Dream Hat Photography - Gerry Daniel

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Beautiful dreams, images that take you there...

Dream Hat Photography features high quality digital photographs of the natural world and still life. These photographs are images of the world as I see it, painted with light.

Fine art photography with a focus on landscapes, nature, still life, wildlife, and digitally enhanced images are available for purchase as prints or in a variety of products (mugs, puzzles, mouse pads, t-shirts, etc.) These images can be purchased as digital downloads and are excellent as desktop wallpaper for your computer. Please feel free to leave comments, questions, or suggestions. I will be updating the site with new images frequently. Thanks for taking the time to visit my site.

Send me an email if you would like to contact me directly.

Featured Galleries

2009 Daily Photos - but not every day

Updated: Jul 01, 2009 10:38pm PST

Water Lilies

New Mexico

The images in this gallery are from a trip to Santa Fe, NM in February ...

Updated: May 02, 2009 9:50am PST

Texture

Texture surrounds us all the time in various forms. The images in thi ...

Updated: Jun 29, 2009 10:54pm PST

Most Popular Photos

First, let me clear some old business from yesterday, I struggled with what was something that was funny in my head but it wasn’t at all possible for me to translate it into the daily photo album. In a nutshell, I had a photo of a frog and another photo with canoes on a trailer. For some reason it made me think of “The Muppet Movie” and the scene early in the movie with Kermit in the boat in the pond. I think it was when he was singing “Rainbow Connection” and maybe Fozzie was in the boat too. Anyway, however funny it was to me, my photos had no element of that scene beyond boats and a frog. I tried, believe me, several different angles, it just wasn’t going to get there, not even close. So hopefully that clears that up, the two photos responsible are in the Bonus Tracks gallery now so you can see how much it would have failed.

Now for today’s picture which was shot this morning. I might as well confess to you, we are sharing photos and things about our lives. It’s time I told you about my addiction. You have to understand I was raised in an agricultural area with farms all over the surrounding area. Like a lot of kids from my generation that lived in the Southeastern United States, we spent most of the summer months outside playing, coming inside mainly for meals. Our water breaks would be from the hose in the yard, which as anyone that had drank water from a hose in hot weather will tell you, let it run a little before you drink because the water sitting in the hose can be pretty dang hot. Anyway most of our meals included generous portions of fresh vegetables. At the time, I assumed that everybody ate that way because everybody that I knew ate that way. I know, I am wasting time, avoiding the addiction confession. Be patient, I am trying to give you some context. I couldn’t begin to estimate how many peas I have shelled, how many butterbeans I have shelled, or how many ears of corn I have shucked but it would be a healthy number. I have two older sisters and a younger brother. My sisters and I would have to finish whatever chores we were assigned before we could go out and play. So if there were peas to shell and other kids from the neighborhood came over, if they were in a hurry to play, they were likely to end up with a bowl of peas to shell to help things move along. Why so much shelling and shucking you may ask. Obviously the growing season was limited, part of what were had was cooked and eaten then and part of it was “put up” for the winter months. I don’t know what they call it elsewhere, but “putting up” vegetables was a way of saying that they would be prepared for the freezer and eaten in the off season. Quit pushing, I am getting to the addiction part. You needed more background. Tomatoes, there I said it. I have an addiction for farm/garden fresh tomatoes. Every Saturday morning, this time of year, I will go to downtown Birmingham to Pepper Place Saturday Market. Farmers and their families will come into town, setup their fruits and vegetables and sell them between 7 am and noon. There are crafts, coffee stands, and food places to buy muffins and other breakfast fare. There is also live music on several porches that surround the area. I would miss something if I tried to list all of the fruits and vegetables available during the warm months.

Today was going to be a hot one so I took my camera with me when I left to go to Pepper Place this morning. My photo for today is from Birmingham Botanical Gardens and was taken on my way home. I was a little later than I had planned because when I got to Pepper Place, an older lady had fallen in the parking lot, her bag of vegetables had thrown off her balance. She had fallen on her left side, her husband was with her but he is blind. Eventually I called 911, which I had never done before, the paramedics came and took her to the hospital, I am pretty sure she had some broken bones. One of the people there took custody of her vegetables and followed them to the hospital to keep the vegetables from spoiling.

iTunes song for today is by The Be Good Tanyas and is titled "Scattered Leaves" from the album "Hello Love".

The rain started a little after sunrise and at times was a heavy downpour. Shooting in the rain or right after a rain can be a great time to get some nice photographs. My intention when I began shooting this morning was to capture some nice shots of the water lilies in the rain. Because it was so early, only a few water lily blooms had opened and a couple more were only partially opened. That wasn’t a problem. Enough of them were open and gave me plenty to shoot.

