Too long..

Its been a very long time since I've posted here, 3 years - or maybe 4. Anyways - was terribly busy with work and a series of falconry hawks, not to mention getting married. No more hawks - and not returning to teaching this year as we are expecting a child - and wanting to get back into taking photos, so trying to get out more again. I bought a new-to-me Nikon D300s camera body at Kerrisdale Cameras a few weeks ago while down visiting family and am trying to get inspired. I am hoping that putting them up here will keep me at least taking and processing the photos. I might post a few of my more intriguing shots from the interim years as I get caught up. Two shots I got this morning...

We have had another bad grasshopper year (well I guess its good for the grasshoppers), the second in three, and they tend to scatter like a fountain away from your feet as you walk. They also hang out on the stalks early in the morning - I think they are trying to warm up in the rising sun. I liked the sharpness of the details on this hopper somewhat framed by the head of grass in the background. Straight from the camera with the 70-300mm.

This one was unexpectedly chosen - I was trying for the details on the stamens around the outside without blowing out the yellow of the petals. I tried all different angles to add some interest - flowers are not normally my forte - and tried different lenses and small apertures to get more of it in focus. In the end it was one of the first ones I had taken, with a larger aperture, that made the cut. On the full size version the texture of the green sepals below the petals stands out along with the one row of stamen closest to the camera and some of the shadows on the petals are still visible. I liked the pop of yellow against the kind of drab colours of the house in the background. Again, straight from the camera with the 70-300mm.