I'm sitting here tonight wanting to post but the truth is I haven't had the time to shoot anything new this week. So I worked on a couple shots I took before my daughters fall from grace (actually down the canyon)...

 Friends 2

 Nikki plus1

So I did my research online on how to properly take firework pictures and loaded up my tri and set off to battle the crowds and this is the best of all the shots I took in my opinion!  Tell me what ya'll think because I have never taken them before!

 Fireworks 

Be brutal please!!!!!!

I was in Maryland last week, visiting a friend. We had a lot of fun, and I took about 300 pictures. Here are eight patriotic pictures I took in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

*For 'inside of a canon', I stuck my lens in the canon mouth, turned up the f-stop, and switched it to manual focus because auto didn't want to work.

 American Flag

 United

 Bronze Eagle

 Silence and Respect

 Gravestones

 Unknown

 Canon

 Inside of a canon

I know I have already posted a Happy Fourth pic. But I was looking through some pics I took last year in Washington DC and I think they speak volumes for why we are celebrating today. I hope you like them all. They also kinda fit for this weeks challenge to.

 FH000262.jpg 

 DSC_0098.jpg 

 FH000251.jpg 

 FH000216.jpg 

 FH000241.jpg 

 FH000211.jpg 

I know I have used the flag pic before, but I thought it suited the words on the pic of the plaque I used before it. I hope you enjoy the pics. Thanks for looking.

Good morning, everyone. In  my house, there is a distinctive lack of statues/figurines. So, I took a little creative liscence and dug out some of my old action figure collection. :D Just to be on theme, I did take a picture of our lil meeces and their shadows; after that, its all figgers, lol. I used my Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Trinity from the Matrix, Yoda from Star Wars, Fathead Han Solo (I'm not being mean, that's what this figure from 1973 is known as) from Star Wars, Lego Rogue of the X-Men, and my Spike Collection plus one Buffy figure. I got down on their level to do this shoot-boy, did my legs cramp up, lol! but it was worth it. Thanks for looking, and comments are always welcome. :D

 spike01  spike02  trinity  yoda  hansolo  rogue  spikes  meeces

...... so here are a few misc. pics ---

 Keefer Lake June 2009 032.JPG Such a great dog!

 Keefer Lake 2009- Rusty 067.JPG Top of the world!

 Keefer Lake June 2009 016.JPG Water shot

 006.JPG Fruit blossoms

 Sugar Lake 3 015.JPG Hawk

 020.JPG Calm water

 021.JPG Reflection  - Reversed  reversed.JPG 

Please enjoy - comments welcome. :)

No matter where you fly it, fly it proud.

 F1 

 F2 

 F3 

 F4 

Seems fitting to post this for the Independence Day holiday.  This memorial park has a wall bearing tiles with the names of all Navy fliers of the EA6B planes who have died in the line of duty.  My favorite part of the park are the life-sized bronze statues, commissioned and paid for by friends and families of the fallen:

     the children - a tribute to the families left behind

     a flier and his mechanic (plane in the background is the EA6B)

Pocono Mountains Pike County, Pennsylvania Dingmans River 

Hey all, Happy 4th of July 2 days early!

These two shots are of my husband's cat Heidi. I caught her resting on the lower shelf of the coffee table, using the side decoration as a chinrest. I love it when she does this; it's so cute. Usually she'll brace her chin up and stare at hubby when he's sitting here with utmost love and devotion; today I was sitting here, so I think she was just hot, lol. Anyhoo, here she is...we like the one with her eye peeking open the best.

Thanks for looking, and comments are welcome!

(PS) Thanks, Cory, you were right about shrinking the pics! ;D

Heidi chin 01    Heidi chin 03

I was out again along the American River, just a calm walk, taking in the sernity of the area. As I rustled my feet along the path of the walkway, I soon came to an oasis .....  Words can't quite describe it, but there was so much peace here.

 Canon 20D EOS

 ****EDIT....  Brandee... was this the effect you were taking about ?

Went to SC for a couple of weeks near the Georgia and NC border here are some travel shots

 Mountains in Bloom 

 Wildflowers 

 Water Over The Dam 

 Foothills of the Blue Ridge 

 Blue Ridge Falls 

 Redwoods 

Got together with LeeAnn (Bugaboo) after trying for 3 years or so.  And finally getting some photos posted.  lol  LeeAnn had lots of great tips.  She was so much fun to hang out with!  I had such a great time and I hope we can do it again soon.  We have several ideas of photo outings, hope they work out. 

 Little Buck
 Monarch flower
 Big Blue
 Flying Big Blue

Thanks, LeeAnn!  Can't wait till we can hang out again!

Happy Fourth to Everyone!  Be safe, have fun, take lots of photos! :o)

I get many garden spiders each year but I don't think I have ever seen one in this bright shade of green.

 Green Garden Spider 1 

 Green Garden Spider 2 

 Green Garden Spider 3  

Here's a few more from the Cemetery for the Challenge.

 Mom with kids

 Girl Scout

And this one was next to the "colorful" statue I posted in Part 1 -  Statue

Thanks for looking!

Color me Blue...

Any color will do....

This monday we had the most spectacular sunset I've seen in a long while.  Michael and I have a very nice view from our backyard and while we were working in the garden and the sun was slowly sinking I could just tell it was going to be a good one.  I ran inside and grabbed my D200 and snapped away.  I will say that I overexposed some shots (for foreground detail) and then did a slight underexposed shot for glorious sky color.  I then place one on top of the other in photoshop and used a mask to bring the best attributes of the picture on bottom.

June Sunset

And since it's a short week and everyone's been taking off here at work, I was slightly bored yesterday and have CS4 on my computer at work, so I played with the only effect I know how to use:  Orton Effect.

Thanks for looking, comments are always appreciated.  Oh and HAPPY 4th EVERYONE!

edit:  for those who want to know how to do the orton effect, here are the instructions

Gentle Doctor by Christian Petersen

The lighting was bad, near an open window.  The background was worse, against a wall.  But you do what you can with what you got.

Face, close up.
Sick puppy.
Worried mom.
Side view.