Because it's all I have to take pictures of without attempting to find time to drive somewhere and then guarantee I have the energy to forge the heat after driving there.  "Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on and explode."

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That concludes my foray with my camera until maybe this weekend :-D

The last time I posted sunflowers, Dee mentioned that she would like it to be closer and maybe have an insect or two as a focal point.  Well, ask and ye shall receive.

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Thanks for looking and for any comments.  Criticism is always taken with a grain of salt and then pondered in depth later ;-)

As can be said for most, it's a hot, humid, miserable summer this year.  Too miserable to be out taking many pictures, really.  But yesterday and I was walking back into the house from some short excursion outside, I noticed this beautiful blue butterfly perched on the door frame.  I stealthily snuck back inside, grabbed my camera and switched to my 50mm with the 12mm extension tube and scooted back out crossing my fingers that the door opening and closing scared him away.  I got lucky because he allowed for a 30 minute photo session.  Here are my best of the pack.

1       2       3         4 (I know this will be odd man out and no one will like it as well as they like the colors ones, but sometimes you people will just have indulge me).

Tomorrow, we'll revisit my sunflowers.  Thanks for looking and commenting!

My last color from my adventures is green.  Now before I get to the shots, I'm going to explain a little how I got these suckers.  You know how I love my extension tubes.  I use them plus my fixed 50mm 1.8 lens for ALL of my macro shots.  Before the honeymoon I finally convinced Michael that I wouldn't be happy with any of my shots in Washington if I didn't have a super wide angle lens (something I've been pining over for years).  I bought the Tokina 12-24 f4.  I've been super impressed with how close I can get it to focus. In fact, all shots I've posted this week have been with that lens. 
Well, this weekend while I had an itch to take photos I grabbed my camera with the tokina lens still attached but also grabbed the 12mm extension tube.  It's the smallest so it allows you to get just a bit closer than you would without the tube.  I took a few shots and slapped that sucker on.  I can barely take a photo with it.  Zoomed out to 12mm I can get the lens close enough to an object to get it to focus.  Even with the focus on Infinity! So I zoomed in while resting the lens on a leaf and this is what I got.  The lens and the leaf have full contact with these photos.  I just took some quick shots and edited and oriented the images to what I thought looked best.  Some of you probably won't like these one bit, but I'm still impressed with the detail I can get.

Green Leaf Veins

Thanks for looking and for commenting!

There was one more item on my agenda Sunday morning.  If I was going to be shooting still lifes I wanted to get a picture of the wedding band I bought for michael.  I did a shoot with my engagement ring so I figured I'd do a shoot with his ring.  Let me know what you think!

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Thanks for looking and for all the comments this week!

As I stated yesterday I took some time on Sunday to set up still lifes outside.  While I had the good weather I grabbed anything and everything I might want to take pictures of.  Some things worked, some didn't.  This next set I think worked very well.  My mother gave them to me recently.  They were at the jewerly store where I bought Michael's wedding band in the "previously treasured" collection.  They're in mint condition and just beautiful.  I can't wait to wear them!

P E A  R L S

As stated yesterday... shots in color coming to a post near you:

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Another set from tuesday night.  And please, all you "Nature's better in color" people... don't get your panties in a wad.  I have shots in color coming to post near you.

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As I was driving home yesterday, I was blinded driving west into the setting sun.  That's right kiddies, the sun was out for the first time this week.  I decided that when I got home, I'd get my camera back out and try and get some shots with more light... not much since the sun was setting... but still.  More light, which means more DOF... and hopefully better pictures.  So here's some more macros for the challenge.  Lemme know what you think (like I have any doubt you wouldn't).

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Happy 'hump' day!

Some more extension tube shots... Not sure if these are better or worse than yesterday.  I'll try and reshoot the flowers with some artificial light.  I was using very limited natural light coming through the window on a cloudy day.  I wanted to close down for more DOF on some of these (more so on yesterday's post), but even at ISO 800 and at f4 and f2.8 I never had a shutterspeed above 1/30".  I did find out yesterday that you guys didn't have any qualms over most of the compositions, just DOF.  Let me know if these are the same or if I should try something different altogether with these carnations.

