Behind the Digital LensMusings of an Amateur Photographer

27th Apr, 2015 Surprising places

Sometimes, when you least expect it, and in the most surprising places, you find….

(Found in an open stairwell inside a quadruplex in my apartment complex.)

18th Oct, 2014 Spooky Nature

Once again, it’s that time of year where pumpkins are carved up and placed on front stoops, hay bails and scarecrows decorate the lawns as well as spooky characters from witches, black cats to ghosts.  And, of course, the scariest of all: parents and adults dressed up!

Occasionally, however, Mother Nature surprises us with a “spooky” character of her own.  Such was the case for me last weekend as I was out visiting a “new to me” park near my apartment.  Since I am not much of a people or event photographer, I’m always looking for “different” things in nature to photograph.  I had just finished taking some photos of a bird when I turned around to leave and had a creepy feeling I was being watched from somewhere near to where I was standing.  Looking around I was alone; no other soul in the park that I could see.  And then, I looked up, and there it was.  No, not a squirrel, or possum, or bird or snake – nothing in the animal family.  No, it was like something from a children’s play had wandered in and settled down and it fixed on me.  And I just had to laugh.

You are being watched!

12th Sep, 2014 One of those “funny” photos

Once in a blue moon you’ll go out to take photos and as you take them you catch a quick look and all looks fine.  All excited you get home to upload them to your computer and see what they really look like.  And there it is.  You know what you took, and it is indeed that photo, but there is just the way it turned out, which isn’t what you saw in that quick glance.  Sure, it’s that object, but with a twist.

This is what happened with a photo I took several days ago.  There was a pretty iris next to my apartment building.  Well, yes, it was pretty, but it also wasn’t dynamic.  This poor solitary iris had to work to even look like a flower.  It was droopy and in need of watering and apparently the sprinkler right there wasn’t doing the greatest of jobs, so the flower was struggling.  I really wanted a photo of it, but, bad me, not in that sad looking condition.  I waited.  And then, it started looking better, so I grabbed up my camera and went out to take a couple of dozen photos from different angles.  Along the way I glanced at some of the ones I took, but it wasn’t until I uploaded them to my computer that I saw it.  I guess this photo could fall into the “caption this” category.  I think it has become one of my favorite “funny” photos.

30th Oct, 2013 When a bad photo looks good

I have finally come to believe that not every photo has to be perfect, sharp, completely well framed, etc.  Sometimes the “misses” can turn out quite interesting.

I went to a Marina over the weekend, late in the afternoon, to take photos of the ducks there.  Lots of ducks, lots of people feeding ducks, lots of duck photos.  Well, not really lots of photos.  It was getting dark and I don’t really care for flash photography; I do it when needed.  But, anyway……

For the most part I don’t really look at my playback screen, although sometimes I do because I know that a photo I have just taken has turned out badly and I will delete it, especially if I have little idea of what it was because of blur.  That day was no different.

So, I got home, uploaded the photos to my external hard drive, and started going through them.  And there it was.  A bad photo that was actually cool looking.  I had tried to take a closeup of one of the mallard’s head, but just as I hit the shutter button, he turned his bill down.  The result looks a bit psychedelic but I think it turned out rather interesting.

What I learned is that you should always take a second look at some of the photos you are thinking of deleting.  They could actually be really neat and give you ideas about other “bad” photos and you don’t necessarily need to edit them, either.