New Note Cards - "Fireworks" Just in Time for the 4th of July

While thinking about how to wish my readers a happy and safe 4th of July this year and what photos I could use to illustrate my post, all I could think of initially was how I did not have any new fireworks photos to share. Then I remembered a new set of note cards I recently completed. One of them is titled "Fireworks". That seemed apropos for this post. I hope you enjoy my new photographic art image.

First, I want to wish you a happy and safe holiday with your family and friends whether you will be attending a parade, hosting a backyard cookout, watching fireworks, boating, eating watermelon or one of the other myriad things people like to do on the 4th. Remember the sunscreen, food safety tips if you will be taking food somewhere and please stay hydrated.

Second, I will share a bit about how my new "Fireworks" photographic art image came about. I was hoping to develop a couple of new sets of note cards to be printed on the extra heavy card stock that I then box in sets of six (three cards each of two images). My pop art cards have been popular in this format so I looked

through my photos to see which ones might lend themselves to a pop art photographic art treatment. One of the ones that worked out nicely was of mimosa blossoms and buds that I took a few years ago when my husband was umpiring in Livermore, California. Once I developed the image and started to set up the note card file I needed a title to put on the back of the card. Fireworks immediately came to mind, my husband agreed and so that is what I named the image.

The other card image you see boxed in this set is of a gulf fritillary butterfly sipping nectar from ironweed flowers. If I don't get these notecards listed in my EDCCollective shop before the 2019 Fall Gallery Night Artisans Market at BRIT, I will have a couple of sets of these cards with me then.

Bird Watcher Note Cards

I have created a second pair of boxed sets of heavy card stock blank note cards. As with the first pop art set, I am partnering to have them printed on heavier card stock than I can print on my laser printer and then packaging them in sets of six (three of each image) in clear boxes.

I settled on the theme of bird note cards by asking the owner of Potager's Other Stuff, who carries some of my ready to hang photographic art prints and wanted to stock some of my boxed note cards, what images she might like to see on a new set. She suggested birds. Cardinals have been popular images in my matted and ready to hang pieces so I decided to work up a set of note cards with a male and a female cardinal. I found a couple of wintertime images that I thought complemented each other nicely and went with them. Those images got me to thinking of other tufted birds. I had recently finally gotten a few nice shots of a blue jay. While yellow-bellied sapsuckers are not as tufted as cardinals and blue jays, they can raise the feathers on top of their head to a peak. Plus, I had gotten a few good shots of one just the previous winter. I decided to pair it with the blue jay. These new boxed sets can be found at Potager's Other Stuff and in my EDCCollective Etsy shop.

If you have any ideas about what images I should consider working with for a new boxed card set in 2017, I'd love for you to leave your ideas in the comments section.

New Hummingbirds

The first one I want to talk about is a hummingbird new to me and the second is new science.

One morning on our recent trip to Livermore, CA, as I was looking for wildlife before the first of the day's baseball games, I spied a speedy little bird. The movement suggested to me that it was a hummingbird. Quick, zoom in and try to get a shot! Luckily it was still early and the pretty little hummer decided to perch for a bit between short flights in one section of a tree. I was able to close in on foot and with my zoom I was able to snap several pictures before it took off on its daily journey. Upon inspection of my images I realized that the little hummer was different than the ruby throated ones I was used to seeing in TX. (The picture above is a female Ruby-throated hummer.) I'm sure it was an immature male or a female hummer. What I'm not positive about is what species it was. I'm currently leaning towards Broad-tailed hummingbird female even though Merlin seems to think that Anna's or Black-chinned is more likely.

I have included an image of this new to me hummingbird in my new Livermore nature set of note cards which I have titled "Morning Coffee Break".

The second hummingbird with a designation of new is one that was not totally unknown to science, just not properly distinguished from a close relative. It had been thought that the Bahama Woodstar species found in the Bahamas contained two subspecies. Upon closer inspection it became apparent that these two members of the Bee Hummingbird group were actually two distinct species, hence the designation as a new hummingbird. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a good article from which I learned about this and has more information on the topic.