Scott Fillmer

I am glad we still celebrate Memorial Day in this country.  Somehow it seems that as the political correctness of our culture takes over everything we end up loosing an understanding of what made this country great in the first place.  It sickens me to see stories like the one of the Iraq veteran who displayed the American flag in his apartment window and was told to take it down or face eviction due to the fact that the flag is offensive to some of their residents.

Charlie Price of Wisconsin served 8 years for his country in Iraq and Kosovo to find that he isn’t even allowed to fly the flag he fought for in his own window. The couple is now fighting to amend the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 to include renters, and I hope they are successful.  Sometimes it seems that you are no longer aloud to hold an opinion in this country because it might offend someone.  Who are these idiots who have now decided that we need to be a country of brown plain-jane, average, robots, who all believe in the same thing and can never disagree with anyone else?

There is no greatness in average, no conviction of ideals or principles in living a life of medium gray, and these types always seem to get the headlines. It gets tiring to hear the moaners, whiners, and complainers beat the drums of complacency and strive towards moving the country to be average, but sometimes they seems to be yelling the loudest.  Now, instead of being the innovators and inventors, we are having to rely on Russia and Russian built rockets to take us into space, who would have thought that 20 years ago.

It is still the greatest country in the world, I just wish some of it’s residents would take a history lesson and see that America was not built on being average.  The History Channel just finished an interesting series called America The Story of Us.  Though some of it was a little subjective, it showed the overwhelming story of how much innovation, determination, and sacrifice people made because they believed in themselves and what this country stood for.

My family has had people who fought in the Civil War, WWI, both of my grandfathers served in WWI (see Son of a Son of a Photographer), one flew a B-24 Bomber in WWII in Europe, my dad served in the Air Force, and my cousin decided to go into the Navy after 9-11 and is currently serving in the Navy on a nuclear submarine.  I am thankful for their service to this country.  Because they served, my wife and I are able to enjoy living in this great country.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day.  It has been quite a stormy weekend with some crazy weather but I managed to get outside and take a few photos (and some of the dog of course).  The heat is definitely on its way, the pasture, trees, and everything around has taken on the brilliant green of summer.

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Something a little different for this afternoon.  A few photos of the busy bumble bees in our yard (I am not totally 100% sure they are actually Bumble Bees, but they were to small to be a Carpenter Bee, but I am sure someone will let me know species and Latin name) as they go about their business.  The last few days we have had about a hundred of these little guys enjoying all the weeds I have not cut down yet.  They were making so much racket this morning I had to grab the camera and see what I could come up with.

I was really trying to get these little guys in flight.  These were two that were sharp enough to post here but you can see from the flowers how shallow the depth of field was here.  I missed it just slightly on the bottom image where the focal point hit slightly above the bee and it was pretty on target on the first image up top.  Both images were taken hand held around 1/1000th of a second.  Notice the wings of the first photo are still in motion.  That one was taken at 1/1250th of a second, which means their wings beat faster than 1/1250th of a second.  In comparison, a Humming bird’s wings can usually be stopped with a 1/250th of a second shutter speed, so the bee wings move FAST.

Proves to myself once again that there is always something to take a picture of if I would just open my eyes. Sometimes I can go days without shooting and think there is nothing anywhere around that is worthy of taking a photo, but I that is pretty much 100% wrong, all the time.

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We had a nice weekend of hot weather, but it finally started raining. We have been in such a drought that any rain at all is a welcome site. After the rain cleared out our unknown bulb started blooming, rapidly. We were given this and told it was a “4th of July plant” and it started looking very star trek like before the blooms opened.

Cahaba or Shoals Spider Lily

Once the blooms opened we could see that it was indeed what is known locally in Alabama as the Cahaba Lily. Hymenocallis coronaria (Cahaba Lily or Shoals spider-lily), is known within the state of Alabama as the Cahaba Lily (outside the state it is known as the Shoals spider-lily) because it grows on the banks of the Cahaba River. It is actually an Amaryllis bulb and should multiple quite nicely in our garden.

You can see from the image that it has several more blooms to go, hopefully we can get some more rain over the next few days and it should be very happy. What is funny about this Lily is we actually got it from Texas. My father-in-law ordered it online, probably at Jackson & Perkins, but we took it from the box in Texas, back over here to Alabama and planted it in the garden back in March/April.

