In the Yard

Lizard In the Yard, My Friday Find

5/23 A Vision of Make Believe

Gnome / Pretend / In the Yard

The suggestion for today's Captureyour 365 photo prompt was to blur the background and I nailed it today. This guy was not my first choice as I started out with a small, decorative bird house for my subject that I was moving around the front yard. After six pictures that I checked on the computer, I decided to go back out and try again since I either didn't like the placement of the birdhouse or it wasn't blurred enough.

I went back outside to the wet grass with my sandals and as my feet were becoming wet and colder, I moved the bird house around the front yard. Then I got distracted by the tulips again ( don't worry, the irises will be up next week and there will be iris pictures to replace the tulips). Today's tulips were glistening with raindrops and I did some practice shots with different apertures to see the differences in focusing. These were taken at f/14 which allows more of the flower to be in focus, rather than just a small part. If you look closely at the water droplet, you can see a reflection of the camera. 

Then I took the bird house out to the back yard and decided not to walk through the yard to get there, but through the house and I found my subject,  the lizard. Sitting on the table on our three season porch, I saw the lizard that was given to me 8 years ago by a student when I was teaching that I used as a decoration on the porch. The lizard became my "gnome", the pretend for today's prompt and my Friday find. The sandals came off and in bare feet, the lizard was placed all around the back yard. Today turned out to be a fun day of photography and I was lucky to get it all done this morning as it poured during the afternoon.

My friend T came over with soup and we had a nice lunch of soup and salad, where she helped me pick the fun picture of the day. I loved all the lizard pictures, but the one for the picture of the day makes me think of a comedian, "Two flies fly into a spider web…..". All of the pictures just show such an attitude and today turned out to my favorite photo day of the week. I feel like the Lizard was a find for me and helped me to overcome a rut that I feel into this week as I was becoming overcritical on every picture taken. It also helped that my friend T was supportive and told me to enjoy what I am doing. Today was a good day for photography, here's to more flowers blooming and my newly bought tomatoes growing after all this rain.

Rosemary already planted by the front door along with a clove of garlic that came out of the compost pile. Today, I bought basil at Agway and now I just need to get oregano and mint for my other planters. The tomatoes will be planted by the compost pile where I know they will flourish. I also picked up sunflower, cosmos and wildflower seed packets for our side yard to provide a colorful border to attract more birds and butterflies. 

My Friday Find! I should come up with a name for him.

I get picky about what gets posted here, but today there were so many good pictures that I am sharing more than usual. Enjoy!

Wet tulips, 100 mm lens, f/14

Backyard bird house photos