Dream On Dream On – This month is a show above all shows in the heavens called the Perseid Meteor Shower. Over the weekend was suppose to be the highlight and I just had to go out and see what I could photograph. I have not photographed the milky way in awhile.

This is a photo of my yard at midnight, I can see the milky way every night without a camera. It is an amazing sight and worth staying up for. Does it not show us how small we really are here on this planet. Creation above all else.

The meteor shower was more noticeable right at dusk into the dark, around 10pm. Facing north one could see much more against the darker sky away from the Milky Way.

Shutter speed 20 sec, ISO 6400, f2.8, 17mm lens

Below is a short time lapse of Saturday nights Perseid Meteor shower and Milky way or click this link, Perseid Shower

To make a video takes all night, because I am shooting with a 15 to 20 sec shutter speed, I used a go pro camera for this short video.

“Dream On” is a power ballad by Aerosmith from their 1973 eponymous debut album. Written by lead singer Steven Tyler, this song was their first major hit and became a classic rock radio staple.

I then took my older go pro and set it to time lapse photo, facing the north. If you want to create a circle of the stars. Point your camera directly at the north star and then take anywhere from 200 to 600 photos and stacked them on top of each other.

Again at 15 to 20 sec shutter speed and ISO 3200 or 6400. The colors you see in the shot are not photoshopped. There actually different colored stars that one can only see with night photography.

I will be doing more this month as the weather permits.

Dream On Dream On

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Cross the Bridge into August, July has come and gone. How time fly’s. These bridges here are all crossing the Mighty Mississippi River taken from the Iowa side of the river.

This first bridge is actually gone now, they tore it down this past year. Well, last time I went by there they still had a small section of the bridge left to take down. It is replaced by a bigger more modern bridge now.

It sure made for pretty photos at night.

Cross the Bridge into August

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Same Day Stormy Weather – the same day we had the shelf cloud, the sky’s had cleared and then all of a sudden another storm was coming our way in the evening. This storm brought a couple more inches of rain and lot of thunder and lightning.

Rain was coming down in sheets as it blew sideways across the land.

As I heard the thunder off in the distance I set up my go pro camera on time lapse photos, .5 sec intervals. Trying to catch a couple of lightning strikes. The faster the interval the better chance you have of photographing one with this camera.

The camera took 900 photos, each one unique shapes and light. But, to look at 900 photos looking for a lightning strike takes a long time.

So instead I stacked them all into one photo and this is the result below. It gives movement to the clouds as it stacks each one on top of the other and it shows the lightning strikes as well. Makes it easier to go back and find the one photo with the strikes on it.

Same Day Stormy Weather

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

July Went out With a Bang as a shelf cloud came across the land a few days ago.

Shelf clouds are harmless themselves but typically indicate strong storms. Shelf clouds form at the leading edge of a thunderstorm. If you see a shelf cloud coming your way, it probably means you are about to get hit by a strong thunderstorm.

I have seen two in my lifetime and they are quite interesting cloud formations and make great photos if you are quick enough. Usually they are moving pretty fast.

This one below I took a couple of years ago, it was a much worse storm behind it then the one above. Even though the one last week did dump over 2 inches of rain and very high winds.

July Went out With a Bang

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Bridges, I have photographed over 200 bridges, so I am picking some of my favorites going way back to bridges I photographed in Iowa when I lived there as well.

Michigan

Iowa

Texas

Mississippi River

Have a great weekend.

Bridges

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

One More Bridge – one more bridge I did not cross is this first one here I photographed in Cloudcroft New Mexico. This one is just for looking at, it is not in use anymore.

I will finish this week off with more bridges, a view of the world around us, bridges that connect you and me.

One More Bridge

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Every Bridge I Cross

Life is an adventure with many bridges that need to be crossed. Some bridges are hard to cross like this first one, literally and metaphorically.

We have to choose which bridges to cross to see what might be on the other side. This bridge in the first photo is the only one I have not crossed. But I can see the other side from here and I know it is just as beautiful as this side.

I will cross that bridge when I am called to. 🙂

Arizona

Texas

Every Bridge I Cross

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Across the Bridge between two worlds from the Midwest to the gulf coast. Bridges are a gateway to new adventures.

Across the Bridge

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

A Green Thumb means having a natural talent for growing plants. Well, I am not sure if I have a green thumb yet. I photographed these flowers down south using a faster shutter speed to give get the black background, which goes well with the purple flowers.

