A Day at Hanging Rock Part 2

I'm still working on my latest photography assignment and decided to work on taking pictures of the Lower Cascades waterfall at Hanging Rock State Park. Here is another one of my assignment pictures.

A Day at Hanging Rock

I went to Hanging Rock State Park today and photographed the Lower Cascades. Didn't make it up to the actual hanging rock but it was a beautiful day for hiking. I took a few pictures that I liked. The lower cascades has the main waterfall and then a smaller fall off to the right. I think I like this picture the best.

Reflections

I'm still working on the latest project. The great thing about it is getting to shoot whatever I like. I went to the park this afternoon and the water was unexpectedly still. It made for some nice reflections. There is a boat house that looked nice with the sun on one side highlighting it. It reflected nicely into the lake.

It's a flying dinosaur

I managed to capture a picture of a great blue heron just after it took off in flight. It is funny because it looks like a pterodactyl. And to think that they went extinct. Oh yes, as an aside that has nothing to do with the picture, today is 10/11/12.

Chill in the Air

There has definitely been a chill in the air for the last couple of days. Makes me think of camping and using a campfire to keep warm. I thought I would revisit the picture of a mesmerizing campfire.

Focal Point

This week our assignment is focal point. Basically we can shoot whatever we want as long as the focal point (the subject we are focusing on) is easily discerned. I went to the park and took pictures of wildlife and insects and a couple fisherman. One fisherman was pretty lucky and caught several small bass while I was there. I think I will include a picture of him today.

Depth of Field

This is the latest assignment and it is called Depth of Field. Basically it is the area around the focal point that has acceptable focus.  We had to take pictures of the foreground in focus, the middleground in focus, the background in focus, and everything in focus. It teaches us how we can change where we focus by changing which part of the object we are pointing at. It also shows us how aperture can make depth of field more shallow or more deep. This picture is part of a sculpture that is located on campus. I thought it had interesting shape and texture. This is an example of the foreground being in focus.

Peek-a-Boo

The moon peeked through the cloud for a few minutes and the sky became clear.

About ten minutes after I took this, rain moved through and the moon was gone for the evening.

Whoosh

Another photo from the shutter priority assignment. This one is the blur, where the background is clear and the subject is moving past. I used a tripod and a slow 1/30 shutter speed. The result is one abstract looking dog moving quickly past my lens.

Duck, Duck, Goose...Not

Here is another photo from my photo assignment.

This time it is the stop action shot. I took a picture of the duck swimming along.

It's Your Birthday!!!

Just want to wish my daughter the happiest birthday ever.

 

Happy 24th Birthday, Sara!

Run Gizmo Run

We are doing a shutter priority assignment where we take a picture that freezes the action, blurs the action, and pans with the action. Here is a picture of Gizmo where I panned with her running.

My lovely daughter

I am so proud of my daughter, Sara. Her birthday is just a week away. I hope her card makes it in time for her birthday. If it doesn't, I just want her to see this.

Bugs at the Park

Went to the park and stuck a stick in the mud. They did come, the dragonflies, that is. I tried to catch some mid air but had to settle for one that landed on a stick. Here is the best one.

Night Shot

Here is an attempt at a night shot that I kept the shutter open long enough to get the car's headlights and tail lights to blur. The streak just above the trees with the dashed line was an airplane with its strobes flashing.

Checking Out the Moon

I couldn't help but notice how bright the moon was last night. When I got home from school, I grabbed the tripod and changed lenses to try to shoot the moon. Here is one of the pictures I got.

Yellow Swallowtail

I pulled into my parking place at school on Monday and was treated to a yellow swallowtail butterfly enjoying the flowers on a bush. I grabbed my camera and followed it around snapping shots. It was a pretty butterfly.

Love That Sunset

So I'm still going through all of my old pictures that I have managed to bring together in one folder on my desktop. Today's picture is a lovely sunset photo taken just outside of Asheboro, NC. I do believe I even got one star in it. Anyway here it is.

Rainy Day

I was looking at some of my old pictures and came across this photo of a rain storm with a huge shaft of rain coming toward us. There was lots of lightning but unfortunately I wasn't able to capture that.

What a Pear

I have this tray that has these sparkly little pink fruits. I had it sitting on the table and noticed the neat shadows and highlights that showed up because of the window light. I decided to take a picture.

Eye see you!

So I'm out taking pictures and come back in and am a little bored. I decided to do a self portrait with my DSLR. Not quite as easy as using your cell phone. I wanted to get just my eye, so I looked at the reflection in the lens until my eye was centered, held the button until I heard the autofocus beep and pressed the shutter. It took a couple of tries but here is one that I liked.

Where did that come from?

I walked out the door the other day to discover a whole patch of mushrooms. These weren't those little button mushrooms but big ones at least 5 inches across and 6 inches tall. Here is a picture of one of the smaller ones.

Where's the Spider

Found a cool spider's web but no spider.

Pretty Girl

My friend has the most beautiful German Shepards. Here is one of the sweeties.

Bless Your Heart

Don't remember exactly what was wrong with my friend's dog. I think it was some sort of sting but sadly, she had to wear the cone for a few weeks. It was like putting blinders on a carraige horse, she couldn't see to the sides and kept getting stuck. She is just fine now, so we can chuckle at the picture.

Twin Suns

Usually you try to avoid lens flare because it takes away from the picture but sometimes it gives the whole picture a pretty cool effect. I was shooting the sun through the bushes with a very small aperture around F 22 so I could get the starburst effect. The way the breeze made the bush move, I got the effect of two stars with a huge halo lens flare.

