Double Knock Out

Tags

double knockout, photography, postaday, rose

The Knock Out rose was introduced in 1989 by William Radler. It rapidly became a favorite rose for many as it proved to be sturdy, disease resistant, and also beautiful. In 2004, Double Knockout came out and we have been growing it for the past decade. All our other roses died for one reason or another, but we have two bushes of Double Knockout which are thriving. Japanese Beetles love them as food , but one or two traps seem to take care of that every year. So, here is my entry to Cee’s CFCC: Flowers:

https://ceenphotography.com/2021/06/01/cffc-flowers/

Double Knock Out rose.

Mid-Week Monochrome – MWM -15 – Flowers

Tags

mid-Week Monochrome - MWM, photography, postaday

In answer to RyanPhotography challenge: https://ryanphotography.uk/2019/04/10/mid-week-monochrome-mwm-15-flowers/

Flowers.

Last Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: All-Time Favorites

Tags

daily post weekly photo challenge, photography, postaday

The link for this final Weekly Photo Challenge is:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/all-time-favorites/

Here are my submissions:

The Wave at Coyotes Buttes North.

From inside The Wave looking out.

Clashing waves.

More clashing waves.

Wavy and graceful lines imprinted on red sandstone by the forces of nature.

Ocean wave near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Close ups

Tags

cee's blank and white challenge, photography, postaday

The link for this challenge is: https://ceenphotography.com/2018/05/03/cees-bw-challenge-close-ups/

Yesterday, this tree trunk drew my attention as I was looking for birds near Barnegat Light House.

Tree trunk.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lines

Tags

bridge to nowhere, kootenai falls, photography, postaday, power lines, starling, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/lines-2018/

Here are my interpretations of it:

Starlings on power lines.

Bridge to nowhere, in South Jersey.

Railroad tracks near Kootenai Falls, MT.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Prolific

Tags

clivia miniata, natal lily, photography, postaday, prolific, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/prolific/

This week we were gifted a Natal Lily (Clivia Miniata) with bright orange blooms which immediately brightened our living room. The plant originates from South Africa and is reputed to be a prolific bloomer as well as a nearly indestructible house plant in our temperate climate. It belongs to the Amaryllidaceae family, so it is related to the better known Amaryllis flowers. However, it is much sturdier and requires less care. Even benign neglect, especially as far as watering, would do.

Here are some photos I took of this new plant as soon as the sun made its appearance inside our house.

Clivia Miniata (Natal Lily).

Clivia Miniata (Natal Lily).

Clivia Miniata (Natal Lily).

Clivia Miniata (Natal Lily).

Clivia Miniata (Natal Lily).

Clivia Miniata (Natal Lily).

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rise/Set – 2

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday, sunset, weekly photo challenge

This is the second part for this Weekly Photo Challenge at the following link: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/rise-set/

The shot below is of the most colorful sunset I ever saw at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Sunset at EBF, January 2015.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rise/Set

Tags

photography, postaday, sunrise, weekly photo challenge

This WPC is at the following link: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/rise-set/

The following sunrise shot was taken one early morning in December 2017 at a farm about two miles from our home.

Sunrise at Cherry Orchard Farm.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Out of this World

Tags

great sand dunes national park, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/out-of-this-world/

I took the following photo at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado almost three years ago. Looking at it now, I am struck by the straight line outlining the dune in the middle of the picture. It seems to be drawn not by the wind and other forces of nature but by some unnatural being.

Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weathered

Tags

photography, postaday, weathered, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/weathered/

Here’s a photo of a well-weathered Bristlecone Pine that probably lived for several thousand years:

Bristlecone pine in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, White Mountains, California.

Weekly Photo Challenge: 2017 Favorites – 2

Tags

mute swan, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/2017-favorites/

Mute Swans were the favorites of many this past October.  As the swans preened during a foggy morning, they struck poses that were bold and beautiful.

Mute Swan.

You may also be ineterested in two posts with more photos of the swans:

https://neihtn.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/beauty-and-the-fog/

https://neihtn.wordpress.com/2017/10/24/the-conductor/

 

Weekly Photyo Challenge: 2017 Favorites

Tags

barnegat lighthouse state park, northern cardinal, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/2017-favorites/

In early May 2017, I went to Barnegat Lighthouse Park and walked the short (0.2 mi) Maritime Forest Trail looking for birds to photograph. Suddenly a red bird, a male Northern Cardinal flew by with a seed in his bill. He went to a branch on which a female was already perched and began to feed her in a gesture of love and courtship, as you can see in the following shots.