The image was taken very late in the afternoon. I love photography of flowers, but the conditions have to be just right to be able to get a sharp image, with a good background, and in good light. Especially when photographing a white flower, special care should be taken not to overexpose the white part of the flower.

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This week has gone by in a blink. Yesterday we planted 5 oak trees before breakfast trying to avoid the mid-morning heat and by about 10am it was to hot to do anything outside. I looked over at our rose bush today, a red Double Knockout Rose (or aka a Double Knock Out Rose) and it was in full bloom.

Thinking again like I was yesterday, I went out to try and capture a photo of the bloom before it got way to hot outside. As my luck would have it, the wind was blowing like crazy.

The Red Double Knock Out Rose Bloom

Normally this time of year they are covered in red double bloom flowers but this one was not planted to long ago and it sat in the hot dry drought we have going on for several weeks looking rather pitiful. Two days ago Deb put some rose food around its base, and now, blooms everywhere.

This variety of rose is a sister to the Knockout Rose which can get to be a very large, tree, shrub sized rose bush. The Double Knockout is quite a bit smaller and well suited to our very young garden. I took this shot this morning, about 7am, before it got really hot outside.

The wind gave me fits as it decided this morning was the morning to blow, continuously, but I was still able to enjoy a small amount of time to smell the roses this morning before I went to work.

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There are a few wildflowers that really capture a state, and the top two that come to mind are the Texas Bluebonnets and the Colorado Columbine. The Colorado Columbine is actually native to Canada but has really become a symbol of Colorado since it was adopted as the official state flower on April 4, 1899 by an act of the General Assembly.

The Colorado Columbine Flower in Bloom

This flower has so many different faces and can be photographed in so many different poses that one shot does not do this flower justice. Below is the classic head on shot as I like to call it.

When trying to shoot closeup images of flowers it is great if you can get the green leaves in the background as this will make the flower pop off the page. I managed to get a little green in the bottom right corner but would have loved that all the way around the image.

What are your favorite wildflowers of the Spring and Summer months?

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In nature photography, one of the best things to find is some subject with contrasting colors. Of course, you are taking about nature, so it isn’t really up to you, but if you can find a contrasting color (that would be red/green, or yellow/black, or blue/green etc), it will make the image pop out.

Sometimes you have to look REALLY hard to find a contracting color. Red and green are two of my favorite contrasting colors, they just go so well together and each color stands out. In this image, I remember looking around forever for the red/green match and finally found this tiny little spider. Not the largest subject I would have liked, but, a green spider, sitting on a red flower, go figure. Without the green background, the flower itself would not jump out of the image quite as well as it does with the contrasting color in the background.

The spider is about the size of my finger nail at most, so getting in really close was pretty important. Framing the background to have some shade of green was just a matter of framing, and trying to get a somewhat diagonal going from the center of the flower up to the spider is an element of photography I like as well.

Some reviews have not cared for the spider there at all (I do have both shots, but like this one better), and the flower itself could have been a sharper with the focus on the center of the flower (if that was the subject). Since the subject is the spider, he is what is in sharp focus (you may have to click on the larger version to see the detail of the spider better). What do you think? Do you like the spider there or not?  He is obviously the subject of the photo, not the flower.  The flower is far to soft, but they do tend to compete with each other.

Image Specifics

• Body – Nikon n90s
• Lens – Nikon 105mm Macro with 6T closeup filter
• Film – Fuji Velvia 50

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Butterflies make great subjects. They stay still for you, or at least, they land some place long enough for you to usually get a half way decent image. You can also be creative when shooting butterflies.  Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain Georgia has one of the best butterfly displays anywhere in the country.  They have over 1,000 butterflies and more than 50 different species that are free flying as you walk through a jungle like home, made just for the butterflies.  It covers about 4 1/2 acres with a waterfall and ceilings that go from 16 feet up to 42 feet in hieght.

The Cecil Day Butterfly Center in Callaway Gardens is a must see if you are going to be anywhere near the area.  I would recommend going during the week when it is a little quieter, and I would try to be there as early in the morning as possible, especially if you are interested in photograping the butterflies.

