If I knew I was going to do so many on this subject, I would have called it a series to begin with.

Anyway: Arches and arc

Got the lawn  mowed, garbage taken out and dishes done so nothing better to do than mess with images in PS.

This is the  Powder (Gun) Room at Fort Niagara.

 Powder Room After Topaz Adjust 

 I liked how the processing changed the texture of the stone walls.

More flowers--mom is like my sisters as far as flowers are concerned.(she really does have a green thumb)..Iris 1 ,

Got a pic of these in her yard before someone mowed them down... wildflowers  (a little retro effect on this one)...Easter Sunday this little critter stood guard over the flowers in her yard...... little piggy 

Have a great evening and may tomorrow be a good one for each of you....

The desert willow trees here in our area are blooming

 dw514121 

this one I wanted to make it look like a painting  dw514122 

I went to the Georgia Aquarium this weekend.  Its pretty cool, but it's so crowded that it can be hard to enjoy. In hindsight, going on a Saturday probably wasn't the best idea.   Anyway, I took a lot of photos, but most of them ended up coming out too blurry.  I never was very good at shooting in low light!   

I got this one of the  Albino Alligator that came out decent. 

And I took these of my baby girl watching the beluga whales and liked how they came out.  At the Aquarium    Mesmerized 

Last stop on the cruise back in late Feb to early March - Cozumel Island.

This lady off the boat reminded me of me. "Okay, which *^&% button do I push to answer this ^#$* thing?" Plus I liked the stairs.

We caught a taxi for a tour of the island, which included a couple of nice beach resorts on the non-Caribbean side (the lee side facing the mainland).

Beach resort 1

Beach resort 2

And on the rougher other side of the island, a nice blowhole.

Then we stopped at a bar for a beer in the shade. I got this shot first with the scene framing the Oasis of the Seas, one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, if not the biggest, and a normal cruise ship next to it. But then I decided that I wanted more emphasis on the hammock, so I shot again with a flash. I think I like the second better.

    sat Simon 1 

                    sat Simon 2 

          samman  

                         sat Simon  

        couple tourists

Andy and I want to wish all the mothers at Photographica a "Happy Mother's Day"

 hmd51012 

Had some fun back in April taking photos of the cherry blossoms in my area.  They were stunning.  The trees looked so cool I had to climb up in one.  See if you can tell which one is me.  

moe

This title explains my interests in a nut shell. I really like Boots but I also have a passion for flowers and especially birds.

Here's my work from today:

 Male Goldfinch who doesn't mind posing  A Red Breasted Nuthatch. surprise visit 

 Boots with perky lion tail 

 Tiger Maple from underside view and flowers  Pansies  

Hope you like looking at them.

Drove out to one of my favorite spots to take pictures of one of my favorite subjects, Joshua trees  sj59122   sj59124 

I call this one "Three Sisters"  sj59121 

I also call this one "Down but not Out"  sj59123 

Dub suggested to more the camera between the arches and shoot the trash can, so I tried.  Unfortunately, things didn't work out quite right.

For those who aren't into arches, here's some purple.

Some different versions of the Old Gas Station down on  Old 131 

Some sentimental feelings here as my Father had a Standard Oil bulk station from late 40's to early 60's.  Dad getting an award from a Standard Oil Rep.  I'm second from right.

 Standard Oil Gas Station 

 Standard Oil Gas Station B&w 

Thanks for looking.

Alright all you complainers.... I took a chair outside and I sat and I waited.  Maybe I was too close, maybe my husband wasn't being still enough, maybe it was late in the day and they weren't hungry after gorging themselves all afternoon.  I don't know, but I only got a few visitors while I sat paitently waiting for my variety of finches to return.  But I did get some of a female rose-breasted grosbeak who didn't seem to mind posing for me.

I also had a goldfinch flitter down.  And for a brief 30 seconds, a juvenile Indigo Bunting took a rest on top of the feeder.  This one I got lucky to even get one picture.  One moment he was there and then he was gone. 
I'm not giving up though... I'm going to plant myself in that chair every afternoon afterwork (so long as it's not raining) and wait.  They'll come back.  They always do.

some more shots of trash left by mother nature

 nt58121   nt58122    nt58123 

I've been traveling on business and a bit short on time, so I haven't managed to finish the cruise shots that I had for sharing. Anyway, I think we left our intrepid travelers stranded in Belize munching on butterfly sandwiches.

The next day we went to Costa Maya, Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula. Not much there, but a shopping place and a very rocky beach, but it was a nice shopping place, so I took its picture.

Then I got on the other side of the archways on the left and took its picture again. Have I mentioned that I like archways?

I like the way it looks like the ship could just sail right up into the swimming pool here.

And this water lily shot is actually left over from Belize, but I forgot to add it. I liked the light in the upper right.

From Costa Maya we headed a little ways up the coast to Cozumel Island and real live civilization. It seemed pretty quiet compared to some of the stories I've heard, though. More Cozumel later.

So I decided that I would try and get better bird shots on Sunday.  I waited all day until the shade from the pine trees was far enough to let me sit under without being too close for the bird's comfort.  Only Michael came out with me and he wouldn't stay still and only three birds stopped by... so I ended up walking around and taking shots of the garden.  Here's an overall shot with our layout for this year and since I had my 70-300mm on, I used the "macro" option at the 300mm end to get some shots of the seedlings we have coming up. 

Corn, zucchini and bean seedlings.  It looks to be a promising year :-)

Have tried this shot many times but when I am on 66 the lighting is always bad so I tried it in HDR and I got the shot. The drilling rig always came out dark and no details in it but it looks like HDR does work on this shot  rt57121 

this is one of my favorite spots to shoot, a lot of times there is a pick up truck right next to the stable and it takes away from the shot, this day there wasn't any there. Yes sometimes there are horses in the stable.

Used some topaz adjust on it and then faded it down alot to get the look I wanted. rt57122