Tag Archives: desert photography

Rainy Days on Mondays…

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We’ve had several rainy days with thunder and lightning including today. I spotted a few hearty doves on the fence in the rain as well as one hanging out on a Beavertail Cactus.

This dove took advantage of the wet feathers to do some grooming.

The dark clouds were interrupted by a few bright blue spots and sunshine yesterday.

The pool bar floods when we get more than an inch of rain, but it dries up pretty quickly. We also get a river running from the wash down the side of our house. But it’s outside the fence in the NAOS. What’s a NAOS you ask?

Natural Area Open Space (NAOS) is a permanent, recorded land easement in Scottsdale, Arizona, that keeps a portion of private property or community land in a natural, undisturbed Sonoran Desert state

Another view of the pool bar with a bit of rain building up.

Another view of the fluffy Mourning Dove in the rain.

I don’t mind the rain at all. In fact, I love it. We do need the rain and the desert is so green this year. When I get a break in the weather, I’ll walk down to the nature’s preserve across the street to get more photos of green desert landscapes.

A quail mom braved the rain standing on a bench to watch over her kids at the bird seed block.

I love the Carpenters’ music, may Karen RIP.

What your weather like this week? Are you a Carpenter’s fan?

Playing with Pictures

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I caught the morning light in this photo yesterday. It was taken in the shadows of our pergola. Although it’s a bit dark, I like the way the light made patterns on the Barrel and Moroccan Mound cacti.

I turned in my week nine photography assignment last Friday. Then I spent a lot of the weekend practicing and playing — using my macro lens I got for Christmas and my telephoto lens and tripod.

Red has been avoiding me lately, but he finally showed up and I managed to get some pictures of him in focus.

Without a homework assignment — which I’ll have later today — I was able to play and experiment. I tried different lighting, different settings, and waited patiently for Red to make an appearance.

While I shoot, especially out in the sun, I don’t know what I’ve got until I put the memory card into the card reader on my laptop. Then I use Adobe Bridge to look through photos and rate them. It has a zero through five stars labeling system. I put a star by ones I like for future reference. Adobe Bridge is a great tool to organize my few good photos from the hundreds that don’t turn out. I was excited with the photo of Red above! It got two stars.

Here’s another Red photo I thought turned out. Funny (not funny), the next time Red showed up, every photo I took of him was blurry. I think it’s because it was early in the morning and the low in the sky sun was shining right into my eyes. The final photo session of the weekend with Red, the photos were all dark. I had the shutter speed set too high and not enough light was getting into the camera.

Here are honeysuckle blooms I caught in the morning light.

This is called a Fairy Duster.

I know this is an aloe bloom. From what I learned online, the common name is Lace Aloe.

Here’s Mrs. Red with a House Finch buddy enjoying what is a called a Cardinal Block. I bought it at the hardware store and it came complete with a picture of a Red Cardinal on the wrapper. How could I refuse?

This is one of the photos I took of Red that was too dark. I was able crop and lighten it up a bit digitally. I understand the reasoning behind my photography instructor to learn how the camera works and how to make better images — without digital touchups. It’s helped me improve tremendously. I’m also thankful I could rescue a few shots of Red with the help of technology — while playing with pictures.

What were you playing with or enjoying that was fun or creative this weekend?