Photos around Des Moines

[guppiecat]

The weather's been nice, so I've spent some time outside taking photos. The following highlights are from the sets Saylorville Lake, Neil Smith Train and Prospect Park. I've started playing a bit with landscapes. I'm not very good at it (and likely don't care enough to ever become very good at it), but there are a few here.




Saylorville Lake - I like the composition here.


Saylorville Lake - It looks kinda like the ocean, but it's not. Your first clue is that it smells completely wrong. Your second clue is that it's in the middle of Iowa.


Saylorville Lake - If you were six inches tall, you could totally go surfing here.


Des Moines - This is what Des Moines looks like from the top of Saylorville Dam


Hesitant Tree - Does not trust mom when she says water isn't too hot.


Bumblebee - It's not perfect, but I'm getting better.


Des Moines River - You'd think that there'd be a rumor of a giant river monster that occasionally eats casual boaters on the Des Moines river. There's not.


Tree loves ivy - Ivy loves tree.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I find the 6" breaking wave quite charming.

And the bumble bee is impressive in its way (I could of course list flaws at some length, but I've *tried* to shoot flying insects).

[guppiecat]

Yes, please don't list flaws with my flying insect shots until later this summer when I actually try to do well at it. :)

In late July, the bees go nuts out at the prairie reserve, so I hope to head out there with my macro lens, tripod, remote trigger and flash units. That'll stretch my skills to the limit, after which I'd be very interested in suggestions for improvement.

Glad you liked them.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

A target-rich environment has got to help a lot with the insects. Well, so long as they don't decide you're a threat, anyway.

[guppiecat]

Hmm, good point. I'll bring a helium balloon just in case.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I like the way the cloud mirrors the shoreline in the first one.

B

[guppiecat]

Wow. I completely missed that!

Oh, ahem, I mean, "thank you, it's good to have the little things appreciated" ;)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Just curious: which of those two sentences is meant to be sarcastic? I can't tell.

B

[guppiecat]

The latter is meant to be sarcastic. I honestly didn't notice how the cloud shapes matched the shore shapes. I was more interested in getting the sun glare off the clouds as well as putting the submerged tree into context with the trees on the right.

The shape of the clouds and the bird that I caught in transit were happy accidents.

(In general, I try to keep my natural tendencies towards sarcasm from disparaging others, as it's hard enough to communicate via text alone. A good rule of thumb is to assume that I did not intend to be mean and ask for clarification if I come across that way (as you did).)