Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: One Image/One Story

This week we are asked to tell a story with just one photo. We can tell multiple stories but each story can only use one photo.

A friend and I were at at the beach to catch the rising of the orange moon. There were several groups of people out including the two in the photo above – a father and son fishing in the ocean. All is not as it seems though. In talking with the man, he said he had no idea who the boy was! The boy came up to him earlier to see if the man had caught anything and stayed.

Polo anyone? This was a first for me. We actually went because there were going to be hot air balloons after the games. But by that time, the winds had picked up and the balloons only went 10 to 15 feet off the ground. But despite that disappointment, we had a good time with my daughter and her boyfriend. One thing we learned about polo though – the players don’t bring their horses with them. It’s too difficult and expensive so they use the horses at whatever location they are at.

This photo is my first attempt at shooting fireworks. The fireworks are shot from a barge in the inlet and the timing is coordinated with the tide. The marsh walk is always crowded so we usually take our chairs to the church adjoining the marsh walk. Everyone brings their chairs or blankets and there are plenty of “ohs” and “awes” from the crowd.

You can see responses from other blogger here: https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2021/11/27/lens-artists-challenge-176-one-image-one-story/

You can see more of my photography here: http://photographyinpearls.Photoshelter.com

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Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Natural Light

Our challenge for this week is “natural light”. Light can be a photographer’s best friend or mortal enemy. Sunrise, sunset and cloudy is good. Bright light – typically from 10AM to 7PM is bad – oh so, so, so so bad. We won’t talk about bad light though. This post is about several days where I had absolutely fantastic natural light.

My work office is less than 1/2 mile from the beach. I had just left work and saw the biggest pink cloud over the beach. I made a quick U turn and headed over to the beach, grabbed my camera from the backseat and spent about an hour or so taking photos until the sky got dark.

The above two photos were taken on different days and at different beaches. A storm was on its way and provided some awesome clouds and contrast you won’t get most days.

Most weekends we spend the entire day on the beach. Lunch, drinks and snacks are in the cooler and we’re underneath our umbrella digging our toes in the sand and enjoying the breeze off the ocean. On this particular day, we had a small rainstorm come through in the afternoon and it kept the sun behind the clouds so we had a beautiful sky for some really great photos to end a perfect day.

You can find responses from other bloggers here: https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2021/03/06/77139/

You can more of my photography here: http://photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Favorite Images of 2020

This week our challenge is to share our favorite images of 2020. Unfortunately, I didn’t have as many to pick from as in previous years. I only had 4,700 images this year compared to over 20,000 in 2019. And from reading posts from other bloggers, we all had the same issue. Covid 19 and the lockdown prevented vacations and other activities that would have resulted in many more photos.

These first photos were taken in our yard. We have several bird nests around the property but this was the first time I’d gotten a photo of the mockingbirds feeding. The osprey managed to catch a squirrel for dinner in our yard and didn’t seem too happy that I was taking photos.

It should come as no surprise that the majority of my 4,768 photos was of this little guy. He spent some time with us and we managed a trip to the beach once the beach lockdown was over. This is the top of my list for most favorite picture for 2020. I even had a personalized cover made for my cell phone so I get to carry him around all day.

So to keep from going completely bonkers with nothing to do, I’ve taken a couple of online classes through Skillshare and Udemy to learn how to draw on my laptop using Adobe Illustrator. The first picture below was inspired by a trip to the aquarium while the second was a class project. They are short lessons, I’ve learned a lot and I totally recommend Skillshare and/or Udemy. It’s a wonderful creative replacement when I can’t use my camera.

You can see responses from other bloggers here: https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2021/01/02/lens-artists-challenge-129-favorite-images-of-2020/

You can find more of my photography here: photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Catching People Unaware

These boys were expecting some waves as Hurricane Dorian passed us by September 2019.

You can see more of my photography here: http://photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Summer

This week Amy has given us the prompt of summer.

The Fourth of July is a big beach day. The beach is packed. Even “our” spot which usually isn’t crowded was full although everyone was maintaining social distancing as evidenced by the line of umbrellas. I had my camera with me but never took it out.

We decided to try the south end of the island the next day. Parking here is extremely limited so you have to get there very early for a spot. We got there around 8:30 with lunch, plenty of water and a watermelon – not much else is needed.

The day started off hazy but soon burned off. While a perfect beach day for us is spent under the umbrella, others were a little more active than we were.

After one of my many naps, I noticed a ghost crab had taken up residence at the edge of our tent. He spent a majority of the day clearing sand out of his burrow and didn’t seem worried about us at all.

Towards the end of the day, a large pod of dolphins passed us by headed north. A few breached the water a couple of times but one dolphin was in a playful mood. He jumped several times and I managed to catch one shot so it ended up being a pretty good day.

