Nature Pictures of Flowers Continued

     Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the first post I have about the flowers in my community. The purpose is to help people learn and properly name the flower like saying, " I love this blue flower", instead of " I love this plumbago". It's like naming a book; you want to the title of the book to properly identify it to help others know what you are referring too. Anyway, enjoy.

• Common Names: Pink Bachelor Button, Cornflower, Bluebottle, Hurtsickle, 
• Scientific Name: Centaurea cyanus
• Commonly found in North America, Australia, and around the world (native to Europe, but the blue version is apparently endangered in its native home, UK.)
• Annual flower, range from pink to blue(mostly) to violet and white
• Should plant around May-August 
• Prefer to be in a sunny, warm area, planted in the ground (or in a greenhouse during winter), need a lot of water, a slightly alkaline soil
• Germinate quickly! (2 weeks)
• Beneficial for hummingbirds and butterflies, used in tea and salad, and it is a beneficial weed( which is a good thing)

• Common names:Sweet Alyssyn, Sweet Alison, Alyssum 
• Scientific name: Lobularia maritima (lobularia means small pod, and maritima refers to coastal habitat)
• Commonly found in North America and Europe (native to the Mediterranean area, Macaronesia area like the Canary Islands, and France)
• Annual plant (rarely a perennial plant), white, red, pink violet or lilac and smells good!
• Plant in early spring and reseed itself, spreading the ground slowly
• Prefer partial shade especially for darker colored ones, 
• Drought tolerant and Heat Tolerant
• Beneficial to insects( pollinators)

•  Common names: Scarlet Flax, Red Flax, and Crimson Flax
• Scientific name: Linum grandiflorum
• Commonly found in Northern Africa, Southern Europe and North America(native in Algeria)
• Annual plant, colors are pink, red (it's in the name)
• Plant in early spring before the temperatures start rising and keep the soil moist until germination
• Prefer in a sunny area with water 
• Does not require a lot of water, but water regularly and Heat Tolerant
• Beneficial to insects, and its oil is great for health for it's source of linoleum 

And as a request from one of my friends, Stanley Gu, here is a picture taken below the sulfur cosmos.

And a solar panel lamp.(Well actually I wanted to show this)

ATPI contest photographs

Hello guys! There's a photography contest that my teacher introduce to the class and I wanted to participate for the experience. I learned that it requires a lot of time and effort to decide on a picture to submit and make that specific picture the best it can  be. I do not know how long I spent on my pictures, but overall I enjoyed it and I hope you guys enjoyed it too. If you guys are interested in this contest, the url is http://www.atpi.org/

Architecture-Cityscape    (in Salt Lake City, Utah)

 Landscape    (Whistler, Canada)

 Animals     (California)

Landscape     (British Columbia, Canada) 

Formal (Studio) Portrait     (California) 

Nature       (California)

Which one you like the best?

From the Nature Walk with My Mother

From my previously mentioned post, this one has majority of the pictures I took.
 Enjoy!

Where's the end?

Follow wherever the railway may lead you.

Tribute to Nature's little creatures and my cat Willow

Hello guys!
          I know I have not posted a blog about flowers yet but that will come soon. Right now, I want to dedicate this post for my beloved cat who passed away on October 24, 2014 sometime around 4-5pm. Willow was unfortunately hit by a car, so my dad buried him in our backyard. Willow is an absolutely beautiful cat and I enjoyed watching him jumping on my dad's car and running around on the driveway at night. I do hope my other two cats, Chary(or Charry) and Avery, will stay safe and away from moving motor vehicles. Sigh, life is too short.

          To cheer me up, my mother took me out on a walk after it rained (Praise the Lord for the morning rain!) and I was stunned by the beauty of life. Even though Willow has passed away, there is still life in this world to always bring comfort to us. And I hope these pictures I show to you will help you see the wonder and awe of God's breathtaking nature. I highly encourage you to just go outside and enjoy the nature around us because hey, who knows when it may be gone one day. Just embrace it and cherish it. You'll won't regret it.
-DC

Willow!

Chary(Charry)

And from my walk with my mother.... 

( there'll be another post concerning scenic pictures)

 The Great Egret or Ardea alba

  The Mallard or Anas platyrhynchos

Second Portrait

Hello guys! During our school's energetic week called HOMECOMING, my friends all dressed up to show their class spirit. In this picture, we have Sam and Michael acting as super spies for the camera. I cropped the image so that it will be level to the them. I also adjusted the exposure level, highlights, shadow, contrast and white/black levels of the image in Camera Raw. i hope you guys enjoy the image and Homecoming week! Go Juniors! ( and freshmen, sophomores, and seniors!)

F-stop: f/4.4

Exposure 1/250 sec

ISO-140

Composition Review - 3 Rules

Today is a special day. Not only is it my birthday, but also we did an in-class activity of taking Mr. Farley's picture and adjusting it for our three rules of composition. As a recap, my three rules are...
1. a background that doesn't blend in with the subject
2. depth of field
3. rule of thirds

This is the original image my teacher took:

And this is mine.

I just cropped the image, changed the white, shadows, clarity, vibrancy and highlights level on Camera Raw. Enjoy autumn!

Here are the URLs where from I got my rules of composition from:
depth of field

rule of thirds

a background that doesn't blend in with the subject

Portrait

Hello Guys! My class's assignment is to take portrait of our fellow group members. This picture is of Amandi K. when she's hanging off the railing of our two-story building's ramp. Don't worry she was a few inches above the floor, so she's not in danger. What I adjust to this picture is cropping it so that the lines are parallel to each other. I also changed the vibrancy level and highlights of the picture. There wasn't much to adjust because I felt that the picture itself was well-taken.

Enjoy the cliffhanger shot!