Alaska Blue or more specifically iceberg blue is one of my favorite colors. These are from my archives but hope to go back up in 2010 to shoot some more of them.

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There was mention over in the Photography Discussion forum on using extension tubes and macro lenses. I hadn't tried the tubes on my 100mm macro yet so I went out and played. Not the best shooting conditions with a breeze blowing but what the heck. All are at F 2.8 trying to keep a shallow DOF. I may have to try it with my 50mm F1.8 to cut it down even more. Results below

Daffy Macro

Tulip Macro

Bleeding Heart Macro

Tulip Macro

Grape Macro

Tulip Macro

Tulip Macro

Get the point?

Canon 100mm Macro, 40D, tripod

Not a true macro but it filled the frame. Some of you are old enough to remember what it is. Many of you aren't.
Go-back Machine Crank

And it's that time of the year again. I'd rather shoot these than flowers any day. The yard has turned into a gang turf war between the resident Anna's and three of these Male Rufous Hummingbird Hooligan.

Have a ducky week. I'm sorting shots from last weekend in Central Oregon.

Most of you know what a nut I am for hummingbirds and I go on this rant every year but I'm going to do it again.

Please....

If you are going to feed them clean your feeders at least every week.

DO NOT use that premix with the red dye in  it or add red dye to food that you mix on your own. It has been proven to mess with the birds kidneys.

It is easy to mix your own food. All you need is 1 cup of hot water and 1/4 cup of white sugar. They don't care what brand.

A few of the kids from past years...

Male Anna's Hummer

Watchfull Eye (Anna's)

Rufous female
Male Rufous

I've just been busier than a blind photographer at Nude Miss America Pageant.
Well not quite but busy anyway.

The good news is my first illegal Mexican immigrant of the year showed up today! This photo isn't him from this year but very well could be the same bird. Male Rufous Hummingbird. He has hit one of the feeders and has been checking out the others. Just for spite here is a Grecian Wildflower for you while I'm here.

Have a ducky day. I'm back to uploading and keywording stock images.    

You have been warned...

Striped Crocus

White Crocus

There, I got that out of my system. Have I said how much I like that Canon 100mm Macro?

One more bee shot for you. This is an a crop out of the full size image.. Bee Crop

On this wave shot... do you think there is too much wave in it? Is the size perspective messed up because of it? Another Wave

No need to vote on these. I'm looking for input more than anything else but.... I want it on the size and not the tonal range. We've been down that road.

In trying to avoid an early start on Flowergraphica I have included other subject matter to shift the attention from the flower alone to another subject. On the other hand if your flowers are still buried under snow, spring will get to your part of the world some time.

All are hand held, 40D and Canon 100mm F2.8 macro.

Dirty Face
Yellow Is Good
Bee Butt
Got A Napkin?

Hope you enjoy. The next sign of spring will be the Rufous showing up. That will be within the next three weeks. The resident Anna's will not be thrilled about having to share their feeders.

This is a shot from the waves shoot last weekend. I thought it kind of made a fitting card... Young Love

I don't want to flood the place with the wave shots. I narrowed 194 shots down to 18. If you want to see them they are on my site at http://www.classyshots.com/review/index.php

....The Fool On The Hill?

To change the subject... First of spring. I think I'm really going to like that macro lens.

Have a great day all. I'm back to and finishing up the coast shots. I'll pick out a few good ones for tomorrows post.

Here is a set of four images (not the same wave) showing the way the waves were developing over there on Saturday. I'll post more with different vantage points later but I thought these made a good series.

1, 2, 3 and  4.

To give you a size perspective the rail fence up on that bluff is about four and a half feet tall.

Tech note: All were taken with a Canon 40D, Canon 18-40mm L lens and tripod with a remote shutter release. I used manual mode and manual focus all preset to enable me to watch everything unfold and hit the remote as I wanted to.  

Wife and I decided we had to get out of the house. Just us, nobody else, we just had to get away. It's been too messy up on the hill so we headed for Shore Acres on the Oregon Coast. A couple of hours later we were both very glad we decided to go.

When you come right down to it there isn't much on a beach other than water, rocks and trees. Some days things just go the right way. It can be a tough job but somebody has to do it. This shot thanks to my wife (oregontechchick) and her little Canon A560.

I'll have more to post when I get things sorted and the good ones run through Lightroom.  

One of my clients makes hand painted ducks. Some are on the fancy side while some of them are more on the old decoy style. He brought over the latest prototype for me to shoot for the new ads. I really liked this one as it is made to be an award for shooting clubs and like that.

Anyway... Pintail Plaque
Pintail Detail 1
Pintail Detail 2

The first shot is with the Tamron 28-75 mm that I use for most of my non macro studio stuff. The second two are detail shots and the Canon 100mm macro was used for them.

Not really looking for votes on this one. Just wanted to share the pretty work. The woman that paints these is a real joy to watch work. This Pintail is about 17" long overall.

Just a simple kind of day....

Willow