It is easy to get tunnel vision sometimes when I am concentrating on a certain subject that I am shooting. There are so many things to consider like the perspective, the depth of field, the focal length, the composition, and the direction of the primary light source. So while I was working with all of that, I almost missed it. It was so obvious and yet I wasn’t seeing it. Sure the water lilies were beautiful but on this morning, with the rain drops, the lily pads were outstanding. By the time I left, I had filled my memory card and had about 240 images.

So the photo of the day is the humble lily pad. Water lilies are comprised of two families. The Nymphaeceae are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas. They can be found in both temperate and tropical climates. The plants are rooted in soil in a body of water and their leaves and flowers float on the surface. From what I have read, there are hardy and tropical categories. The hardy water lilies only bloom during the day. Nelumbo is the other family of water lilies, more commonly known as lotus or sacred lotus and is the national flower of India.

Some of my water lily flower photographs from today can be found in my water lily gallery: http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/339416501_YonCB

Some of the other lily pad photographs from today can be found in my Bonus Tracks and B-sides - 2008 - 2nd Six Months gallery: http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5468840_XzWBE/1/339413268_n8xdA

Today’s song is by Al Green. The title is “Tired of Being Alone (2002 Digital Remaster)” from “The Definitive Greatest Hits” album.

Today’s photo is from Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, AL. This photograph is the stream below the 100 foot waterfall as it flows into the woods. At this point in the summer, the water level is fairly low. I plan to go back in the fall when the leaves are turning and the rains raise the water level. Even with a relatively low water level, the view is fantastic.

There are a few other photographs of this area in the Bonus Tracks gallery for the 2nd six months of 2008 (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5468840_XzWBE/1/344002057_YvV33).

Zebras make such nice subjects to photograph. I love the lines and the contrast. My photo of the day is basically a straight presentation of the image with minor adjustments. My more colorful interpretation of the same image can be found in the bonus tracks gallery.

Today's song is by Greg Laswell, the title is "I'd Be Lying" from the "Three Flights from Alto Nido" album.

It's been a while since I took any photographs. I am on the road and processing the images from the laptop, so it's a little weird. I have been in Chattanooga since Sunday. It has been raining most of the time but I haven't minded, I am just taking it easy. I went the the Tennessee Aquarium this afternoon. When I get home, I will have a lot of images to go through but I wanted to go ahead and post something. I will create a gallery for Chattanooga and put images there as I get a chance to process them.

One dirty secret about my photography is that probably over 99% of them are taken from a tripod. Clarity is such a big part of an image and I don't trust my hands to be steady enough to get the best shots. Today is one of the exceptions. Lugging all of my camera equipment around, in a driving rain and through the Tennessee Aquarium so I put a lens in my jacket pocket and carried the camera with the other lens mounted. That is about as light as I can travel for photography. So all of the shots from today were hand held. I went through a butterfly exhibit and got some nice shots that I will share. Because of the people swirling around and the movement of the butterflies, I actually shot a lot on automatic in that area which is something I rarely do.

Today's photo are two birds at the top of the floor in an area outside the butterfly exhibit. Some of the butterfly photos may turn out to be better shots, but I happen to like this shot. These two had not cooperated at all. They were constantly grooming each other.

Hope everyone is doing well. I haven't been on my site or looked at any galleries for a what seems like forever. Needless to say, I am extremely behind but not stressing about it. Sooner or later I will get back into a more regular routine.

Peace

This afternoon I was in a hurry and didn’t spend the time getting the angles and focal lengths to get the shots I wanted. Several factors that have nothing to do with photography have made this week a little difficult to concentrate on my shots but some days are like that. I could go into detail but it would be boring and I would still have the same photographs. My personal energy is at a low and it is one of those periods where my shots disappoint me. Since the shots are just the result of what I captured with the camera, it is more or less a case of me not liking my photos for the day.

I know, it’s a water lily. Someone in my house already made a sarcastic comment about what a surprise it was to see more water lily photos. Bleh. It’s my gallery, my photographs, my little corner of the Internet.

Today’s song is by Queens of the Stone Age. The title is “No One Knows” from the “Songs for the Deaf” album.

A week ago today, I experimented with trying to photograph a drop of water as it splashed in a bowl. The next day, I applied what I learned from the previous day and was able to get an image that was closer to my goal. Since that time I haven't tried that type of shot again. This week was a tough week at the office. So many pressures on so many people these days due to the economic problems throughout the United States. As the week went by, I became the not so proud owner of a stomach virus. Today has been better but this thing has taken a toll on me. I didn't shoot at all yesterday and I don't think I shot anything the day before. The days sort of ran together so I am completely sure.

Since I have been somewhat housebound, I went back to the drops projects today. Taking what I had learned last week I shot this afternoon in a shallow container, then shot in a deep bowl. The results weren't bad but they were still lacking what I was trying to capture and the overall quality of the images was poor. Tonight, after thinking about some of the aspects of the setup, I made a few adjustments. Photography is simple in some ways, complex in others. The shots from tonight involved a much simpler setup but used sound basic photography principles. There are some adjustments I can still make but this is much closer to where I am trying to go with these shots.

