Blog Archives

181 of 365 - Emotions; the ant

6/30/2014

I have no idea what this ant's emotions were, but I sure enjoyed watching him. He was frantic for the nectar in this milkweed flower. At the same time he hopped from flower to flower and gulped away, he also was shaking his foot like crazy. I don't now what that yellow thing is on his foot, but he obviously didn't want it there!

180 of 365 - A Week of Emotions

6/29/2014

So here is the first: Nostalgia. I have gone down to my empty studio several times to just think about all the time, projects, frustration, and fun I had while in this room. The photo on the right is our house number. (well for a couple more days!)

The theme this week is, appropriately enough, "Emotions". Seeing as this is the week we leave from our long-time home to a different state and lifestyle, it will be a week flooded with emotions.

179 of 365 - the wildest wildlife I know

6/28/2014

It is the end of the "wildlife" week, and the deer, or any other fuzzy animals besides a rabbit, have failed to appear, so I went to the most reliable animal photo subject I know: Zebs. I found him frolicking with Giraffe in the side yard...

178 of 365 - A Wildlife Walk on the Path

6/27/2014

The days of me "hitting the path" are almost over, so I headed out today to clear my head and look for critters.

I think this guy was using the lens as a mirror!

Mr. Grosbeak was as interested in me, as I of him!

This guy and his buddies were doing some serious damage to a plant.

and of course there are the creepy crawlies!

173-177 of 365 - the Wildlife week!

6/26/2014

Our theme this week has been 'Wildlife'. What with the final week of packing to move, I have posted, but I have been clicking! so here is a gallery of my wildlife...
(right) I started by scaring off a squirrel!
(below and below right) Jon found a snake skin in the garage, so I moved on to that.

This little fellow was kind enough to show up for my next days shot.

(above)Then we found the owner of the skin in our garage... I got a couple of shots before we escorted him back to the woods! (right) My little wren provided an image for those who didn't want to see the snake!

And finally.... "Little Rabbit Fru Fru" was hopping through our yard!

170-172 of 365 a weekend of fun!

6/26/2014

I am off to a Quilters Weekend at the Rosemont Festival of Quilts. This is a fun weekend that I have been doing with a group of women for several years now! We bus down, stay at the Embassy suites (see photo of light on the right), attend the show Middle photos, and have a great time in the evenings.

This year I ran into a group of guys doing the "Magic the Gathering" (bottom photos) in the upstairs part of the convention center. To see more pics and read about it go to my blog post about it.

169 of 365 - The Duck and I

6/18/2014

Yesterday, while my car was getting worked on, I had an hour to kill at a park. This duck and I had lots of fun. He was trying to snooze in the morning light, but patiently let me take numerous pics of him. (see the reflection in his eye!) It was a very still, slightly overcast morning. Just lovely. I wish you could hear the chorus of frogs that was resounding around the area!

of course the water scenes were lovely too - and perfect for our "reflections" theme this week!

168 of 365 - black on black reflections

6/17/2014

A revisit to one of the herds to explore reflections on their shiny coats. This lady is a beautiful all black cow, standing next to one of her herd mates who has a few white patches. The bright sun today really showed off their coats.

Below are a couple other photos from today of other herd members

167 of 365 - Reflections of Fathers day

6/16/2014

This is Bob my Step-dad... or as I prefer, my "Adult Dad". My "Kid Dad" passed away when I was 19, so Bob has been around all my adult life. He has Parkinson's Disease now and is in a nursing home. Yesterday I took him to the church service in the nursing home. I think he is reflecting on what is his future, and I am reflecting on what is our past.

I shot this during the service, discreetly, with my phone sitting on my lap. Perhaps not the best of decorum, but I am glad I did it. I was very pleased with the accidental crop when I finally go to look at it. The nursing home is in a very Norwegian town, and the wall decor is a viking ship and a map of Norway. The sign on the wall reads:

"The ship of the king is sailing from the earth to the heavenly land."

166 of 365 - a new theme: reflections

6/15/2014

I am back making some future fabric patterns from a picture I took in the mirror. The little photo below is where these started, and then moved through Gimp and PicMonkey to get where they are now. The upper one I can see as a "whole cloth quilt (of course embellished and such) and the bottom as fabric pattern for a garment. I can't wait to do more of these!

165 of 365 - Motion and commotion!

6/14/2014

This is the last day for the "motion" theme so I went with two pretty different takes on this. This first one (above) is the soft motion of the seeds taking flight from this weed. Off into the evening sky...

While below, near the earth, a group of ants was diligently working on an evening meal or two. They had some bug surrounded and were doing who knows what, but they were way to busy to worry about my presence.

164 of 365 - Lucky Friday the 13th

6/13/2014

It is that dreaded date of Friday the thirteenth, so to counter that I am posting this four leaf clover I found in our yard! The sun was shinning on it and I zoomed it to take a look!

In keeping with the continuing theme of motion, I went and experimented with the wind in the grasses. Here are a couple of those experiments... I am actually starting to understand the relationship between the aperture, shutter and zoom... sort of.

163 of 365 - The can't all be winners!

6/12/2014

It has been a long couple of days, and I am tired and exhausted, but did my clicks for the day....
The theme of motion is shown here through the lens of my cell phone and the HDR Pro app. I threw a ball down the stairs and made the swing do its swinging thing... so much for that. Tomorrow is another day!

159-162 of 365 - day two of Catch-up

6/11/2014

And on to another theme: Motion. This harkens back to some of my previous intentional blur experiments. But I am also
trying some new things!

159 - These first two were taken while in motion - but not of motion like the rest of them. Images from driving through Chicago.

160 - Above is of an intentional blur while driving on the highway - I was moving, but the subject was not. The second one (on the right) had the subject moving, but I was not.

161 - No better capture of motion than Finn running as fast as he can...

...Unless it is Finn jumping into the pool! (also 161)

On the ride home in the rain, I had to capture the motion of the wipers, and of passing the metro stops in Chicago.

151-158 of 365 - playing a little catch-up!

6/11/2014

What with having garage sales, and hauling a load from WI to VA, life has been busy this month. I have managed to continue my photo a day on our group page, but haven't been posting them here regularly, so this and my next post will be to get you all caught up on the latest two themes and photos!

This group is from out theme of "redo, revisit or re-edit"- A reprieve of sorts to go back for a "do-over" or "do-again" of your choosing. So have a scroll through and catch up on the fantastic Spring we have been having! (AND be sure not to give up on me before you get to the last two photos - worth the scroll!!)

151 - Redo of a shot from winter when the swing and landscape were covered in snow. for the earlier photo click on this one.

152 - I couldn't possibly look at a week of revisits without bring back Mr. Zebs! To see the earlier photo click on this one.

153 - I have shot a couple of macros of many plants and my favorite tree - our Tamarack. This time I decided to try some panoramas; one of the tamarack and one of the side yard. For a previous macro of the tamarack click on this version of the tamarack, and it will take you there!

155 - The last time I photoed this tree it was sunrise and the tree was bare. This time I let it be background. To see the earlier picture of this tree click on this photo.

154 - a couple of revisits of some winter shots. The cemetery and one of my adopted herds of cows!

155 - You might remember this barn from a drier and more barren time! To see the original photo click on this barn photo.

156 - A couple of my favorite barns revisited at sunset. To see the earlier versions of these barrn please click on the photos.

Hitting the Military ridge trail once again. Every day - every season - it holds new surprises! For a winter view of the trail click on this summer view of the trail (on right)

Several people asked if I had seen any fairies amongst the mushrooms. No Fairies, but these two little elves appeared as a redo of the day before's photos!