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.
The Snowshoe Hare is wandering around my yard enjoying the new spring grasses and weeds. There are two things very unique about this rabbit. One being it turns white in the winter, which I have never been able to get a photo of one that is white. Well, that means I would have to be here in the winter as well. 🙂
The other is the size of their back feet. This size helps to keep them on top of the snow during the winter. Hence the name snowshoes. 🙂
My Art From the Island, we spent a few months at one of my favorite places last winter. Dauphin Island Alabama. The weather is mostly in the 70’s all winter and some humidity. But come April the song birds and water birds start to arrive.
My bird count went up to 217. I may have mentioned this before, I took some of my art work down to the art gallery on Dauphin Island to see if they would like to have some of my work to sell there. I am very pleased to say they like my work and took quite a few samples to showcase in the gallery.
This is a photo I took of the gallery there on Dauphin Island. I only have 5×7 prints on sale there and they are all digital oil paintings. Of some of the iconic places on the island and birds. People really like the Blue Herons on the island.
This is a sample print of mine hanging on a wall as a display.
I also made some postcards for the art gallery, this is something new for them. But they are doing very well in the store.
There are a lot of stores out there that are happy to hang your art work up for free as well. I just add my business card onto the print and it is a fun way to show your work besides just on the internet. A little footwork required. 🙂
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.
Anything With Wings is allowed at the airport. I think this bird was watching the big planes with me here at this small airport. Maybe dreaming of flying high and fast like they do or thinking they need to get off his airport runway. 🙂
I don’t know what kind of plane this one is below. But they put on a great show for me on this day. They landed and took off so many times and the pilot waved at me here as I took his photo. Video below of this airport or click this link; Dauphin Island Airport
Plus a coast guard helicopter made a quick stop and then took off.
I was able to stand right next to the runway to get these shots as they flew right over me. I was using my 600 mm lens which makes them look very close.
We are travelling north again and spending time with family along the way. I have not had time to read all my favorite bloggers post as of late. But I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful spring weather so far and thank you again for all your wonderful comments. I appreciate it very much.
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.
Unusual Critters I have seen this week. I was walking across a board walk early in the morning when this snail was slowly making its way across the path. What a strange little creature this is and such a long journey it must be for them when they move. Being it is at such a snails pace. 🙂
The next morning I went out onto the beach when it was still very dark outside. I had my flashlight with and in front of me I could see things moving very fast in the shadows of the soft light. One such creature stopped when my light shined on it. So I took a quick photo of this crab, another strange looking creature of the seas. Creation never ceases to amaze.
A Touch of Green and the sounds of spring await us as the earth awakens to new life after a long winter.
I love seeing things turn green this time of year, spring is such an encouraging month as the flowers emerge from the ground or ponds like these lilies.
The dried grasses in the fields return to their lush green colors, full of life for all.
Nothing says spring more than hearing the sounds of the Red Winged Black Birds.
A Beam of Light like no other. When there are clouds at sunrise you will probably witness sun beams like these as if a giant flashlight has been turned on to wake up the world and bring everything to life.
Train Tracks Moving up and down as this train passed us at a crossing. I have never noticed this happening before. We were parked at the crosswalk as this train went by and it was a very long train, so we were looking at the tracks right in front of us and that is when I noticed them moving up and down.
I don’t know if that is normal or not. I would assume there has to be some movement from the weight of the train. Fascinating things we see when we stop and look really close at what is in front of us. 🙂
External Light Source for small subjects. Someone asked awhile ago about using separate light source in dark areas, like in the forest. So I went out into the woods and found these pine cones to photograph for an example.
This first shot is natural light in the forest that works fine, but you might have to increase your ISO a lot to get the proper exposure.
But for this photo below, I used an external light source because I wanted to bring out more of the detail on the pine cone. Which is much easier to do with directional light that I add to a subject. My source of light is a small flashlight. I always carry one with me just for this type of photo.
If my light is to bright for the subject I will put something in front of my flashlight like a piece of paper or plastic. What ever I have in my camera bag. There are all sorts of ways to change the softness of your light source.
I typically do not use the flash on my bridge camera, even though there are settings on it to make a softer light. It still tends to blow out the scene because the flash is mounted on top of the camera.
This is a fun way to change up your photos when taking shots of items in dark areas. Just remember to take a flash light with you on your outings.
This blue jay looks like he wants to hear what I have to say 🙂
Spring Time Out Doors, lots of birds and more fishing for the husband this week. Nest are being built and the migration of birds is underway. I will have more new birds coming up the next couple of weeks.
The Early Bird catches the worm, as the old saying goes. I am defiantly an early bird and sometimes I go out and about without brushing my hair either.
You can’t see the forest for the trees! It’s a widely known saying that is accepted by many as truth whether they are talking about issues in the workplace or about life in general. You-can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees means that we sometimes cannot see situations as they really are while we are in the midst of them.
