Mary, Mary quite contrary...

How DOES your garden grow? I know mine is growing like gang busters! There are new things to see every day. All of it rendering me delicious veggies for my belly! Take this beautiful bloom that is our zucchini, we hadn't even noticed it right away. So pretty, so yummy!




We love zucchini so i'm very excited to harvest our first batch. We have about three of various sizes as of right now.
This little guy will one day be a tomato, can't wait to photograph those bad boys! I've seen bees around, but i'm not sure any honey bees yet, getting tomatoes rest in their hands, so to speak, lol



And PEAS! Wow it seems like we have a bunch, and they are fattening up fast, this was last week....








There were some pea pods, but not many, here's a few, all still last week....





This week though, they are looking like some peas, oh yeah! The hubs doesn't like peas so much, but i'm super excited. i hope to bring some along on our camping trip in two weeks. :)




Can you believe this little dude will one day be a winter squash?! Hims got a long way to go yet!



And radishes we pulled a week or so back...so bright and red, yummy!






So many pictures tonight! You lucky blog readers you! here's a few more from a little stroll the hubs and i took on a nature trail close to our place. Not much to speak of, but it was a nice get out of the house walkabout as the hubs called it. ;P




I think this flower looks like something outta Dr.Suess's world!





Well thats all for the night, see ya next time! Keep an eye out for pics of our camping trip coming soon!

By Pops-ular Demand

I'm finally getting around to finally posting some new stuff. I meant to start it earlier, but i've been stalking some new species o' bird comin' round the porch today. He is alluding me though it seems. So i gave up for now, otherwise it'll be ten at night before i realize i spent the whole day stalking birds! LOL I did finally get that rotten Bluejay to stay still long enough to get off some shots.





This bird just knows to show up only when the light sucks. But so longs he keeps coming back, i'll keep at him. Snapped off some possible good ones today of him(or some other Bluejay, not sure really).They are still unprocessed as the card is sitting in the camera, which is sitting on the tripod, waiting for a little mole to come get some bait i put out for him. Another little guy who is very very shy. There is some really nice soft over cast light today. I may be going out for more flower shots today, should i feel like getting up off my butt later. :) Last weekend......THAT ROTTEN BLUEJAY JUST CAME AND TOOK THE CHEESE! Just now, i heard him, i got up to look and he was swiping my bait for my little mole! Anyway, as i was saying, last weekend i stepped out and shot some pretty flowers!









Since getting my Optio W90, i've found i've been noticing bugs more. now, i hate bugs, but boy they cool under the macro! Here's a few moths!






Don't be surprised to see another blog possibly this week. I still have much i've shot lately to go through and today seems like a shooting day, i keep jumping up to attempt to catch this little mole....until then....

It's been a while...

...but thats because i've been distracted by my new camera, my pentax optio W90. Nice little point and shoot, some cute features, some really cool features, and a really nice macro feature! It was my birthday gift from the friends and family. It doesn't do well in low light conditions without the flash, but that is my only complaint, and really, since i wanted it more for camping and hiking, and it does great in an outdoor setting, i'm more than happy. Even more so after getting all these fun close up shots of teeny leaves and flowers!


Well anything really teeny actually! :D This flower was no bigger than a quarter!

I really can't wait to go camping and hiking in the upcoming warm weather and enjoy this fun little camera some more, i haven't even started using the underwater camera feature yet!





And here is a couple from a lovely little trip to see Sarah in Bordentown, NJ. It's actually a pretty little town,and the architecture is fantastic! I hope to shoot more in that area, a camera of some sort with be with me anytime i go for a visit i think. Anyway, we went and had lunch at a park on a nice spring day several weeks ago, we'd had some rain recently and the gazebo area was flooded. It looked like a floating island in the middle of the lake. Clearly a moment for black and white if ever...i think anyway...

Take a few steps back, and put on a wider lens....

