On The Beach

After the tide came back in and ended my tide pool shoot on the Oregon coast, I retreated to the beach to look for subjects to shoot. I found some feathers in the sand that had some interesting comps. I will be talking with Jack Graham in the up coming weeks to plan another of the “Macro & More” workshops for Oregon in 2009. We’ve already had inquries for next year.

Lensbaby In Close

Here’s a nice tight shot of a flower I don’t remember the name of, was done with a Lensbaby (www.lensbaby.com).  A very cool little lens that does some great abstracty macro images.  On this one I used their 10+ and 4+ magnifiers to get in really close.  The magnifiers allow you to focus in as close as an inch.  If anyone out there is looking to purchase a Lensbaby, email me (mgmoats@yahoo.com) and I can give you a code that will get you 10 percent off on a new lensbaby.  You’ll have a lot of fun with this little guy.

 

Star Fish From Tide Pool

Here’s another shot from the tide pool on the Oregon coast.  A star fish with some other critters clinging to the side of a huge rock as tall as me.

Tide Pools

While I was out In Oregon co teaching the Macro & More workshop along with good friend and great photogrpaher Jack Graham, I was treated to my first expereince of shooting a tide pool.  If you every get to the Oregon coast please take time to explore these, as they offer a tremendous amount of macro images.  Many large rocks as tall as me are just totally cover with life forms.    My only regret was we only had about two hours until ther tide came back in.  So I was like a mad man shooting.  Here’s a shot of a green anemone.

 

Purple Haze Poppies

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Oregon Macro & More Workshop

Last week Jack Graham and I presented a “Marco & More In The Gorge Workshop”.
It was held in the Columbia River Gorge area of Oregon.  A beautiful place with
great waterfalls, landscapes and plenty of wildflowers for macro work. We had a
awesome group of photographers that were a pleasure to work with.  Everyone got
along really well and all had a great time.  I saw a number of excellent images taken
by the participants.  The weather was hot but better that’s better than dealing with rain.
  I was able to shot some really nice stuff myself that I’ll post in the future.  A shot I
was looking to get was of the poppy flowers.  I’ve admired shots I’ve seen of these, and
have always hope to get a chance to shoot them.  In 2009 Jack and I will repeat this
workshop and also will be adding the tide pools from the coast.  The tide pools are very
cool with tons of macro opportunities, and I’ll post some image I shot there.  

Fiddleheads

Found these two nice fiddleheads but didn’t like the background, so I placed this skunk cabbage leaf behind them.

New Lensbaby

I got hold a lensbaby, which is a neat little lens that does great work for marco lovers. Check it out at www.lensbaby.com  I’ll post more of the images shot with the lensbaby. You can go to my website, www.tinylandscapes.com and click on the link that says Lensbaby Images.

 

Snail On Skunk Cabbage

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My first day out shooting this spring.  The skunk cabbage leaves are starting to sprout.  I found this old snail’s shell, and thought it would be a nice contrasting subject for this skunk cabbage leaf.

Swamp Sycamore

This was shot in early spring as the snow melted and left pools of water in the flood plain of stoney creek.

First Sign Of Life

The Skunk Cabbage plant is the first sign of life in the north as we head torwards spring. These interesting plants have a built in heating systems that allows it to melt through the ice in the swampy areas that it grows in.  You will start to see them here in southeast Michigan around the end of Feburary, providing we don’t have a blanket of snow covering them. You can see the ice surrounding this one.

Snow Melt

As spring approaches and the snow melts into the river and produces some fast moving currents.  Here’s one from last year that I found with a face in the flow.

Tulip

 

 Shot some flowers that I used for one of my intermediate macro workshops.  I pulled off one of the petals to expose the insides.

Happy St. Patty’s Day

Here’s my green shot for SPD. This is a backlit Skunk Cabbage leaf.  The backlighting is from a early morning sun.  In the next few week these leaves will be poping up in the swampy areas, can’t wait!!

More Winter Swamp Leaves

Here’s another of the leaves from the swamp series. Last shot was Maples this time its Oaks.
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Back To Winter

Another snow storm heading our way tonight, seems like every week we get one.  Yesterday I was thinking spring but today its back to reality. This is from the swamps I shoot in, the maples laying in the water turn this nice white color. More images at http://www.tinylandscapes.com

Thinking Spring

I just posted this image over at www.birdphotographers.net in the macro/flora section.  I was thinking about the upcoming spring and can’t wait till it gets here.  As I was in the spring mood I decided to post this flower shot.  One morning I looked out on our sunlight porch and saw this this flower in one of my wife pots and was drawn to the great backlighting in the petals of this flower. Don’t remember the name of the subject.

Agave

This was shot last year at a indoor botanical garden run by the University Of Michigan.  I haven’t been there yet this year, but hope to go visit it next week.

Bubbles And Ice

Here’s another bubble shot this time locked in ice with a couple of leaves.

Bubbles And Leaf

Shot this last fall in a small puddle at the edge of a hiking trail.