Category: Macro

Christmas Ornaments 2018 I

for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8

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During the summer of 2013, while, gathering my Mother’s estate I found this statue, about 9 inches high on a wood plinth, among her belongings.  It is of a type of unglazed porcelain called “biscuit” or “bisque” commonly used for decorative figures.  From the coloring, especially the brushwork on the robe and shade of the cloak, it is a product of an Asian workshop.  The halo, erect stature and figuration of the arms and hands, identify it as the Immaculate Conception.  December 8th is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception for the Roman Catholic church and, so, I have chosen this as our first Christmas ornament to post for this year.     

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Click this Photograph for my Fine Art Photography Gallerry

In 2017 I produced four posts featuring photographs of Pam’s Christmas displays or our household Christmas ornaments.  These were “Christmas Tableau”, “Ireland on the Mind at Christmas”, “Christmas Angels”, “Me and the War on Christmas”.

This year, Pam featured our Asian Immaculate Conception on the mantle with festive silver ornaments.  She is placed in front of a wall sized mirror in which the reverse of her cloak and halo are reflected.

Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Autumn Mushroom

Moments from a September backpack

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A budding mushroom

Autumn Mushroom

 

among autumn leaf litter

along mountain shores

Peaked Mountain

Peaked Mountain and Pond, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, The Adirondacks

Click this link for my Online Gallery, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Wilderness Textures

Abstract Beauty of the Superstition Wilderness of Arizona

MichaelStephenWills14 Comments

These abstracts are some of my photographic output from four days and nights spent alone in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness.  For the first three days I met not a soul, all these images were captured on a single afternoon spent in the canyon below Reavis Falls, a jumble of landslides, flood debris and boulders.  There is no trail.  The few people who enter the canyon must negotiate around boulders, crossing Reavis Creek many times.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery 

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

My backpack kit included a full sized Manfrotto studio tripod with hydrostatic ball head.  The benefits more than outweighed the effort (I was a lot younger in 2008) when the Canon EF 100mm (macro) lens is mounted on a  Kodak dSLR body, allowing me to take crisp shots.  The tripod legs can be adjusted to precise positions for stability.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I can feel the bright afternoon desert spring sunshine in this photos.  It was after the spring floods, the flow of Reavis Creek and ample still but slow.  Gathering in pools over the rough stones of the creek bed, the water absolutely clear.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I held the shot over many minutes, capturing ever changing diffraction patterns.

We see in all these photos, not a homogenous blend of stones from a shared geology.  Reavis Creek washes over diverse geologies: volcanic, ancient igneous extrusions, sedimentary and metamorphic are jumbled together.

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Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

This is a series of photographs of smooth, white igneous boulders with shadows of  still leafless sycamore and cottonwood trees.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Graceful shadows

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Strong, demonstrative shadows.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery 

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A leaning cairn, not a trail marker….

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A 15 foot high jumble of stones piled at the bottom of Reavis Falls, carried over by the floods.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A metamorphic conglomerate stone….

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Another metamorphic conglomerate.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Please browse my reasonably priced stock photography. License a photograph, download and use it for your website or blog. Click this link to browse all my Getty IStock Photography offerings.

Or click this link or any photograph or this link to select a print with custom framing from my “Textures” Fine Art Gallery.

Here’s another of my Arizona wilderness adventures, “Racing the Sun.”

Copyright 2018 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Abstracts: graceful shadows

Shadow and Rock

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Two Nature Abstracts, macros of Reavis Creek below the falls

The light of a early spring desert afternoon on a broad rock shelves along the creek.

I spent a day hiking in, two days hiking out and a day of canyoneering to the foot of Reavis Falls. The featured (i.e. “header”) photograph is a view of the inner canyon, the raw material for these abstracts.

Click either photograph view my Arizona gallery

Click this Link for a Superstition Wilderness Adventure

Success: IStock Accepted Beach Textures

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This photograph of an expired (freshly dead) Speckled Swimming Crab washed up by the surf onto Cocoa Beach one January morning is now available on Getty IStock for your creative usages.

Click the photograph, below, to visit the listing.Speckled Swimming Cram, dead – CLICK ME for the IStock Listing.

