Tina’s challenge is Phone Photography. I usually take my DSLR camera and telephoto lenses with me when I am going anywhere to try to capture wildlife shots. Otherwise, I always have my phone in my pocket or purse when I am out and about. I never know when something photo worthy will come up.
I like to use my phone to capture close ups of flowers and critters I find on flowers when I am on a walk or in my garden.
Gulf Fritillary on ZinniaBumble Bee on Rue
This Brown Pelican was close enough to capture with my cell phone.
I often use my cellphone to capture food images like this bowl of Tortilla Soup.
When I don’t have time to grab my camera I use my phone when I see a beautiful sunrise.
On a road trip I often take pictures through my car’s windshield when I am not the driver.
The Brown Pelican was taken with my old IPhone 7 Plus. All the rest were taken with my current IPhone 13.
Thank you to everyone who shared you wonderful images in Egidio’s challenge Color in Black and White.
Many thanks to Tina for this week’s challenge. If you would like to join the challenge please be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to Tina’s post Lens-Artists #391 – Phone Photography.
I hope you will check back on Saturday, April 4 at noon eastern time when Patti will be our host.
Anne’s challenge is Time to Relax. For this challenge she is looking back to the challenge from July of 2018. She asks us “But what relaxes you? What gets you away from the stresses of daily life. What’s your passion?”
This challenge couldn’t come at a better time. I haven’t been able to travel or go on photo excursions for several months due to health issues. My husband and I were badly in need of a break. We finally were able to go for a short two day getaway this week The beach is my happy place and being by the ocean is my favorite place to relax so we chose Jekyll Island for our destination.
Jekyll Island became a Georgia State Park in 1947. The island is managed by the Jekyll Island Authority. Most of the island is undeveloped to preserve the natural beauty of the maritime forests. There are 24 miles of bike trails, miles of beach with several parking lots and picnic areas, a beautiful National Historic Landmark District, wildlife, hotels and restaurants, and a golf course.
We like to stay off interstates so we took a leisurely drive south to Jekyll Island on the Coastal Highway, also known as US Highway 17. Our goal for the trip was to kick back, relax and not have an agenda. We succeeded!
We stopped for a lunch of wild caught Georgia Shrimp at Skippers in Darien. I had to take some photos of diamond back terrapins in a pond just outside the restaurant.
Diamond Back Terrapins in Darien, Georgia
Our room had a balcony overlooking the pool and maritime forest. Beyond the trees is the Atlantic Ocean, Other guests were relaxing by the pool while we were relaxing on our balcony.
The hotel pool was a great place for guests to relax
I enjoyed seeing the ocean and hearing the waves when we walked out on a walkway too the beach. There were only a few others relaxing on the beach on this warm, sunny March day.
I couldn’t resist capturing this guy chill-axing at the beach.This cardinal was easy to spot in the tree.
The next day we visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the only turtle education and rehabilitation facility in Georgia.
Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll IslandThe beaches on Jekyll Island are a great place for a relaxing family vacation.
Thank you to everyone who shared you memorable journeys for Ann-Christine’s challenge Journey in 5 to 10 images.
Many thanks to Anne for this week’s challenge. If you would like to join the challenge please be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to Anne’s post Lens-Artists #389: Time to Relax.
Be sure to check back on Saturday, March 21 at noon eastern time when Egidio will be hosting the challenge
This week Ritva is challenging us to be bold and creative with our cropping. She is encouraging us to deliberately defy traditional framing conventions. At first I didn’t think I could come up with anything but her many great examples inspired me to give it a try.
I almost always crop my photos to begin the editing process. For this post I tried some new to me cropping techniques. The original photo of our dog checking out the butterfly was not close enough to see the details of the butterfly. Normally I would crop the photo into a rectangle but I tried making a square image instead. It’s out of my comfort zone but I hope you like it.
Curious Labrador Retriever finds a butterfly
This photo of a crocodile was originally shot in landscape mode. I like the way it turned out after I cropped it to portrait mode.
