Photography

Its officially over.. 2015 as we say hello to a brand new year.  Happy 2016!!!  January 2015 February 2015: March 2015: April 2015: May 2015: June 2015: July 2015: August 2015: September 2015; October 2015: November 2015: December 2015:

This week I decided to this  post called " Rain and Fog doesn't stop anything." Which it did not this past week. Its has rained a lot all week and we are sick of it. More fog and rain this past week. It has caused so much flooding and lots of rain that we are prepared for spring already. We had so much flooding around the triangle area that the National Weather Service in Raleigh has to issued the ariel flood warning still. It has been a crazy week of rain and fog and server weather across the country. I also photographed rain droplets on trees after it stopped raining for awhile.

As you can see from the photos below, I was able to capture turtle behavior. These pond sliders were very use to people around Anderson Park. As you can see the turtles were fighting to sun on the same rock. They made quite the pair together to photograph. This was a very fun day to watch animal behavior in the wild. As you can see the turtles cooperated together and made peace to each other to sun together on this rock.

 This year on christmas eve we had a full moon. and even in the morning we had a rainbow on Christmas eve morning.  This is very rare to have a full moon on christmas. This was the first time for me photographing the rare full moon on christmas eve. The last rare full moon on christmas was 19 years ago in 1996. The next full moon on christmas eve will be in 19 years from now.

Today I decided to do a black and white segment on my blog for the first time. Black and White photography consists of a lot of different characteristics.Years ago some photographers used to do black and white a lot. Black and white photograph is very interesting to do. I am starting to do some black and white here and there to experiment with. The second black and white photograph is moss on a tree that i took at mason land preserve about 2 weeks ago on my favorite tree there which i have been photographing a lot.

Totally forget to post the winter solstice pictures yesterday.  It means the sunset yesterday was earlier and now we gain more sunlight until the spring. I have been really busy with alot of projects lately and working at o2 fitness at Falconbridge. This sunset was taken at my pond last night. I adventured out and took more photos. I saw a goose today and did photos of its behavior along with other different things i found today. I also photographed fungus today on a tree that i have been photographing for awhile now. I am hoping to do a black and white theme some time soon on my blog. I also photographed Nindina Berries today. I used my macro lenses to do this today along with dew drops from the rain today After all this rain.. We are headed back to the 70 degree weather this week and on Christmas this year. This is very rare to be near 80 degrees this winter.

I recently did a photo outing to Mason Land Preserve owned by the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. I experimented with dew conditions. I was able to work with these conditions in the morning heat. I photographed a female goldfinch , pleated woodpecker , termites, queen ant and her worker ants and of course fungus. Fungus can be big and really cool to photograph. I use a macro lens to the trick for everything that is macro. Here comes  to the fun part the ants. You remember when you were in pre school and sung the "ants go marching" It reminds you of this photo.

 Adventuring  out early that afternoon, I did a stroll or walk around my neighborhood pond to see what was going on before sunset and after sunset.  I realized of course that it was the golden hours know to most photographers. The golden hours occur before sunrise and sunset and after sunset which makes it really cool to photograph.  This sunset was particular beautiful to see and photograph.  I saw geese, turtles and a blue heron all in one day.  I can't believe how much warm weather we have had lately in the 70s which is very rare in December this year normally its below that some years. Even though this year has it ups and downs . The flowers are really confused due to the warm weather and already to starting to bloom already and they have lost it.  Its hard to believe 2016 will be here soon!

Happy December! Its hard to believe this is the last month of 2015 and soon to become 2016 in less than 4 weeks away. What a messy and rainy week we had these past couple of days. This was defiantly a messy week and foggy weather too.  I recently did dew drops this week after it had finally stopped raining. I quickly realized it was time to get outside and do some photographing again.  I quickly grabbed my camera and camera equipment to head outside and enjoy the weather. I used my new macro lens I got for my birthday and did some experimenting with dew drops in these conditions which was great to get some practice in. Macro Photography is very easy for some and harder for others. I am in the more advanced stage of macro photography and still learning some new techniques for doing macro work. I am hoping to get more dew pictures soon I hope!

I adventured out with my mentor to do mid afternoon and sunset shooting. We did his pond this time right across from where he lives . We saw a blue heron, geese and some spiders along the way. The sunset  colors were beautiful . It keep going back and forth. We did exposures using the exposure  compensation to keep the sunset colors golden.

This year was the first time there was a full moon on my birthday. I turned 24 on November 25th. I went down to my godmothers pond and did night exposures down there which I had not done before. I was able to do moon photography and exposures. I used the manual setting and bulb on the camera to do this. I used f 8 which is an aperture on the camera to make it sharp and look like day but at night. As you seen on the photos there is lots of reflections in the photos I did at night.

Today I decided to call this post " Still getting out". Today I went to Battle Park, where i took Photos of nature and wildlife( I know right).. The red maples are very late this year due to the weather that has taken place this fall. I have seen many colors this fall. I have seen many different types of wildlife this fall including Blue Herons, Northern Water Snakes, Squrriels, Downy Woodpeckers and many more birds. I have been experimenting with water dopl ets this fall to photograph which is very cool. I am still getting out in this fall to photograph many more things and wildlife . This past weekend, I worked at Camp Royall. I have worked at camp for the past 3 summers and doing their mini camps this year. This past weekend we had the biggest mini camp ever with 32 campers! I am looking forward to celebrating my 24th Birthday tomorrow!! I am getting old I know!

This past weekend in Moncure, North Carolina. I adventured out to take pictures of fog at the camp pond. I did some bracketing of the fog. It was very cool to do this Which one do you like?  Let me choose the one I like and I will let you know why.. I chose the horizontal one because it show the fog rolling in to the pond.

I did some more lightning conditions with dew drops in the after noon. This was acutely very cool for me. I have never done dew drops in the afternoon.. Right I know that ! It was very sunny that afternoon which made for good conditions to shoot in for pictures. I have never done this with fall leaves before. This was my first time doing this. I am learning more about techniques in photography and picture taking.

I recently went on hiking trails behind the Chapel Hill Airport which is no longer being used. But it is sometimes. I did some really cool fall pictures. The rarest thing i have ever seen was a reverse rainbow. I told my mentor Al D the first name as mine you know right.  The rainbow had lasted five minutes going back and forth. I got some really cool pictures of it and including the fall foliage with it. I have seen another rainbow similar to that one but it went around the sun. I did photos of that one where I went to boarding school on Cape Cod. This was very rare for me too.. I have  pictures to prove it. I called it a sun bow. This fall has been weird this year because we did not have many colors this fall like in the other falls in the past due to a lot of rain this year. I am continuing taking photos of the fall.