It is one of the thirteen (13) images accepted in set with the theme “Beach Textures.” During our winter visits to Florida our routine is to rise in the pre-dawn darkness, enjoy the emerging sun, different every day. Then, I take off for a beach walk in the dawn, early morning light.

The view of the first photograph is frontal including eye stalks and antennae above the mouth. The main body, called cephalothorax, is speckled. The mouth is the large opening in the center of the leading edge of cephalothorax. To the right and left are the arms with pincers. Scientific Name: Arenaeus cribarius.

This view from the rear is also available. Click the photograph to view listing.Speckled Swimming Cram, dead – CLICK ME for the IStock Listing.

It is a rear view of the walking legs extended from the cephalothorax.

This gull feather, below, was the inspiration for the series. You might remember my posting of the feather as “Beach Dreams” back in January, shortly after I captured the image.

Click the photograph for the Gull Feather IStock Listing.
Gull Feather – CLICK ME for the IStock Listing.

The sand castle, at the top of this post, is also in the series.

Here is the link to browse the entire series on IStock. License my photographs for an affordable fee to use on your blog, website or other creative venues.

Thank You for visiting.

Copyright 2018 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Waterfall Textures

Unrestrained chaos at the foot of Arizona’s highest waterfall

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I received notice of IStock acceptance of select photographs from my last posting,  “Wilderness Textures”, was accepted.  Click to view my IStock Portfolio, including  photographs from today’s posting included in the acceptance notice.

In this post I move up the Reavis Creek canyon from where the last posting, “Wilderness Textures”, was sited to the foot of Reavis Falls.  With the first photograph you look up at the falls from the head of the canyon carved by the creek over eons.  The rock wall, the canyon “head”, is thick with microorganisms, fungi, mosses.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery 

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

In the foreground is a jumble of boulders, some washed down at flood time, spread wide at the bottom of the falls, piled to a jumbled height of 15 feet. 

Talus is the geological term for this formation.  Derived from the Latin word for slope (talutum) the definition, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is “A sloping mass of detritus lying at the base of a cliff or the like consisting of material fallen from its face.” 

 

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery
Reavis Falls and Talus – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

The ankle bone is also called talus, from the French word for heel, I bring it up because climbing this chaotic, unstable jumble is a way to break your ankle.  The route to Reavis Falls, a climb up one side of Lime Mountain then down the other on a non-existent (lightly marked) trail, is rated difficult and impossible with a broken leg or ankle.  I was alone and very careful to check each rock for stability before putting my weight on it.

A climb of the talus pile was necessary to view the pool at the waterfall base, for this photograph.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery Foot of Reavis Falls from Talus Pile – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A more artistic vertical format version, below, captured with the Canon EF 100mm “macro” lens.  All shots are using the Kodak DCS pro SLR-c (the “c” designated Canon lens compatibility) and a Manfrotto studio tripod with a hydrostatic ball head.  The horizontal format shot was captured with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.   I prefer the vertical version, artistically, because the talus jumble is all but cropped out while the upper corner of the angular basalt boulder is left as an interesting focal point.  The boulder, not being in the spray, is in focus to contrast with the basalt wall behind the water.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery Foot of Reavis Falls from Talus Pile – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I captured a series of shots from this precarious vantage point, working up from the pool to the brim of the waterfall.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery Foot of Reavis Falls from Talus Pile – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

My goals was a composite photo of the falls.  I have yet to succeed with this project.  Maybe I will give it one more shot in spite of having learned the hard lesson the best photographs are a single moment captured in a single frame.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery Foot of Reavis Falls from Talus Pile – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I find in this series the vertical aspect is more artistic.  The water volume, of the falls, at this time of year offers only the finest of sprays with most of the basalt rock wall only moist.  The 100mm “macro” lens allowed me to include only the falling water with a bit of the moist wall for contrast.

In the following version I experimented with color, moving from the narrow range of hues, to more contrast.

Click Any Photograph for my Fine Art Gallery Foot of Reavis Falls from Talus Pile – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Please browse my reasonably priced stock photography. License a photograph, download and use it for your website or blog. Click this link to browse all my Getty IStock Photography offerings.

Or click this link or any photograph or this link to select a print with custom framing from my “Textures” Fine Art Gallery.

Here’s another of my Arizona wilderness adventures, “Racing the Sun.”

Copyright 2018 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved