Thursday Pictures Final Quarter

This picture was taken at an aquarium in Chicago.  The lizard pictured is really a magnificent specimen.  I decided to put this picture on the blog because of the way the picture shows both part of the subject above water and part of it below.

 

Taken at the same aquarium, this is a lobster of some form.  I like the way the pale colors in the background really bring out the color of the lobster.  I also like the blurred whiskers and the way they give the lobster a sense of motion.

 

 

Also at the aquarium, this picture gets right to the point.  It focuses only on the subject and there is nothing else in the picture to draw attention away from it.  I really like the expression on his face; i’ve never seen a fish look so mad before.

 

 

 I don’t recall where this picture of a bursting firework was taken.  I do remember that I was really happen to get this shot since I had such a narrow margin of time in which to snap the shutter.  The great thing about the resulting photograph is that it reminds me of a sunburst. 

Not the most artistic photo ever, this is a picture of my dog slinky.  He was just a puppy when we brought him home and he had a lot of exploring to do.  In this picture he has his head tilted in deep contemplation of something in my backyard.

 

Going back to the aquarium, I love the way the tentacles seem to be out of control.  To the left a little fish seems to be hiding behind it, and the drab background makes this aquarium seem like a dangerous place to swim through.

 

 This picture was taken on a hiking trip in Ventana Canyon.  The upwards angle of the shot really makes the cactus seem to be reaching into the sky.  The blooming flower adds a nice bit of character as well.

 The more pictures of fish I select the more I begin to realize that I might have a particular interest in them as the subject.  This picture was chosen for the simple reason that the huge helmet on the fish’s head is intriguing.

This is my favorite picture from the aquarium.  The way the little clown fish is being hugged by it’s neighbor makes it look so comfortable.  It reminds me of the feeling you get when you hide under the sheets on a really cold day.

 

This is another picture of my dog slinky in one of his favorite hangouts, the backyard.  I love the expression of joy on his face.  The tag match he is engaged in with my other dog, Scamp, is a perfect example of friendship.  It’s extremely heart-warming.

 

I love the color scheme of this fish.  The blues and the yellows play off each other brilliantly.  The background is rather bland which makes the fish seem all the more brilliant.  However, I wish he wasn’t swimming away when I took the shot.

 Just another foggy day in Chicago, the sight was quite stunning for someone who has lived in the desert all of his life.  The fog seems to be bearing down on the skyscrapers.  The forecast doesn’t look good for the boats; it looks like it’s about time to abandon ship.

I had to wait outside nearly all day to catch this picture.  The hummingbirds rarely visit, and they’re so quick you have to be paying attention at all times.  The way he/she can fly so comfortably while grabbing a quick snack is just amazing.

 

 Right off the bat I’d like to say that I wish this picture had more color.  However, it’s not very often that I get to see birds in their natural surroundings, so any time I get the chance to take a decent photograph I take it.

This was also taken in my backyard.  I like it much more than the previous one because of how close in it is.  You can actually make out the feathers, and best of all the pitch black eye.

 

Taken on a different trip into the Ventana Canyon area, I liked the way the shade provided by the rock contrasted with the harsh rays of sun just around the corner.  It almost looks as if the prickly pear cactus has hidden there to get a break from all the heat.

 

This was taken in a desert by my friend’s house in marana.  I was trying to show the sharp thorns in contrast with the beauty of the flower.  I didn’t zoom in enough to get that effect, but the result is still aesthetically pleasing.

 

This picture was taken at a family friend’s cabin in Utah.  I like the way that only the branch and the bird are in focus.  As a big fan of birds, I find the yellow chest of this specimen to be absolutely beautiful.

 

This picture was taken way back when I was in the seventh grade.  It was the fourth of july, and in Las Vegas they actually allow fireworks.  I selected this picture because of the way the top of stream of sparks seems to be erupting in little balls of fire.

 

I don’t recall exactly where this picture was taken, but I found it hidden on my flash drive and thought I would include it.  Although only two flowers are in bloom it is clear that many of their friends are about to be joining them.

 

This isn’t the best picture in the world, but it holds sentimental value to me.  Shown above is the headstock of my 1978 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty, the best guitar ever made.  I ended up selling it when I started playing right handed, but I miss it to this day.

 

Taken at Sea World, I just captured a moment in the lives of some bottlenose dolphins.  They don’t seem to have a care in the world, and I envy them for it.  Not shown in this photo is the huge audience watching their every move.

 

 This is the most interesting colored fish I’ve included in this blog.  The bright colors are supposed to alert predators of this this fish’s poison.  If this was the intent perhaps the colors shouldn’t have been so beautiful.

