Sitting in the bog in back of my house. My ass is wet, it’s cold but not freezing. I’ve just learned that deer leave an amazing amount of poop in the woods. They must back up and, like dump trucks, use the same site every morning. I know there’s a joke about bear business in the woods, if anyone knows one about the common whitetail deer let me know. I managed to avoid all mountains before I sat.
I’m trying out my second new camera of the year. I sent the first back. I learned the problem with manufacturers stuffing ever-increasing pixels onto compressed sensors. On a full size screen it looks like a toss-up between finger painting, and an old chipped mosaic tile floor. I had better results fifteen years ago when cameras only had 5 to 7 pixels.
I didn’t get everything I wanted. The high hopes for a respectable point and shoot went out the window. The only cameras that serve my nitpicky needs are still well over a thousand dollars. Not in this lifetime. I ended up with a Nikon D3200. I bought a camera bag that looks like a big tote bag, so it will serve to tuck and go, point and shoot.
These are first shots out of the new toy. I’m processing with Photoshop, OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 8.1, and trying out a couple of the Topaz plug-ins. I’d like to try more, but my laptop crashes when it tries to open them. Thanks MS for making crappy onboard graphics processors that won’t talk to programs.
I’m certainly happy to have an entire day to spend expressing myself – breaking out of the mold and moving in the direction I want to go. Thanks for stopping by the road. Please leave word on what you think of expressions.
Weekly Photo Challenge:Express Yourself
The Road Less Paved 
These are wonderful
Thanks Judy, encouragement is always appreciated! Hope you enjoy your day. 🙂
You have a great eye for a good photo.
Thanks Jim. A very small part of my very small world. Russia, Turkey, big world! Appreciate the compliment. See you again. 🙂
So glad you stopped by my blog so I could stop by yours again. All my notifications go to junk mail now (for some reason) and I never think to go there to find out who I’m missing. Still, never mind all that. Your images are beautiful. To me they have a nice rustic feel to them. I hope you have lots of fun with your Nikon. I love mine but do everything on automatic with no flash. I’m not big into gizmos or reading operating manuals, but I suspect a tutorial wouldn’t go amiss. I’m thinking of a photography workshop somewhere exotic. 😉
Same here, once in a while I’ll push up the aperture with my thumb, and I’ll move the ISO. The camera already knows what I probably would have needed anyway. Flat on my butt or belly in the grass at my age, no time and place to start fiddling IMO. I do want to learn how to get that creamy water effect … my manual goal for the year. I’ve also lost contact with a lot of my earlier readers. I took so much time off to attend to Maggie I didn’t post often. I hope you manage to get an exotic workshop in. Thanks for visiting all my earlier posts as well. Be well. 🙂
these are lovely…
Hi Charly, I love how you explore the subtleties of the leaves against snow and tree. That first photo with the dark blues in it looks like a piece of tapestry to me. Amazing how even “dead” leaves can still be so beautiful.
Thanks for loving that photo. It was one of the last I shot, looked down as I was picking my was back through the brambles and saw the amazing textures of leaves merged into birch bark. We never know when a surprise will appear. 🙂
Stunning Photos.
Charly, these are just exquisite images, you and the new camera are working well together, that is immediately obvious. Look forward to seeing more.
All the best from Australia (35C … um, 95F? … here today, no snow I’m afraid. Hmmm, in fact, I have a 14 year-old son who has never seen snow. We really must venture further afield at some stage.) 🙂
Glad to hear from you again. I did give careful consideration an Oly micro 4/3 as you suggested. Unfortunately, the one I wanted wasn’t on sale. Still going to work with my E510 with the telephoto. I have two Yashica film cameras with excellent lenses still sitting in a box. I’m thinking about buying a converter to use the glass manually on the Nikon. I already have one for my Olympus. I could never afford to buy that quality of lens from Nikon. Your opinion is so valuable to me, lets me know I’m going down the correct path – finally! Your son should have been here last winter, that was very cold and snowy. This one is fairly mild and dry for our part of the country. Now, Boston, not so lucky. When I get cold I visit your website and watch the slide show. Always a treat. 🙂
What lovely photographs ! The textures are just perfect
Thanks for the compliments and the feedback, Jenny. I’ve finally starting in the direction I’ve wanted to go, and I’m now learning the routes to take to get there. Your response helps me motivated to move forward. Have a terrific day, I look forward to seeing you again.
beautiful and excellent textures 🙂
Thank you, Joshi. I hope down the road I manage to master a bit of the skill for nature that you have for photographing people. I looked through the finalists’ for the Smithsonian this year and more than half were from India and a few neighboring areas. I know the magical properties if the light over there always stand out to me, obviously a lot of talented photographers are up and coming as well. I’m grateful you take the time to stop by. 🙂
I like your nice photos of ice contrasting leaves, moss and bark. What kind of a shadow is appearing at the top of the last photo ?!
The last photo is ice in the top left corner, a ‘moon’ sliver of snow, and bracken, sedge, and rush. It was enhanced in Topaz Labs ReStyle Module. Thanks for asking, that’s my favorite of the group. I’m glad you stopped at my little corner. 🙂