Scentsational Rosebud

Sometimes, things just work out...this picture is exactly what I wanted it to be. I was playing with my new camera, still trying to get the hang of some of the settings and options. I did some exposure shots and several macro of various flowers, among other things. This bud was where the sun just slightly lit it and I could take the photo without casting a shadow, while getting up close and personal. I'm still loving spring pictures!

Volleyball anyone?

Tonight was the first practice of the "Setting Ducks" volleyball team. It was great, we had a lot of fun meeting, greeting and hitting around. When I came home, I set the ball on the bed and got the laptop out to work on shirts for the team. Sophie, being the cat that she is, had to lay on the computer bag and with the volleyball. I didn't quite catch her playing with the ball, but the image I got here is different but I like it. The extra fuzziness of her and the face she's giving me are cute.

Roses

I just couldn't help but take a picture of my rose bushes today. I didn't take the time to make it a great picture, but I wanted to show the quantity of roses in bloom. I don't remember ever having this many all at one time. There are dozens of buds also visible. This plant is loving the spring we are having here. The other bush below I have is doing quite well, although it's not quite as productive as this first one. Besides having the gorgeous blooms now, this also means I will have a lot of rose petals to make paper and other projects this summer. These are called Scentsational Roses, they have streaks of white on dark red petals and a great smell. My other bush of the same variety produces white roses with large dark red stripes, they are opposites but both beautiful.

Sand Volleyball

Tonight I subbed on a sand volleyball team. I had forgotten how very much I love playing! The nice thing was that is is like riding a bike...comes right back, that muscle memory kicked in and I was ready. The diving into the sand and running and some hitting at the big green cabana all made for a very enjoyable evening. Then some shopping with Julie made for a very fun night. I think I'll be finding sand in various parts of my body for days though ;)

New Camera

I've been wanting a new "little" camera to carry around with me. Of course, I can't have just any cheap little camera, it has to have a real zoom and various settings. I asked for one for my birthday and I was surprised by an early gift today! We were headed out to the Arts & Jazz Fest and stopped by the office and there was a pretty blue Nikon CoolPix L22 box :)
I've been researching and playing with them for months, trying to figure out what I really want to do with one. This is not to replace the digital SLR, it's purpose is to let me always have a camera with me. I finally narrowed it down to a couple and today I got the one! I haven't edited this picture at all, it was shot in the action setting on a very sunny afternoon, using the full 3.6X optical zoom. It seems to be slightly overexposing shots, and I played with some of that today but will spend much more time getting to know my new camera. I'm excited to see what I can do with it.

Duck, duck, GOOSE

I started the morning with a scheduled walk with friends at a local park. There was some sort of event just wrapping up as we arrived, so we started with a small nature trail off the main trail. Just off the path were a pair of geese. They were out of their usual spot near the lake, most likely due to the overabundance of people around the lake. They had found themselves a small area off the beaten path with some spots of water to drink. I went a bit off my path to go check them out and had a good time getting some shots of them up close and personal.

Denton Arts & Jazz Fest

Tonight we worked a shift out at the annual Arts & Jazz Fest. It's a great time out with good food and great music, and of course lots of shopping. The weather was absolutely perfect this evening, though the morning didn't look promising. The sun came out and the temperature got up to about 80 degrees. While we were there, I took the opportunity to try and capture the feeling of the Festival. I took some crowd shots, some band shots, some nature shots even but what I really tried to get was the food. When you have roasted corn on the cob, funnel cakes, kettle corn, sausage on a stick, fried everything...the food does define the festival atmosphere. This was the shot that most captured what I was looking for in my images today.

Allie

Allie is our pet snapping turtle. She's been in the family for about 10 years and it's hard to let her go, but she needs a bigger home and we just can't give that to her, so she's getting a new home this weekend. She seems to be a cross between a common and an alligator snapping turtle. She loves it when I workout in the living room, she will follow me from one side of her tank to the other. She enjoys getting live fish snacks, although she is a bit shy about eating in front of people. Everyone that comes over thinks she is so unique and fun. She has been a special pet and I will miss her, but I know she's going to a better home. Since she is a water turtle (and a snapping one at that) it's hard to get pictures of her. I have taken ones over the years but it was time to try again and here's my favorite new one.

