Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: scales

3 more pictures in notes above! :) A few days ago I shared pictures of Ponderosa Pine tree bark. That day I was attracted to the area because I saw pine cones on the ground, and took lots of pictures of them. However, when I saw the pictures on the computer, I realized I made many mistakes, so I studied them with interest to understand what I did wrong. A few days ago, I took more pictures and because I was rushing, I wasn't thinking about the mistakes I made. So, though I did manage to get some nice pictures, I made some of the same mistakes again! :D They say that three time's a charm, so today I took many more pictures. This time I was really paying attention and thinking about what I needed to do differently. I got home and after deleting the garbage pictures, I ended up with lots of presentable keepers! HUZZAH!!! HIP HIP HOORAY! Oh brother! :D This picture corrects my errors of dof that was too shallow or too deep and also ISO too low with blurry results. I have added some texture to the background to bring out the pine cone as well. (You can see my other images as insets above or by viewing the next three pictures!) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and politician. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, and more than 10,000 letters written by him are extant, as are nearly 3,000 drawings. Wikipedia: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Explored on October 18, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

Just take a look at these PRICKLES! Handle these cones carefully or you will come away bleeding! One close look at any pine cone and you will be amazed at their individual beauty. I wanted to share images of these awesome Ponderosa pine cone scales so you can see how awesome and armored they are. Almost like turtle shells with a spike on top! :) (If you would like more information about different pine cones, and to see other pictures, Wiki has a great page here! Wikipedia: Pine Cone If you've done any macro photography, you've learned that the depth of field is a very touchy thing with these specialized lenses. If you get very close to a subject, your dof must be high enough to get the entire area of interest in focus but no higher, because you want the area beyond to fall into blur. I kept using an aperture that was too low for this close-up to include the caps of the scales to be completely in focus. Maddening! I kept getting "near misses" or a touch of blur to ruin the image. But finally, here I've gotten the focus of the scale cap with nice bokeh beyond. Hooray!! :)

This pine cone had a cluster of scales that I wanted to isolate, and I really loved this cone so I worked hard at getting the angle just right for proper focus. I was very happy to find that this image turned out nicely!

Backing off a bit from the previous picture, I was able to isolate these scales so that only they were in focus while everything else fell away into blur. This was tricky to get just right!! Nothing like a good challenge though, and here you go! :)

Emus are so huge, strange and imposing that most people just stare at their intense face and enormous body! However, emu feet are just as incredible!! They don't even look real, do they?! Like their faces, one look at their feet will have you thinking DINOSAUR!! Did you know that all birds have scales on their legs and feet just like reptiles?! Emus have really big scales and they have three massive toes on each foot! Look at that enormous claw on their middle toe!! It's not hard to imagine the Velociraptor in this ancient bird's ancestry! In fact, the structure of dinosaur leg bones and joints are identical to emus and other ratites! Ratite toe counts: emus, rheas and cassowaries have 3 toes, kiwis have 4 toes, and ostriches have only 2! Emus are capable of running up to 30-31 (50kph) mles per hour and run at a comfortable speed of about 28 (45kph) miles per hour. They use their feet for defense and have extremely strong legs, able to rip wire fencing! The claws on their feet are used for combat and can inflict serious damage if they feel threatened or are protecting their territory. However, emus are almost always very docile and curious, but not dangerous.

If you've been following my stream lately, you know that Steve and I went to an Emu farm about a month ago and were given a wonderful tour of the facilities to show us their operation. It was so much fun and very fascinating! High Cascade Emu Ranch raises their emus as an exotic livestock. They breed and sell emus and their eggs, but there's much more that goes on. Emus are an important healthy meat bird, but their skin is also made into some of the most wonderful leather in the world! The leather from Emus is very durable, supple, beautiful and breathable and can be made into anything you can think of where you've seen other leathers used. Here I have a picture showing the detail from a emu leather-bound jounal, and below are two dyed pieces of emu leather. Isn't it beautiful? I have always loved the way ostrich leather looks...well, emu leather is just as lovely and useful! :)