Lens Artists Photo Challenge #385 – Unusual Crop

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.

Sunday Stills – Monthly Color: Aquamarine and Icy Blues

Terri’s latest Sunday Stills color challenge is to feature the colors Aquamarine and Icy Blue.

When I think of the color aquamarine I think of warm sunny beaches and tropical seas so I chose some images from the Caribbean and one from Hawaii.

Aquamarine water in St. Lucia
North shore of Oahu, Hawaii

Far away from the warm Caribbean is another of my favorite places, Alaska. During our travels there we saw the icy blues of many Glaciers.

Glacier Blue in the Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska
Glacier Blue in ice floating in the waters around Columbia Glacier, Alaska

Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge Icy Blues and Aquamarine

Wandering Around America One State at a Time – Hawaii

State 9:

Welcome to the next post in my series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride!

I will be featuring the states alphabetically. Time to travel across the Pacific Ocean to

Hawaii

Aloha! Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959 and the capital is Honolulu on the island of Oahu.

Obviously we didn’t take the RV to Hawaii! We spent two weeks in paradise exploring Oahu and Kauai.

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Turtle Cove on the north shore of Oahu
Turtle Cove on the north shore of Oahu

Green sea turtle on the beach at Turtle Cove, Oahu
Green sea turtle on the beach at Turtle Cove, Oahu

Hawaiian Monk Seal on the north shore of Kauai
Hawaiian Monk Seal on the north shore of Kauai

View of the Na Pali Coast from the beach on Kauai
View of the Na Pali Coast from the beach on Kauai

The Ne Ne is the State bird of Hawaii
The Ne Ne is the State bird of Hawaii

Kilauea Point Lighthouse on Kauai is the westernmost lighthouse in the United States
Kilauea Point Lighthouse on Kauai is the westernmost lighthouse in the United States

Waimea Canyon on Kauai
Waimea Canyon on Kauai

Bali Hai on Kauai
Bali Hai on Kauai

Beach on Kauai
Beach on Kauai

Opaekaa Falls on Kauai
Opaekaa Falls on Kauai

We hiked to the top of Diamond Head for this view of Waikiki
We hiked to the top of Diamond Head for this view of Waikiki

Diamond Head Lighthouse from the top of Diamond Head
Diamond Head Lighthouse from the top of Diamond Head

Dole Plantation Oahu
Dole Plantation Oahu

At a Luau on Kauai
At a Luau on Kauai

We could see surfers in the water from this overlook on Oahu
We could see surfers in the water from an overlook on Oahu

Watching the waves on Oahu
Watching the waves on Oahu

Mahalo for stopping by!

To read previous posts about the states featured in this series just click on the state name: Alabama      Alaska      Arizona      Arkansas      California      Colorado     Florida      Georgia