Using a flash will give you a nice blacked out background and using a small depth of field without a flash will give you some nice greens and solid colors. This image was taken in August at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia at the Cecil B Day Butterfly Center. Yes the same place that has the most beautiful golf courses also has butterflies.

Image Specifications

Body – Nikon n90s
Lens – Nikon 105mm Macro
Filter – Nikon No. 6T Closeup
Flash – Nikon Mount on a cable with a shade filter
Subject – Paper Kite Butterfly (Idea leuconoe) on a Candle Plant

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There were a few other blog posts and images about the Paper Kite that I found. Such a beautiful butterfly, easy to get quality images, but not very many websites that showcase this little guy. Here are some: Rice paper Butterfly, Butterfly photos, Tree Nymph Butterfly.

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Sticking with the Spring feeling outside today, the Image of the Day is a Cardinal Flower, taken in Birmingham Alabama a few years ago.  Birmingham has a very nice botanical gardens and it is always changing.  I would go there to take photographs while I was attending UAB and there was always something new to shoot.  They had at the time some wonderful water lilies that produce a very beautiful bloom and makes for a nice clean background.  This image here was taken a little off the beaten path with a macro lens.

If you ever get a chance to spend some time in Birmingham and are looking for a nice quiet place to shoot, try the botanical gardens right next to the zoo.  I hear even in the winter time there are nice areas that produce some wonderful photographs.

Photo Specifics

• Body – Nikon n90s
• Lens – Nikon 105mm Macro
• Film – Fuji Velvia

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This weather for down here is just crazy. It was almost below freezing this morning and we had frost on the roof. It is mid-April, time for the upper 70′s to come back.

Another Cold Day in April

Today is tax day, and yes, I did my taxes today. I usually don’t wait this long to do our taxes but we were in Dallas for quite a while with DK’s mom in the hospital and I never got around to finishing them up and sending them to the good old IRS. They are now finished and filed.

A New Day, A New Image

I unpacked and installed the new scanner today. I don’t have much time to start scanning in all the slides and photos but I did do a preliminary scan of a slide I had sitting in my bookshelf. The results are not bad at all and I am pretty happy with the whole installation and setup process for this Epson.

This photo was taken August 4th 1997 in Birmingham. The scan was from an original slide and then minor adjustments in photoshop. Not bad, can’t wait to scan in all the multitudes of others. I am going to try to do an image of the day post a few times a week with images like these from my stock. We will see how many I can keep up with. I did start transferring all the digital images I had moved over to DVD to the new 1tb HDD. This will take a while as I have over 100 full DVD discs full of RAW NEF files and edited jpg’s.

The Changing View

The property directly across from our house is being logged and left to what looks like a stump filled waste land. They will come in and replant, but I have watched them today as they pull up 50-75 foot trees, 10 at a time and lay them on their side for the trucks to come pick them up. The view was pristine. Should be that way again in 30-40 years or so.

Orders and Dinner

We took in all our orders for the past week, probably about 100 book orders in total and went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here in town. The number of boxes we had to pick up today from our book supplier was unbelievable. We filled the entire trailer with books. We have now received about 10,000 plus books in the last few days. Tomorrow I will have a full trailer of boxes of book to unload. I did not get a chance to do my daily walking today since we drove into town, hopefully it will be a little warmer tomorrow and I can put in a few extra miles.

Dinner was nice. First time we had been back to Loco’s since we had to leave for Dallas. This restaurants is usually populated with college kids since it has probably the cheapest drinks in town, but it is always lively and fun. The college kids always have a great energy about them. I managed to get a few blog posts in and some guitar practice as well. My first official lesson will be next Tuesday although I have had a sudo lesson via DK before we left. Tomorrow we finally get a day or two to work at home. The weather should be getting warmer as the week goes by.

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Some images just jump out at me when I see them in nature, this one I loved because of its deep color. This will be posted as my first image of the day on this blog.  I love contrasting colors in nature and two of the best (in my opinion) is when you can find red and green together.  Luckily in nature, you can usually find green, so if you do find red, green is not far behind.  This flower was taken at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Birmingham Alabama.

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