Image of the Week

Dogwoods are blooming everywhere here. A sure sign of spring even though the temperatures have turned frigid again. Most dogwoods have white flowers, but here and there the pink blooms can be found. This pink dogwood was found at Memorial Gardens in Concord. You ever heard the legend of the dogwood tree?

Image of the Week

We have a new building that was added to the Charlotte skyline last year, so I wanted to get an updated image to include the new building. I got up early to drive downtown to begin taking images before sunrise. Facing west, I was able to capture the early light in the sky behind me as it reflected of the buildings with an azure sky in the background.

Image of the Week

Often this time of year, in anticipation of spring, I will buy flowers from the grocery store and take pictures of them in my kitchen. I usually just play around with my macro lens and various camera settings to see what I come up with. My love of photographing flowers began several years ago when I wanted to learn how the different camera settings effected the image. I would practice photography by photographing flowers at home. Since then some of my favorite subjects to photograph are flowers. This particular image is a close-up (macro) of a tulip.

Image of the Week

Looks like Punxsutawney Phil was right with his weather forecast this year. We have an early spring here in the South with early blooming trees and flowers already in full bloom. Right now, I have two Bradford Pear trees in my yard that are full of beautiful little white flowers. These little flowers are usually the first images of spring that I make each year. Beauty can be deceiving though - these little flowers are beautiful, but they give off a horrible scent. It's funny to see someone not familiar with the tree look around and wonder what that smell is.

Image of the Week

Spring has sprung here in the south, but I have several images I've taken during the snow storms we had this way and I wanted to get one in before moving on into spring. It's hard to believe we had several inches of snow on the ground just a few weeks ago when this shot was taken. The snow was coming down outside, so I had my camera set up near my kitchen window photographing the birds visiting the bird feeders outside. I have a few branches set up around the feeders for the birds to land on as they wait their turn at the feeder, and so I can take pictures of them in a natural setting without seeing the bird feeders just a few inches away. This is a Dark Eyed Junco, a very simple, but I think, pretty bird. We've had several of them visit this winter.