Although this picture is plain, the contents are strange enough that I had to include it.  Some of the creatures that inhabit the ocean are insane.  When you visit the beach you never think of the world inhabited by these creatures that lurks just a few miles away.

 

Even though this picture isn’t in perfect focus it still contains a magnificent moray eel!  I believe this one was about six feet long.  Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to be in the water anywhere near this modern day serpent.

 

Here is perhaps the craziest animal I have ever seen.  Lurking beneath the water, it seems as if this deadly predator is just dying to wrap around some unexpecting prey.  It was over fifteen feet long, and the biggest part of its body was wider around than my head.

 

The last picture of this entry also happens to be the prettiest.  Taken at the botanical gardens in Florida, this Mexican bird of paradise is just thriving with life.  The colors are just superb, and the background is blurred just perfectly so as not to draw away any attention from this magnificent plant.

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Yet another picture with a flower as the subject, I am quickly coming to the realization that they may be favorite subject.  There’s just something compelling about vivid colors, especially ones not created by man.  Besides the color, I find the fur growing on the inside of the flower to be the most intriguing element of this photograph.  However, I wish I’d taken the picture from an angle that allowed the viewer to see further down into the depths of the flower as if it were a tunnel.

Sticking with the same theme, I have decided to make this my “flowers with unique characteristics blog.”  If you look closely, you can see the dew droplets on the petals with a wonderful clarity.  In a word, it is nothing less than beautiful.  Again, I am a huge fan of the vibrant color, and this bright pink my be one of the msot beautiful shades I have ever seen.

No surprise here, the unique element of this flower is the long tendrils in the middle that seem to be reaching of for ages.  I must admit that this picture would be much better if the lighting wasn’t so scarce.  On the other hand, I find that the center of the flower inexplicably resembles the sun, and this being the case it is only logical that it contains all the saturated colors withing the frame.

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This picture has to be one of the best I’ve taken in a long time.  The close zoom makes the thorns seem huge and lethal.  The dim lighting that it was taken in also added to the effect, casting a haunting darkness that adds greatly to the scary feeling emitted by the subject.

Here the subject has taken a seat beneath a large red tree in order to catch some shade.  I really like the way his head just peaks out of the darkness; it points out how well his skin hides him in his native environment, I survival tactic I find highly interesting.

In this photogtaph you can see the results of me playing with long shutter speeds in order to get that “soft water” effect that is so beautiful.  It took me a really long time to find an appropriate balance between too plain and too blurry.  Unfortunately, the picture is far too narrow and far too tall, a factor I think effectively draws your eyes away from the water.

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I was really fortunate that everything but the intended subject ended up blurring itself just out of clarity.  It really draws attention to the bird, who’s intense gaze is on something far wide of the picture frame. 

This picture was completely unplanned, and when we were forced to stop because of the crossing sheep I jumped for the camera bag just in time.  I wasn’t able to actually get out of the car, so as you can tell from the reflections I took this picture through the windshield.  I find the fact that there is one black sheep amidst the crowd to be ironic beyond belief.

I really have a phobia of mosquitoes, and usually they make my skin crawl.  However, this upclose picture is simply fascinating.  All of the detail presented withing the photograph is generally too small for the human eye to capture, and I simply had no idea that a mosquito really looked like this.

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Yet another picture of a duck, this is actually the mother of the duckling from the previous posts.  My favorite aspect of this picture is the pose in which the duck was caught in – regal and elegant, it seems to have no worries in life as it calmly majestically prunes itself.

This picture was taken in my backyard, and what really strikes me about it is that the spider is suspended in air atop its sloppy web.  Although the background is bland, the clarity of the limbs is fairly decent, and the fact that I captured the red hourglass from which it gets its name really gives the picture its meaning.

Another type of shot that’s really popular with me is the close up of any wild animal.  Up close you really feel like your on the same level as the animal as the zoom makes it seem larger than life.  For this picture the subject jumped right on top of the wooden log seen above, creating a perfect background to set the wilderness mood.

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I could go one for days about this picture.  For reasons I honestly can’t understand, this picture of what would normally considered a beautiful scene fills me with melancholy and a feeling of loneliness when desaturated.  It could be the way that the seaweed is piling up, at the end of it’s lengthy journey, laid out to die just feet about from it’s old home.  Then again, it could be the glimpse of civilization presented by the quaint little house that it just out of reach.  Either way, the overall picture fills me with a feeling that I don’t ever want to have to experience in everyday life.

