Friday Finds- More Than One!

Texture: kk_waterfront28 - Soft light 100% opacity with flowers masked

Woke up to find more than one Iris blooming. I went out with my camera before I even had coffee to get the morning light on the wet Irises. I guess I was procrastinating as I have a list of things to do today, including fertilizing the lawn while it is still wet. But the light and irises called me out.

Was just able to catch the bee as it buzzed among the blossoms.

Now I need to get busy with my list for the day!

Happy Friday!

Linking with Friday Finds at KimKlassen.com

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

Yellow

So many choices for the yellow prompt for today's Tuesday Texture. One just wasn't enough for me to do as I  love to take flower photographs and at this time of year most of the flowers that I see are yellow.

These tulips were at my parents and I got to use my new (bought used) macro lens. I love the detail from using the kk-minus43 at 55% opacity with a vivid light blend.  This is a cropped picture which I used in a collage picture in yesterday's blog.













Even a dandelion was a subject with the new lens and looks cheery if you can get past the fact that they can take over your lawn. This dandelion has kk-waterfront18_magic texture at 36% opacity with a screen blend.

The Daffodils are beginning to go by, however the one below is so luminescent in the outer petals and was just perfect last week for pictures with my zoom lens. I used a kk-waterfront texture at 31% opacity with a vivid light blend. So delicate in how it seems to float out of the black.

Take Care of Yourself

Me and Mom

5/12 Photograph Check Up

Make the appointment / Put it on your Calendar / Take care of yourself

Today's prompt was suppose to be health related to Celebrate National Women's Health Week. Instead of taking a picture of an appointment written on a calendar, I thought it would be good to use a new lens to take a picture of my Mom and I. Oh, if only I could look this good in another 25 years! So that is my spin on taking care of yourself. Love this picture!

Went down to my parents to pick up my son who flew in from LA to check out a school in Boston. He has a big decision to make within the month and is here for only 2 days to evaluate if the school in Boston is a good choice vs one in the midwest. We had a nice visit with my parents and brother. I raked their back yard which took me all of 10 minutes compared to what we have here. 

On the way to my parent's, I stopped at a photo store to check out used macro lenses and ended up debating and finally buying one. It is a lens that is used for close up detail or for portraits. Based on the photos that I took today, I can tell that I am going to be using it a lot for portrait style photos and for the garden this summer. It is a used Canon 100 mm, f2.8 macro lens and I expect there will be a learning curve with it as the capability for focusing small subjects can be hard with the depth of field. 

Today I had fun taking pictures with it and Mom was a good sport posing for me so I could practice.