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!

Or, I don't take pictures of flowers, but every time I see one of Candace's photos I want to. . .

Flower     Flower

Flower     Flower

Flower     Flower

Flower     Flower

Flower     Flower

..........brought the first blooms on one of our trees!  I love this time of year!

 evening light 

 ss 

Hope y'all enjoy!

You can always tell when it's spring around here.........time to go crawling around on your belly!

 small 

 curly 

Hope y'all enjoy!

 Happy Valentines Day

Photo before effects put in to it with Picnik, I used the small setup for doing still pics for ebay and such. I have small lights to use with it and put one above the plant. the soft light showed through the white material on the box. It was perfect for what I wanted. A nice soft look. It also was a hand held.

 Before effects  

Enjoy and your comments are welcome. ;)

When i got up  this morning i found more   Flowers from my guy    and  Ms Cappuccino  sniffing the sweet scent      

Remember to take time to smell the roses...  life is short , enjoy it!    

Wishing you all a beautiful day..    Blessings, Ms judi  :)

Wishing you all  a very Happy Valentine's Day 2010 ...  This is the weekend for romance... Go for it!!!!!!!!

 A Rose for you       Blessings, Ms judi

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

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Last night while chasing the sunset i captured this Wisconsin  corn field catching the evening rays.....

thinking >   Pink      ( this macro  inspired by our Ms Faerie)  :)

blessings, Ms Judi 

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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 This evening i went out to capture our amazing Wisconsin   sunset . While i was out  Doug's dad brought over some  homemade frozen  beef   enchiladas (macro)  made by his mother.   This was the first time i have ever had one and it was delicious.. sorry no pics were taken after they were baked.. we ate them too fast! lol 

Have a great evening everyone... stay warm ... blessings,Ms Judi :)

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!

UP> Close 

And> personal 

I don't know species of tree this is, but I like it.

Ill have to admit, this isnt recent, but I had it in my images unused. So sue me. LOL

Just for the challenge some macro shots I took.

I used my my speed light SB-600 to take these, not real good with the flash yet. I need to learn to set the white balance better too. But I gave it a shot. (the six Kids running around the house did not help either. Lol)

Well here they be kind to me. don't make it hurt too much. ;)

 A flower for u

 tiny squirrel friend

 turtle friends_2

 Tiny collection

 Help us_1

The last was for fun, Buddie likes to be in the middle of everything. ;)

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!

Something to smile about, my  Mellow Yellow ( macro)  gift  from my neighbor

and my  New hat      from my son thomas in New York..