Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: low key

(+1 inset!) There's a big storm brewing in southern Oregon...I looked outside this morning and found ominous signs of heavy clouds overhead. Last night I read a report that warns of heavy snowfall over 2,000 feet for the next few days. We are at 1,500 feet though and it's doubtful that we'll get snow. But the forecast does suggest snow probability for the next week. Who knows. Predicting the weather is such an iffy proposition. Although it wasn't horribly cold (32 degrees) I did my 15-minute minimum walk this morning and dashed inside before I was overly affected by the temperature. It's nice to retain feeling in my fingers and toes! I did managed to take a picture of the storm clouds and you'll see this as one of my insets today. I spent a very pleasant morning visiting contacts here on ipernity and then I finished up some sporophyte and moss pictures I'd taken a couple of days ago. Isn't it wonderful to find lovely subjects in unusual settings? The combination of sporophytes, moss and snow was very exciting to me. Even better, many of my pictures turned out well! Even though I do my best to post quality pictures, I'll be the first to say that I delete piles and piles of images for every one that is a "keeper." Those pictures are crisp, have proper focus and the potential to be an eye-catching image when I'm done with it. Sometimes I'll work on a picture and realize that it's not worth the effort to process. More rarely, I'll go to delete a picture and discover that it's actually quite special. I love that. So often we are taken by surprise at our pictures! Today's image is something unusual...I call this one Kung Fu Moss! As I was cruising around taking pictures of sporophytes and bits of snow, I kept my eyes open for moss that I could capture. I was hoping to find something different and interesting and then...look at that! This moss was growing in such a unique way and I loved its funny shape! I was reminded of the classic kung-fu stance with arms up, legs spread and ready to leap into action! Pam, I was reading about left-side neglect today...I am guessing that the exercises they suggest haven't helped you at all? I wonder if, over time, you will find improvement. I sure do hope so. The only thing that's happened to me where I can relate to you in this regard is the optical migraines I get sometimes (I haven't had one in a few years). They only happen when I am under a lot of stress and very exhausted. I become aware of a rapid shimmer in my vision that becomes more acute over about 10 minutes. I then notice that my peripheral vision is just GONE. It's terrifying, especially the first time it happened because I didn't know what was the matter with me. This blindness lasts for 30-45 minutes but usually doesn't include a headache at all despite the name of this affliction. Whenever this happens to me, I immediately stop what I'm doing and go to bed. I take an hour-long nap and when I wake up I'm ok again. The difference is...yours isn't going away. It really sucks, Pam. I hope that you will eventually get your sight back...I feel so sad for you my dear friend. *big, big HUGGGGGGS* My thoughts go out to you.

Wait a second! That cactus does NOT grow in southern Oregon!* Ok, ok, I did it again...this is another picture I captured outside the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco a couple of years ago. Near the jaw dropping acres of dahlias I mentioned the other day were other displays including some groups of cactus. I have always wanted to take a picture of a flowering cactus so I was over the moon when I found these! Dahlias? I don't need no stinkin' pictures of dahlias! Gimmee some pictures of these prickly pears! I was delighted that a bunch of my images turned out well but this one is my favorite. *actually they can be found in the deserts of Eastern Oregon. I want to extend a huge hug to all of you who left such wonderful comments and favorites for yesterday's teasel leaf. I really wasn't sure if anyone would like it. I showed it to my husband first who loved it but well, he's my husband so I still wasn't sure. Plus, one way a photo is deemed a "success" is if you can recognize it clearly in thumbnail size. In that regard it was a failure, but sometimes you just gotta go with what your heart tells you. And interestingly enough, today was overcast and it's now raining—there was no glowing flag today and who knows when the sun will be out again?! It's going to be stormy for the next week and perhaps that leaf will disintegrate before it has a chance to glow again. I am so pleased that I have it immortalized. :) Pam, I remember thinking about you when I was taking pictures at the Conservatory of Flowers because I know you would appreciate every moment. To be honest, I wish I could show you my fair city in all of its glory, though I've not lived there for many years now. So many incredible sights! I hope you are feeling good today, and please know that you are in my thoughts! :) Explored on 11/22/18, highest position, #4.

One of the cool things about mushrooms is how unique they can be up close. Towering above them, mushrooms appear nearly identical to one another, but through a macro lens, the differences are distinct. I think this one looks like an umbrella, nestled against a trio of grass blades.