Northern Cardinals.

Northern Cardinals. Her eyes say it all.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Serene

Tags

marina, ocean city, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/serene/

Here are my entries for it, a sunrise photo taken in Ocean City, MD and a sunset photo taken in Marina, CA.

Sunrise over Ocean City, MD.

Sunset over beach at Marina, CA.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pedestrian

Tags

pedestrian, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The link for the challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/pedestrian/

I took this photo in Viet Nam last year, and the sight of a pedestrian mother with her child climbing over the divider and crossing a street filled with cars has stayed with me ever since.

Sài Gòn traffic scene: Mother and child crossing a street after climbing over divider.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Structure

Tags

mortar and pestle, photography, postaday, sapa, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/structure/

Last year I took the two photos shown below in Sapa, on the Northwest corner of Viet Nam. They show a water-driven mortar and pestle used to pound grains of rice to remove husks. The structure still works but maybe it is now only displayed for tourists to snap pictures.

Water powered mortar and pestle: accumulation.

Water powered mortar and pestle: release.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Bridge

Tags

Bixby, bridge, Carmel, hoi an, new jersey, postaday photography, Princeton, viet nam, weekly photo challenge

URL for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/bridge/

Following are photos that I took of bridges in my travels.

Bridge over Carnegie lake in Princeton, NJ.

New River Gorge bridge near Fayetteville, WV.

Bixby bridge at dusk, south of Carmel, CA.

Japanese bridge in Hoi An, Viet Nam.

Bridge to nowhere, in South Jersey. There is no road on the other side, only a dirt path and weeds.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: All One Color

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, photography, postaday

Cee’s challenge is here: https://ceenphotography.com/2017/05/16/cees-fun-foto-challenge-all-one-color/

This was not easy, but here’s my interpretation:

Pink flowers.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflecting

Tags

chincoteague bay, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

This challenge URL is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/reflecting/

Here’s my entry:

Sunset over Chincoteague Bay.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sky

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, glacier national park, photography, postaday

Cee’s challenge is at the following URL: https://ceenphotography.com/2017/05/02/cees-fun-foto-challenge-sky/

And here’s my entry: the sky just before sunrise near Glacier National Park in Montana.

Sunrise on the way to Glacier National Park.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: View from the Back, Bottom or Underneath

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, photography, postaday

Cee’s challenge is here: https://ceenphotography.com/2017/03/21/cees-fun-foto-challenge-view-from-the-back-bottom-or-underneath/

I put out a brick of bird feed mixed with mealworms, and right on cue, the birds came and willingly posed for Cee’s challenge.

View from the back, bottom, or underneath.

Weekly Photo Challenge: the Road Taken

Tags

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

You can find this photo challenge at the following link: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/the-road-taken/

In the fall of 2015, a friend and I went to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains near Bishop, CA. There was almost no traffic, and I soon found out why.

The road we took, the only one to our destination, went from 4,100 ft to 12,000 ft (1,200 m to 3,600 m), uphill all the way, without any dip. It took us almost an hour to get through so many turns that I lost count, before finally finding a place to park on the side of the road, not far from the mountain top.

On the way to Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest near Bishop, CA.

I was rewarded with some of the most spectacular vistas that I had ever seen, with bright sunshine, a cool breeze and fantastic clouds that kept swirling in a vibrant blue sky no matter where I turned.

Swirling clouds the White Mountains of California, around 10,000 ft (3,000 m).

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadow

Tags

moon, photography, postaday, shadow, weekly photo challenge

The link for this Weekly photo Challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/shadow-2017/

Two days ago, I was taking pictures of the moon when I heard the sound of a jet airplane. It flew overhead, to the left of the moon, and I just had seconds to swing my camera toward it. There was no time to adjust any setting, with the following result.

Airplane and its photographic shadow.

Here’s a picture of the moon.

Moon.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Graceful

Tags

common tern, photography, posataday, weekly photo challenge

This Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge is at the following URL:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/graceful/

The following series of photos shows Common Terns doing graceful acrobatics to find food at the Edwin B Forsythe Wildlife Refuge.

Common Terns fishing.

Common Tern fishing.

Common Tern missed catching a fish.