If I have used this song before, I am claiming memory loss due to being sick. Today's song is by Helio Sequence, the title is "Lately" from the "Keep Your Eyes Ahead" album.

The moon was a great target tonight for image of the day. I had to play with a number of aperture settings and shutter speeds to get an image with the level of detail that I wanted. Yes, there is a fair amount of PP for effect but it was fun to try different things in Photoshop trying to figure out what I wanted to do here. Apologies to the Photoshop wizards out there, I am somewhat limited in artistic skills and Photoshop skills.

For anyone thinking that I used a stock image or anything, this was my base image.

As we get to the end of another month, I find myself shooting flowers again. Before this daily project started, I knew I enjoyed shooting flowers but landscapes made up a large portion of my overall shots. I had also taken a lot of sunset and sunrise photographs. I still love those shots and have plans to take more of those types of shots as time goes by but on a daily basis, at least in this part of the world, at this time of year, flowers are plentiful and offer so many options and opportunities. Black and white photography has interested me for a very long time but I am particular about which of my images translate well into that mode. I need to do more with duotone and will eventually play with that in the future. Anyway, today’s photo was taken in Hoover, AL at the Aldridge Botanical Gardens. From what I can tell, this flower is some type of Calla lily, but some of you may know a lot more about the specifics than me.

I have been observing the star system a little lately. I fully understand that it is a subjective rating system that reflects the opinion of the individual viewing the image. I don’t hang my hat on the ratings and in terms of feedback, rely more on what people say or in some cases what they don’t say. Many of you are very supportive and understanding. I know I have mentioned this now in a number of captions so if it bothers you, don’t read the captions. As much as we might try, because we are putting something of ourselves in these images and posting for the world to see, the negative or less than positive comments tend to stick out above the rest. Personally I think everyone in this group is sensitive and creative. The level of expertise varies a good bit throughout the group but we all seem to share the same passion and love for photography. Remember there are people behind the images you see in the galleries so choose your comments carefully and with kindness. The vast majority of the members of the group do that anyway.

Why fight it? That’s what I ask myself. This whole daily photo thing is primarily for my own enjoyment and to help me improve my photography skills. Why stress about another water lily photo. So, here we go, another water lily. I am going to the beach for a week at the end of this month and the beginning of next month. I will make beach type pictures then, so worst case scenario; you will get a break then.

Butch Cassidy: Then you jump first.
Sundance Kid: No, I said.
Butch Cassidy: What's the matter with you?
Sundance Kid: I can't swim.
Butch Cassidy: Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.

The rate of change in the leaf color is increasing by the day. Some trees almost look like they are in flames. It is an amazing show of autumn colors.

The song for today is by Slow Runner, the title is "Trying to Put Your Heart Back Together" from the "Mermaids" album. Definitely worth a listen if you are looking for something new.

This afternoon was a bit overcast which left me with an overall soft light. After my experimentation yesterday trying to learn something about using Lab Color, for now it isn’t something that seems to be an enhancement for my images. There may be situations in the future where it might have some benefit but I am filing it away for now. But going through a different workflow trying to learn about processing with Lab Color let me take a fresh look at my current processing without Lab Color. It gave me a few ideas on tweaking my own process. Tonight is the first time those ideas were incorporated into my process. There are so many possibilities out there but I am starting to get a feel for what direction I need to take my images to try and get the results I want.

A quick note about the water lily in the daily photo for today is something I learned from one of the wonderful people that work at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. This particular type of water lily initially blooms completely white. On each day, more color will be introduced to the petals. I am going to try and follow the progression on the two white water lilies that are in bloom.

Tonight’s song is by Steve Tannen. The title is “Sing Me to Sleep” from the “Big Senorita” album.

It was a struggle, but since today is Saint Patrick’s Day, I caved and my daily photo is clover. Nope, not a four-leaf clover, I didn’t find one of those. From what I have been told, my ancestry is half Irish and half Scottish but that is probably fairly common in the United States. Pinching people if they aren’t wearing green on Saint Patrick’s Day was never on my list of good traditions. My guess is maybe people that had been enjoying too many adult beverages might have started it. Since he has “Saint” attached to his name there must be some Catholic influence back there somewhere. Yeah, I could have Googled it but I really didn’t want to know.

When I was a kid, fields of clover seemed more common but open fields were more common. The clover I saw today seemed different than what I remember as a kid, but maybe it is the area or maybe it’s just a kid’s memory.

Making clover look interesting is a challenge in itself. It wasn’t noticeable when I was shooting, but the clover is covered with little hairs and also had some kind of dust on it. I can’t explain the little hairs, but I decided the dust was from fairies.

