Butterfly on a Red Flower

This butterfly on a red flower is an HDR image, 3 exposures merged together in Photomatix. The tricky thing about butterflies is that they sometimes don't hold all that still. When you merge the images, it is easy to end up with a ghosting effect (with those moving wings). The butterfly pictured here did hold still long enough for me to make three exposures (although, I had to try several times), which then were cropped and tweaked slightly for color in AfterShot Pro for the image that you see here. Thanks for stopping by!

Upside Down Orange/Black Butterfly in the Flowers

Butterfly houses are cool, not only for all of the different varieties of butterflies but also for the flowers. Put the butterflies and the flowers together, and they make interesting subject matter for photographical compositions.

Cartoon HDR Butterfly

There was something in the post-processing of this photo that looked made this picture look like a cartoon to me. It could have been that there was some ghosting going on in this picture (where the images did not directly merge together), which Photomatix fixed on the butterfly (I used the manual setting in which I selected the butterfly as the ghosted area). Whatever it was, I thought it looked cool and decided to post it as today's photo. Thanks for looking!

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Some butterfly expert is going to come along and correct me on this and say, "No, no, no -- It's a green morpho..." All I can say is that I'm pretty sure it's a morpho butterfly, at least from some of the other pics I've seen online. This butterfly is very interesting in that, wings closed, it very much blends in with its surroundings. Wings open... well, this particular butterfly never actually did open its wings when I was around, but I'm sure that it was a pretty blue color.

Sunset at the Beach

As warm as this title sounds, the temperature was floating around somewhere in the fifties. The sun had already gone down, and these were some of the 'after colors' that I was getting after sunset.

Wild Mushrooms

When I saw these mushrooms, I thought they were unique. There was almost a flowery-type design to them. The colors weren't the most interesting, but I was intrigued by the shape.

Big Pumpkin in the Garden

There were some good-sized pumpkins in the garden the day I took these pictures (three exposures, merged in Photomatix for HDR effect). I found it interesting that the deer were also interested in these pumpkins, evidenced by some places on the outer skin which had been thoroughly chewed.  

Old Fashioned Outdoor Water Pump

A pile of wood was situated next to this old fashioned water pump outdoors. The color of the pump blended in with the wood, yet I was able to make it stand out somewhat in the post-processing edits.

Tree at the Lake with a Cloudy Blue Sky

When I saw this tree at the lake the other day, I thought of the big tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom. For this photograph, I wanted the tree to be the big focus of the picture, with the pretty blue in the cloudy sky behind helping the tree to stand out.

A Picnic Table in the Wilderness

On a walk the other day, I saw this picnic table sitting alongside a trail on a woodland path. 

Intertwined Tree Roots

The roots of these two trees seem to have grown together and are exposed (no dirt to cover them). I thought this picture looked best in black and white.

More Rock Stairs with Trees in the Background

This might be a better view of the stairs that I posted in yesterday's picture. Here you can actually sort of tell that they are... stairs.

Black and White Stacked Rock Stairs

These rocks were stacked to form stairs in a park that I recently visited. I created an HDR photograph, and since I liked the black and white version the best, that's what you see in today's photo. Thanks for looking! :)

Water on the Rocks Under Trey's Mega Extreme Filter

Trey Ratcliff has a filter in his set of Photomatix filters called "Mega Extreme Do Not". That's what it says on my Photomatix; it simply cuts off after 'not'. I'm not exactly sure what I'm not supposed to do with this filter, but it really does produce some 'mega extreme' effects, as you see in this picture.

Yellow Wild Flowers

If you saw yesterday's photo of the white wild flowers, today's photo is just like yesterday's except... yellow.

White Wild Flowers

These wildflowers were sort of white, with a tinge of purple. They probably aren't really wild flowers, but, not really knowing what they were, I decided to call them wild flowers.

In the Apple Tree

Shooting pictures of an apple tree the other day, I took a picture of... an apple. :)

Purple Leafy Plant and White Flowers

The purple leafy plant from the other day made it into today's photo, where I found it planted next to a plant that has white balls of flowers.

Bumblebee on a Yellow Flower

I really liked the yellow in the middle of this picture, and the lack of color throughout the rest of the picture. It was a bonus for the bumblebee to find its way to the middle of the flower as I was taking the photo.

Purple Flower HDR

I'm not sure what kind of flowers these purple flowers are, but I thought they were pretty. So... I took pictures, merged the exposures... and voila!

Pseudo-Fish Eye Black-Eyed Susan

Taking flower pictures yesterday, I came across these black-eyed susans. As I edited the original file in my photo editing program, I liked what it was able to do with the fish-eye filter. I thought it was pretty cool, so.. that's what you see for today's picture.

Green Tomato (Artistic Filter)

This green tomato is another edit job that I was playing around with in Photoshop Elements, using one of the artistic filters.

Colorful Cherry Tomatoes

The cherry tomatoes in my garden are at various stages of development, seen in the different shades of color in the picture below:

Grow, Little Tree, Grow!

Growing alongside yesterday's sunflower on my deck was this little tree. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I thought that it was a pretty little tree. If I happen to have time, perhaps I will transplant it. If not, there are always other little trees that happen to sprout in my yard.

Wild Sunflower in the Morning

I call this sunflower wild, because we didn't intentionally plant it. The seed fell into a crack in my deck and was missed by the squirrels and the chipmunks and the birds. With all of the rain that we've received, the plant sprang up and made it to flower.

Remembering a Blue Canadian Morning

It was around this same time last year that we took a trip into Canada, to go fishing in Lake of the Woods. My Sony cameras were still quite new to me, so the pictures that I took on that trip were still part of my early learning curve. However, I think that these Sonys have been an excellent tool in helping me to learn about photography. I really like the fact that you can see the picture on your screen (for better or worse) that your camera is actually going to take. This lets you know that, if you don't like something about the picture, you need to learn to make some adjustments -- which... got me to learning about making adjustments while using my camera.

Another Foggy Morning View of the Lake

This is another view from that foggy October morning at the lake (when I heard all of those birds). I was standing on the fishing pier, looking over into the weeds.

When the Snow Started Flying

This is a picture from the first snow that we had last year, at the end of October. It's amazing how quickly the time has gone, that we are now (most likely) within two months of seeing snow again(!). For those of you who like to psychoanalyze things, I will leave it to you to make the associations between the upcoming winter season and the subject of this photograph. :) Thanks for looking!

Dark Clouds after Sunset

This is another picture of those stormy clouds from just after sunset from a few days ago. The sun had already gone down, and the sky was still quite colorful.

Red and White Tower against Dark Clouds

For some time, I have admired the skyline landscape scene of this red and white tower in the background behind these trees. I happened to be in the area with my camera, taking a few pictures... before I started to hear the thunder rolling in the distance and decided that it might be best to move along. This photo was processed as HDR in-camera, and then I edited it in AfterShot Pro. Thanks for looking!