I have planted lots of flowers this year at home here, mostly for the hummingbirds, but by the time the flowers actually bloom the hummingbirds will be gone. It seems to be a slow year for me and growing flowers.

I have lots of green leaves everywhere but no color yet. So I guess I can say I have a green thumb. 🙂

A Green Thumb

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Sittin on the Dock of the Bay watching the tide roll away. Song lyrics by Otis Redding.

Sittin on the Dock of the Bay

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Incredibly Complex – Our eyes are amazing machines that help us process life visually and provide us with a lifeline to everyday tasks and moments.

Cat eyes are so unique, it is like looking at a masterpiece of intricate detail and function with amazing colors.

Do Cats Blink? Well Cat eyelids don’t work like ours do, mainly because they have three of them.

“They have upper eyelids, lower eyelids and a third eyelid (also known as the nictitating membrane) that they use to protect and cover their eyes,”

Another unique quality of cat eyelids is that they don’t fully close.

A study done by the University of Portsmouth and the University of Sussex revealed that if your cat’s blinking really slowly at you, it’s his way of smiling at you

How often do cats blink?

Cats blink pretty regularly, but they don’t need to do it as frequently as people do. They usually will win a staring contest with you.

Incredibly Complex

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

A Little of Everything this first of July 2023. Summer is apon us and bright colors everywhere from architecture to flowers. Have a great month ahead. 🙂

Here is a video below with the sounds of frogs I recorded at my place this week along with some cloud time lapse and views of Montana. Or click this link; Nature Sounds Frogs

A Little of Everything

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

What in the World kind of dragon fly is this one? 🙂 makes me smile though. It looks like it has rabbit ears, white eyes, nose and mustache and I know I could make it smile somehow in photoshop.

What in the World

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Iowa Sunrise on the Farm – this is my nieces farm where we stay when visiting family in Iowa. She gets to see the best sunrises as it is completely open to the east. Farmland for miles.

Iowa Sunrise on the Farm

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

New Puppy Portraits, nothing makes me smile more than dogs. I have had a dog for as long as I can remember. Making portraits of them is a joy of mine, sometimes it is just about their eyes. So many expressions.

This first dog I photographed at a campground. He was looking back at his people, I don’t know the folks at all but random photos of dogs are a fun way to just show all the different kinds of dogs there are.

This one below is a friend of ours, a Golden Labrador. Thought I would try my hand at pencil art. On the computer though. I make all these portraits on the computer.

Have a wonderful weekend.

New Puppy Portraits

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Nature Unfolds its Treasures at the first ray of sunrise.

May you have a wonderful day ahead.

Nature Unfolds its Treasures

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Artificial Intelligence Photography, well it has arrived. AI is popping up everywhere in photo editing software.

I edit all my photos in Photoshop, they now have AI in Beta so we can all see how it is going to work in the future. AI with photography is very similar to making composite photos, which I have done when I am making a piece of art work to sell. But I also list my photo as a composite.

AI is making it much simpler, as far as trying to blend the object you are adding to your photo a little better so as we don’t have to do as much work. But, here is what it is doing, you have to have the internet on when using AI because it is searching the world wide web for the image you are asking for and taking it from that.

For example, which one of these horses below is the real deal?

The horse on the right is my photo of a paint pony in a pasture. I then asked AI to add a horse and lighting. The horse on the left is one it picked from the internet. It has skewed the horses face, but it did put the shadow in to mimic the real horse.

AI is here to stay because when it comes to big business and making advertisements, they will be able to make what ever they want and not have to hire photographers or models for that matter.

But as far as I am concerned, I will always go out into the field to photograph the real thing. If I am in the mood to create art I will list it as a composite. I do sell a lot of photos on Adobe stock and they like AI generated photos. So one has to pick and choose what you like to create.

Art is generated by your imagination and that still makes it an original idea.

Artificial Intelligence Photography

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

What is Hidden by Light a silhouette reveals. A silhouette paints ones imagination in many colors.

What is Hidden by Light

Fish River Alabama, we actually were able to see this beautiful sunset along the fish river here in Alabama. Along with a short video to bring the photos to life. Have a wonderful day.

Video below or click this Link; Fish River Sunset

Fish River Alabama

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

As the Day Begins and ends with the sun, bidding good morning and good night.

As the Day Begins

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts