Horse

Went out after lunch today instead of in the morning as I had some things to do in town. Made for a change in lighting though I still was taking shots in my own back field. The neighbour's horse was happy to see me - I'm not sure his name - and came over to the fence. I figured I would try to make him into a more interesting subject, and as I was armed with only my 70-300 lens had to stand fairly far back. It works well for some close up detail stuff though, and right at the end I shot a couple close ups of his notes. I liked how his plethora of white bristly whiskers contrasted with the brown of his body behind him. The trick was getting the exposure and depth of field right in the ever-changing lighting (darn clouds) while still catching the horse in a position that worked. I think he was a bit annoyed that I wasn't up close feeding him some alfalfa from my field. Finally got this one towards the end. I used Picasa's highlights and sharpen tools to bring out that extra pop from those whiskers.

And one more shot of him - the first one I took actually, before checking my settings. Came out one of the best exposed shots - go figure. I liked how the barbed wire fence was in focus and how none of him was too dark for details or blown out. Must have been that perfect light before the harsher sun came out.
Cropped but otherwise straight from the camera.

Safe

This guy managed to escape Meg after a very intense chase involving him hanging onto the top of an eight foot tall twiggy tree while the dog caused it to sway wildly in her attempts to catch him. He jumped and missed the larger trees at least once from that perch, narrowly avoiding getting munched on the ground. I think once he got here he needed to catch his breath. Not long after this poor Meg discovered the neighbours' electric sheep fence hiding in the trees and went home at top speed howling a good chunk of the way. Payback from Mr. Squirrel, perhaps?
Not the best photo of a squirrel, but the leaves made kind of a neat frame and it was the best image I took today. I cropped this in Picasa, nothing else.

Dragonflies

From Friday. I was going to post these in the afternoon but after some appointments and a significant grocery pricing and reward points fiasco sort out were completed, I was tired and didn't get around to it.

 A Blue Darner (named for how the shape of their body resembles a darning needle) - he was patrolling a patch of soapberry bushes and trees and obliged by sitting still for enough time to get some good shots of him. The typical large dragonfly, and so when he parked himself not far from me it was easy to get a good shot with the 70-300 lens. I really liked how sharp his features came out - the details in his wings, hairs on his legs, and the patterning on his eyes. Straight from the camera.

Another kind of dragonfly - not sure what this one is called. He was very small for a dragon fly, maybe an inch or two long, as you can see from the comparison to the dandelion leaf he's resting on. This one was more of a challenge as he was hard to see when he landed and was less inclined to hold still. Couple that with his small size and it was tricky for sure. His eyes are not as focused as I would have liked, but the photo still has its merits. I like the shadow of his wing veins and on the leaf and the lighting is interesting. I cropped this one in Picasa to bring the focus back the the dragonfly and make him a more significant part of the image.

Signs of Fall

Delayed by processing of bulk produce (apples, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, etc) available at this time of year, here are some photos from the last couple of weeks. All photos were shot with the 70-300mm lens and are posted as they came from the camera.

 A moulted goose contour feather in the harvested oat field behind the house. I liked how morning sun cast shadows across the feather and the texture of the downy part could be clearly seen. There aren't as many geese now, not sure if they've started heading south for the winter or are just spending their mornings elsewhere.

 And they are starting to fall... Some of the leaves are changing colours now, but this one might have been lost due to the dryness of the summer rather than the changing seasons. This was taken on a cloudy and smoky sort of morning so the colours are muted. I liked the texture of the veins in the leaf, not sure if they are particularly visible on the smaller sized image. An overall melancholy sort of photo.

Taken yesterday in the morning sun (which is coming notably later and later these days). My patch of wild fireweed has gone to seed - looking for all the world like a cotton candy farm. The backlighting really highlighted the seeds of the one stalk particularly. Viewed up close the details of the seeds are very clear, contrasted with the lack of focus and lighting on the background stalks. I'm quite happy with this one.