The forest hold so many hidden gems. Tiny creatures to unusual leaves and trees.
I was walking past this tree that has all these gorgeous green leaves shinning in the morning light. So I stopped to take a photo as the green color was very eye catching.
I did not even see all these spots on the leaves until I looked at the photo later. They are not bugs, my guess is they are seeds for new life of some kind.
Nature Provides plenty of food for all species. Birds have a wonderful diet that includes some very healthy options
Fruit being at the top of the list, or at the top of the tree if you will. This Cedar Wax wing is enjoying some fresh mulberry’s to replenish its system after a long migration flight.
This beautiful Summer Tanager is eating some sort of bug, which I am happy about. There are always plenty of bugs that provide a great source of protein.
Along with some nuts and seeds for fiber, they are a great food source to keep the system running smoothly. This Brown Thrasher is enjoying his fill of these today.
Of course we cannot leave out the best choice of food for a lot of species, its fish. I have seen a lot of birds doing pretty good at fishing the last few weeks.
This Belted King Fisher is an expert fishermen when it comes to diving into the water to catch a tiny little fish like this one.
This gull picked up a fish floating on top of the water after a fishermen through it back in.
The Great Blue Heron loves fish. They can eat up to a pound of fish a day. We have helped them get their fill this month. When we catch small fish we will sometimes throw them to the herons who are always hanging about looking for a good meal.
Color of Springtime is the morning light. Clouds at sunrise filter the suns light to a golden hue. A warm color after a long winter to warm our minds and spirits.
It radiates light and heat, which makes it possible for life to exist on Earth. Plants need sunlight to grow. Animals, including humans, need plants for food and the oxygen they produce. Without heat from the sun, Earth would freeze. A true metaphor to life. 🙂
Coolest Cat at the Campground, most campgrounds we go to have stray cats running around and kind folks feed them. I saw this one and had to take his picture, what a face. So cute.
Come to find out this particular cat is not a stray, he belongs to a gentlemen that works at the park. So I asked him if I could take his photo and make a painting for him. He said he would love one.
The first two are the photo I took and then the paintings below. This cat is 3 years old and so fluffy. His body fur is brownish but that face is quite something.
So now I am taking photos of all the stray cats when I can like this one below. This campground does catch each one and takes them to the vet to be spade or neutered. Which is a good thing.
Spring Has Sprung in some parts of the world. Down south we had a couple of good rains with warmer temperatures and that is all it took for the wild flowers to emerge from the earth.
Purple being my favorite color is the first thing I saw this week with these dainty little flowers here. Don’t forget to print some of your own photos if you take them to hang on your walls to enjoy every day. I do, I change my photos in my frames every month.
New Pet Portraits, I have been busy creating some fun custom pet portraits the last couple of weeks and I always have to do a couple of my own cat and dogs as well.
My cat and her crazy eyes I like to call them. She is a tuff one to photograph because she usually doesn’t want to sit still.
This ones name is Kit Kit
This is Chloee
This one is my little dog Deohgee or DOG for short, remember her name is not the word dog, you say each letter and that is her name. 🙂 She is 15 years old this year.
This one is a dog called Good Boy Chevy from a You Tube channel that I know
This is a cute little dog named Max, with some bottom teeth that stick out like that all the time. But he is still cute.
This is a stray cat at the campground.
Well, these are not pets of course. But I made them for my web site under the wildlife category.
William Bartram Trail, another park we stopped at not far from Savannah GA, a wonderful place to walk and see all the cool trees and some historical areas though out the forest. Old homestead grounds. We like visiting places like this. I enjoy reading all about the history of places now, never cared for it much back in school.
The trees are a piece of art even when they are blown over laying on the ground like this one.
I like this first photo painting, it was pretty far away so I had to crop a lot of the photo out so you could see the ship closer. It looks like I am standing right in front of it. But there is a curve in the river and eventually it goes right by us.
This ship below I could not find much information about it except they call it a general cargo ship. It was coming up behind the container ship.
And this guy was behind all of them. Making head way as it caught up to the other two as we were leaving.
Lots of Containers, they make for a cool looking photo up close. That would make a great puzzle to put together.
We did a day trip to Tybee Island and on the way back I saw this container ship traveling back the way we came. So I checked the map and found a place we could drive right up to the waters edge and made it there just as the ship was about to pass by.
Light House Photography, Well we made it to Georgia and made our way to a place called Tybee Island where I photographed my first Light House. It was in a perfect location not far from the beach.
I definitely would like to find more of these to photograph. There is so much you can do with the photo, they make excellent paintings and look good as black and white as well.
Now I learned how to make the light flash on my photo, as I am writing this we will see if it works when it is posted. Oh, and now we have seen the Atlantic Ocean. 🙂
