Focus on Life: Moments - Best Captured in Black & White

Form and Feeling take Center Stage

This week, our prompt from Sally Russick for April's Moments theme, was to find a moment best captured in black and white. 

I knew right away I wanted to catch the newly opened daffodils as they recovered from being covered in ice the night before. Kind of poignant to see them bowing down.

I liked how important the light becomes. 

I then chose a vase that has been kicking around in my garden...looking much older than its actual age. 

Abuse, not age!

And then this old galvanized bucket, just because it looks cool.

Nice geometric effect on the bottom. 

 Looking forward to what others have done.

An InLinkz Link-up

Focus on Life:Moment of Focus

Exploring a Shallow Depth of Field.

When Sally Russick set our April Moment of Focus photo prompt, a chance to explore using our cameras to capture a picture with shallow depth of field, I warmed to the task of doing something a bit more technical with my camera, which has manual as well as automatic settings. I read Sally's hints, I even read my camera

 manual. I was set.

But, as with other times that I have tried to "go manual" with the camera's settings,   I found that what that camera is best at is doing things on automatic. With an infinite depth of field. Above is the closest I could come with some of the options on the camera.  So I got going in the Picmonkey editing site, and came up with these reasonable facsimiles of altered depth of field. Sally made a video about using Pixlr's photo editing to blur the background, but my computer does not seem to like to play those videos. And frankly, using Pixlr is beyond my capabilities. 

Focal Pixelate

Spotlight

Zoom Blur

Maybe some day I will get the hang of using depth of field to improve my photography. I kind of like that last one. And did you notice what the subject is? Daffodil buds! Spring!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Focus on Life: Take a walk!

A few pictures you haven't seen yet.

When Sally Russick sent out the photo prompt "Take a Walk" I thought, well here's one I can phone in! But no, I always try to take fresh pictures, so the fact that most of the pictures I have taken for this activity have something to do with my daily walks with Bebop, should not keep me from posting some new ones. 

Here goes. 

Love taking pictures of this bridge that leads across the stream opposite my house

An old cemetery, houses built around it, but it was allowed to remain.

We cross over the same water twice. 

The curve in front of our house. 

Bebop leading the way.

Daffodils pushing through leaves and garbage by the road side.

I have more pictures in an album, HERE. 

See where other participants go on their walks, On Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime.

Hopeful Signs!

Lest anyone think that we are sitting here covered in snow, March has worked its magic and here are some pictures I took two days after my last Focus on Life post.

Ice still on the ponds, but it's going fast...

Maples starting to bloom.

Willows turning yellow, next stop, green.

Crow on the offensive against......

Cooper's hawk sitting on a nest!

Cress fed by a bubbling spring.

Okay, these are in my kitchen, and came from the store, but ain't they pretty?