Common Tern, a fraction of a second after missing a fish.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Dark and Light

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, photography, postaday

The link for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Dark and Light is: https://ceenphotography.com/2017/01/03/cees-fun-foto-challenge-dark-and-light/

and here’s my interpretation of it.

Bird or duck footprints on sand at Barnegat Lighthouse jetty.

Weekly Photo Challenge: H2O

Tags

glacier national park, H2O, kootenai falls, niagara falls, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/h2o/

Photos of water make a good chunk of the shots I have taken since 2010 when I started doing digital photography. In the following series, the shots are of water from its sources high in the mountains, to waterfalls, and finally as part of the giant ocean mass around our globe.

Small brook in Glacier National Park.

Kootenai Falls near Libby, MT.

Kootenai Falls.

Niagara Falls, from the American side.

Close up of Niagara Falls.

Wave crashing on Jersey shore near Barnegat Light.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Narrow

Tags

az, lower antelope canyon, narrow, page, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The Daily Post challenge is at: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/narrow/

One of the narrowest places I have ever been to is Lower Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ. Walking through it, in many spots only one person at a time could pass through. The following photos attest to that.

Lower Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ.

A photographer at Lower Antelope Canyon.

This last photo was a surprise for me. I first heard the bird or birds chirping, and when I saw one I quickly took a shot before it flew away. If you can recognize what kind of bird it was, please let me know in a comment.

Bird at Lower Antelope Canyon.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Details

Tags

daylily, details, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

This Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge is at the following link: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/details/

I submit two closeup photos of daylilies showing details at the core of each flower. The first photo was taken a couple weeks ago on a dry morning, the second one just after a heavy downpour this afternoon.

Pistil and stamens of Daylily.

Daylily after downpour.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Look Up

Tags

brown pelicans, daily post weekly photo challenge, garrapata state park, look up, ocean city airport, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday

The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge Look Up is at this link:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/look-up/

For photographers, it is always a good idea to look up when they are walking around taking pictures. In early May, that’s what I did while hiking in Garrapata State Park in Northern California, and saw a large band of Brown Pelicans flying high in the sky toward me. I just had enough time to capture 17 of them in the following photo.

Brown Pelicans over Garrapata State Park.

Later in the month, I was concentrating on getting good shots of Night Herons in the rookery near Ocean City Welcome Center. Then I heard the sound of a motor, looked up and took the following shot.

Plane landing in Ocean City, NJ.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curve

Tags

curve, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

I have not participated in the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge for a while, but here are my entries for this one which is titled “Curve.”

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/curve/

I was too eager yesterday and went out to the lotus pond near our house to photograph lotus flowers. It was too early in the season, and there was no flower to be seen, only green leaves and stems, and lots of curves.

Rain water on lotus leaf. It looked so pure.

Curves at lotus pond.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Landscape

Tags

landscape, photography, postaday, stony brook, weekly photo challenge

Here’s the link for this week’s photo challenge: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/landscape/

Stony Brook is a small river about 3 miles North of our house. It meanders around the area before ending up as a tributary of the Millstone River, one of the major rivers of New Jersey. After living nearby for almost 30 years, I thought it was time to go there and take some photos for this week’s challenge.

Pedestrian bridge over Stony Brook

Reflections on Stony Brook.

There was’t much water, but an ND filter created unusual flow patterns.

Finally a shot of one of the tiny yellow wildflowers growing along the banks.

Wildflower on Stony Brook bank.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Half Light

Tags

photography, pjm rhododendron, postaday, weekly photo challenge

Yesterday, without knowing about this week’s photo challenge (https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/half-light/) I had shot the following pictures of a PJM Rhododendron bush that was starting to flower. The sun was very low on the horizon and only tiny rays of light managed to get through the branches.

PJM Rhododendron in waning sunlight.

PJM Rhododendron bud.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Wet

Tags

barnegat jetty, Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, photography, postaday, ruddy turnstone

The link for Cee’s challenge is: http://ceenphotography.com/2016/02/29/cees-fun-foto-challenge-things-that-are-wet/

A flock of Ruddy Turnstones was basking in the sun at the Barnegat Lighthouse jetty at the northern tip of Long Beach Island in New Jersey.  I took a few pictures of them, and of one in particular that was shaking off water perhaps coming from a wave that got too close.

A female Ruddy Turnstone with a few drops of water on her back.

Suddenly, she twirled her head, sending water in a spiral around her head. You need to click on the image to view it in full size and see the spiral of water droplets.