To me, mushrooms are forest fairies. When I find them, each comes with its own wonderful story. Take this trio, for example.... I was wandering around our lower forest on Halloween 2014, when I thought I heard the tell-tale tinkle of laughter. Trained to instantly freeze at the sound, I slowly peered around the tree in my path. Another tinkle and a pair of whispers gave me a direction to look, and...there they were! A family of mushroom fairies, out for a autumn stroll. I resisted the urge to giggle at the antics of the child, who was taller than his mother, but very lanky indeed. Bouncing from pebble to stick to lump of moss, this baby moved about on an invisible cushion of air. "Shhhhhh," said the smaller of the adults in a high-pitched squeak. That would be the mother, I mused to myself, and my eyes flicked to the tallest, who looked about warily but with confidence. "Little One, you must keep quiet...you never know what might hear you." Undeterred, Little One's gay laughter tinkled up to my ears and he continued playing among the forest's undergrowth. Suddenly, a Stellar's Jay flew past and landed on a tree nearby, cawing noisily and puffing its feathers to show the world who was boss. In a flash, the three mushroom fairies moved to the protection of a stump and pulled together into a protective group. I saw my opportunity, raised my camera and took their picture while they looked on in stunned amazement. With a grin and a wave, I slipped away to leave them in peace. See what I mean? There are stories with every mushroom I find... :)

I always thought mushrooms were interesting, but once I began taking pictures, my interested turned into a grand love affair. To find them can be a great challenge, and I am often surprised by something fantastic! This beautiful golden mushroom was large at about 2" across, and I was able to get a perfect angle too. :)

A friend of mine has a large piece of property where she and here husband have planted countless daffodils and irises. I got to visit one year and she asked me to take some pictures of some that she had cut for floral displays. These two made a dramatic disply against black!

It's pretty awesome to have a husband who knows the right equipment to purchase. Long before I had any interest in photography, he bought a very nice Canon flash for macro photography. He was playing around with our then new Canon 5D, but I took one look at that setup and said NO WAY. It all seemed to be way too much. Fast forward about 5 years. I'd become an avid photographer, owned a Canon 5D Mk II, and finally had the interest to try using our Twin Lites. I was motivated to try because low light + small subjects + handheld = too much noise if you have your settings right. I had to give in. Although having a flash setup adds bulk and weight, the results made me an instant fan. Look at this lovely family! :)

Here's a mushroom I photographed back in 2012, and I got lucky with some nice light too! I have mixed feelings about this picture. I remember being so upset because you will notice that the very front edge of this mushroom is not in focus. I took about 10 different pictures to make sure I had good focus and STILL, it's not crisp along that edge. I am crazy about the bokeh, but it could be a bit softer. It's not my best work, but I am proud to display it because it does have a special glow to it that has always made me stop in my tracks to look at this picture. I processed it just a few days after I took it, so I've had a long time to sit and think about this image. :D If you've read this far, I'd love to know--would you have trashed this picture or kept it. Not hurting my feelings if you vote for trash, since it's flawed. Does it matter that the front edge--which is so important to the success of this type of image--is not in focus?

(+2 in notes) A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of two mushrooms that were joined by a droplet of rain. That same day I discovered some other special mushrooms as well. These two are obviously in love and don't care if anyone knows it! The pair of identical droplets on their stems just kills me!! :) (By the way, if you roll your mouse over the picture you'll see the other picture I posted a couple of weeks ago and also my 365 image from that day!)

Our property has many different environments for mushrooms, so I've found lots of unique species in many sizes, shapes and colors. One day in November a couple of years ago, I glimpsed something orange near a pine tree and what fun it was to discover this beautiful family of mushrooms just waiting to have their picture taken! I called out, "One, two, three...CHEESE!!" And they all pulled in close for the perfect shot!

Steve and I went out one soggy day a couple of years ago so we could drive to another location in the hopes of finding some mushrooms. We found a patch of conifer forest and I popped out of the car for a look. After about 10 minutes, I looked down to see this pair of affectionate mushrooms, leaning together and joined by a droplet of rain. If you look at the base of the mushroom on the right, you'll notice that it grew up througha amall hole in the leaf that surrounds it!

There is nothing quite like creeping around a forest in the hope that I might find some mushrooms, and then, just when I am about to admit defeat, I find not only one, but a perfect pair! These two seem a bit surprised to see me, and I expect they didn't much appreciate the flash I used to illuminate their gills, but the effect was certainly wonderful! Although this was indeed a wet day, you can see that these mushrooms secrete their own moisture which is slippery to the touch!

