Morning Glory

Hello,

This beautiful morning glory looks more like the sun in a blue sky to me.  The blue is almost perfect for the sky color.  The yellow center with the rays stretching out is a great sun as well.  The fade from the center seems to me like when you look right at the sun then the blue sky gets darker as you look away from it. Without a single cloud, how lovely an image that is.

When I saw this on one of my walks I just had to take a picture of it.  One shot and one photo, which rarely happens to me, I normally take five pictures and maybe one is good.  There are many different colors and different people that have morning glories around me that I see a different one almost every time I take a walk.

Thank you for looking

Zenkoji Cat

Hello,

This cat loves to be touched and to be in the way.  As you can see he loves to be touched and petted by anyone that passes by.  He loves it so much so that he lays down in the middle of the walkway so that people can see him.  I think he might be a stray but there is an elderly couple that looks after him.  He was sick for a little while so they took him to the hospital, but he is better now and getting in people's way.

This picture was taken in a warm summer day in Nagano, Japan.  Just a little bit south of Zenkoji temple at a place called Daimon or big gate.  I love to stroll in this area and take tons of photos of everything.   The grounds leading up to it are great, the shops are fun, and it has great atmosphere all around it.  I have many more photos of it so I will talk more about it later, to go with them.

Thank you for looking.

White Flower

Hello,

This picture is one of the first with my new camera that I was actually happy with.  This was taken with a Sony A55 which is my first DSLR, before I only had two bridge digital cameras and one film point and shoot.  The film one was a challenge mostly because I was in high school and was using it for school.  I loved my two bridge camera, one a Fujifilm and the other a Nikon.  Both took pictures very well and easy to boot but I could use any filters for them realistically.  I have some photos from both to upload onto this blog.

Now it comes to my current camera the Sony.  When I first unpacked the camera I was overjoyed, in my mind it was my first "Real" camera.  I could control everything but it and then I could get the pictures that were in my head.  I took a bunch of photos right off the bat and was nervous to see them.  I think that first week I took about five hundred photos, I kept two, only because I felt I had to.  It was so nerve racking to see the pictures were so bad, at first I thought is was the lens but I knew it was me.

I have been working steadily toward getting better and this beautiful flower is one of the fruit of my labor.  The sharpness in the stamen and pollen itches my nose.  The white petals folding over on themselves makes me think of a blanket.  Even the little peek of green and purple background adds a little jab of color.  I am working hard everyday to get better and I hope you all love the results.

Thank you for looking.

Cat Avatar

Hello,

I was doing some updating to Google+ and thought I should add some type of avatar for myself.  I don't have that many photos of myself so I went through some of the pictures I am going to upload.  The photo I picked was this one of a cat.  I don't own or look after this cat at all it is a stray that likes my garden.  My name for him is "Dirty Face" but that doesn't mean I don't like him though.

He is just one of three cats that like my garden.  They lay on the big stones, sunbath in the grass, and hide from the sun in the shrubs.  None of them like me at all though.  I try to feed them fish or milk, they run away.  I try to take their photos, they run away.  I talk to them, they run away, you get the idea.  I have gotten used to the idea that I can only look at them and smile.

Thank you for looking.

Melting Can

Hello,

Today is a picture of a can.  I know that doesn't sound like much but I love it none the less.  I noticed it about 4 months ago and thought it would be gone soon.  I didn't have my camera that day so I was a little bit upset that there wasn't a picture of it.  Two months and a few rain storms later I was passing by the ditch again and to my surprise it was still in the same place as before.  This time though I had my camera and of course I took enough pictures to feel content.  I see the hard life of something that wasn't made for it and should have been recycled long ago and it makes me happy. 

Thank you for looking.

Cosmos

Hello,

This photo is not that old but I fell in love with it the second I saw it on my computer.  The color is so striking and varied it almost feels like I used Photoshop to create the image from nothing.  The green and black background with the wonderful purple petals showing you the way to the beautiful yellow center.  For a flower on the side of the road in Japan I think it tells a great story and a happy one at that.

Thank you for looking.