Sadness

Doesn't he just break your heart!
Kayla and her best friend were upstairs playing and ignoring him.
The rest of us were downstairs ignoring his begging for treats.
Poor baby!

Thanksgiving

She told her daddy not to cut up the drumstick -- she wanted a whole one.

Halloween pirate

Well, I had this notion that Gregory the pirate ought to be seen on a pirate ship, and it took me more than a week to locate the photograph I wanted to use. Actually, the ship is the Constellation in Baltimore's harbor -- a photo from 5 years ago that had been downloaded to a disc and it took some searching to find it.

But for Halloween it needed a little spooky-ing up, so I added a grunge layer and edging.

Halloween ballerina

Here's my favorite 6 year old dressed up as a ballerina for Halloween -- dirty knees on the tights by the time I snapped her -- no front teeth.

Photoshop is a wonder! This was taken in her living room with toys on the floor and a smaller child in the background. So I cut out Kayla using refine edge to get strands of hair, and put in a background using a modified paper, a star, and a heart from Digital Scrappers. Sorry I didn't pay attention to what issues they came from.

Sunset

As I got on the highway to go home from my daughter's house I saw the most breathtaking sunset -- but there wasn't a safe place to stop and get a good view for a photograph.

Halfway to home the tops of the autumn-colored trees were lit and the trees below were already dark -- another awesome sight that I couldn't just stop to shoot.

So I stopped at the off-ramp near home and took this shot instead. The clouds were still lit from below by the setting sun, but nowhere near as beautiful as the shots I missed.

Sun flare

I've been trying to capture the starry sun flare for quite some time and yesterday morning as I started to drive out of my garage I thought I might just be able to catch it!

This was processed in Lightroom to crop it a little and add a vignette, then in CS5 using content aware fill to cut out the edge of my car window which I wasn't careful enough to spot in the viewfinder -- and add a "frame" and some text as well. Content aware fill also let me cut out the roof of my neighbor's garage. :-)

Wet

Summer's almost over, but there's still some hot weather to enjoy playing with the neighbor kids in the back yard with their rocket hose.

Ignition:

Liftoff!

Splash!

And look what you can do when you put your finger on the nozzle!

Daylilies

My daughter has some lovely daylilies! These are two different colors (pink and purple) and shot with two different cameras. I tried the reverse macro thing but couldn't get a handle on it.

Red

Petunias

and geraniums

Blur

Inspired by Hector at the Elements Village...

Once again I tried most of my lenses and this shot is a crop from the 75-300mm lens
Aperture priority, ISO 100, F5.6, on a tripod

I tried the 60 mm but didn't like the color.

baby in a flower - 1 year old (part 2)

baby in a flower - 1 year old

Derek is a year old now.

Baby sleeping in a flower

Playing with "baby in a flower" again.
Baby Derek was just a few weeks old last year when this photo was taken.
The clematis is a new shot.

The photo above has a warmed skin tone and the baby is highlighted.
Someone had commented that the baby just blended in...

Singing in the rain...

We had a garage sale today and it rained off and on
but Kayla had fun singing and dancing in the rain!
And I had fun playing with a film strip...

Two photos below in a larger size.

Crowded

The white spiderwort in my garden didn't flower well last year,
but this year they are crowded!

The first shot with the 70-200mm lens was kind of blurry, but I like the look.
For the second shot I switched to a 60mm S lens and a tripod.

It's a bright sunny day and with the sunshine hitting the white blossoms they came out washed out -- overexposed -- so I stood between the sun and the plant to make some shade.

Close to home

I like the bokeh shooting this ivy geranium from this direction. The grass and dappled sunshine in the front yard makes a nice soft background.

Blossom

I don't know what I did any different with this shot, but the water came out dark as you can see. The day was bright and sunny, and the other shots at the lily pond were overexposed, actually. I was playing with a hood and a polarizing filter, but it's a mystery to me...

Young and old

A clematis flowering near the ground.

Well, the bud is still young and the open flower is getting old!
OK -- kind of a stretch isn't it.

I was experimenting in CS5 with the content aware feature and "fixed" the open flower where some critter took a bite out of a petal. It's pretty amazing. And there was a dead leaf in the upper left that I removed with a big selection and content aware --pouf!

And I'm still playing with making "frames" with loose brushes. This one isn't half bad...

Yellow -- and white

Honeysuckle growing near the river.

Wildlife

I think these are heron "babies" -- I don't know what you call young herons, so I guess I'll just call them "hatchlings".

I think I'm over the hump with the pneumonia so I went to the rookery today with my XSi and the 70-200mm lens -- and a monopod to help me hold steadier than just hand-held. I didn't like the monopod at first, but it really helps with the extra weight of that lens! I do have an extender. Maybe I'll attach that and try again on the next clear day.
We've been having April showers in May here...