If you think of a California Poppy, the image of a brilliantly orange flower should pop into your head. However, did you know that they come in other colors too?! When I planted my raised bed garden a couple of years ago, I got an enormous mix of poppy seeds, which included normal California poppies and some other types as well. Only one other type appeared, but what a gorgeous plant it was!! And how perfect that the first bloom opened on the Fourth of July!! This is a White Linen California Poppy, and I'm happy to say that it came back last year, and I I'm looking forward to more lovely blossoms this year too! (By the way, if you would like to order seeds, I was very pleased by the offerings from the Vermont Wildflower Farm .)

The garden I grew a couple of years ago was absolutely breathtaking in the number and variety of flowers it produced. Every morning I ventured out to see the new arrivals and sometimes I simply couldn't believe my eyes for all the blossoms everywhere! The most common flowers were two different types of poppies--corn poppies and California poppies--and I planned it that way by sprinkling hundreds upon hundreds of seeds over the whole garden before I planted any other seeds. I knew they would grow and produce flowers because they did so well in my small front garden. However, I was not prepared for the volume of flowers in so many colors...it was an incredible sight! This is one of the lovely California poppy blossoms I captured one morning after it rained the night before. I adore these flowers, and I'm delighted that they are very slowly beginning to spread by themselves outside the garden. They are very prolific all over southern Oregon, but the one time I tried to plant them in a wildflower mix around our property, not even one grew. It seems that I am finally going to get my wish of having these lovely orange beauties add sparkle to our property!

This morning I wandered around our lower forest to see what would catch my eye, and here and there I found myself appreciating the lovely golden blossoms of Oregon Sunshine. I had a hard time finding flowers that weren't chewed up by insects, but happily, this one was in perfect shape! Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and the most influential physicist of the 20th century. While best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"), he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory. Wikipedia: Albert Einstein

[best appreciated at full size against black] A couple of weeks ago, Steve was showing me how our macro flash* worked, and it just so happened that we were getting some cookies ready to pop into the oven. He showed me how to take a low-key shot, and I used this brave "cookie embryo" as my test subject! I was delighted with the results, but now I want a cookie, darn it!!! *We have a MT-34EX Macro Twin Lite Ringlite Flash This image was taken in January, 2012.

(by the way, this is an interesting look back at the day that Flickr exploded!) I have a "test" home over on ipernity, which seems to be a very friendly community with a clean look that has a familiar feel to "old" Flickr! :) Janet Brien's Pad on ipernity This quote really hits the nail on the head for my feelings about the "New [NOT] Awesome Flickr". What a DAY!!! I came home last night to discover that the Flickr I knew and loved had been totally uprooted and replanted by a thoroughly inept gardener! This morning I awoke and stumbled around the site in a horrified daze, feeling terribly frustrated and extremely angry. I posted an image earlier today which Steve created for his banner and I decided to use it too. The post also gave me a chance to rant and rave. Apparently, however, I'm not done yelling. Please forgive my raging! :D The site runs much slower and because we don't have really fast DSL speeds here, this makes it even harder to visit other people's photostreams in a timely manner. New pet peeve: I simply DETEST having to click the "View X More Comments" link...why can't I just have an option to "show all comments"? The reason why they don't give this option is because this is how a new page of ads is reloaded for your viewing pleasure if you don't have an ad-free account. The more comments you have, the more times you get to refresh the ads. It also infuriates me that if I didn't have my Pro account set for auto-renew, I'd have to fork out $50 to have an ad-free experience. And, I hate that I don't have any way to change the look of my page. It makes me upset to read comments about how my Flickr friends are having computer crashes now, how it's so slow they can't visit people's photostreams like they used to, how people's pictures don't even show up, etc., etc. I just can't believe that the people making the decisions just decided that if you want a fast load time on Flickr, you need to live in an area with fast internet speeds. WAY TO GO YAHOO!!!!!! I am going to wait for a week to pass before I make a verdict about moving to another photography site. I've been hearing very good things about www.ipernity.com/ so I'll be checking that out. 500px.com is another possibility but I'm not sure. If you have opinions on alternatives that you like, please let me know. Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928) is an American author and poet. She has published seven autobiographies, five books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She has received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen, and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Wikipedia: Maya Angelou