I wanted to have lots of negative space in the next image so I cropped out the palm tree that was in the original.
Pacific Ocean in Oahu
I snapped this final photo of the Sidney Lanier Bridge out the car window as we were leaving Jekyll Island, Georgia. At first I wanted to trash it but I decided the negative space of the cloudy sky added to the image.
Sidney Lanier Bridge, Georgia
Thank you to everyone who responded to my challenge last week of What Astonishes You! Your responses were amazing and showed us many astonishing images.
I hope you will join us this week for Ritva’s Lens-Artists #385: Unusual Crop. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and link back to Ritva’s post.
Be sure to check back on Saturday, February 21 at noon eastern time when Patti will be hosting the challenge.
For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.
This week Egidio challenges us to go Into the Woods for some Forest Bathing. He tells us “Shinrin-yoku is a concept that was developed in Japan in the 1980s as a form of natural therapy and stress relief. In English, it is translated as “forest bathing” or immersing oneself in a forest atmosphere. It is a way to allow all your senses to experience nature mindfully.” His challenge is to show how we do forest bathing in our corner of the world.
I think I was “”forest bathing” before I knew what it was. I just know that I love the quiet of being in the woods. I feel peaceful and calm when I stand in the woods surrounded by trees.
I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree. – Joyce Kilmer
The trees in my home state of Georgia vary depending on where you are in the state. In coastal Georgia the common trees are pine trees, oaks, palmettos, and palm trees. The featured image is of a maritime forest on Jekyll Island. The following gallery was taken on a Georgia marsh hammock near my neighborhood. Wood Storks are one of the many wading birds that are seen on the trees here.
The Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia is filled with Cypress trees. Seeing these ancient trees from a boat makes me feel like I have stepped back in time.
Cypress Trees in the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia
Sweet Gum, Winged Sumac, Maple, Sycamore, Pine, and Water Oaks are just a few of the trees that I see when walking in the woods of middle Georgia. The landscape changes with seasons. No matter what the season I feel a sense of serenity in these woods.
Early Spring in the Georgia woods
Wild Dogwoods bloom in the spring in the Georgia woods
Summertime in rural Georgia woods
Many thanks to last week’s guest host SH for his challenge of Quiet Hours. Your responses to the challenge took me to many beautiful quiet places. I hope you will join us next week as Tina leads us in our next Lens-Artists challenge on Saturday, July 26 at noon Eastern Time.
When I first read about Florida’s tallest waterfall at Falling Waters State Park my first thought was “I didn’t know there were ANY waterfalls in Florida!” I had to see it with my own eyes.
So off we went to Falling Waters State Park to check it out. The campground sits at 324 feet above sea level on top of one of the highest hills in Florida.
An easy trail down the hill leads to a small pond and boardwalk trails to the waterfall and around several sinkholes. We observed the 73 foot tall waterfall from a platform above the falls but construction on the platform near the bottom of the falls prevented us from seeing the water dropping into the sinkhole at the bottom.
Florida’s Tallest Waterfall at Falling Waters State Park
The trails meander through a long leaf pine forest with southern magnolias scattered among the pines. A few wildflowers blooming along the trail let us know that spring was almost here.
Boardwalk trail at Falling Waters State Park
Carolina Jessimine
Wild Azalea
While exploring the trails we did some more geocaching and found two in the park. We’re getting better at this!
A Zebra Swallowtail became fascinated with my shoes when we stopped to take a break along one of the trails.
Zebra Swallowtail
We continued our quest for good local food and stopped at the Main Street Market in downtown Chipley for some Plant City strawberries. These wonderful, sweet strawberries are only available for a short while and although we had been getting them at grocery stores I had to have some more. While we were there I was thrilled to see some Florida Honeybells. These strange looking orange citrus fruits are sweet and juicy. The also have a very short season so of course I grabbed some of those, too.
Florida Honeybells
Falling Waters State Park is located south of Chipley, Florida just a couple of miles from I-10.
Wandering Dawgs 