Penning Photography Daily

The late afternoon sun streaming in through my bathroom window.

I wanted to capture it and use it to create contrast between my brightly lit half and the other side in the shadow.

I was a bit unsure of my look, so I raised my eyebrow just a tad in reflection of my inner “who knows” thinking.

One more self portrait for the pile.

I have learned from this exercise in narcissism. My skills have grown, and my comfort with putting my own face out there has likewise been raised.

Hopefully that’s reflected in how I put others at ease when I take their photograph.

Relax and enjoy the moment, it flickers by quickly. Just be yourself, and in this case myself.

A wasp in my backyard, providing for it’s own life and the life of other plants via the pollen it carries.

Nectar for it’s own life, pollen for the flowers it visits to carry on their own life cycle.

I hate wasps. At least the stings they represent in my memories.

I’ve learned to appreciate the benefits of all of nature’s creatures, even those who can and have harmed me in their own defense. So, I was able to not run in fear from this black beauty, but stop and try to capture it at work.

Hand held, at 300mm, a moving target is hard to capture. Thankfully, my Pentax has in-body image stabilization, which affords me some measure of assistance in these situations. I still have to move carefully, breath slowly, and pull down on the shutter button with slow care. Otherwise this photo would be more out of focus than it is. =)

Not perfect, but I’m pleased.

Me, mugging in the corner of this beautiful sunset frame.

The soybean field glows with the golden sunset. The sky turning a deeper shade of blue, heading to darkness with the passing of the sun below the horizon.

Then there I am: Gleefully mugging for the camera in this silly self portrait.

I popped up the on-board flash, to give my face some light.

Silly intrusion into the sublime sunset.

After I took my self portrait against the cornfield, I looked up.

I was struck by the texture in the clouds. It looks like a carpet, or river of clouds, flowing across the sky.

It was an easy decision on what to put up for my picture of the day. I went on to take sunset photos, but this one stands out.

Nature surprises me all the time.

Corn as high as an elephant’s eye.

It might be a few weeks late to reach this height due to the Spring rains, but it’s growing great now.

I had this or something like it in mind for a while, and seeing the maturity of the corn today, clinched it for me.

I had my camera on a tripod, and that on top of the roof of my car. I used a remote shutter. I had to move it around a few times to get it just right.

Lots of cornfields around here with a few soybean fields interspersed.

I was surprised in the middle of my outing by meeting a fellow co-worker from many years ago. He and his family were returning home from dinner, and spotted me at the edge of the soybean fields. We caught up and enjoyed the pleasure of a serendipitous meeting in the middle of the fields of green.

Life sure is fun!

During our night tour of the oldest part of Charleston, South Carolina with Kevin as our guide, we came across wonderful lighted gardens like this.

The beautiful fountain and lush greenery lit by soft lights. A dreamy retreat for reflection and refreshment from the full days.

We toured the same area during the day the next day, but there’s something magical that happens in all these gardens at night. I’m glad our guide knew the secret and shared with us.

Ok, so this is from November 2007, on our vacation to South Carolina. Since I’m in it, I count it as a self portrait. =)

At sunset, we ventured forth to a public beach for a different view of the sunset into the Atlantic Ocean. There was a very long boardwalk from the parking area over protected sand dunes to the beach.

Good thing I had a flashlight with me, because by the time we left it was pitch dark. My bride snuggles closer in the dark – perhaps I planned it that way!