beeautiful...again

I enjoy a good insect stalk. Bees more so than other insects. Here are some pictures from a recent stalking. This particular bee was covered in pollen, and obsessed with this one patch of flowers, so it was an a fairly easy stalk.

purple shrooms, who knew?

It was the colors of the fungi that I found really interesting during our hike at Caledonia. I do not know if I have ever seen purple mushrooms before. I have now.

water lily

A couple of friends came to visit yesterday. We did some hiking in Caledonia State Park, drove up to South Mountain Restoration Center. Near there, we happened across this pond just covered in lily pads, and water lilies. This water lily photo was taken with my full digital zoom. It came out pretty nice. I think it was the best photo of the day. Although we also happened across many colors of fungus....that will be the next post.

by the sea

While tidepool lurking in Maine, I found some great things to take photos of. Here are some of my favorites.

My demon dog

This is my "demon dog" (see previous post "worst photo ever") looking like a big sweet boy!
Is he not cute with his little stuffed toy in his paws? When I get my own place, he gets to come live with me and wreak havoc on my life. I am so excited, I can't wait!

bridge to nowhere

I know this is just a bridge, but I think the angle of the photo
"pulls" you in. It makes it feel like you are
there walking on the bridge.

elusive starfish

To get to the place where the starfish were (according to the book) we had to cross what I referred to as "The LOG of DOOM". The book did not mention we would have to cross a raging river in the middle of the beach to get to the starfish. It also did not mention the only way to cross while staying dry involved a trek across "The LOG of DOOM". Miss Amy is seen crossing here, she was much more apt and less wobbly than me. There were pictures of me crossing this great raging river, however they were lost. Oh, and for the record, I did not fall in. I should probably repeat that, I did NOT fall in. It was worth it, because in the end we found the starfish. and some of them were purple. Who knew?

geese at sunrise

Yes, I was awake at sunrise one morning. I was spending the week at home taking care of the animals while my mom and Ken were in Tennessee for a week scouting properties. I was in nursing school, had to get up really early to feed all the animals before heading off to class at Mont Alto. I decided to take my camera out with me, and captured a few geese flying overhead squawking. The color of the sky was not quite captured correctly with my camera, but I think its close enough. I decided to not try to edit it, and use it as a learning tool for future sunrise pictures.

bloomin' dogwood

I love it when the dogwood blooms. There were a few trees near my former house that were always a photo-op. Here are a few of my better shots. I was out when the sun was getting low in the sky, causing some interesting light effects on the flowers. Also played with angles to try to get something a bit different.

black and white

Some pictures just look better in black and white. Normally I do not change my color pictures to black and white, but here are a few cases where it works better in my opinion.

snowy range

Snowy Range, just a quick drive from Laramie Wy, is one of my favorite places. I loved to go up there and walk around and take all my out of town friends there. It's views are just awesome. These pictures where taken with film and transferred to a CD, so the quality is not the best.

ugly but interesting

I love to take pictures of just plain odd things. Here is another example of that.

TN house

Okay, so you can sort of see the house and barn, but Lance is the focus of this shot.
I just happen to like the angles.

its all about perspective

Sometimes I get really strange ideas, they just pop into my head. The first comes from a great road trip out west. The sunset was amazing, I wanted to capture it, but did not want to ask whoever was driving to pull over. I had been watching the sunset in the mirror for a while and eventually decided to try to capture the image in the mirror. It's a more interesting view of the typical sunset. The second picture comes from my home in Tennessee. Again, another sunset shaping up to be pretty. I was on the back porch getting ready to try to capture the colors in the sky, when I realized the tall plant lined up perfectly with the sun. So that became my angle. Some friends really like the artistic aspect of the shots and others just don't get why I think they rule. Judge for yourself.

not so ugly birds.

On a recent trip to the beach, I returned without one seagull picture.
I refrained from taking them, because I always get made fun of for having them.
Yes, my gull friends are annoying, but also pretty in their own unique way.
Once again, my photo-conscious friend, asked where all my seagull pictures were.
Here you go! Enjoy!

Flowers

So I am not a flowery type of person, yes they are nice, but not really my thing.
Until, I was looking at Amy's amazing pictures of flowers, so I totally copied her and
started taking some flower/plant pictures of my own. Here are some examples of
favorite angles and some decent flowery pictures.

One quick side note: to get the picture of the ladyslipper, the second flower in this
post, I had to stick my camera lens through chicken wire protecting the plant.