After the winter that seemed like it would never end...WAA-LA! Spring has arrived!

It

Thanks for looking!

Until yesterday, the steel gray skies and black icy remnants left from the snow plows and cold chilling winds still filled Chicagoan's lives. I had to find warmth and color!
What better place than the Conservatory?

It was so refreshing to be in the warmth and take flower pictures ad nauseum...

Hope you like some of these:
Pink Cymbidium Spray Orchid
Tulips
Tulips2
Ivy
vivy
Cymbidium Orchid
Pink Amarillis
Once in 75 Years
Another view
and more:
Lady's Slipper 2
Lady's Slipper Orchid
Stock
Pink Succulents2
Palm tree detail
Pods in the cacti room
Yellow Orchid
Bromiliad

Sorry to post so much, but I'm making up for not posting for a month and a half or so!

Thanks for looking.

SG's post of his poodles lovely portrait made me miss my old golden retriever. So I dug out her picture.

This was one of the first photos I took when I first got my Rebel! (many years ago, I want a new one) Well, the actual first photo was of the dining room table, accidentally taken while I was fiddling with learning all the buttons and settings... this was
the 2nd picture: she had to be my experimental subject!

Dusty Dog

Also, does anyone have any advise on how to set a computer monitor to really know how a picture will look when printed? I got a new monitor, but pictures that look just fine to me on the screen are not so fine when printed. (too dark) I've adjusted the monitor to be low brightness and low contrast and I tried using the auto adjust feature, but still the print does not match what I see. I could go back to my old monitor, nothing was wrong with it, except its size. I really like the slim, flat, wide screen one that I got, but if it's no good for photos it'll go by-by.

Thanks for looking.

Full Length
Sunset
Covered Bridge
Falls End
Lighthouse With Splash, Muskegon, MI
Road Ends
Ship
Here is the Church
From the Underside

Odds & Ends that make me want to go somewhere...out of the cold Chicago winter... somewhere warm... but since I'm held prisoner in a flower shop, no trip until after the big V-Day... that's Valentine's Day for those who still like celebrating this Day of Love... I can't wait 'till it's over; I'm tired already just thinkin' 'bout it... then vacation, ahh... Can't wait...

Thanks for looking.

Everybody's posting great things!

Here's a portrait of a firefighter from the Rescue 1 Unit from Waterman, IL

Homeward Bound:
Rescue 1 Waterman, IL

So this is my entry.

Ladies, for a look at him in color, look at my images. I liked the black & white look because of the strong contrast for a strong man.

Thanks for looking.

 Just one today...

water-fall  

Beach Stairs, Muskegon, MI
Big Red, Holland, MI
Coast Guard to the Rescue
Lighthouse  with Wave  
Golden Sunset Splash
Falling Water
FallingWater2
Swirls Blue Water
Cucumber Falls
Cucumber Falls 2
Blue Morpho, Wings Closed
Water Lily
 

A while ago (early October) we went to PA to see the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house "Falling Water" It was very interesting. Then we headed north to Cleveland, Ohio and then back to my favorite vactionland, Michigan. We had a great time.

Thanks for looking.

 

Butterfly Wings

I've posted this before, but I just haven't had lots of time for the hobby lately, so I just wanted to get in on the B&W thing...

thanks for looking.

Just 4 shots that I decided to post:

daisy

dasies

pond

rock

Thanks for looking.

Just a few shots for the challenge:

Sunset Blues
A desertlike sunset in IL
Fall looking grasses
Farm

And one more as I was trying to learn a little more about light and taking pictures of people, using the hubby as a test:

A reluctant subject

Thanks for looking.

I have noticed that sometimes I up load a photo and then don't use it in a story. Perhaps I am just getting senile, because I forgot the name and skipped it as I was writing my story, perhaps I got tired, perhaps I am just lazy. Anyway I went through my images and found so many unused. I have decided to post them:

Artzy Azaleas Purple door only Determined to dig Determined to climb The Bar Window A window in a tower Group shot of yellow In front of a house Studebaker Not open Wysteria? In the Pink Purple Pansies Yelow Pansies straight on north central college Early on suset Snow Fence on the beach Fall Lighthouse pond1 buds

Tired of them yet? Well, there's more!!!!