The post processing here is probably not as much as one might think. Besides the background layer, I have some minor adjustment layers for brightness, contrast, and hue. I made a copy of the background layer, reduced the opacity to 30% and changed it from Normal to Color Burn to make the tones a bit deeper and richer. There is a lighting effect rendered on the background layer to highlight the center of the clover in the middle and to give it some texture. After that, I added a Black and White layer, used the tint but changed it to green then reduced the opacity to 50%. Now that I have typed all that, maybe there was considerable post processing. It didn’t seem like much at the time.

This morning at the reflecting pond at the botanical gardens, there was only one water lily flower that had opened. It was early and the flowers go back into their pods at some point at night. The water was very still, the sky was a nice shade of blue, and the reflections in the pool were beautiful. I only intended to shoot a little but the conditions were so nice I ended up shooting quite a few photographs (110 images if you are keeping score at home). Many of them are similar because I bracket my exposures on each shot. I chose this one for several reasons but the primary reason was because it was a different perspective from most of my previous water lily shots. Pretty much all of the others had been close-up shots highlighting the detail of the flower. I took plenty of close-up shots and uploaded some of them to the new water lily gallery (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/329992558_Jk6Yn).

My song for tonight is a classic written by Neil Young. This version is a cover performed by Natalie Merchant in concert. The song is “After the Gold Rush” from her “Live in Concert” album. It is a powerful version of this song.

We had thundershowers this afternoon but there was a break between them when the sun peeked out then clouds took over again. Shooting after a rain is one of my favorite times to take photographs. Today’s photo is just the underside of a lily pad. The patterns on the underside of the leaf and the water droplets from the rain were visually interesting to me.

Today’s iTunes song is “Nobody’s Cryin’” by Patty Griffin from “A Kiss In Time”.

After being away since February, I am sorta slipping back into the Daily Photo Community. It will probably not be a daily thing for me, I just don't have the drive for the daily grind required for getting one in the group every day. I am a few days late posting this one but didn't make the decision to create the gallery the day I took the photo. The only significance is that this is my first water lily photo for 2009. Seemed like a good place to start for getting somewhat back in the group.

Song for the day is "Wait for the Summer" from the "All Hour Cymbals" album by Yeasayer.

I am making a conscious effort to not photograph the water lilies for a while. It was becoming sort of a rut and a bit of a crutch. Thanks for being polite while I worked through it.

I was up early this morning for the Farmer’s Market. A person with a tomato addiction has to get there early to make sure they have a shot at the best tomatoes. It’s all about setting priorities. So despite the fact that it was a Saturday morning and technically I could have slept late, fresh tomatoes were calling me.

Late this afternoon I took some sunset pictures. They didn’t turn out well at all. I am not sure what was wrong. It might have just been a dull sunset. But luckily, the morning photos at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens were decent. This photograph was taken In the Japanese Gardens.

The IPod song for today is by The Weepies, titled “Not Your Year” from the “Say I Am You” album.

Granted the photo I posted yesterday was nothing exciting but it is part of the process of learning, so it seemed like a good idea to record a baseline. It's often hard to judge progress without the baseline to give a point of reference. One of the aspects of photography that has been dormant for me in recent months is to stretch my comfort zone. Experimenting is fun, challenging, and a necessary element of growth. We often forget to enjoy the journey and focus too hard on the destination. There are many advantages to being in the moment, enjoying the journey. Being open to the experience along the way and being aware of the many paths that can lead to the destination can make all the difference. Sometimes, if you allow yourself that freedom, the destination may be somewhere different than you expected or the destination can involve many opportunities that might not have been apparent when you started.

In a broad sense, I think that my destination in photography is unknown. It's more a case of having places I want to visit while I travel towards that unknown. Some of the places won't be revealed until I have journeyed to other places along the way. The photo I posted yesterday was somewhat crude. Crude in an unfinished sense, not in a negative sense. Today's photo is a marker along the road, it's representative of the distance from yesterday to today on trying to learn how to take certain types of photos. It is by no means indicative of reaching the destination for this branch of the trip. There is still plenty of progress to be made, plenty of crudeness in the image.

In the twelfth month of this photography project for 2008, it's easy to lose a sense of where I have been, what I've done, accomplishments and failures. It's easy to get frustrated and let this project become a grind. There have been many days when I have wondered if I should stop, days when I have questioned whether I belonged in this community with so many talented photographers, days when I was too hard on myself for not achieving the outcome I wanted. Part of those negative feelings have been personal criticism of my skill as a photographer but part of the negative feelings have been things from other areas of my life influencing how I felt about my photography. This is a diverse group and each person has their own challenges that are independent of what is in our photographs. It's important for me to remember why I am here, in this community, involved in this project. Fun and personal enjoyment need to be at the top of the list.