But 200mm doesn't get close enough to the nests, so I did have to crop to show the subjects. I used Lightroom to crop and vignette.

Happy birthday dear Gregory!

Gregory's 7th birthday was Saturday!

He already had more than 200 HotWheels,
but you can see how delighted he was to get more!

And when we sang "Happy Birthday" he sang, too!

Droplets

Drops of rain on my rhododendron between rain showers.

Delicate

I was hoping to get a clearer shot of some apple blossoms, but I'm battling pneumonia and I haven't been outside much lately. I went out yesterday after the storm blew through and found that the wind and rain took most of the petals down. So here's the best of the lot from the last time I tried shooting apple blossoms -- the buds were just beginning to open then.

Blooms

I'm trying to decide which lens to take for a walk at the daffodil trail -- these are in my yard.
All shot with ISO 100 and sunny day setting.

First is the kit lens - 18-55mm. I think it's a pretty decent lens!


Next is a 60mm S lens -- but I need a tripod to use it. I like the glow in this one. Partly sun on the flower and partly just the color of the flower itself.


Then there's the new 70-200mm L lens -- I'm struggling with this lens. I have trouble focusing on what I want to focus. The depth of field hasn't given me much room and my eyes aren't very good. Anyway, it's pretty heavy for a stroll in the park. But it's anice lens and I think I'll keep it!


And finally, my old favorite walk-around 28-135mm lens. I think it's still my favorite for pick-up and go on a nice day.

Stacked

The herons' nests are stacked in the trees at the rookery.
This shot is out-of-camera -- no extender.

And here's one nestmate bringing twigs to fortify the nest.
The pair on the lower level are watching...



I bought a new L lens (70-200 f2.8) and paired it for some of the shots with a Kenko 1.5x extender. I think I'm having a nervous breakdown spending that much money on a lens! It's definitely a big and heavy lens and I'd probably only use it for a walk in the park. Maybe I should return it and look for something else (less expensive and not so heavy).

Fill the frame

The cat is a little grouchy because I'm ignoring his "hints" that I should pet him.

Taken with my point and shoot Panasonic just inches away from his face.

Unexpected

The great blue herons return to the rookery in the Cuyahoga Valley late in February every year.
I think the snow is unexpected...

This shot was taken with my ? to 300mm lens and manual focus to bypass the weeds in the foreground. I had to lighten it in Lightroom to match the partly sunny day.

Big and small revisited

OK -- this is a printabe version of the healing process.
After 4 weeks the therapist said we didn't need to do a dressing any more,
and a week later there's just a small scab at the center.
You can see by the reddened new skin how big the open wound was.

By the way, these photos were all taken with my Panasonic point-and-shoot
and I found that a flash gave a better shot even though these
were taken in daylight and next to a window.

Self portrait

Well, I thought I'd give the mini-assignment a shot -- even though I HATE looking at photos of myself -- and I was trying to catch a typical reading-in-comfort pose lying down on the sofa, which often ends up with me dozing off for a while. It was hard to do! I had trouble with my cable release and switched to a 9 second timer instead. Not enough time to run to the sofa and lie down and pose with a book/magazine and my eyes closed!

I played with the cable release some more and I think it wasn't making contact. Anyway sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. {grumble, grumble}

Big and small

healing
Don't look at this if you're squeamish.
I tried to make an animated gif to show the healing on Bob's hand.

The surgery was done with an open wound that required soaking and changing the dressings twice a day -- no antibiotics or creams. I took a photograph once a week and 4 weeks later the open wound has gone from big to small. It's amazing to watch the skin grow back together.

Luscious

When I saw this in the display case at the bakery I was expecting it to be some kind of cake with a luscious filling and a chocolate glaze. I bought one and it turned out to be a dark chocolate candy shell (no cake) filled with raspberry mousse -- definitely luscious!

Alone

This downy woodpecker wasn't actually alone in the shot above -- but I cropped it
because I wanted to use the one below as "alone" and I wanted to show him going after
the seeds as well as taking flight with one.

Canon XSi with a 70-300 mm IS lens.
Processed in Lightroom -- copyright text added in CS4.

What is that?

Well, what it IS is ice formed on a shrub.
But my question is what does it look like to you?

From left to right I see:
someone making a speech,
a mouse singing,
and a reindeer running away.

Always have a camera with you so that when you look around and see something you might want to capture, you are ready!

White

After the snowstorm--snow on my apple tree.
Curious how the psd had less blue than the jpg in "save for the web"...

Chocolate

Chocolate covered cherries! Yummmm....

Shot with my XSi -- a 60mm EF-S lens -- manual focus on a tripod.
Cropped slightly with Lightroom so I could add a vignette.