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Thanks for looking, thanks for commenting and have a great day!

A few macro/extension tube shots from the weekend.  I'm kinda in a funk, so if these um... suck, just let me know.  Thanks for looking and have a great Monday everyone!

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Just two shots of the snow...

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Hope everyone had a very merry christmas!

Oh, I see what it is now.  It's just a little bee!

And this concludes my buggy macros.  Hope you enjoyed, thanks for ALL the comments and always fee free to critique!

Or at least, by it's name it could be assumed this guy is common.  He's a common buckeye.  And the last butterfly I have to share with you guys.  Hopefully the info has been entertaining and educational.

Thanks for looking.  As always, comments and critiques are highly encouraged.

Info on the Common Buckeye

Like I said on Thursday, I finally got to photograph me some lepidoptera.  I hardly ever get a chance.  They're not around and I don't go to the Botanicle Gardens enough to ever have a chance to photograph butterflies and moths.  But two weeks ago my flowers were just swarming with butterflies and skippers as it turns out.  Today, I'm featuring the whirlabouts and the fiery skippers.

Whirlabout      Fiery Skipper

Thanks for looking.  Comments and critiques are always appreciated!

Info:  Whirlabouts & Fiery Skippers

Until I finish my research (all started by yesterday's post) I'm only going to call these critters lepidoptera.  Although, I'm positive this guy is a butterfly, he will only be called a lepidoptera until furhter notice.  I've found a very interesting website that should prove easy to find out what all the little guys are that I photographed on Sunday.

But until I find out, you guys can enjoy my first venture in photographing lepidoptera!

Thanks for looking, more lepidoptera to come!

Oh yeah, I always take critiques with a smile :-D

It was beautiful weather on Sunday and our zinnias and marigolds are still at full bloom and the butterflies were just loving it.  And I was loving them.  And we loved each other!  And while we were coexisting peacefully, they volunteered for a few portraits and today I'm going to do the opposite of what I normally do, I'm going to show you my favorites first (normally I show the good ones, and then try and get better with each post so that the subject doesn't get worn out but I like these too much).

But I'm having trouble deciding which background I like, green or blue.

Thanks for looking!  Comments and critiques are always appreciated.

As promised, here are some shots of the bloom on aloe. 

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Two in b&w:  5    6

I'm going to have to take it out again for photos because as I was shooting this they looked like buds (on one of the three shoots) and I asked Michael if he thought they'd open up to be actual blooms.  He didn't think they would, but would you know it, I come home Monday afternoon and one had opened into a little bell like flower with ruffles on the end.  I'm hoping by the weekend the whole shoot will be little bells.

Thanks for looking!  Happy Hump Day!

Back in the spring when we were buying plants to start our garden, I saw an aloe plant.  My parents had an aloe plant in the kitchen when I was younger and it always came in handy when you burned yourself.  My friend in florida had one so big that we could cut the tip off and use it to soothe our sunburns after being out on the beach all day.  So when I saw the aloe plants I told Michael I wanted one.  We got it, took it home and I took care of it.

Come august, I got busy and wasn't home often and Michael neglected my plants on the porch.  I thought the aloe plant had died (although not really needing a lot of water, it did need it on occasions) from lack of water and the cold spurts that had come upon North Alabama in September.  But it hadn't.  In fact, last week it was blooming.  Which I have never seen before.  I took it inside, gave it some water and after a day it greened up again.  Apparantly they're very hardy little plants.  Sunday I decided to give it an afternoon in the spotlight and used it as a subject of choice for a photo shoot.

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I know you'll let me know what you think about these shots and tomorrow I'll post some of the bloom.  Thanks for looking!

I believe I have saved the best for last.  Granted, there are a few but please take a look and give me your honest opinion about these.

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Thanks for looking and have a great weekend everyone!