Whether you like the photo from yesterday, today, or tomorrow is not for me to decide. It's beyond my scope of control. The funny thing about submitting photos here is that it has remained an act of sharing and how an image will be interpreted is an unknown. It is still gratifying when people truly like one of my images but it isn't an expectation nor a requirement.

Today's song is by Yoav, the title is "Where Is My Mind?" from the "Charmed and Strange" album.

On the way home, I stopped at "On A Shoestring" antique store. It is the kind of place that has built its own unique charm over the years. Before today, I had never photographed inside. The shop is on my way home from work, so I drive by the place at least 10 times every week (assuming I work a five day week). The owner was gracious and receptive to letting me wander about with my camera. The next time I go, I will take my tripod inside with me. I was trying to be less invasive today so my shots were hand held and the results were mixed. The lighting is very low in many places and I honestly don't care for flash photography as a general rule. With the tripod, I will be able to take the shots I want with the longer exposures and not have to worry about keeping the camera steady.

Today's shot is of the cash register. The shop exudes warmth from a place long gone. It is somewhat like time travel to walk around in the house (the shop is in an old house).

Tonight's song is by Fink (UK), titled "So Long" from the "Biscuits for Breakfast" album.

There were other choices, but to be honest with you, some of the other choices were water lilies too. This one is a different color than the other ones that have already slipped into the June gallery. I don’t know, maybe I need to create a water lily gallery to house the growing evidence of my weakness for photographing them. They are both primitive and alien looking. I am thinking they spray the air with some kind of mind control spores that draws me over to their little pond. Sure, I’ve tried to resist them. It’s no use. Several of the other shots from today are over in the “2008 – 1st Six Months – Bonus Tracks and B-sides” gallery.

Today’s iTunes song is by Iron & Wine. It is titled “Free Until They Cut Me Down” and is from the “Our Endless Numbered Days” album.

You knew it would happen. It was lurking in the background, just waiting for a chance to break through. The water lilies have been quietly stalking my monthly gallery for days now. Photographs were made and readied for display. The water lilies are relentless, silently mocking the other flowers. They are ancient and have immense patience, making their first appearance in the June gallery only two days into the month. The water lilies look both primitive and alien, like they came from another planet.

Today’s iTunes selection is from a band called State Radio, the song is “People to People” from the “Us Against the Crown” album. If you like a nice reggae beat from time to time, this is a great song and I like the lyrics too.

It's Friday, the weekend has started, and the caption is back. We are expecting rain tonight, so hopefully more photos of wet stuff tomorrow. Today was mostly overcast but the light was nice. If you haven't been to the Bonus Tracks and B-sides - 2008 - 2nd Six Months gallery in a while, I have been throwing some extras in there.

Today's photo is the first water lily I have shot in a while. It is a bit different in that the colors of the lily pads are changing like the other leaves. I don't know that I ever noticed that before.

Today's song is by Brett Dennen, the title is "Can't Slow Down" from the "So Much More (Special Edition)" album. The song has a nice mellow vibe to it.

We had a rainstorm this afternoon. I waited it out until it was only a drizzle then went out to shoot armed with my new waterproof cover for my camera and a rain poncho for me. I like shooting after a rain and it was nearing sunset. The light had a nice quality. I ended up with several shots I like and had a tough time choosing. I am not saying that I had great shots, I am just saying I had shots I liked, and your mileage may vary. It’s all subjective.

So this was my choice. Hopefully it works for you too. If not, maybe another shot on another day will do it for you. This is kind of a ride along thing anyway, so just ride along and don’t mess with the music on the iPod or complain about the volume. Sometimes it needs to be a little loud for emphasis.

Tonight’s iPod selection is from John Mayer on “The Village Sessions” album. This is a song I like a lot, “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”. If you like John Mayer and don’t have “The Village Sessions” album, I highly recommend it, the arrangements are outstanding.

I know, it’s another water lily shot. What can I tell you? They were just floating there and they were pretty. I needed a twist, a hook, something to help me slip it under the radar. On cue, the dragonflies appeared and I had the hook I needed. So here it is, a photo of a dragonfly that happens to be sitting on a very pretty water lily.

Thanks again for being so supportive in this group. I appreciate all of you every day.

Tonight’s iTunes selection is by Hem, the song is “Stupid Mouth Shut” from the “Rabbit Songs” album.

Going through some galleries today, trying to get caught up with viewing some of the galleries in the community, I was reminded of how fortunate I am to be a part of this community. The sheer volume of great shots on any given day is in itself quite a feat. But the sense of sharing and support throughout this community is what I find so special about the daily group. We are from so many different places, with so many different backgrounds but we have this common interest. In a world that seems to try and find so many ways to find our differences, to find ways of separating us, this group helps remind us what we have to share, reminds us of the ways we are alike.

We are a photography group and the talent on display here is outstanding. You are all so creative, so talented, and so ready to help. It is a gift to be able to share your worlds through your photographs, captions, and comments.

Today’s iPod tune is by Weather Report, the song is titled “Black Market” from the “Black Market” album. The album was released in 1976 but is just as amazing today as it was back then. The artists on the album included the late Jaco Pastorius who was a jazz pioneer with the fretless bass.

Today offered another late afternoon thundershower and another opportunity to shoot after the rain. So it was a trip to the Aldridge Botanical Gardens in Hoover, AL. By now, it’s no secret that I like shooting plants that are wet from a good rain. There is nothing special about the image processing in this shot. About 80 percent of the color was drained away to give the colors a muted effect. The actual flower was bright red.

Today’s iTunes selection is another Peter Gabriel classic, “Solsbury Hill” from the “Shaking the Tree – Sixteen Golden Greats” album.

Texture and color are things that attract my eye. In the woods that were so green with summer growth, an area of dead leaves offered some rich earth tones that stood out from the rest of the surroundings.

Today's song is by Bon Iver, the title is "Skinny Love" from the "For Emma, Forever Ago" album.

For those of you secretly thinking that I am just a one-trick pony, I bring you something different today. Yes, I can photograph more than flowers and water. Sorry if it seems to any of you that I am in a rut. To be honest, I have gone through several phases already over the course of 2008 with my subjects and my approach to shooting. This month is the first month I have begun to feel a certain comfort level. I am not saying that I have started to feel complacent. In fact I am very far from feeling that way. I still question my shots every day and I still question my skill as a photographer every day. In fact, it still seems strange to refer to myself as a photographer. I love photography and feel like it has been a great addition to my life experience but I am not sure what line you have to cross to call yourself a photographer.

Anyway, back to my original point, today’s photo is obviously not a flower or water. it is in fact a bird. The shot was taken at the Birmingham Zoo and I really didn’t think it would turn out well enough to share because I had to take it through the glass (which was very smudgy) and the lighting was poor. Birds can be interesting; I have noticed a number of you have birds in your daily photos. One thing that stays in the back of my mind when I look at birds, especially exotic birds, is that they are probably one of the closest living relatives to dinosaurs. It is easy to think lizard, but I think birds are considered closely related in some areas. Feel free to contradict me; I am by no means an expert on birds or dinosaurs.

Before I post my iTunes choice of the day, John reached back to a Harry Nillson song yesterday. Nice choice, he was a unique artist with an amazing vocal range. So John, I see your Nillson and raise you a Roy Orbison. This song is taken from a special concert he performed late in his career with many of the current greats. It took place in September 1987 and his band that night included Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and Jackson Browne. Backup vocalists included k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt. There isn’t a bad track on the album but I chose one of his classics, “Pretty Woman”. If you ever get a chance to see the video, Bruce Springsteen had a ball on this song if I remember correctly. The album is titled “Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night”.

To escape the holiday chaos, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens provide a nice sanctuary. My big decision was whether to shoot inside or outside. With warmer weather expected later this week, I opted to shoot inside the greenhouse. This photograph was in the wing of the greenhouse that is dedicated to camellias. It was an overcast day so the light inside was soft and muted. This photo features one of the many varieties of camellias that are housed in that area of the greenhouse.

Today's song is by Papercuts, the titlle is "Outside Looking In" from the "Can't Go Back" album. I know that many of these songs aren't by familiar artists. There is something a bit more honest and unfiltered about the lesser known artists. They don't have record companies tinkering with their music, they are making music for themselves and their fans. It takes a little work to discover these treasures but it is well worth the time.

When I took photographs this afternoon, I enjoyed it as always, but my overall mood was less than inspired. There were a couple of shots that were decent and I think I like this one the best from the choices that were available.

Today’s iPod song is by Joni Mitchell, the song is “River” from her “Blue” album.

Something about textures and patterns in flowers and plants often catches my eye. The contrast, the way the light hits both the top and the underside of plants fascinates me. I feel much the same way about patterns formed by branches of trees. All of my shots today were in one way or another focused on patterns and textures. With the relatively limited number of colors in this shot, it could have easily been a black & white shot. The warmth of the greens in the shot was too pleasing to lose by converting to grayscale. No doubt that is a personal preference but I tend to go with what pleases my eye.

You will notice a slight bit of post processing with the addition of a slight frame. Like so many other aspects of an image, it is yet another personal preference issue. In this case the frame was more about the presentation, adding just a minor enhancement to the composition. Opinions will vary from person to person and the photograph would have stood on its own without the frame.

