Portland, OR - Japanese Gardens

We spent our vacation in the most beautiful state. Oregon has it all: ocean, beaches, woods, mountains and amazing parks. Enjoy the Japanese Gardens and you are welcome to use the photos, even if it's a desktop wallpapers. Just absorb and enjoy the beauty!!

Bird's gorgeous penthouse

I went on a Photo-walk the other day and I found that the spring is in a hurry to give us the purple fog of red buds, the pink aromas of magnolias and many other gorgeous blooming trees. I love Indiana this time of year, nothing can compare to its spring and autumn beauty.

I was jealous of a little birdie who got a great house in the middle of this beauty so I bought me couple pink magnolias and a lot of other blooming trees to plant around my house))

Bath time

"Why me?"
Poor Zilla, he is so adorable in his misery. It was time for a bath, nail trimming and beautifying. He was pretty patient and even posed for me

Did you know about a holiday today?

March the 8th is a beautiful spring holiday celebrated in Russia. It is an International Woman’s Day. It started as a communist holiday and followed by witches festival the night after. Nowadays it turned into a special spring holiday bigger than the Valentine's Day or Mother's Day celebrated even at the strictest Christian churches. Men rush to buy flowers, wash dishes, clean houses and cook special dinners. Wives, mothers and even little girls giggle, blush, and also run around trying to look pretty for their knights in shining aprons)) I wish every woman to feel like a princess today! Happy Woman's Day!!! Happy Spring!!

More color experiments

Here is another photo from the trip to the waterfall. And again I did some color corrections. I actually like the snow on the bottom to be a little over lit. The magenta color adds warmth to the winter pictures. My favorite lines create a nice composition.

Twilight samurai

It's a common mistake to think that there can be no photo opportunities in the winter time. Samurai sword practice looks perfect in the snow. I'm thankful for every season and for having a personal samurai around. Perfect Chiburi without dripping blood...

BW experiment

Again I continue to work with my photos taken at the waterfall. I also continue experimenting with black and white variations. I like this one, I just hope I didn't put took much color in my black and white. Do you think it seems a little overdone?

Simplicity

Finally I got a chance to sort my photos from the trip to the waterfall down the road. The results were not as good as I expected, however winter and snow are good for black and white photography, so I had a chance to practice. One of my favorite shots was so simple and just perfect for black and white photo. I fell in love with all the lines.

Guinea pig literally...

I'm still searching for ideas and subjects, meanwhile I'm practicing on a guinea pig literally. This is Zilla, he can pose very well, because he freaks out a lot and freezes in front of the camera. Therefore the secret of a good portrait is to scare your subject)) I'm still working with lighting and color correction. Practice helps a lot

Not-so-still life

I promised to myself to take one picture a day at least for a week. Here my result for Monday. Today I practiced shooting objects in a small light box and setting up the lighting for the small objects. After practicing on jelly beans and apples, I understood that food is too easy to be eaten and pretty boring. My hamsters were there to help me. It is impossible though to make them sit still. However I'm please with result. I also got a chance to retouch the photo to add brightness to the shot.