Just a quickie today. Found in “old” photos (from about a month ago?), one of first shots with macro filter for Lensbaby. Did some playing in Lightroom, and hey, who will resist not to go and reheat himself one?

I am fascinated with the overlaying images where one is sharp and the other is put out of focus. I feel like experimenting with it  a lot recently. Here is another try. When I was photographing this clock on town square, I couldn’t decide if I want to  focus on it, or rather on the tree in front of it, and I have both at few different angles. The photos were taken so quickly one after the other, that hands on the clock didn’t have time to move. The dreamy out of focus effect is mostly on the tree branches, and the background has its ghosts .

Since I didn’t have a macro lens with me, this was the biggest magnification I could get, and it was the closest I could get. But… By getting rid of color (and few other corrections in this ready Lightroom preset I used, downloaded long time ago from Lightroom Killer Tips), and then some tweaking, I got some interesting photo out of it.

So typical of a view around here. Somewhere between new and newer development, among all-the-same grey-siding covered houses, stand the remnants of an old farm. Land sold to developers, who somehow cease to take care of the old living quarters. And an old tree.

Winter is not my favorite photographic season. With mostly white around, it is though to find color to photograph. The good news is, the sky is blue, regardless of the season. It is enough to find some red berries.

Walking with camera around my neighborhood, I was looking for photographs. I found this leave caught in the net of the fence around sports field. It seemed to be out of place in middle of snowy winter, forgot by everybody, just left there to remind of another season…

From spring to winter in one day… This is how the weather treats us here.
I took this photo in neighborhood sports field. We got some snowfall just a day before, and there were corners not too many people went through yet. I like the solitude feeling it implies and the feeling of space around.

Single track

I am flirting from time to time with HDR images. I think I figure how to take photos for them already (in short- turn all the automatics in camera and make -2eV, 0eV and +2eV without moving the camera), but Tone Mapping and getting the reasonably looking photo is still a magic. I gave another try today. I had the photos of tulips at 1/30, 1/80 and 1/100 sec, just because I was trying to figure out how to make sky look.. like sky, but since it was done on tripod, I figured out afterward- why not give it another try. Photomatix Tone Compressor loked much simpler than Details Enhance, so I went with the first.

When I was doing shopping last week, I noticed they were selling tulips in pots. It was warm and sunny outside, almost like spring was already here, the flowers were in line with the weather and I didn’t resist the temptation. I do not exactly have a green thumb, but I still had a feeling they may not last long inside. I was right, they are loosing petals as of today, but I didn’t wait that long to shoot them. I was playing with macro on Lensbaby for this one. But I particularly like the color effects.

And one more still subject panning. This one more “classic” in subject and in the vertical movement. The impressionist vision of tress without leaves on bright, sunny day, with perfect blue sky.