I placed an order with BH Photo earlier this week. According to the package tracking, it should be delivered tomorrow. One of my concerns about shooting with an expensive piece of equipment is trying to protect the camera. I mentioned recently about getting a waterproof cover. One of my other fears is dropping my camera or having the tripod fall over. So to give me a measure of comfort, I decided to purchase something called camera armor for my Nikon D80. I won’t lie; I like ordering camera stuff and like getting packages. Yeah, there is still a lot of little kid in me.

Tonight’s song selection is by The Wailin’ Jennys. The title is “Beautiful Dawn” from the “40 Days” album.

Not too much to say today. I am mentally very tired, it's been a tough week at work and the holidays always seem to bring extra stress. It seems like every year, there is this excitement about the holidays, all of the joy and excitement that has been in my head from when I was a kid, but the reality as an adult is that it is a mixture of moods and feelings. People have their own issues going on in their lives, everybody is trying hard to meet this expectation of what they want the holidays to be, but reality is that like photography, the holidays for the most part are isolated moments of joy, excitement, expectation, hope, conflict, exhaustion, disappointment, and sadness. But it is life in microcosm. But like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football, we are Charlie Brown every year, Lucy is holding the holiday football and encouraging us to kick it. We anticipate the joy but we have been fooled before and hesitate. Then she encourages us to try again and we run to kick it with all the hope in the world.

Today's song is by Andrew Bird, the title is "Imitosis" from the "Armchair Apocrypha" album.

This afternoon I had an opportunity to shoot outside. It was nice to change settings and get back into the woods. It has rained a fair bit lately and the late autumn air had a nice rich smell. There were leaves scattered all over the woods and the trails. The leaves in today's photo reminded me of leather. It was something about the colors and the textures.

Today's song is by Wolf Parade, the title is "Fine Young Cannibals" from the "At Mount Zoomer" album.

At some point in the future, I plan to buy a nice macro lens. Until then, I will have to settle for close-up filters. This is just a picture of a knot in a rope. I had fun playing with the close-up filters but didn’t exactly come up with anything stunning.

I appreciate all of the encouragement from the group the last few days. My issues with my photographs are influenced a lot by my mood away from the camera. I apologize for bringing some of that baggage over here, for better or worse the daily photographs end up being a photo blog of sorts. It is a nice way to record the year and life creeping into the mix is inevitable. Lately I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I’d like to the community in terms of commenting on your images. Hopefully this week will be better for me in terms of time to look at the other galleries.

There is a shot of a Japanese Hydrangea in the Bonus Tracks gallery, along with a few other shots from today. I had never seen a Japanese Hydrangea before and photographed it because it was both unusual and pretty. For some reason, I have found water lilies to be a great subject this spring. The flowers and the plants look so prehistoric to me, very primitive. The one today had a pretty purple flower and the others I had seen were either pink or white. The bloom on this water lily seemed to glow, almost like it had an internal light source and was radiating. If you are keeping score, this is not the first water lily to make my pick as the daily photo, it isn’t even the first one this month. One of the hard things about selecting the daily photo on some days is that what has already been shot and posted to the daily gallery, especially in a given month, will often influence my choice. If I had been choosing on variety, one of the other shots would have been the choice today. But you know me, I live on the edge. Yep, I am out there pushing the limits. So against all odds, today’s daily photo is a water lily. I would have tried to build some suspense but you would have already seen the image by now so the element of surprise was gone. Or was it? Look back, maybe the image has changed. Nah, it’s still the water lily.

Once again, thanks so much for all of the comments and support from the group on my photographs. It means a lot, especially because there is so much talent in this community. Being around your galleries for the past several months has been a huge help to my photography.

There was something about these little flowers that caught my attention this afternoon. Most of my shots for the afternoon were of larger flowers like irises and roses. Part of my time tonight was exploring better techniques for converting an image to a high contrast black & white photograph. It was time well spent and no doubt will come in handy down the road. Today’s shot however is in full color.

At least today I have a song to share. It is another one from The Be Good Tanyas. The song is titled “Horses” from the “Chinatown” album.

There is no water lily for today. People were starting to think I was unable to photograph anything else. I would have taken a sunset picture today, but we had virtually no clouds so I will save it for another day.

Today’s iPod selection is by John Mayer. The song is “Stop This Train” from the “Continuum” album.

Today was a day when I didn't get a chance to shoot outside. Anyone who has followed the photos in my galleries is probably aware that studio shooting is one of the gaping holes in my experience with photography. You have to start somewhere. So tonight I attempted what should be a fairly basic and simple shot. While the ones of you with studio experience are chuckling about that last sentence, you know that even what seems like the easiest shot can offer all kinds of issues when shooting in a studio setting. Like they say, the devil is in the details. Admittedly there are many issues with this shot but hopefully as I try more I will begin to move up the learning curve.

Like they tell me when they do a medical test and have nothing out of the ordinary to report, at least we have a baseline.

