The flowers on this Desert Wishbone Bush (Mirabilis bigelovii) a few steps from my back door are only 1/2 inch across. I thought it only bloomed in Spring so I was surprised to see it blooming for the past couple of days. The flowers wilt after the sun comes up so this was shot in the shade (with my Canon S5).
Coming soon!
Coming soon to the bookstore at the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. A small Photo ID guide to flora in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve (sized for your backpack). Profits go to the Conservancy. Stay tuned!
eye candy
Our native Fishhook Barrel (Ferocactus wislizeni) is also known as Candy Barrel Cactus. Blooms range in color from this yummy brilliant red to yellow.
dinner
On his walk yesterday afternoon, Cleo was curious about something under a shrub. It was a Gopher Snake working on his dinner. Considering this rabbit is about the same size as Cleo, it’s no wonder pets don’t last long on their own in the desert.
shot in the dark
I tried to capture the Quail as they were gathering for the night on this Ocotillo but they heard my lens on the glass so I only managed a couple of shots. With some help from Photoshop, a dark night image turned out to be kind of cool.
coloring book
I finished the coloring book this afternoon and realized I forgot to post an image today. So here is a small look at the completed pages. Counting adjustment layers, I created more than 50 layers for the cover. They saved me a few times during the process!
dusty sunrise
We had quite a dust storm late yesterday no doubt leaving a lot of particulates in the air. It can help produce nice sunrises and sunsets as seen through this Ocotillo.
create a coloring book
I’ve started putting together a coloring book of flowers for a local Conservancy. The process of locating and then combining the graphics is time consuming but I find it alot of fun. I’m hoping it will make some child excited about hiking in the Preserve.
the whole picture
My primary goal for my Photo a Day is not to make prize winning photographs but to get to know my cameras. A bonus has been that I’m also learning a lot about composition. For instance, I was struck by how large this Red Tailed Hawk was but I now realize I could have made the point more clear if I had taken an even wider angle shot showing the entire cactus and surroundings.
LR2…Love part two
I still use Photoshop but Lightroom takes me over there. Here’s a shot of the options. Being able to load multiple image as layers is pretty darn cool! I create my masterpiece in Photoshop and then click “save”. No need to click “save as” because Lightroom2 is doing the saving for you. It will then save a copy and stack it (in the catalog) with your original.
For those who still wonder why you would want Lightroom2…..A big advantage is the space you save on your hard drive. If you save a Photoshop file with adjustment layers, you are creating a new file in addition to your original which can fill up your hard drive quickly. Lightroom adjustments are just EXIF taking hardly any room but having the same infinite editing control as adjustment layers.
The main reason I bought Lightroom1 when it first came out, though, was to be able to create a database. What is a database? It’s a visual catalog of all your images that you can view whether you’re connected to the drive with the images or not. Lightroom2 even tells you if you’re connected to the images and if not, tells you which drive they are located on. It creates proxies in a size that you determine. That means I could bring my catalog file to DIG, open it on anyone’s computer that has Lightroom2 installed and we could then see a copy of all the images on my computer at home.
If these things aren’t important to you, then Photoshop and Bridge will work for you.