Toad!

I finally got this shot! I run by this little pond several times a week and more often than not, this toad is sitting nicely in a little clearing near the edge of the pond. Unfortunately, while running, I can't get a picture of him because I don't have a camera and he hears me coming and jumps away. Today, as I went by the pond, he was there and also there was a cute baby turtle sitting on a log in the middle of the pond. Again, no pictures but I decided after my workout to go get the camera and just hope for some good chances. I had only one chance before he hopped away and this was the shot.

April Showers...

It's been raining for over twenty four hours now. Although it started as a drizzle, it got heavy and had some accumulation last night but since then, it's been a nice, slow, soaking kind of rain. The advantage in photo taking is the great diffuse lighting although the camera isn't so happy with rain itself. Since it's a light drizzle, I ran out and played a little with our April showers and April flowers...why wait for May flowers? :)

USAG Individuals

Nationals

Blur Motion

Usually, I am looking for clarity in the picture. Focus on the subject or focus behind for a fuzzy effect. This time though, I was going for action showing through blurring the subject. It was one of the assignments for the weekend and gymnastics was a good opportunity to try it out. Here's one of the TWU gymnasts on balance beam as she is flipping backward. She looks extra long and lean as her movement makes her look like Gumby, stretching and bending her body. I will play more with stop action gymnastics at tomorrow night's finals.

Project

I haven't done much crochet lately but I just started a baby blanket for my newest nephew, due to arrive this summer. I'm trying a pattern I've always loved but have never actually made myself, my grandmother made several. It's a zig zag, multi color blanket. This is a worsted weight yarn, rather than a sport or baby weight but the blue has a very cool tint to it. If you look closely it's sort of striped. I wound the balls from the skeins and I liked the look so here it is...

Ice Cream

What is better than a nice warm spring day and some Beth Marie's ice cream? Matthew thinks it's pretty perfect. He was sitting on the edge of the fountain as the sun was starting to go down. I just loved the look on his face, the ice cream dripping down his chin and the cone and a bit of the glistening water in the background. He is getting so big and still so adorable! :)

Flight

It was an amazing photo day for me, I went for a little hike and was having no photo luck the first mile or so, but as I got to the "big" pond things turned around. A guy caught a fish and pulled it out right as I passed by, then this bird was screaming as he flew across the water. I ran up to a clearing and took multiple shots of him taking off and landing and he even looked over at me from the water's edge. I continued on the path and caught a dragonfly, a bird landing on a cattail then I had a chat with some nice ladies from the Good Samaritan Village. I continued on to discover a monarch butterfly in the sunlight, several ducks that flew in formation away and then back toward me and a couple turtles got in the pictures (one duck and one turtle on the right of this picture). Happy spring again.

Photo Shoot

Casey (and Kimber) were nice enough to pose for a pictures and it was a perfect day for it. The skies were overcast but bright, the flowers, bushes and trees are in full bloom, the grass is bright green and there was a slight breeze and moderate temperatures. I had a great time shooting these two, getting Casey's well "Casey personality" to show and getting the puppy to pose. This is the most laid back puppy dog! I had a great time and got some good photos. I will have to do this again :)

Soccer Dog

At the soccer tourney today I got to watch some great soccer, of course, but I also got to play with and photograph a puppy. She is truly a soccer dog, she gets to play soccer at home, she perked right up at every ball that came off the field and wanted to go chase it! The other fun was her playing with the other dogs at the field, they had a blast. I had fun taking pictures of her playing but also got a few more "formal" shots like this one. I think this one shows her personality and the big tongue hanging out from her playing. So it's posed and yet still informal and capturing her playfulness.