Birthday Burger

The nice thing about loyalty cards and clubs is that you get cool free things for your birthday. I got my free birthday burger from Ruby Tuesday yesterday. Yummy. Washed it down with a tall glass of water with lemon.  Red Robin is next and then Captain D's. I love my free birthday meals!

It's Magical

Childhood is a magical time. A little boy can be a prince and a little girl can be a princess. Here is another one of my children's portraits.

Make Mine Music

Here is another picture from my older people shots. This was shot at his birthday party, while everything was being set up. He tried his hand at the cello.

Boy at the Lake

Going through some of my older photos and came across this one of this little boy at a lake my son and I had visited. More photos of people to come in the next few days.

NC Aviation Museum

Found an old picture that I took while in photography school. We took a field trip to the North Carolina Aviation Museum in Asheboro, NC. I tried to get an interesting angle of the plane for this shot.

Sweet Little Dog

Just looking at some of my old blog posts and found this one of my friend's dog. Donna, hope you enjoy this one. 

All Ears

Found this cute little picture of my dog and my friend's German Shepard who had made themselves comfortable on the pillow. Those ears were just so funny. It seemed like they both had the radar on.

Unconditional Love

It is amazing how are pets give us unconditional love. They are so in the moment, tail wagging, happy to see you, I love you. Look at the eyes of this adorable dog, Kato and see his admiration for his person.

Cat On A Hot Card Hood

You ever notice how cats love to sit on your car.

I guess it is the view they like along with the warmth.

It is so funny to see the little paw prints they leave behind.

A Flock of Butterflies

I was out photographing dragonflies when I notices several of the tiny little lilac butterflies huddled together in a damp area. I do believe they were taking a drink. I've never seen 5 butterflies together, much less sitting still.

A Stick in the Mud

If you stick it, they will come, LOL. Really, I stuck a stick in the mud at the edge of the lake where it is mucky and before I could sit back down the dragonflies were landing on it. It sure makes it easier to take pictures if I pre-focus on the stick and wait for them. They are still pretty quick but a couple came out pretty good. Here is one of them.

Check me out on Flickr

I loved being on smugmug with my own domain name but unfortunately that isn't in the budget right now. However, I can at least host some of my pictures free on Flickr. Here is a link to my site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daylilydreamsphoto/ I hope you will go check it out and bookmark the site.

The Taste of Summer

We've had unusually hot weather this spring and the blackberries are getting ripe a little early. There is nothing like finding a wild blackberry bush in your back yard and enjoying that sweet little pop when you eat it. The bush reminds me of a time several years ago. We lived in apartments and there were several blackberry plants behind our building. My son and my daughter decided to make me a cake and make a blackberry drizzle for it as a surprise for my birthday. Let's just say it had an interesting flavor. No worries, I ate it because of the love it was made from. So here's to the tastes of summer.

Summer Flowers

We've had a bit of rain lately and it is making the garden bloom. I miss having a garden but I can have one vicariously through my neighbor's lovely garden. Her gladiolus just started blooming and they are so pretty.

After the Rain

It has been pouring outside and it reminded me of a storm last year. After the storm passed, there was such a beautiful sunset. Here it is.

He Did It

My son graduated from high school today. After completing all of the requirements of the Guilford Technical Community College's Adult High School Program, he did it!

Wild Blue Yonder

Another picture from the old pictures.

This one is an airplane that had just taken off and is flying,

as the Air Force says, into the wild blue yonder.

On a Tree Stump

I was out walking the dog when I noticed a white butterfly flying and landing around on a tree stump. There were not any flowers around the stump and I wasn't sure why this butterfly was hanging out. I took the dog in and grabbed my camera after changing to a telephoto lens, returned to the stump. I was in luck as the the butterfly was still there. I kept landing and "tasting" the wood stump and was there long enough for me to get a couple of good pictures. I went to take my camera inside and came right back outside and the butterfly was no where to be found. I will take it as a small gift from God that was wrapped with lovely white wings.

On the River

I took a trip down to Wilmington when my daughter was in college at UNCW. We went down to the river and was in time for a lovely sunset. I noticed this boat next to the dock and loved how the setting sun lit the side and how that light reflected.

Reflecting

Still going over old favorite shots and came across this one.

It was a lovely afternoon and the lake was unusually still,

so it reflected the clouds almost perfectly.

Almost Full

I stayed up last night to get a picture of the almost full moon. I read that last night was 97% full and tonight is the actual full moon. After trying to take it on automatic (being lazy), I switched to full manual and got this. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

That's a Scary Shadow

Another picture from my older photos collection. This is a baby goat that a friend was taking care of because the momma goat couldn't nurse it. You can't tell by this picture but this goat is the size of my 6 pound Rat Terrier. It was just a tiny little thing. It's shadow was bigger than it was. Enjoy this picture.

Mighty Mississippi

I was going through some old pictures I had on the Kodak website. Kodak is migrating all of their photos to another online photo center and I was able to download some of the pictures. I love this picture, even though it is just a scratchy old scan of a photo I took in 1986. I was visiting my Mom, who at the time lived in Memphis Tennessee. This shot is looking at the bridge over the Mississippi River looking toward Arkansas. Wish I could find the original photo so I could rescan it. Enjoy.

Robin

So we are in for some nasty weather this afternoon. Possibly severe weather is forecast, so I thought I would post a picture that reminds me of Spring and lovely weather- a robin. This one sat here for a while before flying away. But as you can see, it was giving me the wary eye. Wish I had a longer telephoto, LOL.