Pretzel and the Gypsy King - A Tale of Adventure (cum a spus de fotografie) for 2015

Pretzel

Senior Member
I signed up for a 52 in 365 here, but needed a place to post the pics of my random wanderings (get it? Gypsy reference for the win) There will be no theme, although there MAY be a rhyme or reason interjected somewhere between here and there, should the fancy strike me. My only pledge is that this thread will contain photos from 2015, and that I will try to make sure they are pics of some quality.

Other than that, you are at the mercy of my random nature. Good day.

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I said... "GOOD DAY!"
 

nikonpup

Senior Member
it is fun at the end of the year to hit the "display all thread images" icon at the end of the year. A plus is, now i have an idea of what i did the past year. :) looking forward to your posts.
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Sorry all, but haven't been out and about shooting a lot lately... been run down and generally apathetic after work.

I did get out a couple weeks ago, taking some pics at the local duck hangout. Posted one of the pics in my Project 52 thread, but decided to go extreme edit crazy with another of the pics. A little imagination behind a decent pic, and you get... "out there". Thoughts?

Imagination.jpg
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Still crazy here... 2 more weeks until my replacement shows up and takes over, so ALMOST done with the double duties...

In the meantime, I feel like such a bum. I work a long day, get home and collapse, and my poor camera is suffering. Grand ideas keep popping up in my head, but they get squashed by the "wearies". Sorry, y'all. I'll bounce back to shooting soon!!
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Nothing fancy, just a couple of shots from a local fencing club getting some practice in. Soon, my boy will be a part of the action, and I'll get a little more serious. ;)

These two were some of the better swordsmen... and let me tell ya, it's hard to catch the action when flashes aren't allowed!

TOUCHE!

Fencing1.jpg


Not so fast knave, you won't catch me with the same strike twice!

Fencing2.jpg
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
iPhone panorama of the big storm that rolled through yesterday. Sadly, I didn't have the PRIMAL BEAST with me that day...

Storm.jpg
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Following along with the storm theme... (conveniently)

On the way home, my son and I noticed a large storm system building way off in the distance, with some pretty spectacular cloud to cloud lightning. As I've never had the opportunity to shoot a good electrical display when it wasn't pouring rain or the wind was blowing at 50 mph, we headed to a nearby parking lot and I tried a few long exposure shots to see what I could catch. I got some decent shots for my first attempt in the middle of a metro area. (at least, *I* think so)

Lightning1.jpg


Lightning2.jpg


Lightning3.jpg
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Well, ok, I just couldn't leave that first pic alone, so I messed, and tweaked, and tested, and messed some more, then stripped and started over, and added a border, then a different border, and... well, I came up with a much better edit, IMO. More color, more detail, more... RAHR!

Lightning1-edit.jpg
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Nothing fancy tonight. Was eating out on the patio at Panera, dark grey clouds all around, when enough sunlight peeked through to light up one line of clouds. One moment of opportunity as I ducked around the corner... 4 shots with the 50mm 1.8G, stitched together, corrected perspective and content aware fill, and, well. Ya get just a touch of what I really saw.

Clouds.jpg
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Well... after a bit of mowing, my softer side won, and I left about 25 square feet of these lovely white wildflowers untouched. Then I noticed all the bees! (in all but 1 of the shots) Grabbed the camera while the light was still good, and here are the results. Hope you enjoy them!

ALL were shot with the highly underrated 18-55mm, which has a very nice CLOSE minimum focusing distance, then cropped and edited to taste to fake a decent macro shot. The Raynox DCR250 is on my short list, so hopefully I won't have to crop so much in the future. ;)

Bees1.jpg


Bees2.jpg


Bees3.jpg


Bees4.jpg


Bees5.jpg


Bees6.jpg


Bees7.jpg
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
I agree, nice bee shots. I also agree that the 18-55 is a good lens. Now if I could only get the bees to sit still for awhile.
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
I agree, nice bee shots. I also agree that the 18-55 is a good lens. Now if I could only get the bees to sit still for awhile.

It's definitely a challenge to catch "active" insects for a photo... ;) I had several almost photos to go with these, LOL!
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Here's a few more "Spring" shots. 1st, a couple of different edits of my new African Daisies.

Spring2015-1.jpg


Spring2015-2.jpg


Then a different sort of shot on a Dandelion's seed head. You always see the full head of seeds, but rarely a partial... I thought this was kinda cool.

Spring2015-3.jpg
 
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