The Bee’s Dance, a Lavender Photograph

This is my last post to reveal my new photographs available for sale that are up in my newest spring collection of lavender centric photographs. I saved my photograph of this bee dancing around the lavender for last because it happens to be my favorite capture in this collection.

Purchase here at Fine Art America

I spent the majority of my time chasing this bee, and a few others, around the lavender bushes to try and get a photograph of it getting nectar. The bees dance around the lavender so quickly that they are difficult to get into focus, and this day was abnormally warm for sunset so they did not seem to be slowing down as they sometimes do as it gets colder.

I find this bee to be beautiful especially with the yellow and orange in contrast to the purple lavender plant. I hope that you will check out my prints available for sale and please share this with your bee and flower loving friends.

Here is a link to the first post and here is one to the second post, but you can see all my photographs for sale currently here.

Smith Rock Photographs in Black and White

In September I traveled to the Bend area with my kids and my Mom. We had the opportunity to stay at Eagle Crest Resort for the weekend. The resort itself had wonderful amenities, but of course we wanted to make it out to see Smith Rock which is a destination for rock climbers and hikers traveling to Eastern Oregon. The sheer cliffs are quite dramatic and create a fun photography destination as well. These two photographs I decided to try out in black and white and ended up really liking them even though they lose the blue sky and orange rock color.

We were there right in the middle of the day so contrast was really high and although it was sunny, since it was September, it was a quite cool day. I look forward to sharing some photographs of us at the top of those cliffs and of a climber descending from Monkey Rock, which was hard to believe (to me) they could ascend in the first place. 🙂

WP Photography Challenge: Serenity

Living in a small town and spending quite a bit of time in Portland, I feel the most serenity when I am escaping to nature. Hiking, kayaking, and running a some of the ways that I enjoy being with nature. I obviously also really enjoy photography!

Sweeping vistas of the Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood,  and wildflowers combine at the Tom McCall Wildlife Preserve to make an ideal place to escape and be with nature on a warm spring day.

 

The WordPress photography challenge is part of the postaday series you too can join by following the links.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fray

While on my lovely hike at Silver Creek Falls I happened upon this very large spider. It was sitting very currently on its web, which was a bit frayed from the bug that must have landed a while before and was now in the grips of this spider.

You can see the red from the bug it caught right at the center of the spider.

I think above you can really see how big this spider is.

You too can join in the challenge, go to the Daily Post.

Weekly Photo Challenge: On Top

In Neskowin, Oregon there is a beautiful rock (or small island) that depending on the tide is either surrounded by water or accessible by foot. It is a beautiful part of the ocean line to look at. On the night I took this photograph I walked down toward it in the evening. As I got to the back side of it I could see that the trees on top of the rock were filtering the sun so that you could see beams of sunlight. It was a gorgeous sight. So of course I took full advantage of this few moments in time and took many photographs.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

If you want to join the weekly photo challenge you can here.

Berries and Birds

As often happens with me, I am getting around to posting these pictures from a few months ago. I took these photos after taking pictures for my daughter’s forth birthday. We were at a local park and I noticed this pair of woodpeckers up in the trees. They were not very happy about us using the space to take photos. I however thought they were beautiful and took the chance to photograph them. 🙂

I also noticed a bunch of rose hips.

Watkins Glen, New York

The amazing and always beautiful Watkins Glen situated in upstate New York right off of picturesque Seneca Lake, was one of the places I really wanted to visit again while visiting my relatives in New York. I have gone on this hike several times in my life but up until now all of them had been as a youth.

My Grandparents graciously took me to Watkins Glen but decided they only wanted to hike to the first set of long steep stairs. I made it all the way to the top of the last set of very long steep stairs and spent much of the hike alternating between jogging the trail and stopping to take photos.

If you ever have the chance to be in the area I highly recommend this hike, it is adorned with waterfalls that twist and turn in the path of the narrow steep cliffs of slate.

Now that I have photographed Watkins Glen once,  I would really like to go back and do it again at another time of day, and with a tripod. 🙂

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual POV

The weekly photo challenge unusual point of view (POV) creates an opportunity to look at subjects with new perspective. This is a photo of a flower I saw on a hike at the Tom McCall Wildlife Preserve.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea

This week the WordPress weekly photo challenge was sea. During our summer camping trip we drove to the Washington Coast, to Cape Disappointment and were able to spend a couple days exploring the area, including going to the beach as viewing the sea.

We also explored some trails in the area, taking us through an old fort up to a light house, and also a hike through magnificent forest growth with huge plants such as ferns. There were a few large trees we stopped at including one “Magic Tree House” my kids found and played in. After about 20 minutes of pretend play in the tree we looked up only to see a nest of wasps! Yikes.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Also recently I answered some questions and have some photographs on another blog you can view that blog post here: 5+5×5 by Four Deer Oak.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Masterpiece

A few weeks ago I went camping and hiking with my family. We traveled over to the Mount Adams National Forest area by Trout Lake and went on a hike that was really beautiful. Although the up close view of Mt. Adams was amazing the most striking thing to me was these flowers that were covering parts of the forest floor. They were especially prevalent in an area of the forest that had been burned in a forest fire a year or two ago. Although I could have probably spent the entire day just photographing these flowers I did not have that luxury but I did get a few minutes to stop and photograph them on the way back along with my Mom and my Uncle.

I think that nature itself is a masterpiece and all you need to do is take a minute to stop and look. Here is my photo representing masterpiece, and I do plan on post more from this 15 minutes by the side of the road as well as the rest of the trip…stay tuned 😉