This week’s Lens-Artists challenge is hosted by Patti at https://pilotfishblog.com. She asks us to consider: ”what makes a photo dramatic? Maybe it is processed in black and white, or it has vivid colors. Maybe a person, place, or object is captured from a unique perspective or it is a macro shot. This week, we’ll explore some characteristics of dramatic images and some ways to add drama to photos.”
Whenever I want to see something dramatic, all I have to do is look up.
A crescent moon high in a night sky has a sense of the dramatic.
Then there are sunsets as viewed from our patio.
Clouds don’t need color to be dramatic. Do you see an angel in one of these photos?
The open sky of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is often dramatic.
The evening sky at Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park, a once-favorite place to hike, could be dramatic at times.
(These photos were taken about 10 years ago. That’s the back of my head in the first one.)
Finally, no drama here. Just a warm memory of Raji getting cozy with “uncle” Junior (RIP).
Next week’s challenge will be led by Ann-Christine/Leya, so be sure to visit her site next Saturday for some inspiration.
This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is hosted by Dawn of The Day After. Dawn invites us to share our photos of fences. She shares a lovely variety of fences in her post so please pay her a visit.
I hesitated to join in this week’s challenge because I don’t have a lot of photos with fences in them. I’m almost always trying to keep fences out of my photos. That will change. After seeing what others are contributing to the challenge, I’ve realized that I need to look at fences more closely.
That said, generally I don’t like fences, especially ones like this:
No Trespassing sign affixed to fence gate.
The gate closes off private land from Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park. Maybe I shouldn’t complain. The park was developed in cooperation with the city, the water management district, and the property owner (Phipps) and has over 600 acres for recreation. I guess I can’t begrudge the Phipps family for keeping part of their land.
This next photo sparks some good memories for me. Taken during one of our trips back to San Francisco, we had walked up Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park. The walk was one that we often took when we lived in San Francisco back in the late 80s. I love how the fence was built twining fallen branches around posts.
“Natural” fence at Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park (San Francisco).
Chain-linked fences are popular in my neighborhood. They’re easy to put up, inexpensive, but pretty boring except when a young Red-Shouldered Hawk decides to take a break on one.
Young Red-Shouldered Hawk perched on a chain-linked fence.
Some fences are built to let people know where they can and cannot walk. The photo below shows one of our favorite resting places at another park in Tallahassee. Beyond the fence is a lake and where’s a lake (or any body of water), there’s likely to be alligators. Best to stay on the right side of the fence.
My husband sitting at one of our favorite resting places at a park in Tallahassee. The fence serves to keep people away from the alligators that might be hanging out in the lake.
I do like this wrought-iron fence, another good place for a hawk to perch. The fence has seen better days, but it still serves a purpose, for the hawk anyway.
Yet another hawk perched on a fence, this one a wrought-iron fence that has seen better days.
Finally, our fence. Starting late last year, we had a string of contractors tearing down and building up our property on the west side of our house. We had 15 trees taken down, hardscaping for a patio and walkway put down, a privacy fence with a barn-like gate put up, and a bunch of plants put in.
The metal contraption is for our gate, which slides like a barn door. Seems like a bit of overkill but we’re used to it now.View from our little side porch off the garage.Our fence is 8 feet tall, our neighbor’s roof just visible. Everyone, including our neighbors, is happy with this fence.A view toward the garden.
By the way, my husband built that green bench in the foreground. It’s long and wide enough for him to lie down and do his exercises.
Thanks to Dawn for joining as host this week. Please be sure to link your responses to her fun post here. If you choose to join in, remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag so your post appears in the WP reader.
This week, Anne leads the photo challenge with “Wildlife Close to Home”: “Stop. Look. Listen. Doing those three things will help you discover the abundance of wildlife you have nearby.” I stop, look, and listen a lot on my walks in the hood and even in my own backyard.
You might recall that my husband gave loaned me his Lumix GX85. So far I’ve been pretty pleased with the quality of photos I’m getting. As always, my favorite subject: the humble bumblebee.
We’re making an effort to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to our little slice of suburbia. The following photo shows a shrimp plant that, on any given day, will have two or three bees slipping in and around its flowers. I am utterly amazed by this plant. It wasn’t blooming at all the first couple of months. I transplanted it during that time, but still no blooms. Finally, I moved it to a much bigger pot and now I have 20-30 blooms on it!
Shrimp plant. Looks good enough to eat!
There are wilder places than our backyard. One of my favorites is St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. We went out there this past Monday (a gorgeous, cool, sunny day) on our bicycles. We took a break at one of the two concrete bridges that we cross over. We delighted in the spectacle of a number of insects enjoying the yellow centers of the Climbing Aster.
This here is a type of bee making hay with a Climbing Aster. Taken with my iPhone 8 Plus.
I really struggled to get a good shot of the bees (they were moving too fast). Here’s a photo with just the flower so you can see how pretty they are.
Climbing Aster. This one I took with the Lumix GX85.
The refuge would not be a refuge without an alligator. We found this one “dozing” at the first concrete bridge we crossed. When we came back this way a few hours later, he/she/they were still there. The day wasn’t too cold, but cool enough for the alligator to go into a kind of stupor. Still, I was more than happy to stay on the bridge and just admire it.
Alligator doing what alligators do when they’re on the chilly side. (Taken with my iPhone 8 Plus)
Now for a change of pace. Several months ago we went to Mashes Sands Beach, a funky strip of sand along an estuary. I love going there because there’s always something interesting to see. On this day, I was playing with my old Canon T3i and a telescopic lens. This is an osprey on the hunt.
Osprey on the hunt. Taken with a Canon T3i and telescopic lens.
Last, but never least, one of my favorites from springtime at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge: the bum of a bumblebee as it tears through a thistle.
Bum of a bumblebee on a thistle.
Thank you for visiting!
If you care to join in the fun, remember to tag your post with Lens-Artists and make a link to Anne’s post.
Marie at 1 Write Way 