Critters, big and small...

Sometimes the best subjects are right in your own front yard. Just a few of the little critters I'd practiced with lately...

Our daughter spotted this caterpillar next to the sidewalk by our front door. This was shot in Macro mode and is unedited. I love the crispness of the picture as well as the contrast of the bright green leaf compared to it's reddish brown colour.


We have a birdhouse under the roof of our porch that was meant for...well, birds. However, it seems to be a hit with anything but the birds.

Here is our regular "boarder" in the birdhouse.


A couple of weeks ago, I caught this squirrel in it.



He didn't stick around for very long, but stayed long enough to give a "nyah-nyah can't catch me" look afterwards...


Around here, we love the lizards because they eat the bugs. The less bugs, the better, I think. So, "Feast on, lovely lizards!"

Here is a 'depth of field' practice shot...


Here is a shot that was taken at night, also in macro mode...


Love the textures and colours up close in this shot. Would you believe, it's no bigger than my pointer finger? Our daughter couldn't understand how the little hole on the side was it's ear and that her own ears were holes too!


I don't know what it is with me and the frogs lately, they just seem to fascinate me! This one was in the same bush as the lizard from the previous shot.


Here are a couple of my favorite shots. The frogs come out mostly at night, stick on the walls and windows with their little suction cupped toes, and feast on the moths and various bugs flying around the house. Let's hope they're helping keep the mosquito population at a minimum.


Here is my latest favorite close up shot. I love the detail, especially in the eyes, it looks like marbling, don't you think?


Well, thanks again for stopping by. I'd love to know which of these is your favorite?

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Backyard visitor...just passin' through

I was feeding our son in the dining room, when my eye caught movement in our backyard through the window of the patio door. When I went to check it out, here's what I saw...you know I had to run and get my camera ; ) He was there for less than a minute before taking off again, but not before I was able to catch the picture.

Unfortunately, I don't have a long range zoom lens so this was as close as I could crop it to see it better...

Here's the original...

Any recommendations for zoom lenses for shots like these? I would love to collect suggestions for my resource file!

By the way, I finished editing the photo shoot with the children and their mom and will post some of them probably by tomorrow.

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

First Shots From My Big Girl Camera...

Oh, what fun I'm having! The camera is beautiful! The pictures crispy, and the colours, so vibrant!! I love everything about it!

Look at the difference in just the colours between my old camera, a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix L11...

And now with my DSLR Nikon D80...

Those were both unretouched. It is everything and more than I had hoped for! Can you tell I'm still excited? It was about 3 hours before I could pick up the camera and try it out for the first time without my hands shaking. When I first got it, I put it together, but within minutes of assembling it and looking it over, my hands were shaking too much to hold it, so I had to put it back in the box where I couldn't stop looking at it. Silly woman, eh? I'm still unfamiliar with shooting in manual mode, so for now, the pictures are taken with the auto features. Sometime this week, I hope to start practicing the manual mode maybe in our local park. I can't hardly wait!

Well, here are just a few of the hundred shots that I've taken so far.

The first few, I took outdoors...

Here is a visitor I had in my kitchen on Saturday night. Look at the detail of the dragonfly.

And finally, here is a few from the mini photo shoot I did last night with our children.

I had never noticed until now the cream-colored flecks in our daughter's eyes. Awesome detail picked up by the camera!!

And here are a few of my favorites...

Thanks for looking! And if you're a repeat visitor to my site, thanks for stopping by again! Thanks for following my journey with me as I strive to learn as much as I can, to be the best that I can at what I do.

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

They were just a-passin' through!

Look who was passing through the neighborhood on Wednesday morning. Yup, my feathered friends, "Mr. and Mrs. Sandhill Crane". Remember them? I love it when they visit. With not a care in the world, they let me get up pretty close, as long as I approached them very slowly. Love it when that happens!

Here are some shots I got of them.

Enjoy!!

In the words of Jed Clampett, "Y'all come back now y'hear?"

Thanks for visiting!

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Very Informative Videos by Rick Sammon

Just some tutorials for my learning toolbox that I want to keep for reference later on when I am able to get a DSLR as there are some great tips I can use even now.

Rick Sammon's Top 10 Photography Tips


Rick Sammon's Digital Start to Finish

At The Beach...

While visiting my family in Canada, we got to go to the beach a couple of times. The first time, we nearly froze to death and only stayed about 15 minutes and just took a walk up and down the beach. I did manage to get a few nice shots in while I was there (of course). Here are my favorites from that day. Again, constructive criticism welcome!



My sister graciously allowed me to post her shot. I really like how it turned out. (You'd never know that I actually removed our daughter from this particular picture while playing around with editing program)



When we went a few days later, the weather was much nicer. I actually went in the water up to my knees...too cold beyond that! Brrr!! But as usual, in the way our daughter grabs at life, we just couldn't keep her away.

Sandhill Cranes

This family of birds is often seen in our neighborhood. It is quite heartwarming to see as the parents are lifelong mates. Each year we always see them with 2 young ones. They are called sandhill cranes. Here are a few pics I took. Beautiful!

Here is a bit of footage I caught with my camera in video mode. Sorry for all the movement, I was trying to get closer and keep an eye on my daughter who wanted desperately to pet them.(in order to hear the beautiful but loud sounds they make, you'll need to mute my website music by clicking on the pause symbol on the blue music icon)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com