Sunday Stills Challange – Bugs

Sunday Stills has gone buggy!  I think I got lucky this week and found mostly pretty bugs…

Some sort of brown spider… I see them in the garden a lot; we usually call them Daddy Longlegs but I think they might be something else.  Anyone here a spider expert?

One of the numerous ladybugs farming aphids in the thistle plants around the compost piles.  I didn’t even notice until later, when I loaded the pictures, that he had tiny dew drops on him.

Found a male Stream Bluet resting – hunting? – in the middle of the mud puddle that serves as the tadpole pond.

Red-Shouldered Ctenucha.  I’d never seen this moth before; I thought it might be related to the Cinnabar moths, since some of the young caterpillars are munching on the leaves above it, until I looked it up and discovered it had a bright blue body (this guy kept his wings closed while I was watching).

Female Twelve Spotted Skimmer

Male Twelve Spotted Skimmer.

Male Variegated Meadowhawk.  The dragonflies really seem to like this particular post, which is in the middle of one of our field gates, though I’m not sure why.  I went out a couple times today armed with the camera and hung around for awhile but nobody wanted to pose.  I saw at least five or six zooming back and forth over the hay field but couldn’t keep them in the frame long enough to get a decent shot of them in flight!

A young Orb Weaver and her – his? – catches.

Advertisement

Sunday Stills: Yellow Flowers

As you can guess from the post’s title, this week’s challenge is the color yellow yellow flowers – I forgot and was thinking the challenge was the color yellow, good thing I checked the post!

Chestnut blooms in the barnyard – they’re at least two weeks early this year!

Birdsfoot Trefoil growing in one of the fence braces.

Okay, this one’s not a flower – the tansy isn’t blooming yet but the Cinnabar Moth caterpillars are yellow…

Sunday Stills: No Zoom Required

It’s that time of the week again!  This week’s challenge is no zoom a.k.a get creative and use the original zoom – your legs.  I never really realized how much I actually rely on my camera’s zoom, even it’s the tiniest magnification.

Speaking of cameras,  the SX20 is going into semi retirement as my macro lens now that I’ve officially upgraded to this baby.

And, from Skywatch Friday…

 

 

Sunday Stills Challenge – The Color Brown

A last minute Sunday Stills because the week got away from me and I didn’t have time to snap pictures of interesting brown things.

Evening hunter

Sunday Stills Challenge – Clouds

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge was clouds.  I have an unhealthy love affair with clouds – the fluffy white things fascinate me – so any excuse to go take more pictures of them is always appreciated!  We got quite a show this week…

Some baby clouds…

Today’s approaching storm (click to enlarge).

Sunday Stills Challenge: Musical Groups or Songs in Photos

I didn’t have a lot of time this week, but this challenge was definitely fun (and a challenge!).  Both photos are song titles – try your luck and take a guess?  Beware,  I listen to country…

Answers below…

 

 

 

♦ Where the Blacktop Ends – Keith Urban
♦ Mud on the Tires – Brad Paisley

Sunday Stills Challenge – The Color Pink

This week’s challenge is the color pink.  It just so happens that one of our pink rhodies, Mary Belle,  is blooming…

 

Mel’s nose is mostly black but he does have a small patch of pink inside his left right nostril.  He wasn’t too happy about the camera being stuck in his face….

Sunday Stills Challenge: Weather or Not

We’ve definitely had a very fickle spring this year… Warm up for a couple days, snow several inches, repeat weekly.

Second day of the most recent snowfall.  It was actually deeper, but some melted off the bottom during the day.

And finally, some blue sky!  Here’s to hoping spring-like weather shows up soon…

Sunday Stills Challenge – Corners

Interesting challenge, I wish I had more time this week to get pictures of more corners.  Here’s my lonely corner:

Any guesses on what it is?

Sunday Stills Challenge: Painting with Light

This challenge was a lot of fun, never really tried doing this before!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Did some experimenting with the Christmas tree.  I meant to take the flash light and set the camera up outside on the tripod but didn’t around ever doing it.

Sunday Stills Challenge: Happy New Year

Is it really a new year already?  Seems like just yesterday we were heading out to cut the first hayfield of the summer.

Thanks to Linda at Colorado Farm Life for another great challenge!  The end-of-the-year challenge are always, for  lack of a better word, a challenge.  I usually have several favorites from each time I got out shoot, so it’s tough to pick just one from the whole year, but this year I had a top three (usually it’s more!) to narrow it down from.

