Thursday, May 19, 2011

Cold

Cold


Dog Blog Post #334: Glad folks enjoyed yesterday's Wordless Wednesday Play Time pictures. This was, once again, me playing with shutter speeds and settings and things, trying to capture motion.

Yes, the boys were just playing! The top photo (Zachary on his back, looking over at Henry) is Zachary asking Henry to play.

The middle photo is Zachary's Fearsome Face (aka Much Ado About Nothing.) He's actually totally silent when he plays, and having his mouth open and teeth showing is just part of it. Henry doesn't usually show as many teeth, but sounds like a rabid gerbil when he gets into it.

The last shot is how I see them most often, each with his mouth gently holding some paw, ear, ruff, or face of the other - but never a tail. Don't know why, they just never do.

Today's Daily Shoot was a hard one...

Illustrate cold in a photograph today.

Cold


The first things that popped into my head were sweaters and hats and scarves, oh my! And then I realized those are the sorts of things I used for "warm".

Rats

I quickly decided to go the conventional route - ice - and immediately put a small, square plastic bowl filled with water in the freezer. By early afternoon, it was frozen solid, and I had a wonderful "Enrichment Activity" for the boys.

(Going to have to remember this one for when the weather turns hot!)

Continuing my streak of discovering the obvious, we have, "fast shutter speeds are useless if you have slow fingers."

My eyes would see the tongue and tell my brain, "Tongue!". My brain would tell my finger, "Push!" But by the time finger did it's part, the tongue would be gone 70% of the time. The button works great. The camera was working fabulously. I just couldn't seem to coordinate my eyes, brain and finger to catch the action. For several shots I was just a split second off, every time. Arg!

I did manage to catch a few good ones, the best (I think) being the one at the top of the post. It's about 3/4 the original picture, as my thumb was visible in the bottom portion of the shot, holding the bowl, and so I cropped it off.

(Cropped the picture, not my thumb!)

The next picture shows a better view of the hunk of ice (once I removed it from the plastic holder) plus I like how Henry's tongue wraps around the corner.

Below is a Scavenge Challenge picture (needed a rock/mineral). I find this a rather curious rock, and if you happen to know anything about rocks and care to share, I'd love to hear it! (To read additional details about the rock, click on either image, and see the description below the picture.)

Strange Rock


Strange Rock


... both pictures have been rather significantly sharpened, to bring out the features of this rather unattractive mass of... something.

And finally, a rather tight crop of a Honey Bee visiting the Breath of Heaven:

Honey Bee


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6 comments:

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

Have you tried using your camera on 'burst' to capture the motion shots? You'll still miss the first one, but might have success getting the next ones?

The rock looks a bit like a warped hand grenade or something volcanic. Interesting though:)

Love the bee, Frankie wouldn't, he got stung on the paw by one tonight. No sympathy, he will try and play with them and lick the honey off their feet!!

Maybe I should have borrowed some ice from you and put on it:) He's fine now though.

Golden Woofs! SUGAR said...

Woof! Woof! ICE ... for sure I'll be needing this weekend (finally warm weather). Mom plans to take a photo (just like yours --- did you use your new camera?). WOW! what a rock. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

Amber-Mae said...

OMG you MUST really teach me how to take such super close up pictures like that bee picture you took. It's gorgeous! And I also like that ice picture. Bet the boys loved it!

Melissa

Tanner and Beth said...

I love ice cubes! you must have gotten really close to get those shots.

Puppy Kisses,
Tanner

houndstooth said...

I was going to suggest what Sue did for the tongue shots. Try the sports mode setting. It lets you take a series of pictures in quick succession. It's great for catching action shots (like running Greyhounds) and expressions when they're doing something like licking ice cream. It's one of my favorites to play with!

The rock and the bee are both so detailed! They're both great shots! I hope you're happier with your high contrast shots today than I was. I was short on time, and a bit uninspired. I'm hoping this weekend gives me some time to tinker, although my flower beds are in desperate need of weeding!

greygirl25 said...

OK, I don't cringe often, but the tongue on the ice... I instantly thought about it getting stuck.

Great shot.

You are really rocking that camera.