I found this cute little guy stalking bugs in my flower bed.

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And a shot of the flower he was creeping on. 

passionflower

Taken around 7 am in West Virginia...it had rained the night before. Using Macro lens 50mm, f8 with flash and home made diffuser.

grape leaf

bean bloom

dandelion

garlic_clove

The first critter is a baby blue jay that literally fell at my feet. I hand fed it for 3 days, but sadly the poor little bird didn't make it.

baby jay 1

baby jay 2 

On a more cheerful note...here's Bella my Labradoodle...

Bella_before swimming

after_

West Virginia, on our farm. One of my favorite places to relax and contemplate the nature of my world.

Blue tint

birdhouse

garden

My favorite

I can't imagine life without flowers or for that matter my camera. These were taken with a 50mm macro, f 8, shutter on auto, flash with diffuser.

weed

daisy

dahlia

rose

on a rainy day.

bug

drops on the cabbage

looks frosty

green tomato

It was around 8 am and I was not alone.

osprey nest

osprey nest closer

fishing

more fishing

I took out the screen, cleaned the window and hung the hummingbird feeder. This is what I got, not too bad for shooting through glass.

hummer 1

hummer 2

hummer 3

not a hummer, a sparrow

1     answer.....washboard

2     answer.....pitchfork

3     answer.....faucet

4     answer.....gourd  

Those of you who got these right ( even just partially), check your mailboxes as there will be large amounts of money waiting. 

these things? 

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2 

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Are we having fun yet? 

I've had a few requests on how to do pics with backgrounds  Waves.

These instructions are for CS3 and I use my own method to do layers rather than the layer palette.  

Start with a original picture

and texture layer . (To get the texture layer, I may use a shot of old metal, gravel, wood and then saturate, burn and vignette.)

Make the texture layer the same size as the original picture. Copy and paste the layer on the original. Then under layer..layer style...blending...reduce the opacity to suit. I then go in with my history brush, opacity around 40-50% and brush over the parts of the pic I want to stand out. Finally flatten and it will look like This 

Another Example  where I used the Orton effect, b/w on the original.

Let me know if this explains things...if not...I'll try again....can't wait to see what you all do!

Sorry, I can't help myself...sometimes a girl just has to try something different!

vine

grass

honeysuckle

pansy