Burstingsunset with grass alamogordo2 Alamogordo3 road sign Peppers2 Madonna Yucca comfy Legs St. Francis cactus26 peppers pinata style the sand white sands grass cactus23 cactus24 cactus25 petroglyphs turn around and look back rock cactus red cactus railroad crossing Cactus 29 Alert branching out Pull Hard seed pod four corners Scenic view From the top of Pikes Peak  Bursting2

Well that's it for now, actually there's a few more, but not tonight honey, that gave me a headache. Next time I decide to do this, I think I should do it alphabetically, it would be easier!!
Well... maybe I should get it out of my system...so here's the last of them!!! Yikes!!!

Girlz v guys Blue Heron 7 Fly Away Heron in the Grass on flower Red Tailed Hawk in Tree Red Tailed Hawk Grass A better shot Home Plate2 Wheel Detail Wildflowers And monarch Bus Driver's House Elk Grove Village Elk One Hiding Better one 2 A butterfly Reflecting Pool St. Joe's Light With Catwalk Cascade Red Moon What the Sunset did. Headstones 2 ROUND BARN Purple Flowers Hey, I didn't preview all the pics, so I apologize if you open any that are not rezized properly...

OK, kill me now. If anyone looked at these, any of these, I thank you, 'cause I probably wouldn't have!! So, THANKS FOR LOOKING!! Sincerely, I mean it. And I promise not to do this again!
(Although the rules say one time per 24-hours, post as many pics as you want, just once per day!!! ;)

The other day I went to Taco Bell for lunch. Just behind the Taco Bell is a little piece of undeveloped land between the parking lot and the first house behind the restaurant. (I use the term restaurant loosly, as it is a convenient place to grab lunch, but not exactly gourmet dining!) Anyway, this is what I saw while I was parked there trying to eat, but more interested in taking pictures!

Goldfinch eating thistle seeds

When I went back to the flower shop (a little late...) I brought my camera in for a little show and tell for the co-workers about how I spent my lunch, one of the designer's must have been impressed by the big IS Zoom lens and asked me to take some pictures of party flower arrangements that she was making. Well, the flower shop is not the best place to take pictures because of the cramped space and clutter of the back room and the flourescent lighting, but I tried to be as creative as I could, considering the boss was also looking at me like I was wasting valuable time on the clock! (However the next day I brought in the prints and he wanted to have a set of them to show to customers... go figure!)
Anyway, here is what I took, they could be better, but I only had a few minutes to take them...

Ivonne's Party Flowers

Thanks for looking.

I, as always, took too many pictures on Tuesday. I just love the "take it and play with it and erase it" world of digital!

So here's more of my mini-get-away at the conservatory:

Oak Park Conservatory 2

Thanks for looking!

Today I was longing for a little get-away. No time for a vacation now though, so I headed out to the conservatory for a little Hawaiian/Sedon-an/ exotic "vacation"!

Now I am all refreshed!

Oak Park Conservatory

Thanks for looking!

 

Today I'm looking at that person who posted several times, never getting it just right, poor thing.

The site advice to that person is to read the help section, the Q & A section or contact an editor. I tried to read these sections just to see why they are so hard to understand...

Well, I found these sections need some re-writing. Some of the info is out of date, as things have changed on the site. For example: Galleries are no longer available to everyone and are now called slide shows, for subscribers only to use.

I have had a problem in writing a story several times. For example, if I start by writing the body of the story and then try to insert a photo, the whole body of the story copies itself after the photo too! I have fixed this on my posts, it can be easily deleted, but it happens often. Another annoying thing is that the little "box with arrow" icon is not showing up in the post, even though it does show on the preview. This is happening all over the page in many stories. Another thing is that the part to insert a slideshow should be fliped with the insert single photo  spot, this would be more user friendly!

I can't find a way to contact an editor or an "about" tab at the top of the page. This seems to no longer exist.

Is it just the way the site is accessed?
I always just use my Yahoo home page to click on Photographica.
Perhaps I am missing content, or over time these things were omitted as the format of the site changed??!!?

Please respond in this Q & A section.

Thanks, Otter a.k.a. Chris