Floral Day

I live about sixteen miles from the Pacific Ocean as the crow flies. But due to the mountainous terrain it takes about forty five minutes to an hour to drive there. On Saturday Lenore and I made a leisurely drive over to the coast and had lunch at Sea Pal down in the harbor. They have some of the best fish and chips on the coast as well as harbor side seating to watch the seals and the fishing boats going in and out. Following lunch we headed down to the village of Mendocino. Lenore hit some of her favorite spots as we wandered around town. With the foggy weather it was perfect for photographing flowers so I took out my camera and macro lens and focused on the abundant flowers to be found. The coastal climate allows for a wide variety of flowers to be grown. God's love and blessings upon your day, chris All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D camera and a Canon EF-S 60mm macro lens. #teamcanon

B + W Well Sort of

This morning when I arose the sun was shining brightly over the fog filled valley below. I was really looking forward to a bright sunny day. Then the clouds thickened and blotted out the sun. Minutes later the fog rolled in from the coast. It quickly tuned into an inside kind of day. We even had to fire up the woodstove which is incredibly rare for us to do at the end of May. Looking for something to photograph I grabbed a single Nasturtium blossom from Lenore's pot outside on the deck. I brought it inside and photographed it with a white and then a black background. Which one do you like better? God's blessings upon your week, chris #teamcanon, #withmytamron Both images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 180mm lens.

Baby It's Cold Outside

The rains have returned with gusto or so it seems. There are rains in our Northern California forecast for the next week or so. It's pretty much an inside kind of day. What to do on a rainy day? This morning I finished two days of editing for a book project I have been working on. Then I refilled the bird feeders with black sunflower seed and hung up the meal worm feeder. A big golf umbrella really helps! I was at a bit of a loss of what to do when I passed by a floral arrangement from the garden in our dining room. All of the flowers were looking pretty dismal except for one Iris bloom. I tossed out all of the flowers but kept the Iris. Next I grabbed my camera, tripod, macro lens, three backdrops, gold reflector and a flashlight. I set the iris up in a vase next to a window with the backdrops layered up behind it. The reflector I placed leaning up against a chair reflecting light from the window onto the blossom.With the macro lens on a tripod it was a pretty nice set up. I think I might go try it out with a fe wmore backdrops of different colors. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 180mm macro lens. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

What Can You Do in Twenty Minutes? or Crawling Around in the Dirt

This afternoon I needed to pick up a new prescription. When I arrived at the pharmacy they told me it wouldn't be ready for fifteen to twenty minutes. They asked me if I had any shopping or something else that I could do while waiting. I ran out to my pick up and grabbed my camera. I usually carry my trusty little Canon EOS T1i with me in the truck. Luckily I had a Canon macro lens mounted on it. I headed to a field south of the parking lot. Here there were quite a few wildflowers just waiting to be photographed. There were California Poppies, Owls Clover, Tidy Tips and a couple of other species I couldn't identify. I spent the next twenty minutes crawling around on the ground photographing wildflowers. I'm sure drivers going by on the main road were wondering what that guy was doing lying down out there in the field? It's amazing what you can accomplish in twenty minutes. Have a great weekend and God bless, chris #TeamCanon All images were created with a handheld Canon EOS T1I camera and a Canon EF-S60mm Macro USM lens.

In Search of the Wild Things

After repeated notices in the mail warning me that I might be beheaded or maimed by the defective air bag in my pick up I brought it in to be serviced yesterday morning. Recalling that the dealership is in the area where I used to photograph wildflowers I grabbed my Canon EOS T1i camera and a Canon 60mm macro lens as I headed out the door. On pulling into the service area I was saddened to see that the new dealership sat right on the field where there used to be large purple patches of Lupines. Dejectedly I sat in the waiting room for the repairs to be made. You can only sit in a waiting room for so long looking at car magazines so I decided to walk out onto the car lot and look at the pick ups for sale. The first one I looked at made me have sticker shock. It was $59,197.00! That is more than the purchase price of my first home! I continued on down the line to the base model which was a more affordable $40,000.00 . Then I starting searching for some possible wildflowers that may still be surviving around the edges of the lot. Just past the edge of the last vehicle there was a patch of purple. I was happy to find a small patch of Purple Vetch that was creeping under the fence. Looking further I found a single clover blossom struggling to survive in this lonely little corner as well. Nature sometimes finds a way to come back. God's love and blessings to all, chris Both images were created with a handheld Canon EOS T1i camera and a Canon EF-S60mm macro lens. #TeamCanon