Photo Storage

This is such an important piece of my photography equipment! My iMac is the thing that allows me to organize, sort, store, and manage my photos and videos and create movies, DVDs and all multimedia projects. The poor thing got a bit fried when our house was hit by a lightning strike surge almost, recently fixed, but I overtask it with all my photos and videos so it needed a new hard drive...so today it got a replacement, now I have 1.5 terabytes so my photography can get back on track this weekend. It will still take me awhile to get all the data transferred into iPhoto but my Flickr site should be more updated soon. I'm excited to get back to my "routine" with photos.

Happy boy?

When Rolf is playing outside, he gets really excited.  He takes off on a tear around the yard and then he will suddenly stop with one ear sticking up and a cute look on his face before he pounces or runs in another circle. I was taking some pictures of him playing and this isn't actually the cute face and the ear isn't quite up...but it's still a fun picture, he has a cockeyed ear and he has quite an interesting look on his face! The sky was a bit overcast, just right, the focus is where I want it and the background grass and fence are just enough there to know it's a yard and this face is not one I catch everyday ;)

Snake tongue

Yes, again today I went on a hike with the camera. Today though was particularly interesting as the wildlife goes. Spring is in full force and all the animals are coming out. Just as we were starting out a male cardinal flew into a tree right in front of us, he was followed shortly by a butterfly flying right past my face. In 45 minutes, I saw four butterflies, four snakes, a large lizard, more than a dozen turtles, and a frog. This was the smallest of the four snakes and the one I got closest to, both intentionally and unintentionally. It took awhile to catch a picture with his tongue out, he was very uncertain of me and eventually tired of my picture taking and swam (very quickly) away. About then, time ran out for hiking and we headed home to head on to our next, more urban, adventure at an in town fundraiser, where there was a cow...well a guy in a cow outfit and a bunch of bikers and cops ;)

Chinese Fringe Plant

I had a crazy day at work but thankfully it was another beautiful spring day here, so as soon as I got home I went out for a run. After a workout, I went for a nature walk and enjoyed some of the spring scenery. This is a different view of one of my own plants. I have mentioned before that I have a purple/pink color scheme going on in my front beds and this is no exception. The plant is called a Chinese Fringe Plant (Chinese Loropetalum Plant) and has purple leaves and pink/purple flowers. I find the flowers very unique and I took the opportunity to photograph them up close to show the detail.

Happy Easter

Nothing says Easter like Bluebonnets, at least for us here in Texas. You'll see whole families on the side of the highway taking family pictures in the Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes. I thought it would be fitting to take a photo today of some of the flowers in my yard, so here it is, a row of Bluebonnets. Happy Easter!

Spring Cleaning

The spring cleaning bug hit me today and I dug into my gardening supplies and cleaned them out and I got into my scrapbooking paper and sorted it all out. Then, I got into the florals and even bought a new basket to make a flower arrangement. I set the basket on the floor and walked into the other room, when I came back it was knocked over, so I reached down to set it up and it was heavy...how every basket is exactly her size, I'll never know!

Tree Hugger

My grandfather came into town for a few days so today, we spent a family day playing and doing a bit of an early Easter. Activities included blowing and chasing bubbles, wagon rides, shooting foam airplanes and discs, a candy carrot (not egg) hunt, and tree climbing plus a bit of eating, drinking and being merry. The day started rainy with thunderstorms but we were fortunate that the clouds cleared off and the sun came out for some outdoor fun in the afternoon. After watching daddy climb a tree, Matthew thought he should give it a try. The sun and shadows were great for outside pictures. I usually like the up close pictures of the boys the most but I love this one. It is fun and a good reminder of the day.

Moving sky

As the sun came up this morning, the sky was pretty colors and the clouds were really moving. We were in for a windy day and evening with storms starting to threaten by night. I caught a progression of the clouds passing by and I want to work to stitch them together but for now, here are the in sequence, I took each image about 5 seconds apart.