and back to spring.

Typical spring shots, no more snow (I hope!)

Violets 1.

Violets 2.

Dandelion (thumb)

Working in the yard.  Every day is like Christmas, you never know just what will show up next.
Like these  Flower shoots.  Anybody has any idea what I should expect?

PS, note to self, and others:  Take pictures before mowing.  I don't know how many violets I chopped off.

  Prairie Flower  and along the streams  Gray Dogwood and  Gray Dogwood grouping (not sure about these last two images - maybe wild plum.  Dogwood have 4 petals, wild plum have 5).  Any botanists in the group?

OK I found out this weekend the what I thought were gray dogwood are really wild plum.  Some botanist I am!

Took the truck in for an oil change, and I had some time to kill.  So, while in their waiting room, I took some pictures.

First was some flowers

Then there was this Lego table top

I saw these chairs and snapped away

Lastly, I found these red flowers.

...to add to my flower beds.  What I didn't count on was the back-to-back snowstorms that kept me from planting them.  So the pots sat in my kitchen window and the  increase in temps made them bloom!  Made photographing them easier!

 Celandine Poppy 

Image Info:  lens Nikor 105mm 1:2.8 G ED Micro

Crocus taken last Saturday.

Crocus taken this morning.

%#*! Groundhog!

 Closeup of Lily 

Site not letting me post comments to answer a question --> Hand holding camera isn't something I can do, too much shake in my hands, unless the shutter speeds are high.  Especially for close work I always use a tripod, at minimum a monopod.

I got a chance to photograph at a local nursery about a month ago and this image is the best of the 50 or so I took.  Hope you like it even though it is a bit sad.

Last Rose of Summer 

It's the end of summer.  About all that was blooming were some hardy sunflowers.  Well, some little white flowers were out too, but I was too embarrassed to post them.  So here are some (badly worn) sunflowers:

Flower 1 a lone sunflower against a dark background.

Flower 2 a bouquet of sunflower against some trees in the distance.

Flower 3 another lone sunflower, this time against the pale blue sky

Flower 4 sunflowers on a dark green background.

Flower 5 the thumbnail, just to show that there were other flowers out there besides the sunflower.

During a brief cold spell, if you can say 75 is cool, I went to the local flower/butterfly garden.  There was quite a few people waiting to get in to see the butterflies, so I went out into the garden and took these pictures.

Petunia 1, the thumbnail

Petunia 2, the darkest black/purple flower I've seen

Water lily, not a real pretty lily, but I liked the reflection and its color

Day lily, most of these were gone, this is the last one

Flies, well, I think they are flies, big bugs at least

Next up, the butterflies.

I woke up early Monday morning and went out to photograph the sunrise.  To me, the sunrise had the potential to be great, but then it fizzled out.  Here's the best of the lot.

But, since I was out, up, and camera ready, I walked around the lake.  The sunflowers are starting to bloom.

Sunflower 1

Sunflower 2

Sunflower 3

Then there was this white flower, pretty in its own way.

Taken earlier this month, some peonies.

Light 1

Light 2

Bright red

Pink 1

Pink 2

Pink 3

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.

making sure your color balance is set right.

Took a couple of pictures of some flowers.  I wanted a different background, so I went into the bathroom and set the flowers in front of the mirror.  Camera was on a tripod, with a four second delay so I could get out of the frame.

Lighting on this one was with the bathroom lights, two incandescent lights.

Lighting on two was with the lights on and using the flash, also had a +1 closeup ring.

Yep.  I just had to do it.  Those pretty colors; gone.  No more.  Just subtle tones of gray.  But I think these particular shots work really well.  You may disagree... but whatevs ;-)

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Thanks for looking!

Here are the last of the Daisy shots for this week.  And I think these might just qualify for the challenge

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Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a wonderful, photography filled weekend :-D

While playing with the tubes and the daisies, I was drawn to the underside of one of the pink daisies.  As I tried to get the right composition, another of the daisies kept getting in my way.  As I looked through the viewfinder, I thought "Why not."  So these are shot through the petals of another daisy.  They're not my favorites, but I thought they came out well enough to share.  As always, open opinions are welcome :-)

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Thanks for looking!

more commonly know as weeds.

A couple of yellow ones.
  1)  yellow one
  2)  yellow two

And a dandelion
  3)  blooming
  4)  and more

So the next couple of sets of photos are the experimental stuff I always do with my tubes.  Up close, personal and a little bit more about lines and shapes than subject.  Though, hopefully not too bad.  Tell me what you think, you know I can take it ;-)

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Thanks for looking and for all your wonderful comments!