Light through leaf
Taken with a Canon PowerShot S40; cropping and slight manipulation in Photoshop.
Light through leaf ~
Author: Marilyn Davis
Aqua ~
Aqua reflections and concrete. Evansville, Ind., iHOP. Pentax K100D.
Plumage ~
Plumage
Sometimes an unsharp photo can be turned into an interesting abstract with the help of a digital filter—in this case, a watercolor filter—tight cropping, and some color manipulation. The original photo is a small detail of the plumage of an unidentified bird at the Denver Zoo.
Violet ice ~
Detail of butterfly ice sculpture
Detail of ice sculpture, Loveland Fire and Ice Festival 2018. iPhone photograph.
Heart on fire ~
Closeup crop of ice sculpture
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so here’s a crazy-tight crop of an ice sculpture featured at Loveland, Colorado’s Fire and Ice Festival. The resolution is terrible, but I love the colors. iPhone photograph.
Iron age no. 19 ~
Iron age no. 19
Back to abstracts.
Got my eyes on you ~
Rothschild’s peacock pheasant
This peacock pheasant looks nearly spherical because of its position, my camera angle, and the fact that its feathers are probably plumped up as well. This was an open enclosure, so some of the pheasants were down on the walkway. People don’t seem to alarm them much; after all, zoo visitors are constantly walking through their home. After this shot, birds will fly away from this blog for awhile and I’ll turn to other things.
Crested oropendola ~
Crested oropendola
That bright blue eye!
Hawk-headed parrot ~
Hawk-headed parrot
Another bird species that inhabits the Amazon rainforest. I finally had the luck of getting a catchlight in the eye, because this enclosure was so well lit.
Spangled cotinga ~
Spangled cotinga
This little tropical fellow (only the males boast the brilliant turquoise-and-jade plumage) has a most excellent name. The word cotinga comes via French from the Tupi, an indigenous people living in what is now Brazil. (Interestingly, Tupi is also the name of a software program for 2D animation whose logo is very reminiscent of cotinga plumage.) There are several other species of cotinga, too, all of them gorgeous and apparently much sought out by bird-watchers.
Some good news: Wikipedia says that the spangled cotinga is “not considered to be threatened because of its wide distribution.” It lives in the rainforest canopy, however, so I hope this status continues despite deforestation, which does threaten some other cotinga species (again, according to Wikipedia). No bird species should be lost if it can possibly be helped—but especially not such a beautiful one.
VAPOR AND FLOW 