Winter macros - inside and outside...

On a particularly nasty day, I gave my new iPhone macro lens (part of an "Olloclip" set of three lenses for iPhone) a try and photographed an Alstroemeria blossom up close and personal.

A couple of days later, I ventured outdoors to capture some icy, snowy macro images in my garden since the snowy mix we'd had earlier in the week hadn't melted due to two days running of cold temperatures. Clockwise from top left below: Rosemary, Camellia in bud, Vinca covered with ice and snow and a faded Hydrangea blossom encased in an ice and snow mix.

I'm posting this to Macro Monday over at Lisa's Chaos... come on over and join the fun!

Montana images... beautiful in Winter too!

I went to Montana to attend a pajama party given by friends on New Year's Eve. It was great fun but I'm not posting pictures from that here! ;-) When I go to Red Lodge, I fly into Billings, rent a car and drive the ~60 miles to Red Lodge which is south-west of Billings. The first image below is from a roadside stop along route 212 between Roberts and Boyd, MT. I watched the clouds over the mountains from the time I left Billings on I-90 (no place to stop there) and finally found a "scenic" and safe stopping spot from which to shoot them.

The image below is from a favorite spot on the West Fork of Rock Creek outside of Red Lodge. Silver Run is a cross country ski trail in winter and a biking, hiking trail in summer. I go to the parking lot there every time I visit Red Lodge and am always inspired to take yet more photographs. This is the first time I've been there in winter and I experimented with my Singh Ray VND (variable neutral density) filter with this as the result. Only the fastest running part of the creek was not frozen.

I have recently created an account at iPhoneArt, one at Twitter (toryporter) and one for Instagram (also toryporter) which is a camera/uploading app for iPhone. So I am in even more overwhelm than usual but I have resolved to work out a schedule where I am blogging AT LEAST one day a week and can devote time to posting on other sites/social media services on a rotating basis as yet to be determined. I am also on Facebook, Google+ and Flickr. I think I'm in overload mode!