those of you into Following, I have added the Followers widget to my sidebar. So if you'd like to start following my blog, please click on the "Follow this blog" link where it says "Cyber neighbors." I'd love to have you!