Photography by Naomi Drew
We spent the weekend in the central coastal area of California. The drive up and back were beautiful, with miles travelled in the Paso Robles wine country. This is an oak tree, leafing out in a field alongside the road home. This has been an extraordinarily beautiful spring!
Not an especially well-taken photograph. I have a tendency to shoot quickly without holding still. As a result, a lot of my quickie shots are a bit blurry. Nonetheless, they do catch a mood that pleases me, such as a sea of flowers and a lovely tree. Our botanical garden is always a delight to visit.
X100V.
Before they added a second entry, this was the first tree to greet you as you walked in. Every autumn its leaves change color, and tumble to the ground. Sometimes they fly past you when the wind picks up. They are large and colorful, and something I look forward to every fall as much of California, where I live, is populated with non-deciduous trees and bushes.
Olympus Trip 35, Fuji Superia 400.
More browsing through history! Today, a trip back to the spring of 2017, a hike on a pathway behind the local botanical garden. Obviously there was some rain that year as there are green plants!
One thing I really enjoy doing is making panoramas out of a whole series of images. Sometimes I fail to get enough to create a good study, and that is where Photoshop comes in. I did a lot of filling in of empty spaces, and if you look closely you will see repetition of the cloud in the upper right corner, and plants in the lower left corner. That is what happens when I hand hold my Nikon Df camera and a long lens – this was the Tokina 100 macro lens. I think I took about 50+ photos here. I like to use a macro lens for panos because of the sharpness that is inherent in such lenses.
Altogether, I like what I did in post here. The coloration and composition are pleasant and summery. I also think it is a photo worth using as the basis for a landscape.
Nothing like a morning walk to find peace and beauty.
Nothing like the beauty of the natural world enhanced by the fading of the day . . .
The other day I just had to get out for a bit of a walk, this time without the dogs. I headed out to an area that is reached by a tunnel under a busy road. From there, a school is to the right and a trail heads out to a canyon behind a number of houses. It’s rather wild back there, but it is also a view into people’s back yards. In one spot, I heard the cooing of doves or pigeons, and then a sudden flap of wings. Looking up, the birds were circling around and around. I managed to catch this after a lot of misses.
Another composite image taken with the Fuji X100V. This little camera is very capable, and I don’t even know all it can do. Basically, I am lazy! However, I do know the areas that, for me, are the parts of a camera I want to know the most. The thing that drew me to the Fuji X100V was its fixed focal length, film simulations, and the fact it can be manual, shutter, and aperture priority. Add to that, it shoots square pictures, and that is a big plus in my book. I think I like the 1:1 ratio the best.
The Glass Aerie 