Light & Nature

 About two years ago I bought a Nikon D3400 camera and I’ve been enjoying learning how to use it. I really enjoy photography and find that since I started taking photos I observe the world around me a little differently. 

Two subjects I love to capture in photography are nature and light. Here are some of my photos capturing light interacting with nature (click any image for a larger view):

I call this one Stained Glass

This is Mushroom #1

This is Mushroom #5

Dandilions #2

Long Shadows #1 (Irondequoit Bay)

Morning Glory 

To see more of my photography just visit my photography and fine art site where I also sell prints of my photography and select fine art pieces. Just click this link and that site will open in a separate browser window:

martinjamison.zenfolio.com

My First Photography Post

One of the many plants I have in my yard is Milkweed. It grows wild in my garden but I don’t mind that as it has a wonderful scent and also happens to be a favorite of Monarch Butterflies. 

The Monarch Butterfly lays her very tiny eggs on the underside of the leaves and when the caterpillar hatches out (after about 3 to 8 days) it feeds on the leaves. 

It does not take very long for the baby caterpillar to grow to full size (about 2 weeks) after which it forms a chrysalis. Anywhere from 8 to 15 days later the Monarch Butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and continues the cycle.

This summer I found a Monarch Butterfly egg on a Milkweed leaf and I documented its development from egg to mature butterfly in a series of photographs I call Monarch:

A tiny Monarch Butterfly egg.

The baby caterpillar.

The full-grown caterpillar.

The chrysalis.

The mature Monarch Butterfly.

All photos are © Martin Jamison 2020

Along the Yellow Brick Road IV

Click any image for a larger view.

This is The Cowardly Lion, the final character portrait in my series of Oz paintings. 

Bert Lahr gave us an indelible portrayal of the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz. His vocalization alone is likely imprinted in the minds of everyone who has seen the film. 

Pencil drawing progress for the Cowardly Lion portrait.

As with the earlier three portraits, I first did a pencil drawing of the face on an 8"x10" canvas. I did rough measurements from the reference photo using my pencil and thumb (you know, the way we do when drawing from a live figure) to make sure that I drew the facial features in proper proportion to each other and in proper position on the face. I also worked to make the three adult character’s faces roughly the same size (Dorothy’s features are smaller, she being younger). I did tilt the lion’s face a little more than it is in the reference photo and I used a second reference photo with a slightly different pose for some features and for color reference. I finished the painting with water soluble oils.

Having completed the portraits of all four characters, I went back to the first portrait in this series to make a few adjustments. I wanted to add some more detail to Dorothy’s hair, adjust the color in her skin tone, and add a blue sky to match the other three paintings.

The updated painting of Dorothy.

All four competed portraits.

This was a fun series to paint. Each of the 4 characters brings a smile to my face. I caught myself actually chuckling at times as I was painting them. I hope they help to brighten your day a little as well.