You can see responses from other bloggers here: https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/summer/

You can see more of my photography here: http://photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

Photography in Pearls – Lens-Artists: Creepy

This week, Ann-Christine has asked us to share something creepy.  I had a hard time finding anything creepy in my recent photos and had to go back to 2017 to find photos for this post.  

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I am not an early riser so I couldn’t believe it when I signed up for a sunrise excursion  to Boneyard Beach in Awendaw.  My best friend who is also a photographer convinced me to go.  It meant a 2AM wakeup to get to the rendezvous point.  But it turned out to be a great day with lots of good photos to show for it.

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So much so that I convinced my daughter (also a photography who is also not a morning person) to go.  Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and we had an overcast sunrise and it extremely cold.  (I can’t convince her to go again!)

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Boneyard Beach is on Bull Island which is 7 miles of undeveloped land.  It’s accessible by ferry only.  Because of tides and erosions, the forest on Bull Island is now water stranded and the beach is full of driftwood and dead trees.  

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You have to admit that with the rain, cold temperature and overcast sky that at least on this day Boneyard Beach looks very creepy.

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You can see responses from other bloggers here:  https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/lens-artists-photo-challenge-71-creepy/

You can see more of my photography here: photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Monochrome

This week Patti has asked us to post in monochrome.

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I don’t understand why some people think that monochrome/black and white is dull and boring.  It often picks us nuances that would otherwise be unseen.

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As an example, I never saw the clouds in the beach photo above until I converted it to black and white.

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It was an overcast day when I took this photo so it was no surprise that it came out of the camera very blah.  Converting the photo to black and white brought out the clouds and the birds in the foreground.

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Bright, colorful flowers are always beautiful and can cheer anyone up but I get just as many comments on these coneflowers in black and white that I display at art shows.

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Sometimes, I convert a photo to black and white just because I can.  This is a photo of the Murrells Inlet pier taken on another overcast day.  The color photo below is more true to the subject that day but the black and white is much more dramatic.

Murrells Inlet Pier

You can see responses from other bloggers here:  https://pilotfishblog.com/2019/11/02/lens-artists-photo-challenge-70-monochrome/

You can see more of my photography here:  photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com  

 

 

Photo Challenge: Lens-Artists – Seashores or Lakeshores

This week Amy has asked us to share our favorite seashore or lakeshore.  As I live at the beach, it was difficult to narrow my selections.

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It’s the busy season for us now but it pays to be a local.  We know a few places that are usually pretty quiet.

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The view is just as beautiful when a storm approaches….

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,,, in the middle of the day… 

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…or when the tide comes in or when it goes out.

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The beach is the only place I want to be.

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You can see responses from other bloggers here: https://wordpress.com/tag/lens-artists

You can see more of my photography here: photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

 

 

 

Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Harmony

This week, Tina has asked us to reflect on the meaning of harmony – “a pleasing combination or arrangement of different things”.

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The perfect day is sitting under an umbrella on the beach – a cool breeze, sunscreen and shades….. 

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…..the latest best selling novel, a cooler with plenty of water and sandwiches…..

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and great company is the best recipe for perfect harmony.

You can see responses from other bloggers here:  https://wordpress.com/tag/lens-artists

You can see more of my photography here:  photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com

Photo Challenge – Lens-Artists: Photographic Review

To wrap up 2018, we are asked to share our favorite pictures from this past year.  All my pictures are special to me so it was hard to pick out just a few. 

For this post, I picked out pictures where I learned something new or tried some new editing in Photoshop.  That’s my grandson standing on a leaf with a dragonfly for Amy’s prompt of “small is beautiful”.  The black and white photo is a statute in Brookgreen Gardens called the Cycle of Life by Paul Howard Manship.  It’s my oldest daughter’s favorite and I think I have photographed it for her a hundred times at different times of day, seasons, etc.  It was taken for Cee’s Black and White Challenge “sculpture”.  

The four folks sitting on the edge of America is from Amy’s prompt of “time to relax”.  I shared the original photo as well as this edit.  I think I took every beach photo from this past summer and used Photoshop to edit each one this way – I know, I got carried away.  But I did put them all together in an album and you can see them here: http://www.blurb.com/b/8953828-beach-etchings 

The father and daughter on the beach is from a response to a prompt “face in the crowd”.  We were asked to share a face but it had to be masked and yet still tell a story.  I got these shots one evening over a year ago while taking a walk on the beach and then did some editing for the post.  I wish that I had gotten the father’s contact info – it would be a wonderful memory for both the father and daughter.

The last photo is from our rare snowstorm back in January for the prompt “growth”.  Work was closed for a couple of days and I spent most of that time getting photos.  It was so bony chilling cold that I could only stay out for a few minutes at a time.  But it was worth it – I love the bokeh and softness in this one.

So these are my favorites.  Are they yours?

You can see responses from other bloggers here: https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/lens-artists-photo-challenge-26-photographic-review-of-2018/

You can see more of my photography here:  photographyinpearls.photoshelter.com