Make a Ripple
Make a difference.
What a gift it was to find this single phlox flower floating on the surface of the birdbath. You’ll see a few more.
This quote is by me.
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Read more about this series of photos.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Tiny Perfections
Tiny Perfections.
They are everywhere, these little moments of bliss. Found this one in my birdbath.
This quote is by me.
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Read more about this series of photos.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Simplify
Simplify.
After Thoreau. Today my birdbath full of rainwater was my Walden Pond.
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I gave myself a physical and creative break out in the back yard yesterday afternoon. You never know what beauty you’ll find anywhere you go.
I had just wanted to walk around and think about a project I was working on and not be distracted by any other activity, which is what I usually end up doing—take a break from one thing, start another—but it had rained, then stopped, and my Mimi kitty and I would enjoy the air. Typically I take my “good” camera, but determined not to be distracted I took only my smartphone so that I could keep track of time.
Perhaps it was that I had walked out there in a creative state of mind but the place was full of inspiration. It’s just a small back yard, lots of green, not too many flowers after the heat, but I couldn’t decide where to go first. I found one single pink phlox flower that had fallen into a shallow birdbath, and from each angle as I walked around it the view changed, different reflections of the flower, of the tree overhead, of the sky between the leaves, of the mossy concrete below the surface of the water, and magical tiny ripples where the flower rested on the surface of the water, pressing down on the surface tension as if reclining on a transparent mattress.
I prowled around it with my smartphone’s camera as Mimi prowled for the little voles that run right under the leaf litter, each of us aware of each other but focused on our tasks.
Wishing I had all the lenses and quality images I would get from my DSLR—going back into the house would have broken the spell—I pushed that insufficient little phone camera to its limit, and with patience it did not disappoint. I took quite a few photos, several photos that inspired me to crop and edit and add text, which I rarely do, and I shared them on Instagram first, and now here, more to work with later.
So what does this flower have to do with simplifying anyway? It may look like a simple photo, but it’s deceptively complicated, and yet by having only my smartphone to work with I simplified a process which I usually complicate immensely when I run outdoors with all my camera equipment, that’s what it meant for me, and brought to mind Thoreau. Posting a photo that demands one “simplify” isn’t going to convince anyone on the spot, but it may make people stop and consider the idea.
So I got my break, I got creative inspiration to carry back in, and Mimi got her vole. It was very simple.
See two other photos from this magical time, Make a Ripple and Tiny Perfections.
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We’re posting with
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Please Don’t Eat the Geraniums
Please don’t eat the geraniums…
She did anyway.
This was taken through the screen on my basement door.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
All images in this post are copyright © Bernadette E. Kazmarski and may not be used without prior written permission.
Baltimore is Back!
Baltimore Oriole
I’ve heard his chatter and song off an on for a week or so and I finally spotted him. The Baltimore Oriole is back in the back yard, leaping from branch to branch high in the maples, looking for a good meal of bugs and other good stuff. I first spotted one in my yard nearly 15 years ago and it seemed to be lured to the wild black cherry. Since then I’ve let a few extra mulberries grow because orioles do like their fruit and will nest near a good food source. I had found the hanging way at the end of a branch in the maple in the front yard, then a few years later in the maple in the back yard; somewhere I have a photo of it, but I’ll be darned if I can find it.
Wild Black Cherries
Mulberries
The leaves are just big enough now that birds are obscured, and the females are about the color of new maple leaves, so though I scanned the trees top to bottom with binoculars I did not spot the female. I’ll keep a lookout for this year’s nest, and keep my hummingbird feeders full and add the oriole feeder this year as well as put out some orange slices and other tasty fruits. The mulberry tree directly under this maple has the biggest, darkest, juiciest mulberries on any of the trees in my yard, in fact, they look more like big blackberries. The wild black cherries are small and turn a deep black-purple. This seems to be the fruit varieties and colors the orioles like best, although both trees are often considered “pest” or “weed” trees because from blossoms to fruits to leaves to branches they are “messy” trees. I’ve no doubt, though, they are two of the reasons I have so many bird species in my yard.
