Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

The topic for Cee’s challenge this week is “Things People Live In”. Here are some places – beach style.

Lens Artists Challenge – The Road (Most Often)Taken

John is leading this week’s topic. The idea is that we are to share photos in our favorite style or type of photography. I lean mostly to all things nature and beach. I also love macro photography.

Lucky for me, I have always lived near a beach. I find the time spent there is both peaceful and restorative.

Nature brings us much beauty to appreciate. I especially enjoy watching and photographing birds when I am out and about.

With macro photography, there is fascinating detail that is brought to life. Many times, I see something on the computer in the photo that I did not see while I was taking the picture like the falling flower in the first photo below and the tiny hairs on the stem in the second photo.

These are my roads most travelled, photographically speaking. I hope you enjoyed them!

Project 365 – February 26 – March 4, 2023

It’s hard to believe March is here already. I’m loving the new blooms and the buds on the trees.

Lenten Roses

New blossoms on a tree

Foggy morning abstract

At the beach

Goldfinch still in winter plumage

Tiny flower

First sighting of a pollinator

Lens Artists Challenge – Topic – Alone Time

Anne-Christine is hosting this week’s challenge. Even though I consider myself an extrovert, alone time is something I need to refresh and recharge. Since I have fully retired recently, I find that the mornings can provide this. I use this time to have that most important morning beverage, coffee, to do a Spanish lesson (on duolingo), read and/or journal.

I’ve noticed that my grandchildren also need their alone time as well.

Even pets, as much as they love us, need their space at times – usually to sleep 🙂

But, if you were to ask me where my favorite place for alone time would be, it’s on a beach with a good book and the sand between my toes.

Lens Artists Challenge

This week Amy is leading us on a East Meets West or North Meets South challenge. I have not been to any foreign countries so I decided to share photos of the eastern and western part of North Carolina. Every fall, we go to the western part of the state for leaf peeping. Last fall we visited Skyline Drive (in Virginia) then made our way to the Great Smokies which is on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.

While I love our fall travels, I am so glad our permanent home is surrounded by water and near beaches. These photos are from the Outer Banks (Nags Head), Hatteras Island and the Albemarle Sound.

Cee’s Mid Week Madness Challenge

Colors are the topic this week on CMMC, specifically calypso (ocean) blues. Here are 2 photos taken during our past trips to Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Cabo Rojo

Boquerón Beach

Cee’s Mid Week Madness Challenge – Starts with the Letter “A”

ABOVE

Lens Artists Challenge – A One Lens Walk

This week Anne wants us to “take a lens for a walk.” I have 3 favorites that I use on a regular basis. First up is the canon 24-105mm. I use this one primarily for family and pet photos.

But is also works nicely for landscape photos.

My next go-to lens is the canon 100-400mm. If I’m trying to photograph birds or distant subjects, this is the lens that I use.

Although the 100-400 is not a macro lens, it works well for close up photography as long as I can maintain the minimum focusing distance. For this reason, I will more often than not take this heavy but useful lens on hikes.

The last lens that I use regularly is my canon 100mm macro which is absolutely my favorite! I love bringing detail to life. Early in my career as a clinical laboratory technologist, I discovered that I loved microscopy. Being able to see red cells, white cells, platelets, bacteria and fungi close up was fascinating to me. Below are 2 macro images with the 100.

The 100mm macro also serves as a great prime lens which is something I need to remember more often.

As my love for macro photography grew over the years, I investigated getting into microscopic photography. Deciding that it might be too expensive, instead I purchased the canon MPE 65mm which is a 1X – 5X macro. It is full manual, requires great light and absolutely no movement of subject or camera. It’s great for rainy days when I don’t want to walk.

Thanks Anne for a great challenge!

Lens Artists Challenge – Treasures

I am at the stage of life where how I spend my time is my treasure. These are the areas where I like to spend the majority of my treasure of time

In nature taking pictures

At the beach

With family

And with my goofy husband of almost 50 years this September (check out the t-shirt)

If you would like to join these challenges – you can find the info here – https://nowathome.wordpress.com/2022/07/02/lens-artists-photo-challenge-206-treasures/

Lens Artists Challenge – Going Wide

There are times where some subjects are better portrayed with a wide angle view. Here are a few examples that I have chosen (each one is under 30 mm)

A wide view was definitely needed for this “fog bow” at the beach.

In this next photo, I was attempting to get the entire piano keyboard into view.

The last photo is my first lightning shot. I cropped it quite a bit and wished I had a longer lens on this particular occasion.

If you would like to join these challenges, you can find the information here – https://pilotfishblog.com/2021/09/11/lens-artists-photo-challenge-165-going-wide/