Raspberry Fruit CU - in Weed Area Downtown GSO

Forgot to complete draft and post this image for 8/7/2015
It is raspberry season in NC.  I found this black raspberry shrub in a weed patch near a park in downtown GSO NC.  Only one berry is starting to ripen.  Not sure why the leaves have tints of blue as it was mid-day and sun was shining brightly.  Camera +.   Minimal post editing with PSE 11

Spider web with Raindroplets

I was at the dentist this a.m. When I went to get in my car there was a tree with  a spider web and rain drops on it.   I tried to capture the image to get a close up.  However, I was not able to hold the camera very still as it was higher than my arms.  Although I used autofocus and tried to lock, I could not capture a sharp imageof the bubbles.  Probably were blowing in the wind too. Oh well, it is something beside a flower and would be considered "a pattern of nature". . Will keep looking to find a better one.  There was no spider hole evident.  Used native camera app: cropped, clarity to increase hue and saturation.

Sharon's Mandevilla Blossoms CU

This image was to have been posted 8/5/2015  - had power outage last night.  This year my neighor put up a piece of lattice by her mailbox and then planted some mandevilla.  It is a subtropical vine.  For more information about the plant:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandevilla
Camera+ app.  Increased higjhlights, sharpened with PSE 11.

Bee on Sea Hollyl Blossom - MaryJo Wilson's Garden

I have been trying to capture a bee on a flower image all summer.  This is the first one I could see the face.  These are sea holly blooms.  Usually I can only capture "butt" images because bees are always on the move and with digitial delay other images have ended up in the trash.  This one has it's own faults as there is pixelization in his head which is related to cropping a downzied image. With macro images you have a very shallow depth of field which why the blossom on the left out of focus.. Very difficult to determine the bee's next movement. It was taken early evening so I may have done better with sunlight as.would have been higher shutter speed.  I used PSE 11 for editing. A vignette was applied after cropping.

Graffiti Carved in Tree Bark

This is a tree that people have chosen to write their initials or ??(graffiti).This is just a small segment.  This is at Tanger Garden which is a public garden for the City of Greensboro.  I don't think this graffii will tell much about the year 2015 and our culture like we saw with the cavemen who depicted figures performing daily activities.  I think this was a beech tree which has pretty smooth bark.  Taken in square format with native app.  Not sure if I used HD mode--usually on as a default.  No post processing. of L image.  Right image Brightness 13, Contrast 21, Sharpen 110.  Vintage Photo - Urban (B&W) with increased texture.  

Green Foliage at Tanger Garden, GSO, NC - Texture

I took this image about a month ago at Tanger Garden.  I do not know what plant it is but thought I might be able to use for texture.  I would class it a monochrome green image.  No, I did not use any color variations to manipulate..  I do not think I have done any post editing.  It would be interesting to see how it looked with various filters or to push lighten and darken, plus sharpen to the max.  Unfortunately, this a.m. PSE 11 was not letting me access my photos from the external drive.

Baby Birds in Nest - Selfie Stick Used for Composition

Yesterday I went to my neighbor's porch to capture this image of some baby birds.  They were high up on a ledge above some columns.  I had to use a stepstool to be able to even see the bird's heads.  To really get a good image with the iPhone I used a selfie stick and experimented with different anglees.  The birds were awake with eyes open and had a fair amount of feathers.  I do not really know what kind of birds they may be and the parents were not in the area.   The selfie stick was great for getting the angle but the button on the stick required a lot of pressure which meant movement in a low lighting situation. I ended up pushing the regular button or the volume button to capture the sharpest image.  Used the native camera app for iPhone 6.HDR was off.  The back wall behind the birds had excrement which I did not want displayed.  I used PSE 11 to increase the mid-tones & sharpened minimally.  Spent most of my time using the healing brush and the clone tool to get excrement eliminated.  I think I did a great job.  If you look closely at the nest it has excrement as part of it's foundation. May try to go back and take some with the macro lens on my D-SLR but will just have to shoot blindly as can not see LED screen.