Tonight's song is by Paper Route, the title is "You Kill Me" from the "Are We All Forgotten - EP" album.

It has been a while since I have shot any photographs at Moss Rock Preserve. I am lucky to have such a place adjacent to our subdivision. At first it didn’t seem too hot in the woods. There are lots of trees and a nice canopy of leaves. Eventually I started to feel the heat and by the time I finished shooting, I was very hot. It is so peaceful in the woods, no city sounds, just the breeze and the insects. As in many cases in the past, I can’t identify the flowers in the photograph. I keep saying I am going to buy a book on wildflowers. I need to quit talking about doing it and just buy the book.

Today’s iTunes selection is by ZZ Top, “Tush” is one of their classics.

Today was a skip lunch day due to a PET scan stress test. It was a beautiful day so I used my lunch break for photography since I couldn’t have anything to eat four hours prior to the test and no caffeine 24 hours before the test. So keeping busy was a good thing under the circumstances. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is only a few minutes from my office and is a nice place to spend a lunch break on most any day.

I apologize in advance because I can’t identify the plant I photographed. I was shooting some flowers nearby and liked the way the light was hitting these leaves. There were a few other shots that could have made the daily photo for today and I threw them in the Bonus Tracks Gallery (they are the first 3 images).

Tonight, I will try to keep my rants in check but no promises. Many times, I wish you could hear and see me for my captions. I laugh a lot, smile a lot, and am very easy going for the most part. Text doesn't convey context and tone very well so I think I come across too serious on some occasions.

As I mentioned, I have been playing with Lightroom 2 for the past couple of days. It's a fine piece of software but after doing some comparison tests, I have concluded that my methods of processing in Photoshop may take a little longer, but I think they do a better job of processing my photos. Like everything else, opinions vary and ultimately it's an individual decision on processing your work.

This afternoon, I intended to work on some shots of the sky and clouds but there really weren't many clouds, so that will have to be another day. So, I tried some shots that played with perspective and back lighting.

The people in the daily photo community are so talented and supportive. I get so much more from this group than I could ever give back. Next month will mark a year since I bought my DSLR. After about 25 years of being away from photography, it has been like coming home. Thanks for taking the time to look at my photos.

Almost forgot to post a song for the day. For those of you that don't get the connection between my photos and the music, I'll try to explain. Think of the song selection as part of a larger body of music that to some degree is the soundtrack for both my photos and my life. Tonight's song is by Kalai, the title is "Waiting for My Blue Sky" from the "Crows Feet" album.

For the second Friday afternoon in a row, my photography was punctuated with tornado warning sirens blaring throughout the area. Luckily I had taken a few photographs before I ran to the car. I drove home in a heavy rain mixed with hail. Almost as soon as I walked in the door, the power went out and stayed off for about four hours.

Today’s shot was a bit of an experiment with grain. I shot at a higher ISO with the intention of introducing more grain to the image, trying to see where that would take the shot in terms of the image and the processing. It gave the flowers a different texture.

Yeah, I know. It’s another water lily. I had a lot of choices and could have easily gone with something else. But nooooo..... the water lily made a strong showing (at least in my opinion). So if you want to ding me on stars or whatever, go ahead, I can take it. But if you happen to be a little on the radical side, embrace the insanity, give the water lily some love. For those of you that can’t handle it, avert your eyes. I will post some of the other photos from today in the bonus tracks gallery and you can pretend that I chose one of them and not the water lily.

There were no incidents involving geese or golfers while I was taking photographs today. But tomorrow is another day; we’ll see how it goes.

The iTunes song for tonight is from the Iron and Wine album “The Shepherd’s Dog” titled “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)”.

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Galleries

Portfolio

New Mexico

The images in this gallery are from a trip to Santa Fe, NM in February ...

Updated: May 02, 2009 9:50am PST

Workbench

This gallery contains ideas and directions I am exploring. Over time, ...

Updated: Jul 02, 2009 8:25am PST

Water Lilies

2009 Daily Photos - but not every day

Updated: Jul 01, 2009 10:38pm PST

Pepper Place Saturday Market

Updated: Jun 21, 2009 7:26pm PST

Texture

Texture surrounds us all the time in various forms. The images in thi ...

Updated: Jun 29, 2009 10:54pm PST

Liquid Sunshine - Raindrops

Flowers - Raindrops

There is something special about taking photographs after it rains. W ...

Updated: May 10, 2009 6:46am PST

Flowers and plants

Images of flowers, various varieties, in full color

Updated: May 09, 2009 9:54pm PST

Creeks, streams, and lakes

Updated: Jun 18, 2009 8:56pm PST

$Orchids : Orchids are such a beautiful and wonderfully diverse group of flowering plants. Hopefully I can capture at least a fraction of their beauty to display in this gallery. The photos are sorted by most recent first which will place the oldest images in the gallery at the end.$