Lately i've been trying to look at things differently, gain new perspective. So i think thats what drove me to pop on my wide angle lens and distort the world for a little while. To see things i see everyday in another way. How often do we lean in close and really look at how the light falls on the small details of the forgotten pieces of life, things we pay no mind to, because they are always in our view. Thats also why i chose black and white. I wanted to focus on the light and shadow,the angles of view, shapes and contours. Its that simplistic stuff they made you shoot in high school or college to force you to see the light, and what it does to your subject. I always hated those projects in college, the still-life of it anyway. I always felt i struggled with it because it bored me a little. There's no emotion in a coffee pot, or bowl of apples. I always preferred people or animals better, there's a life there, with feelings and emotions and they show them all to you if you can get that right moment. But still-life always felt like a whore of a subject to me back then, just sitting there while you do your thing, not really involved or adding anything of its own to the activity(in this case being photographed, didn't want you perverts getting too off track now). Maybe i wasn't as enlightened then as i am now. I had more fun with it today than i ever really remember i ever did in college. Maybe thats because i wasn't trying to be artsy, like i felt i needed to in college, but just enjoying shooting just to shoot. Enjoying playing with the light or funny shapes, different perspectives, just an opportunity to get lost in that little rectangle. I wandered the house, looking for light and shape and texture. Looking for the simple, sometimes even static compositions. Breaking rules just to break them, to see outside the boundaries in a way. I still got kinda bored in the end. Its just not as high paced as i like. Still life is too slow,so to speak, for me. However i enjoyed slowing down for a small time, and i guess i got some fun shots out of it after all. The doorknob shot is one of my favs. probably cause i'm in it, ;P Well, I must be making dinner now...i wonder if meat-loaf is photogenic ....

Bird Brain

My first post.....i could have spent this first one telling you all about me, but those of you reading this most likely know me already. Anyone who may have popped by who doesn't, well i'll let the blog and the photography tell you everything you need to know. You'll just have to keep coming by and reading i guess.(i'm sneaky like that;P)
So lately its birds...that have me running out of the house all day these days. Warmer weather, the trees getting ready to bloom, and birds everywhere! I've always loved birdies, they're just so damn cute! And i'll tell ya, as a photographer, they're a real challenge. And i love me a challenge! I love me something i gotta chase around, makes for a more satisfying YES! moment when you get that one(out of hundreds) great shot. Take the Black Capped Chickadee(at right), they are tiny little dudes, and they don't stay anywhere real long. My longest lens is a 70-200mm (3.9) 19-seventies thing. She's old, but she works. For the most part anyway. I could use an upgrade for sure, however for now, it's old susie and me(yes i name my lenses, shut up). And just to get it over with, because somewhere along the way people always ask, "what you shooting with??". I am currently using my Pentax K20D, and old susie. At least for these Bird shots anyway. But make no mistake, i am a PENTAX shooter. My first was a pentax K1000, still have it too. I love what canon is doing, nikon's got some good stuff going on too. I would have no disrespect for anyone who chooses to use them. And while Pentax is taking it sweet time catching up to those guys, they always provide me with that one most important thing, I CAN USE ALL MY OLD LENSES. Sweeeeeettttt. Plus I've used Pentax a long time, its a love thing. ANYWAY, now that thats over with.


I had some sunflower seeds(unsalted, no worries) i wasn't going to eat, so i made a make shift bird feeder. These Black Capped Chickadees loved em! They came by a lot. A lot of time spent crouched in my back porch just to get these few good shots. They'd pop in and get a sunflower seed so fast i took hundreds that were ultimately deleted due to blur. I ventured off the porch, and wandered around the complex. I spent several days checking out where the birds where coming from, what time of day they hung out where, or when they'd come to eat. I'm lucky that there are three trees in my side yard area off my porch. Chickadees and several other small birds fluter about in these trees several time periods of the day, the best being between five and seven, when the suns going down. And it seemed the more i was there the less they noticed me, and i could get somewhat close. I know what you're thinking, with a 200mm lens, do you need to get that close? Yeah, 200mm isn't near a large enough lens really for trying to be hunfdreds of yards away from something so small and still get crisp sharp images of them. So i have to get as close as i can. and this Blackcapped Chickadee rested just long enough for me to get this beauty.
And thats about ten feet away from him zoomed to 200mm. I need a longer lens(birthday's coming ya know, hint hint,LOL) I'm sadly still on the quest for the Northern Cardinal. There are several males and females in the area, but those buggers won't let me get close at all. They may force me to get up really early one day and stalk them some. The Robins have trickled back into town this week too. This guy(pictured left) was awesome in that he DID NOT MOVE for like a half hour. i CLIMBED THE TREE, to get closer to him and he didn't budge. Sad part was, he just wasn't in a good spot at all for me to get to him. He was blocked by tons of branches no matter what i did. I had to shoot through whatever little spaces would give me enough of a shot. After almost twenty minutes of being wedged up in the tree, i let him be, climbed down on my wobbly legs, & wouldn't ya know just then another Robin flew over and to the tree across the way, and off went my Robin. Must have been waiting on a date! LOL
I've been having a fun time, doesn't even matter how long it takes to get a good shot. I'm just enjoying the spring weather and my new little friends....who i hear calling now....now, wheres my camera? ; P