They’re not named for the city of Baltimore, but both the city and the bird were named for the British Baltimore family whose colors are orange and black.
These were the best photos I could get from the ground and from the deck. The maple trees are 70 to 80 feet tall and this guy was happily hopping along the tops of all the branches. If I can get a shot from the second-floor window I’ll be so happy! And I may have to seriously consider fitting a converter onto my 70-300 lens, or getting a lens up to 500mm.
Baltimore Oriole
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
All images in this post are copyright © Bernadette E. Kazmarski and may not be used without prior written permission.
Our Backyard Bunny: 2010
Our Bunny
Happy Easter everyone!
She’s getting bolder as she grows up. This year’s bunny grazes the greens in the backyard; I maintain the “lawn” as a meadow and only cut it about once per month, so many native plants grow that bunnies enjoy for forage. Most plants don’t grow more than 6 inches high, and the yard is always green, but only about half of it is what you’d call “grass”, great for bunnies and less work for me.
Here’s the bunny earlier this year: Chocolate Bunny
A Snappy Dresser (2011)
A Snappy Dresser
Avian markings always fascinate me, and the stark black and white pattern with the little red hat on this red-bellied woodpecker is so intricate I couldn’t pass it up. The thing that’s so interesting about each bird’s feather pattern is that it has two distinctly different views: one with wings folded, like this, and quite another when wings are spread and flying.
This black and white checkerboard becomes black and white stripes when the big guy takes off; the male and female in this species of woodpecker are distinguished by the amount of red, the female only on the back of her neck, the male extending up and over the head to the beak. And despite all that red up top, there is a more rare red-headed woodpecker, so this species is named for a pretty insignificant amount of red on its belly.
I was so inspired by his outfit that I wore black and white with a red beret.
Here is a link to photos of other birds on this blog, mostly from my own backyard.
Among other sites on the internet, a great site to identify birds is All About Birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I also use my very battered copy of Peterson’s Guide to the Birds of North America; there are many others, but after 25 years I practically have mine memorized. Here’s a link to a new, updated edition that sounds pretty exciting.
I also have a number of articles on The Creative Cat (believe it or not) regarding managing a Backyard Wildlife Habitat and feeding and providing habitat for wild birds in your yard.
Our Backyard Bunny
Our Bunny
She’s getting bolder as she grows up. This year’s bunny grazes the greens in the backyard; I maintain the “lawn” as a meadow and only cut it about once per month, so many native plants grow that bunnies enjoy for forage. Most plants don’t grow more than 6 inches high, and the yard is always green, but only about half of it is what you’d call “grass”, great for bunnies and less work for me.
Here’s the bunny earlier this year: Chocolate Bunny
A Snappy Dresser
A Snappy Dresser
Avian markings always fascinate me, and the stark black and white pattern with the little red hat on this red-bellied woodpecker is so intricate I couldn’t pass it up. The thing that’s so interesting about each bird’s feather pattern is that it has two distinctly different views: one with wings folded, like this, and quite another when wings are spread and flying.
This black and white checkerboard becomes black and white stripes when the big guy takes off; the male and female in this species of woodpecker are distinguished by the amount of red, the female only on the back of her neck, the male extending up and over the head to the beak. And despite all that red up top, there is a more rare red-headed woodpecker, so this species is named for a pretty insignificant amount of red on its belly.
I was so inspired by his outfit that I wore black and white with a red beret.
Here is a link to photos of other birds on this blog, mostly from my own backyard.
Among other sites on the internet, a great site to identify birds is All About Birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I also use my very battered copy of Peterson’s Guide to the Birds of North America; there are many others, but after 25 years I practically have mine memorized. Here’s a link to a new, updated edition that sounds pretty exciting.
I also have a number of articles on The Creative Cat (believe it or not) regarding managing a Backyard Wildlife Habitat and feeding and providing habitat for wild birds in your yard.
Today 