Photos By Shadows, through my eyes...

Took the camera outside to photograph a large flock of robins in the yard, they all took wing and I missed them! I went around behind the garage to check on our rabbits and found these small surprises:

This first one I am not happy with but:



This is my favorite one:




Comments and edits welcome as usual.

I like both of them as they are very nice pictures...but I too have to say that the second one is absolutely beautiful as you have capture the real beauty of the flower and its colors are pure.

Thank for the great pics...really beautiful.
Photography is a very nice hobby.

LOA

I like the second one as well. Flash photography is very hard to get right, which is why I leave mine off 95% of the time. I like that you included the little chutes in the frame.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring!

There was no flash used in these photos:

natural sun light 4:36 PM EDT. South Central PA

I seldom use flash if I canget the shot without it.

Thank You Shadows you made my day. Living in a apartment now I don't get to see Spring like this anymore. The house I lived in I had planted over 100 of these all over my yard. Oh do I remember the site of that in Spring.

Thanks again.

Really? I would swear that first one was with a flash. All of the tell tale signs are there. Whatever. If you say you didn't, then you didn't.

Thanks for the pictures.
I have several spring flowers coming up. Surprising, since we haven't had much moisture.

Val

Very strong sun low in the sky, you might be seeing the reflected light from the white side of the garage as flash... just a thought.
The second pic was taken a little more distant from the garage wall then the first.


Thanks for your commnets.

Actually, yes, there is a flash in that first photo, you just might not have noticed it going off because of the high sun. Look at the dirt. You can see the ground is lit up more than you would see from natural light. This is very easy to see when you compare the strong contrasts in shadows in the second shot with the washed out lack of shadows in the first. Then look at the shadows themselves. The shadows cast by the sun are coming from behind the flower, but you can see some very strong shadows coming from a very bright light source just above and to the right of the lens. Finally, you can see the flash reflected in the blades, as it gives it that typical waxy look.

I'm not trying to be a nit-picker, but it's just nagging me. Sometimes our cameras don't do what we expect them to, and it's very hard to tell when a flash goes off in the bright sunlight, until you get to see the images later. They look great, though. It's nice to see flowers in March, after such a particularly harsh winter.

No there is no flash, it is not turned on on my camera... I have to turn it on manually when I want to use it.

I was trying to send you the details on the photoe that my camera holds for each photo and it clearly says FLASH: off


Like I said the garage wall might have been acting as a reflector, the second photo was taken aftrer the first and from a different angle and about 20 feet away from the white wall... the first was about 2 feet away from the wall... I know what I did and how to use my camera.

I use an Olympus E-410 and have total control over my flash....

you think what you want too... I know what I did.

I am not going to argue this point with you any more.

That makes perfect sense. I knew there was a second light source in the photo, there was just no way of telling from where. No offence was intended, and I in no way was trying to say you don't know how to use your camera.

These are some more of my late winter early spring photos...

Most of my photography this winter has been food photos, I contibute to not only my cooking forum here but to 2 others...I recently have been ( again ) focusing on the out of doors....

This photo is the same as the white crocus in my above post using digital darkroom stuff, fisheye lens effect:




These Ice storm photos were taken after a major ice storm came through (that is ice not snow):





The bird photos were taken through a regular door and storm door windows ( 2 panes of glass):










The remainder of the crocus photos were taken 2 days after my 1st contributions using a different lens and camera settings:













Sorry if any of these are to large, the photobucket program was to reduce them.

All were taken with existing light ( no flash).

Comments and edits welcome as always!

The white crocus is a lovely, lovely study in textures. It reminds me of a photo I saw once, and you wouldn't think it would be related really, but it was a shot of a very old man with deep wrinkles in his brown face, holding up a naked baby about six months old in his two hands, which were as gnarled as tree roots. They were just smiling into each other's faces. It's the overlaid textures of the crunchy, dry brown leaves and twigs and bits of bark with the tender white flower petals -- smooth and gnarly, dried out and moist, rough and smooth. Past and future. A beautiful Ostara offering.

Thank you Stormy... you get the composition!

Old and new / rebirth

There was no overlay technique used in this photo either... it is a pure unaduterated picture...

Hello Shadows! I loved all the photos! I especially love the flower pics as I really enjoy taking photos of flowers myself. That ice storm pic was really telling. Those doves look exactly like our desert mourning doves. Is that what they are where you live? Love the Cardinal! We never see those where I live...boo hoo

I am very anxious for our desert flowers to bloom. I look outside every day. April is always the month to take these shots!