Mid-October Panorama and Garden Bloom Day

I was able to get ouside to take some pictures earlier this week, but haven't been able to write up a post yet.  I's mid October so I went out to get pictures for the panorama.  Since the most "popping" elements were the Montauk Dasies I was glad to be able to get some pictures in diffuse light.  I've been reading several books on photography lately and playing with my camera settings.  For these daisies a diffuse light is best because the strong white blossoms will not be washed out bu direct sunlight.  These daisies are all over the hill from end to end, and even out in the front yard under the weeping cherry tree.

The Montauk Daisies are the white blossoms that have taken over the hill. I got some pictures to have for the Garden Bloom Day over at May Dream Garden.

I've been waiting all summer for these to bloom. I couldn't remember what they were and all summer these bushes have been adding a nice deep green foliage, but I've been waiting to see them in bloom.

Now that I've seen them I've been able to identify them (thanks to help from a Facebook group called Plant Identification.) It's a great group for getting help identifying what a plant is - just join the group then post a picture of two of what you have and you'll get suggestions about what it is.  Several people made suggestions and I looked them up and agree that these are indeed Montauk Daisies.

I was able to print out the panorama pictures from this summer and Gloria and I were able to look at them side by side.  We noticed a couple of things. An interesting observation (by Gloria) was in the growth of the holly trees we have outside the fence in the holly grove. We had these planted there to grow into a natural barrier to block views into the yard from the street.  Here are the pictures from April and from October showing this summer's growth.

April 2014

October 2014

And here is a picture from when they were planted in April 2011,

April 2011

They've come a long way, and so has the yard and the gardener.

And just because I really like this picture, I'm going to post it one more time.  I sent this to the channel 9 meteorologist, Topper Shutt, and he used it on the air and gave it an "A+." Then he tweeted it out.

Lunar Eclipse - Blood Moon on "Wordless Wednesday"

Shooting the Moon

I've been taking some time lately to practice taking pictures of the moon. I've been reading up on the settings for a camera, and reading the manual for my camera  (I know - SACRILEGE - a man reading the instructions - oh well.)  I started last month when we had the harvest super-moon and I wanted to get some pictures.  I had actually tried for the super-moon before that - but all I got were white circles against a black background.

So, for August I did some research and was able to get some detail in the shots.

Not too bad for my first attempt to do more than just set the camera on automatic and hope for a good shot. I've started manually setting the speed and aperture.

I was able to get out again last week to try a crescent moon. It required different setting because there was a lot less light being reflected.

With the terminator line (where the light ends) it's easier to see more details because of the longer shadows (it's sunrise along that line and the shadows are at their maximum.) These were taken after dark so there is very little color to capture, just the white light of the sun reflected off the moon's surface. These were taken from a tripod so that it would be more stable than me trying to hold the camera. I was also using a 2 second delay to let me push the button and let go so that the camera could be still when the picture was actually taken.

Earlier this week I went out before twilight to get some more pictures of the half moon in a light sky. I had problems because the light sky did not allow the crispness of detail I wanted on the moon's surface.  I ended up using a small aperture to darken the background and sharpen the moon's surface details. Also taken from a tripod with a 2 second delay.

I was able to get details, again with the most right at the terminator line, but I also got more color than the shots after it was dark.  I'm still experimenting with the exposure time and aperture setting, but I'm trying to keep track of what I'm doing so that I can understand the differences in the results. I'm also paying more attention to the image properties before I do any post processing, just trying to learn how the settings create the final image. I'm also getting past the need to take 20 shots to get 2 good ones.

Montauk Daisies

It's getting near the end of the year for the garden and we've seen an outburst of flowers. They are Montauk Dasies and there are groupings of the on the left, the center, and the far right on the back hill.  They are the white flowering bushes in the panorama below.

A more detailed look at one grouping looks like this:

These are from the grouping on the far left in the panorama. The former owners must have really liked these because there are more than 10 bushes of these on the back hill.  When they show up, they show up in force.  They give a nice pop of white late in the season and they should be blooming until the first frost - hopefully not too soon.

I read that they also attract bees and butterflies - THEY DO.  The following pictures were taken within  30 minutes a couple of days ago.

It was late afternoon and the sun was going down, so I was able to get some shots where the wings were back-light (backlit?) had back-light. I have not researched this specific butterfly, but the split wings are interesting. It's not one big wing like a swallowtail or a monarch. The second and third pictures almost make it look like a jet fighter wing configuration.

I was also trying some different camera settings to try and darken the background to minimize distractions. I was happy with these shots and will continue practicing my photography skills. Particularly since we are getting to the end of the gardening seasons.