Speaking of haying, I discovered this Goldenrod crab spider and his catch while I was out checking the hayfield we were about to lay down for tansy.  These spiders blend in incredibly well.  If not for the moth and the tiny splash of red on the spider’s body, I never would have even noticed that someone was using the plant as his hunting ground.

I haven’t yet given much thought to my photographic aspirations for this coming year….  As always, there is so much to learn about photography, it is a never-ending learning curve.  Sometime this year – for graduation, perhaps – I hope to upgrade to a DSLR.  I’ve got my eye on the Canon EOS Rebel T3i (600D)…

Hope everyone is having a great New Year’s Day!

Sunday Stills Challenge: Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the Sunday Stills Challenge!  In honor of the first ever challenge, this week’s assignment is pets.

Keeping his eye out for stalking barn cats.

Enjoying some rare afternoon rays.

Posing for a quick photo.  “Yeah, I know I’m cool.”

 

Sunday Stills Challenge – Bokeh

This week’s Sunday Still’s challenge is bokeh.  My first time authoring a challenge, I’m very excited to see what everyone came up with!  A big thank you to Linda and Ed for the opportunity to submit our ideas for future challenges.  I recently became obsessed interested in bokeh once I realized  how much depth of field really effected a photo, and how much better the SX20 handled shallow depth of field than my previous camera.  Now I could pretty much consistently get the blurred background when I wanted, not just occasionally.  Push the limits of your equipment, you might be surprised at what you learn and what your camera can do!

For an added mini challenge, the next time you’re watching your favorite TV show, especially if the characters are outside, see if you can spot the bokeh in the background.

Barn cat “helping” by walking into the frame is optional…

Some moss on the rock pillar at the bottom of the shop stairs.

One from the archives (yikes, I cut off part of the left flower!), when I didn’t quite understand bokeh and how to create it.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Portraits

Eek, portraits!  I’m generally not a portrait person, especially people portraits (none of the humans around here are willing models… ;)), but here’s what I came up with.

Sunday Stills Challenge: Potluck with a Purpose

Another great challenge! The the trash bin can really force you to look at your composition and your exposure.  The camera may be a “point & shoot,” but if you put the time and thought- the situation allowing –  into the photo, it becomes more than just a snap shot.

(Dog and deer repellent) Classic snap shot – gets the job done but leaves quite a bit to be desired.

All the same elements, different angle and more visually appealing composition.

I actually like this shot, but the background, especially the the electric wire running through the bottom of the frame is distracting and detracts from the photo.

Since the drop and the barb are the subject, they should fill the majority of frame.  I like the lens flare as well, I think it works for with the drop and sun rays.

Sunday Stills Challenge: 25 and 50 Steps

Choose a starting spot, walk 25 steps in any direction and take 3 photos. The 25 steps can be outside your home, inside your home, in your neighborhood or away from your neighborhood.  Once your steps have been counted out, you must anchor one foot, you can pivot on that foot but your anchor foot may not move.

This was a great challenge, had a lot of fun with it!

Twenty five steps east of the horse barn, looking south.

West:

North; hedge:

50 steps south of the house:
Carrots for the house and barn (NE)

Faithful guardian (SE).

Some serious stretching required to get this one.  That articulating LCD screen does come in handy, though! (South)

Sunday Stills Challenge – Rock Formations

Couldn’t find any interesting rock formations, but I thought this Thunderegg (Oregon’s state rock) seemed to fit the bill…

Sunday Stills Challenge: Focusing on the Foreground

This was tough challenge, but I did manage to get this of the Fremont Bridge over the Willamette River.

 

More Sunday Stills Challenge contributions here!

Sunday Stills Challenge: Vanishing Points

Who knew it would be so hard to find a decent vanishing point??  My attempt…

More Sunday Stills here!

Sunday Stills Challenge – Water Droplets

Despite it officially being fall and heading into the rainy season, there was a surprising lack of fog or rain to get some water/dew drops!

Raiding the archives:

Sunday Stills Challenge: Macro/Extreme Closeups

Pitch on a firewood log.

Some sort of pollinator… not exactly sure what it is.

Loaded-down honeybee on a blackberry blossom.

Sunday Stills Challenge: Sunrise and/or Sunset

I love sunsets; there is just something magical about them that never seems to lose its charm, no matter how many you’ve seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Stills Challenge: Farm Animals

Bit of a tough challenge this week 😉  Since I missed last week’s, I went for extra challenge of getting ones that haven’t been posted about.

