I found these sunglasses while I was out on McDade Trail the other day. I was a bit torn. On one hand I don't like to leave litter if I can remove it. On the other hand we are all in the Covid-19 social distancing era and I kind of didn't want to touch them. I stood there circling them and pondering things when I noticed my reflection. In the end, I shot the image above and left them there. I'll pick them up and throw them away another day when I'm more secure in the idea that some time has passed and if they have any virons on them they will no longer be infectious. The resulting image inspired me though. Found objects are a simple means to a creative photo. They are things that happened to be there when you happened to wander by and see them. How you photograph them depends on: what camera equipment you happen to have with you, and, how you happen to 'see' it in your head. It's all very random and I love that. Macro photography is a very easy way to get creative with your photos. Certainly you can do all sorts of setup shots, and that's wonderful, but even just walking around looking in the grasses will inspire you. It's a weird little world down there. Walk slowly and you'll see it. I have kind of a Do No Harm philosophy. I don't cause excess stress to animals and I never kill insects just to photograph them. My results then tend to be often less 'technical' but more unexpected, and I'm OK with that. Bees do what bees do. Not necessarily what humans think bees should be doing. I think it's more fun to photograph them that way. Where I roam, dead things are not uncommon. Fish, dogs, deer, muskrats - all sorts of things. My dead animal collection is a blog in itself. Mostly they are unpleasant to find, but, often they are certainly things that you do not see everyday and usually not things that most people time much to look at. Is it 'creative' to photograph dead animals? I don't know. I guess it depends on how your photograph it. Often you can extend the creative limits of your equipment with software. The image below was shot with a 24mm lens but to get wider I shot two images and stitched them together. Doing this is a great way to get more creative with your landscape photography without the need to buy or rent new lenses. Let your imagination run wild. Don't be shy. Make mistakes. But most of all, create! 10 Tips To Get More Creative Photos 1. Slow down - look at things a little longer, find the odd things in the scene 2. Take a new angle - go high, go low, look for new ways to look at the subject 3. Get close - get REAL close if you can, and then get real far away 4. Use prime lenses - they make you move your body so it throws you out of your comfort zone 5. Don't use auto settings - learn your camera controls so it sees what you want it to see 6. Be the Bee - let animals/insects be themselves, they will do more interesting things that way 7. Try pinhole photography - it breaks all the rules 8. Use whatever equipment you have - it's not technically right or wrong, it's creative 9. Bokeh - make the blur count, play with the blur, be the blur 10. Use reflections - water and windows are great for this Be sure to follow me on social media (links are in the footer), share this blog with your photog friends (links also in the footer - please and thank you), and visit my Gift Shop for wall art, coffee mugs, reusable shopping bags, and much more! Be well my friends.
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New Hanover County Arboretum is a gem of a day trip located in Wilmington North Carolina. These spectacular gardens host educational programs, publications, and events. My visit was in July of 2019. It was a touch warm that day (lol!) but I enjoyed photographing quite a bit of the gardens, sculptures, Japanese Tea House, water gardens, and Children's Garden. Here is a small gallery of flower photography from the flower gardens there. The variety of pollinators, that are very fond of these gardens, are minimally represented here as well. I do not know the names of the flowers. If you know any of the names feel free to post them in the comments! The New Hanover County Arboretum Water Garden's Dragon Sculpture. New Hanover County Arboretum Water Garden's koi fish.
Tiny forest are essentially miniature landscapes that can be found almost anywhere if you have a lens that sees them. In this case I was exploring some old wooden fence post tops with a Canon 100mm Macro Lens These little natural fungi and moss forest have quite an array of: colors (especially for February), shapes, and plant life. Here are some top down images of the tops of the posts. Some side view images. The narrow depth of field is helpful to highlight one particular plant in the forest. This subject is something I look forward to photographing more in the future. As the seasons change the variety of plant life must change with it so it will be interesting to go back to these same posts and see how they change. These images, and many more, are available for purchase through my Gift Shop.
For images like these visit my Macro Photography collection. If you don't see one you'd really like Contact Me. The upper Delaware River is a treasure trove of wild animals and abundant fish species. I do not go out to pursue wildlife photography on purpose but I do happen upon some of our beautiful creatures when I wander the river areas. This week I'm featuring my collection of animals that swim. A bird's eye view of fish in the Delaware River. The sunfish nest on the shallow warm waters on the banks. Those areas will serve as fish nurseries to protect from the larger predatory fish. The big carp was just passing through. A crayfish and some fish fry enjoy a sunny day. Beavers, turtles, and toads all live at least part of their lives in the water. Wildlife photography tips:
Animal Photography isn't something I have a tremendous amount of patience for so I rarely go out to photograph animals on purpose. Generally I go on a photo adventure to a specific area to explore nature photography in that area. If there happens to be animals there (alive or dead) I'll photograph them. If not, so be it.
I never realized that I had amassed so many animal photos until I started looking to put things together for this blog post. There are hundreds! So this will be Animal Photography Blog Part 1 about Animals That Fly. Featuring: birds, ducks, eagles, butterflies, dragonflies, and a variety of insects from the Kingdom Animalia. The subsequent blogs will feature other animal related themes. I hope you enjoy them! The river bottom of the Upper Delaware River is an ever changing and diverse landscape. The general beauty of the underwater river world is that it is rarely the same but largely familiar. Small things tend to hustle along with the flow of the minor currents and large things tend to stay put unless the river really decides to force the point. In the little shallow areas the fall landscape is scenic as it changes moment to moment. Things float into the frame and things float out. It's beautiful in how it is a moving natural collage. The leaf litter introduced to the Delaware River from the trees along the banks, and it's tributaries, is a noticeable change from the more plant dominated summer riverbed. The fall foliage adds quite a bit of diverse colors and shapes as it moves along the river bottom. The leaves collect and decompose as they are buried under the silt and broken down by the water and ice. As they are breaking down the leaf litter is releasing nutrients that is washing downstream and nourishing those areas. High water in the Spring churns up the riverbed collage - taking things away and adding new things. Enjoy more of my Underwater Photography collection at the Gift Shop.
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Amelia PearnExploring photography has been a life long passion. Photography BlogArchives
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