Sunflower

Nothing urges me to be present in these summer days like the first signs that fall is on its way. Geese seem to be more prevalent, already gathering before they bid summer goodbye. Leaves are just starting to change colour, though only a few. And then there are the sunflowers; they symbolize the changing of the seasons for me, from summer to autumn.

I used my 60 mm prime lens to capture this bee on the sunflower. I shot at a speed of 1/200 with an f stop of f/2.8, keeping my ISO at 100.

The sunflower is so very familiar that we need only to see part of it to know what it is. Composing the shot to keep the focus at the point of the bee's presence is effective.

Aflame

The tree and leftover crop seem to be on fire on this autumn evening. The heavy bank of clouds lifted enough for the sun to paint the field with gold before it set for the night.

Keeping my ISO at 100, as I normally try to do if at all possible, I shot at a speed of 1/1250 and an f stop of f/2.8. The reason for the speed was I was in a moving vehicle at time of capture. Had that not been the case, I would have tried for a greater depth of field with an f stop of around f/11 or thereabouts. Having said that, the point of focus was the tree and it didn't really matter if the rest of the image was not as clear.

Water's Faces

Shooting water never gets old. As the clouds in the sky move, so too does the water, or at least their reflection in the water. As the wind blows, so too does the water. It is ever changing.

In the above image, I shot with a shutter speed of 1/200 and f/10. I chose a little greater depth of field so I would have satisfactory clarity in the reflection, sky, foreground and background, all.

I don't often like to split a picture in half but here I have done almost that. Maybe not quite, but close. Sometimes it just works better. There are "rules" in photographic design but let's be real, photographers are a creative lot who like to colour outside of the lines!

Because of the movement of the geese and relative brightness in this shot, I used a faster shutter speed - 1/640.

Having the reflection of the trees reach the geese by way of point draws attention to their evening playfulness.

Finding Light

This morning the skies are heavy and the light low.

I challenged myself to take pictures even though I felt less than inspired. Wandering and even crawling around my home, I took a couple dozen shots and ended up gravitating towards this bottle on my kitchen window ledge. Even on a darker morning, this vessel seemed to hold the light, treasure it. I found my inspiration.

I shot at f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/320. Forgetting my ISO was at 400 to allow for the lower light in my previous shots, I kept it there. Bumping up the ISO often increases noise or grain in an image. With the textures found in the screen and mottled glass I decided that was just fine; it did not compromise the integrity of this shot.

In processing, I added a colour layer to enhance the green already found in the image.