digital photography

This lovely flower is called Fuchsia. It’s just one of several flowers my mom has planted this spring. I have planted a few begonias. That’s been it so far. As much as I love flowers, I would plant more.

Taking photos of flowers is so much fun. I just leave the camera on the auto settings and then touch it up in Paint Shop Pro or IrfanView. They turn out so well with such little effort from me. If only all my subjects were so easily photographed.

Sometimes our pets do the cutest things. It’s usually after the fact that we think about snapping a photo. Today my brother’s dog Skittles was introduced to the chicks. He was enthralled. We fed the chicks some bread and then stood around laughing at them. All the time Skittles sat mesmerized by the chicks. So I went and got my digital camera. When I returned, Skittles hadn’t moved a muscle.

I tried to get a photo of him licking his chops but just couldn’t time it.

I was glad to be able to capture one of those cute moments with my digital camera. Usually the mood is broken or is over by the time I have my camera in hand. But not today. Those chicks had Skittles undivided attention for a good 20 minutes. That’s like 3 hours in dog time. Very impressive indeed.

This weekend many parents will be spending it either at an egg hunt or hosting one. Last year we attended three eggs hunts. It was exhausting but a lot of fun. I snapped a lot of digital photos but still never got the picture that I wanted. This is the closest I came to how I wanted to capture the moment -

The problem with taking photos during an egg hunt is positioning yourself at the right place to get a good picture before the child finds the egg. If you make a move to an egg before the child, then you give away it’s location(although last year most of the eggs were just spread across the yard).

This year I plan to do things differently when it comes to taking pictures as an egg hunt. First I will just snap photos for the memories. Then afterward we can stage some egg findings to get that perfect shot. In the picture, I wish I had gotten more of her face. This year I will get my straight on shot even if it’s staged. It will look so good in a picture frame on the shelf.

The greatest thing about digital cameras is having a never ending ability to take pictures. No film to worry about and you can instantly review your pictures.  Since I bought my first digital camera, I take way more photos. Before film pictures were saved for special occasions. Now a blooming flower or a fluttering butterfly is enough reason for me to take a picture.

Old advertising signs always catch my attention especially when they are on the broadside of a building.  Here’s one of my favorite -

It’s so nice to take digital photos. You can capture so much that you can instantly share with others. In our town there are so many buildings that I want to photos because they are getting old and are in danger of being torn or falling down. I wanted to take this photo because I loved the advertising and the claim that Coca-cola relieves fatigue.

Paint Shop Pro is the image editing program of choice for me. It does everything I need done. Plus I took an online class a Virtual University(VU.com) that was all about Paint Shop Pro so it gave me a lot of confidence with it. Too bad I’ve forgotten most everything I’ve learned. But I do like to touch up photos. I just apply the auto settings for color saturation, brightness, and color balance.

Here’s a before picture of Lee Hall at Mississippi State University - the greatest university ever(class of 1993! woot!)

It was a cloudy day and not the best for taking photos but I really needed some of the university. Here is the same picture after doing my three adjustments in Paint Shop Pro:

The color really pops after all the few adjustments. Just a couple of automatic fixes can help those less than stellar pictures become something sensational.

Old man winter has been trying to cut into spring’s territory. Some cold weather have moved in this week - making it unpleasant to take a nature walk. But have no fear. The temperature is expected to rise significantly by the end of the week.

I think this butterfly is a painted lady. Last year we had gotten some caterpillars and watched them turn into painted ladies. So I like to think that this little guy is one of their descendants. I love taking wide photos of butterflies. How the butterfly is in focus but everything else is soft.

Hopefully the cool snap didn’t ruin spring. I’m definitely ready to take more nature pictures.

Yesterday was a weird weather day but in the south we have grown to accustomed to it. There is a saying that if you don’t like the weather then wait 15 minutes. It was really humid most of yesterday but finally cooled off around 4pm. I decided to take a walk and then quickly went back to get my digital camera after spotting these on the azaleas -

So two of my favorite nature subjects - flowers and butterflies - combined. Taking a walk with the digital camera especially with that huge telephoto lens is like walking with a small weight. Hopefully it burns a few calories. If not at least I get some beautiful pictures to enjoy when it’s not so pleasant to be outside.

Again my love of taking pictures of flowers takes over. This year it seems there are more wild flowers that I remember in recent years. Also I’ve noticed more flowers in the local store, too.

I usually like to touch up photos taken of flowers but since I’ve switched laptops, I don’t have access to all of my programs any more.

Adding flower pictures to your blog posts can visually enhance it and keep pique visitor’s interest. Flowers can be posted on a variety of topics like garden, planting, allergies, and any other subject related to spring.

Taking the digital spring photos is the most rewarding part as it gives me a chance to enjoy the nice weather.

Another favorite website of mine to get stock photos is <a href=”http://www.istockphoto.com”>Istockphoto.</a> It is a paid service, and you use credits to download digital photos. The number of credits needed vary but start at 1 credit($1). You can usually download the smallest size of an image for 1 credit. The size is big enough to use in a blog post just fine. There is also $1 bin where all images any size cost just one credit.

Each week Istockphoto offers a free digital photo and each month there is a free vector graphic. You have to buy credits in bulk, but if you use those credits wisely, you can get plenty of digital photos for your money.