Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: blur

(+4 insets!) (please view large!) :) I awoke this morning to the sound of...silence outside! The rain has finally stopped! Not that I mind the rain, but too much all at once isn't a good thing and we've certainly had enough! Stepping outside for my walk, I was about halfway across our driveway when I stopped in my tracks. What was that sound? I looked towards the noise and it dawned on me—our largest seasonal stream had roared to life with the accumulated downpour over the past few days. I was surprised how loud it was, and that meant just one thing: mini waterfalls! Rapids! Bubbles! Churning water! Abstract watery goodness! AHHHHH!!!! I about-faced, scrambled back into the house for my camera and knee pads, and burst back out again, armed and ready for action! Excited as a kid on the first day of summer vacation, I buzzed across our smaller meadow. Past our well, pump house and cistern, the noise of rushing water grew louder and louder. Finally I arrived at the clamorous stream and watched with big eyes as it boiled down the hill in a mad dash to our pond. It was really amazing to see! I was soon clicking away and made my way slowly towards the pond. So many interesting pictures to take, what fun! I didn't have my tripod with me so unless I braced my camera against a tree, long exposure-milky-water pictures were out. No worries, I had plenty of cool pictures to take! I ended up spending an hour along the stream and pond and managed an impressive 300 pictures for perusal when I returned to the house. I was also very pleased to see that all of the tractor work Steve had done to repair our drainage problem was 100% effective and we wouldn't be bothered by any issues for quite a while. YAY STEVE! Looking through my images, I was delighted to discover lots and lots of neat photos to work on. I had to pick carefully because I couldn't process them all today! My main image is an abstract and I just couldn't resist making it my picture of the day. There is a kind of ethereal quality to the water that I love. You can see the colors that give away a mottled russet oak leaf under the water on the left side, and on the right a droplet of water pouring off another leaf that is partially exposed. This kind of picture is something you can't really plan for, so discovering it was a real treat for me! I am also including several more pictures as insets and I had some fun with filters on the bubble shots! Pam, do you have any seasonal streams on your property? They are certainly a great source of fun for photography. We have two of them but they dry up as soon as the rain stops unless it's a heavy storm that lasts for a while. I think our larger stream, which I photographed, should be active for a little while though, the hill is swollen with water! I'm thinking about you and hope that all is as well as can be for you my dear. Stay warm and dry!

Steve and I are staying at my brother's home in the San Francisco Bay Area and a couple of days ago (and today also!) his wife took us on a hike up into the San Anselmo hills. It was a lovely day, though very windy and on the cold side, but the views were terrific! I brought my camera along with the hopes that I might find a few subjects to take pictures of. As it turned out, we actually found mushrooms! There were a surprising number of them too, and I am crossing my fingers that I'll get some winners when I get the chance to look at them on my computer. Today's mushrooms were photographed quite a while ago but I didn't have the chance to share them until today. I discovered this pair growing on the side of a rotting log while exploring our lower forest. It's amazing how fast a mushroom can appear when the conditions are right. I'd walked by this spot the day before and didn't see anything of interest. But when I investigated one day later, I found this pair of cutie pies, just waiting for their picture! Pam, I noticed that you have taken some pictures of mushrooms too! I love hunting for them as much as you enjoy finding butterflies on your flowers! I sure do hope that you are doing well today. Thanks so much for the lovely comments you've been leaving me, they make me so happy. Thinking of you every day! Explored on 1/3/19, highest placement, #1.

What an incredibly magical morning it was. Pumpkin and I peeked outside first thing today and found a world cloaked in mist. Fog had filled the valley and wafted up the hills; only the closest trees in our meadow and lower forest could be seen, slipping in and out of view. My walk was wonderful too. As I did my laps I relished the appearance of the forest and meadows shrouded in fog. At one point I noticed movement down by our gate and looked to see several mule deer trotting off into the mist, their tails held up like white flags. Later I heard the cry of a Redtail hawk and turned to watch it materialize and land in a tall pine tree. I stood and watched for the moment it perched there, repeating its calls several times before alighting and flying in a long circle and then away, its cries fading into the distance. At one point I walked off the road and over to an Oak tree. Taking off my glasses, I peered at its moss and lichen-encrusted bark so close that my nose nearly touched the tree. I call this "nose-close" and this is where my horrible nearsightedness pays off. I have what I like to call "micro-vision" because I'm able to see things extremely well if they are very close. Staring at the tiny world in front of me I appreciated the Seussian beauty of the bright green moss tufts. I marveled at the myriad shapes and types of lichen and then..."Ah, there you are!" I'd found what I was looking for! Peering at me shyly from between the cracks in the Oak tree's bark was an incredibly tiny mushroom. We're talking about 1/16"(1.59mm) here. I smiled warmly at the little woodland fairy and soon I found others nearby, some a little larger, others not bigger than the letter "o" in this sentence. These mushrooms are so very small that it's no wonder I'd missed seeing them until just a few years ago. I whispered that I'd be back and slipped quietly away. This afternoon I returned with my camera and macro flash. I spent an hour exploring the tiny worlds I found on each tree and on branches that had fallen to the ground. So many surprises awaited me! It was such fun. In the end I got many wonderful pictures that I hope to share with you as time permits. Today's photo shows one of the "micro-mushrooms" that posed so nicely for me and behind it you'll see a pair of others faded into bokeh. I hope you like this glimpse of the magical lands and its little fairies that I photographed today! Pam, I took you with me on my photo outing today and I pictured you staring at the bark and branches, finding treasures of your own. How fun it would be to run over to see each other's finds and figure out how best to get a picture that showed what we loved about the subject. It will be fun to see your pictures again my dear! For now, this little fairy mushroom is waving hello to you! Explored on 12/16/18, highest placement, #2.