Fine Art - Moments of Beauty

Today I want to share with you three photos, all of which represent to me moments of beauty.  While I have used Photoshop on two of the photos, the essence remains the same, and the core beauty that I saw when I took the photo is there.  For me, this is the direction I find my work going.

Raindrop from Heaven

Bulrush ethereal

Finally, the most wonderful expression of devotion a person might want to see (I know, a bit anthropomorphic)!

New Places

Murphy and I stopped by a new place yesterday and went back today - it is on the edge of the wildlife refuge and has a lake and streams running through it.  Ducks, geese, cormorants and fish - signs say that muskrats live there also although none in sight so far. It is a great walking place, although I have to be careful with Murphy as he has a tendency to go into the water by the fishermen - not a welcome event!
So here are some bird photos:

Murphy startled the mallards, above but they didn't go very far.  The colors you see when their wings are open are very vivid.

Some kind of geese that come quickly when someone brings out the bread!

Tricolored blackbirds are back and filling the air with NOISE!

Not sure why the white one is hanging out with all the mallards, but cute.  Sometimes you need to break the rules and try something different to get a visually exciting photo.

Spring

A high of 55 today with sunny skies until late afternoon - wonderful day to be out and about.  I shot some spring shots and was amazed to find that honeybees are out already! 
The crocus' are always wonderful harbingers of spring, and their purple color with the vivid orange stamens a wonderful statement of life!

Then the morning sun lit these red leaves, framed by the bird bath.

And finally, Mr. Innocent, basking in the sun right under the bird feeder!!

Back to the Desert

Today dawned a bit blustery but warmed to 50 with scattered rains showers over the Wasatch and partly cloudy out in the west desert.  Murphy had not been out for an extended desert hike so we headed out past the second range of mountains and down into the desert. 
In the spring of wet years like this, the desert is not very dry in a lot of spots - including where we went.  But I had hopes of seeing a Sandhill Crane or such; no luck with them but did get too see a very curious Golden Eagle, several Red-tailed hawks (including one catching a mouse right in front of us), a horned lark and multiple meadowlarks - they have returned and the valley rings with their wondrous songs! (No photos tho').

Here's a few of the photos from today:

A wet and happy Murphy!

The horned lark!

A mouse in the grass.

A young Golden Eagle checking us out!

Red-tailed Hawk watching me closely!

Red-tail on the wing!

The eyes have it, part 2!

Remember Fuzzy's photo from a recent post - how piercing his eyes were? What do you think of Bailey's eyes here?  She is the daughter of neighbors and always just stares at me, often with a big smile!  Very hard to resist so I don't!

Second post

I wanted to share this composite with you - the sign, etc. are from the Shoreline Preserve and the Sandhill Crane is also from there, but was selected from another photo and placed in this one, then I lowered its opacity till it felt right.  The quote by Aristotle and the bird just seem to go together for me.
Please - click on the photo to truly see it.

March Madness

March is always a capricious month - one moment summer and one moment winter.  Last night it was winter - with a wonderful winter storm (wonderful as long as you didn't HAVE to go anywhere)! Here's a couple of photos of the back deck - Diana's winter evening garden.  The first one is at 7:30 pm Monday eve and the second is at 9:31am Tuesday morning.  Tonight all the snow on the lights and chairs has melted off!  I love the changeability - it offers so many opportunities for photos.