I Just Can't Seem to Stop!

 

Color (holding still)

Color (wind-tossed)

Detail of above image

Orchard (left), pines (right), corn (center distance)

September field corn

Tall grass prairie (small re-creation)

Tall native grass seeding

Asters (obviously),

apples (obviously),

apple tree (obviously!).

HDR + September Evening Light

 

What a combination -- HDR setting on my camera and the fabulous low light before sunset. You'll read that the High Dynamic Range should be used to balance light when finding the balance is difficult, but I find it fabulous simply for increasing saturation and sharpness of detail. It is also recommended to avoid HDR when photographing objects or scenes in motion, but that, I say, depends on the effect you're after. Remember my Queen Anne's-lace? Everyone loved it! 

Tonight's shots were not in motion, however: they were all about the effect of September light just before sunset.

And Sunny, of course. Or, as we could also call her, the talent:

Changing Skies

 

Oh, That Tree!!!

 

I must have been a horse in a past life

 

Because nothing is so pleasing to my eye or attractive to my sense of smell than grass -- well, unless it's horses!

Who Is That Ghost Dog?

 

In HDR mode, three exposures are taken in rapid succession and then stacked to make one densely saturated image. In the shot above, Sunny Juliet was trotting along so quickly that her image looks to me like (except for the missing tail) the ghost of old Nikki. Below is SJ looking more like herself. 

Morning dew looks so otherworldly, ethereal. Leaves that have lost their chlorophyll, on the other hand, will not be as rare in a few weeks as they still are this morning.

Apples, Jiggles, and More

 

Almost all the photos in this post were shot in HDR Art Bold mode. I wanted to do two things: (1) catch the last sunlight coming over the hill from the west and also (2) see if I could intentionally produce the jiggle that everyone liked so much in my Queen Anne's-lace photograph. The apples are on these two trees:

I had a happy accidental discovery. It wasn't easy to jiggle intentionally and get exactly the effect I wanted (either I jiggled the camera too much or not enough), but Tuesday was a very windy evening, so patiently waiting for a strong gust of wind to do the jiggling work paid off, in my opinion, though the effect is subtle. Look to leaf edges.... Okay, I need to keep experimenting with this.

I decided to try letting the wind blow my little grey-headed coneflowers for the camera. First (below), are the flowers in their full height, without the wind. After that are a couple windy shots taken closer in. 

(Not HDR)

Below is garden phlox --

There are no jiggles in. my photographs of the orange chair. The wind wasn't strong enough, and my attempts at intentional jiggling did not come off. But the color in HDR mode still pops, especially in that low, early evening light.

And I'm throwing in this photo of Sunny Juliet just because ... she's so cute!

It isn't always easy to get a desired camera effect, but I will keep working with these ideas and see if I can make progress.