For me this picture embodies youth and innocence, something that we strive for a little more every day we wake up.  The baby duckling, with its fur so soft you can practically feel the texture on your fingers, is clearly consumed by the sheer curiousity of the world that we all experienced at children.  I think that the brightness of the surroundings make them seem more harsh, and in turn the duckling’s fearless prodding of the earth with its young beak seems to exemplify that useful curiousity all the more.

This specimen can be categorized as none other than prehistoric in its origins.  It looks as if it is the predecessor of the modern day butterfly; the butterfly that would be seen flying amongst the dinosaurs millions of years ago.  The crude architecture that it is rested on is so primitive it seems as if this picture has taken a step back into the past.  When looking at this picture with an open mind, if you really let your imagination run wild it isn’t that much of a stretch to create your own mental Jurassic Park.

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Even though this might not be the best picture ever, (it is very over exposed and the background is simply boring) the subject of the picture istself is so majestic that I felt it would make a beautiful addition to my blog.  Rather than focusing on the tail feathers, which are usually the most valued part of a peacock, in this photo the focus is on the neck and head, which are made of such a dark turqoise the color is very rarely found anywhere else. It simply seemed like a subject I had no choice but to feature.

  

This picture plays on the same theme that my bird picture did last week, which is the bravery of wild animals when facing humans.  As far as composition goes, the foreground and the subject are extremely in focus while the background is faded out not to draw attention away from the squirrel.  Looking at the squirrel itself, it’s looking right into the lens of the camera.  It’s so bold and unfaltering, it’s practically as if it was saying “I live here, you’re just a visitor.”

This flower, although somewhat plain in itself, reminds me so much of a ladybug that they literally seem to be “cut from the same cloth.”  When it comes to digital manipulation of photography, I think it is extremely clever when people transfer the characteristics of one subject to a different one.  Naturally, when I found this happening in nature, I couldn’t help but be excited.  Luckily I had a camera, and I now get to observe this striking resemblance whenever I please.

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This picture was taken right here on campus for the montage assignment we did last quarter.  The clarity of the spider is amazing; when zooming in you can see every individual hair on the spider’s legs.  Although the background isn’t anything impressive, once the spider is cropped out of the frame, it can be used for an endless amount of pictures that can be blown up to giant proportions.

This image was captured at a friend’s cabin in Utah, where I was absolutely enamored by the fearlessness all of the wildlife demonstrated in the presence of humans.  I feel that this picture really juxtapositions the beauty of nature with the materialism of our society, and for this reason it holds particular significance to me.

Here is yet another flower picture, but it really stands out from the rest of the flower pictures I have taken because of the way the sun plays off the petals.  As your eyes move down from the top of the flower the lighting moves from a medium shading all the way to a vibrant lighting at the very tips of the lowest petals.  Even in the shade the flower is absolutely glowing, and it just seems to emit a sense of liveliness that is lacking in many of my pictures.

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I took this photo in a rose garden in California.  What I really like about this picture is the sharp edges of the bright red flower contrasted with the blurry, soft edges of the yellow flowers in the background.  Catching the bee going on about his daily business is in added bonus, and is in fact the reason I decided to take this picture.

The occasion for taking this photograph was simply that it is a beautiful example of classic American horsepower.  This picture has a certain appeal to me because the car seems so strong and defiant in the harsh bland environment it resides in.  The angle the picture was taken from makes it seem like the car is on the prowl, and combined with the reflection of the car’s surroundings in its paint job, it seems as if the picture is speaking of a predator and the environment it lives in.

Although the actual picture is not of the greatest quality, the silhouetee of a dead tree infested with what look like ravens or crows is so full of imagery and metaphor I couldn’t keep it off my blog.  It makes me think of all of the elements of a great Edgar Allen Poe story; gloom, danger, and mystery.

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I love this picture simply because of how creepy and ominous it is.  The shaded over eyes tell of dark thoughts behind them; the powerful limbs and torso of the animal are hidden behind the leaves, only to leave an intimidating head creeping from beyond the depths.  Even the skin color of the animal is perfect; changing consistently from one color to another that I person would have to be crazy to see as anything other than putrid.

Soft Water – The main purpose of this picture was to experiment with exposed shutter speeds in order to get that “soft” effect made by the water skimming over the rocks.  It turned out to be an entertaining picture to look at because the stream slowly thins and then turns a corner, allowing your eyes to trace all of the elements of the photo to a central source

 

 

This picture resulted from a fascination with the way the water of this stream moved so fast that it seemed to “skip off of the rocks.”  I wanted to capture this in a still frame, so I used a super fast shutter speed and after a few tries I got a fairly decent picture of the water suspended in air.