Spring

There are several sure signs of spring beyond the obvious flowers and green grass. 

Aperture: 1/100 Shutter: f/8.8 ISO: 100 Focal Length 5.7 mm

Aperture: 1/350 Shutter: f/3.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length 7.1 mm

This has been an unusual spring. It started so early and was so warm, but now it is cold. There have been several hard frosts. This poor lilac bush is whithering up and dieing from the frost bite. I will be surprised if there are any apples this year as many times as the blossoms have frozen.

 Aperture: 1/60 Shutter: f/8.8 ISO: 100 Focal Length 5.7 mm

Free Post

So I really like taking pictures of birds. I think it is the challenge of trying to get a good shot of something elusive. The waterfowl were migrating back north.

Ok, so I didn't take this shot this year, I took it last summer, but it was a bird picture. This cheeky little woodpecker kept on raiding our hummingbird feeder. 

The swan and the woodpecker were the hardest shots to get.  I must have taken several dozen pictures just to get one good one.

Land of Giants

Details

This weeks assignment was details. I love macro photography, so this was a really fun assignment. Flowers are one of my favorite subjects.

This is the center of a tulip. The stamen of the flower is the main subject, while the petals are secondary. The centered composition works well in this shot I think. 

Aperture: 1/100 Shutter: f/3.5 ISO: 1600 Focal Length: 6.3 mm

I'm not really sure what type of flower this is. I was at some one's house and I couldn't resist the great shot. The flower buds are the primary subject, and the water droplets are secondary. The bright colors work well against the neutral background. I wish that the bud on the top wasn't out of focus because it draws attention away from the subject.

Aperture: 1/100 Shutter: f/3.5 ISO: 160 Focal Length: 6.3 mm

The main subject in this frame is the lines, and the secondary is the hosta leaves. I think this shot works well in black and white because it draws attention to the lines instead of the distraction of bright green leaves. 

Aperture: 1/60 Shutter: f/3.6 ISO: 320 Focal Length: 8.8 mm

The main subject here is the azalea blossoms. The primary subject is the petals and the secondary is the leaves. I like all the different shades of pink, from almost white to almost purple.

Aperture: 1/125 Shutter: f/2.9 ISO: 125 Focal Length: 5.7 mm

CD Cover

For this assignment, we randomly chose genres of music and had to create a CD cover imitating that style of music. I drew Heavy Metal. I got my little brother to model for me, and although he was hesitant at first, by the end he was enjoying himself way too much. I took the shots of him and then we ran around town to get the old buildings and cemetery shots.

Front Cover

The name of my "band" was Venom and the album title is Toxicity. 

Inside Cover

Back Cover

I realized after the fact that the red track titles are hard to read on the black background even though the band and album title were easy enough to read because they were so big. I relisted the titles so they are at least readable in one location.

 1.  Toxicity

 2.  I Am Evil

 3.  Break the Law
 4.  Black Sunrise

 5.  Am I Wrong?

 6.  Die Today

 7.  Fear Me

 8.  Judas Among Us

 9.  Tormented Souls

10. Betrayal

11. Conundrum

Alphabet

These are my ABC's. The A, F, H, and I are the hardest letters to see. I think my J, V, and Y turned out the best.

Clyde Butcher

Clyde Butcher has been a photographer for over forty years. He started making photographs of the wilderness after his son was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident. Butcher withdrew into the wilderness and found comfort there. He mainly makes pictures of nature that have been untouched by man. He is attempting to preserve the natural landscape that man has not yet destroyed. Many of his photographs are of the Everglades National Park in Florida. When Butcher first started photography, it was not even considered an art and scorned by many critics. He struggled with that fact for a long time, but Butcher’s Photographs have come to be greatly appreciated over the years.

 

Clyde Butcher only shoots his pictures in black and white. That is part of the reason I like his works so much. I think it takes real talent to be able to shoot in black and white because then lighting and angles are so much more important. Sometimes colors are just distracting or disguise poor composition in a photo. Another reason I appreciate his work is because they are of nature. I enjoy the simplicity of the shots, and the single focused subject. The background is never distracting at all. I enjoy shooting nature and still shots. Clyde Butcher prints all of his own shots anywhere from eight inches to eight feet tall. 

Butcher has received many awards for his work. He works for the “Save Our Rivers” program, the Everglades National Park, The Nature Conservatory, The National Audubon Society, and the River Keepers. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Florida Artist Hall of Fame Award, The Humanitarian of the Year in 2005 and many more.

“My experience reinforced my sense of dedication to use my art form of photography as an inspiration for others to work together to save nature's places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations.” - Clyde Butcher