Mother & Daughter

Getting ones hair done is often a family affair.

Playtime!

Okay, I couldn’t resist.

Sunday Stills Challenge

The letter “F”.

Firepower

Friends

Field

Sunday Stills Challenge: the 4th/Patriotism

God bless America and our troops!  Have an great Independence Day!

Sunday Stills Challenge: B&W/Sepia

Confession: these were all edited to B&W…

My loyal guardian, happy to pose for me.

I was not expecting to find this lurking in at the edge of the mud puddle, with the tadpoles – I think he scared me more than I scared him.  It was a pretty warm day, so maybe he was trying to cool off… or maybe frog meat was on the menu?

Almost walked into it 😉

And what would this be without an “old timey” bridge photo?  This is the Oregon City bridge, over the Willamette, by the way.

See what the rest of the Sunday Stills gang is doing here!

Sunday Stills Challenge: Yellow

I didn’t realize until we got the challenge this week just how much yellow we have around here!

Rhubarb Curd.   Yes, not exactly the most appetizing shade of yellow, but the delicious lemony flavor more than makes up for it.  Want to try it, recipe here.

Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor), an interloper in our hay fields.

Farm plate.

Torching up scrap into more manageable pieces.

Butter cup patch.

Old broom handles come in handy for keeping stirrups straight when you’re not riding.

Enjoy more Sunday Stills contributions here.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Potluck

Dad and I went and saw Christian Kane opening for Justin Moore at the Rose Festival CityFair.    He puts on an amazing show!

Redtail Hawk with a garden snake.

The reflection of the window on Dad’s guitar.

Sunday Stills Challenge: In the Sky

Sunday Stills Challenge: The Color Blue

I’m lazy…

Sunday Stills Challenge

Favorite TV and/or Movies.  Definitely a challenge, it’s harder to get decent pictures of the TV than I thought!  Good luck guessing!

(screen cap)

Answers:

1.  Leverage
2.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
3.  NCIS
4.  3:10 to Yuma

How many did you know?

Sunday Stills Challenge – Spring Preview

 

Damsel Fly in the hay field

Pheasant Eye daffodil

And then because I misread the challenge earlier…

Spring’s not quite here yet!

Sunday Stills Challenge: Emotions

First sign around these parts that spring isn't too far off

play time!

What's easier than hunting barb wire?

Alert driver 😉

For more emotions, click here.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Circles

Sunday Stills Challenge – Best of ’10

Well, it’s that time of year again(is it really 2011?!)! Time to dig through the archives and find our best shots from the past year.  Sure seems like ’10 went fast – a great year in photography, can not wait to see what 2011 brings.

*edit* Just realized I misread Ed’s post: best shot, not best shots.  Hope you don’t mind this minor infraction…

When I looked up, the jet was right under the moon.

Country music with “a little gasoline”.

My absolute favorite shot of the Gorge I’ve taken this year.

We call it an “International Moon” 😉

Summer. What else can I say?

The perfect end to a winter evening.

And I thought cats and dogs didn’t get along…

Sunday Stills Challenge

This week’s subject is a potluck; free rein to do whatever we want!

Edyta, the resident “bobcat”.  She likes to follow us everywhere, even if that means walking 3/4 of a mile through the woods.

The very attentive and loving Aussies….

“It’s  hard work being the loyal guardian all the time.”

Now for something older…  This past week I took on the mountainous task of cleaning out the Kodak EasyShare  software that stores our pictures after they are loaded onto the computer, and transferring them to disc. Over 12,000 to transfer!  Since it’s a potluck this week, I thought post favorites that I found in the archives.  Here’s a few of them.. (WordPress is insisting on putting a few duplicates in the gallery).

Sunday Stills Challenge

Self portraits… ‘nough said!

 

 

Sunday Stills Challenge

Fall foliage!

Took this right after a downpour and a patch of blue sky appeared long enough for me to run out and snap some pictures.  Clouds made an interesting reflection on the leaf.

Macro Monday

Macro Monday, fall edition!   You know that fall is here and winter’s just around the corner when everything is covered in little ice crystals…

Our second frost of the year, hardly a killing frost, but cold enough to make you reach for a scarf and clean off the wood stove that sits all summer for a nice little fire.

 

Sunday Stills Challenge – Cars

My little contribution to the challenge this week.    Found it at the grocery store!  Mom, as well as several others were practically drooling over it.