Posted on August 12, 2010 in Animals, Lensbaby, Macro, Wildlife
The swimming hole is actually the little pond in my backyard. The very same pond where the water lilies grow. This toad had the whole pond to himself the other night and he was quite the model. Normally when I go near the pond, the toads and frogs hop in the water. This little guy didn’t and – believe it or not – he let me get THIS CLOSE with the Lensbaby 3G and +4 macro lens to photograph him. I was literallly only inches away from him. Good thing he wasn’t an “attack toad”! 🙂
Posted on August 10, 2010 in Flowers, Lensbaby, Macro, Nature
Back in May I planted sunflower seeds. The package said it was a “Sunflower Variety”. As usual, the birds and chippies devoured most of the seeds, but 4 sprouts eventually emerged from the ground. Of the 4, only one was strong enough to survive the hot and dry summer. I was a little concerned because as I’ve been driving around, I’ve seen really large sunflowers here and there in my travels. Mine seemed to be growing at a much slower rate. I attributed that to the poor soil in my garden. Lo and behold, the flower has finally arrived! Much to my dismay, it’s only about 1″ in diameter! Not quite the 1 FOOT that I was hoping for! Nonetheless, it’s still a sunflower and it’s still very pretty! At least I was able to photograph it without using a step ladder as it’s only about 3 feet tall! How many can say that they’ve actually photographed a sunflower from above like I did with my little gem!? 🙂 Another image is below. These were photographed with the Lensbaby 3G.
Posted on August 4, 2010 in Flowers, Lensbaby, Macro, Nature, Painting Effect
I planted 100 summer blooming flower bulbs in my garden back in May. I created 2 new flower beds around a fence and wheel barrow that are in my back yard. Lo and behold, the bulbs are up and starting to bloom. I’ve had some oriental lily, liatris, and now gladiola. It’s fun to look out of my window and see color where there never was color before. I think the gladiola needs to be supported as the flowers are large and drooping at the moment. I’ve never grown these before, so it’s all new to me! I’m just so happy to have more flowers blooming in my garden! Living in a wooded area where the soil is very rocky presents many gardening challenges, so it’s always fun when I have success at growing new plants. Check back tomorrow for a story about a garden surprise!
Posted on July 19, 2010 in Black and White, Flowers, Macro, Nature
Here’s another image of the water lily in my garden. It bloomed for 3 days…yesterday was the last. I’m glad that I photographed it when I did. The flower itself was only open for about 6 or 7 hours a day. Photographing flowers in the sun is a big no-no in my book, but given that this one was only open between about 10:30 and 4:30 and it was a bright sunny day…what choice did I have? I actually liked the way the sun was lighting up the flower, but not casting as much light on the lily pads surrounding it. I decided I’d try this one in black and white…the color version is below.
Posted on July 18, 2010 in Flowers, Macro, Nature
This beautiful white and yellow water lily is in bloom at this very moment in my garden. I have one plant in my pond and it blooms 3 or 4 times each summer. The flowers only last about 3 days and then they are gone. I always hope that they will open on the weekend to give me an opportunity to photograph them. I was lucky this week – the flower opened on Friday and so I had a chance to photograph it this afternoon and enjoy looking out the window and seeing it all weekend.