All done, no more wetness in less than a second.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons

Tags

cactus, photography, postaday, tulip, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/seasons/ and here are my entries, flowers grown inside the house to dispel winter blahs and hope for an early spring.

White tulip.

Red tulips.

Last but not least are these bright flowers from our Thanksgiving cactus which is blooming a second time in three months.

Thanksgiving cactus, second bloom since Thanksgiving.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Vibrant

Tags

grand canyon national park, photography, postaday, sunset, vibrant, weekly photo challenge

Vibrant is the challenge word: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/vibrant/

I took the following photo at Grand Canyon National Park almost six years ago, when I started getting interested in digital photography. I had a new camera and had never heard of HDR or any of the esoteric terms that photographers like to bandy about. I just saw the beautiful colors as the sun was setting, and they kept getting better and more vibrant by the minute. So, I took the shot.

Grand Canyon sunset.

I showed the photo to a person who knew a lot about photography, and who said: “Very nice, but how do I know this was taken at the Grand Canyon?” He said I should have used HDR to get some features of the canyon walls out of that mass of black at the bottom of the image. Oh well, one lives and learns.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Gathering

Tags

gathering, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/gathering/

A gathering of Cormorants.

Horseshoe Crabs gather to breed. This is an annual event vital for the life of this species which has been in existence for 450 million years.

Shore birds like Laughing Gulls and Red Knots gather to splurge on Horseshoe Crab eggs.

Laughing Gulls gather to feast on a toppled Horseshoe Crab, with its tail sticking up diagonally.

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #9 Rule of Thirds Introduction

Tags

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge, photography, postaday

Better late than never for this challenge: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/02/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-week-9-rule-of-thirds-introduction/

I took the following photo three months ago at Badlands National Park early in the morning when the sun had barely started to rise and some low-hanging clouds tried to overwhelm the heavily eroded and jagged Wall of the park.

Dawn at Badlands National Park.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eye Spy

Tags

blue jay, brown pelican, cardinal, eyes spy, great blue heron, mourning dove, photography, postaday, red fox, tufted titmouse, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/eye-spy/

When I photograph birds and animals, I try to get a good eye expression, or at least get their eyes in clear focus. Here are my entries for the challenge, all from photos taken this year, some as recently as yesterday.

Great Blue Heron keeping an eye on a fish, which it caught just a few seconds later.

Blue Jay with a questioning look.

Female Cardinal modelling for photographer.

Brown Pelican.

Tufted Titmouse. These birds have some of the most photogenic eyes.

Juvenile Red Fox.

Bighorn Ram.

Mourning Dove.

Goldfinch in winter plumage.

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Diagonal Lines

Tags

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge, diagonal, photography, postaday, starling

The link for this challenge is: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/11/25/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-week-8-diagonal-lines/

Last week I was driving along when a dark cloud of Starlings landed on electrical wire right in front of me. There were possibly a thousand or more of these birds, lined up in rows of varying length, all pointing in the same direction. I stopped, took out my camera and took the following shots which help to illustrate Cee’s challenge.

Starlings on electrical wire.

Trio of Starlings on electrical wire.

One Starling stood out singly.

Starlings near electrical pole.

Finally, a picture of a juvenile Ring-billed Gull in flight, displaying many diagonal lines with its wings and body.

Young Ring-billed Gull.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Transition

Tags

photography, postaday, sanderling, transition, weekly photo challenge

The URL for this week’s challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/transition/

There was a large flock of Sanderlings sleeping peacefully on a series of ledges along the jetty at the Barnegat Lighthouse. I saw a Sanderling being dislodged by a bigger Ruddy Turnstone, one among several which walked with impunity among the smaller birds, looking for food as usual. In any case, the following series of shots illustrate the Transition theme for this week’s challenge.

Sanderling pushed off ledge by Ruddy Turnstone (not shown).

Sanderling landing on lower rock ledge.

Sanderling coming to a stop and pulling wings in.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Trio

Tags

cormorants, european starling, gold finch, photography, postaday, red fox, snow geese, trio, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/trio/

I found many photos in my archives and in some recent shots that would meet this challenge.

Three Red Fox cubs playing in our backyard in May of this year.

Trio of Gold Finches in their non-breeding plumage.

Three European Starlings on their favorite perch: electrical wire.

Cormorant threesome taking off.

Snow Geese flying over Edwin B Forsythe Wildlife Refuge.