The orange gerbera

Another photo of the orange gerbera from the other day. The only photos I took today were of DD's track meet and they are so horrible.
Thanks for all your comments on yesterday's post. The chickadee photo was pure luck. If you click on it to make it bigger you'll see that the focus isn't sharp at all. I didn't use a tripod. I took the pictures through my sliding glass door with my 70-300 at 300mm. This past year I really started keeping lots of feeders filled and paying attention to what came and just parking myself to get photos. This is one of my favorite visitors from last spring:

My wildlife

Just some "wildlife" snapshots from my quiet day-

My little chickadee:I love feeding the birds, but this little b*&#$%d is always stealing all the food:
And he makes me mad, but he makes Baxter absolutely bananas, standing on the other side of the glass taunting him until I let him out to chase him. This just cracked me up because his ears look like Don King's hair:
And then I saw some footprints while out on my walk. These things were huge! I think there's a pterodactyl on the loose, or maybe someone was just trying to point me into the snowbank with a bunch of arrows. Just a turkey, but these were the biggest turkey tracks I ever saw.

Interaction

I interacted with this flower today. I told it it was pretty and then said let's take a photo of you and then crop you and put some texture on you and add a little textured frame.This is who I really interact with on a daily basis. With DH at work and the kids at school, Baxter and I spend our days together. I tell him he's pretty, too, and then I call him Dumbass. Here he is out on our walk together this afternoon. I think that's his favorite part of the day. Or maybe it's in the morning when DH gets out of bed and he hops up to cuddle me with his butt on DH's pillow. Do you think I can justify the expense of a fisheye lens just to get funny photos of Baxter's face?
And to answer a question some people had about my last post: that blue and green on the bottom is the color of the vase (it's clear on the stem).

No signs of interaction around here

Delaney thanks all of you for your birthday wishes! You're so nice. And I thank you for all the lovely comments every day!

This is my latest little treat I bought myself:
Isn't it pretty?
You know what makes it the cutest thing? It's only three inches tall! Here it is on the windowsill above the sink so you can see its size.
I noticed some of you saw and posted photos of the first shoots of crocuses the other day. I decided to go take a look in front of my house where my crocuses bloom. Yeah, that's what I thought:

How to make a girl happy

Today is my baby's 12th birthday.We know how to make her happy--give her her very own pink cell phone for her birthday:
I know she's too young for a cell phone. Don't care.
So Happy Birthday to my beautiful, perfect, dream-come-true daughter Delaney (aka Laney, Laner, Lanerschnitzel, Laney Boo, Boo Boo Magoo, Boo, Delagnes Melagnes, Punkin Pie, Baby Girl). I love you, Delaney!

Pink rose

Not on theme today. Interaction? Doesn't that require that somebody around here interact? We don't do that in this house. We worship at the altar of electronics instead. ;-D

Pink:Not pink (same rose):

I had to give this a try

Thanks, Tera (scrapper88) for the link for this (www.magmypic.com). How fun!

DS on the mound last spring. Not my favorite photo of him pitching because his face is in shadow, but I needed a photo with some space at the top for the magazine cover.

Shapes

Remember these shapes? DD pulled Perfection out of the closet and I thought a photo would be good for shapes week. I loved this game when I was a kid.
I thought it would be fun to try to get a shot as it popped up and the shapes went into the air.

Oops, I forgot that it always makes me jump when it does that. Check out the camera shake! Ha ha!
I tried and tried again and finally kind of got it, but it was super underexposed so it's really grainy.

And then I gave up because with the constant ticking of the timer and popping of the game my nerves were all jangled and I was shaking like a leaf. Just like when I was a kid. Good times!

My try at the lunar eclipse

These are obviously from last night, not today.
I kind of liked the flare in this one and that I caught a couple of stars too:

I think eclipses are always fun to see, and this was my first time trying to shoot photos of one or of the moon at night at all. It was a fun learning experience, but I have to confess...I'm pretty "eh...whatever" about these.

To answer a couple of questions about yesterday's post, that is a tire track. I ran a crazy cool action on it. And the point and shoot camera I've only had a week, so I'm not sure yet whether I love it. So far so good, although I did lose a couple of photos transferring from my memory card to the computer. That could have just been the card, not the camera.

Shapes

I took this out on my walk today with my nifty new point-and-shoot I got for my birthday. I wanted a purse camera.Isn't it cute?
And go me, I took my first real moon shot a few minutes ago using info posted on 2Peas. This is SOOC (used the 70-300 lens at 300 mm, AWB, manual mode ISO200 F16 SS1/250
I'm going to try for the lunar eclipse tonight (10 to 11ish Eastern time).

Is orange a shape?

I'm on a real photos-of-food kick lately it seems. Today it's something healthy, though. I love all the different colorful peppers you can buy. Thanks for looking and for your comments. HHCC always appreciated!

Looking for color on a rainy day

What lens do I always reach for on a dreary gray day? The macro. And what do I always look for? Some color. These little candies are candy-coated kisses the size of chocolate chips.


Some of you have already seen this last one on 2Peas. I submitted it for the yellow color challenge.

Shapes

I don't like any of my photos today. The good news is that I practiced with my flash and am kinda sorta starting to get it. Guess I'm still on a Valentine kick because my photo is of one of the treats Nana bought for the kids. But I'm on theme, I guess, because there is a heart shape. And because the shape I'll be if I eat one of these is more round than I want to be.

Settings: 24-70 lens at 66mm Tv mode SS1/200 F2.8 ISO400. I think if I wanted a wider depth of field, I should have upped the ISO so I could get a higher f-stop, is that right?

A trip down memory lane

My photos aren't from today, but I can't let this week's theme of love go without ending it with my kids. I love them so much I can't even begin to describe it. They are the most beautiful, precious things in my life. Many of you still have small children, and you've heard the "time goes so fast" thing before, but I'm here to tell you that it's true. They go from this:to this:
in two seconds flat. And the only thing that stops you from curling up in a ball and longing for the days when they were little is the amazement in seeing what awesome people they're turning out to be and the excitement of every new phase of life they go through.

And here's a few more oldies of my silly kids that I have scanned into the computer.

I think this one is around DS's 6th birthday:
I see here that this was 2-27-98, so DD had just turned two and DS was 4-1/2 ( that's a Santa headband DD put around her chest):
DD's first Halloween, 1996:
Maybe 1999 or so:
DS as the Hulk:

Symbols of love

DH was at work with his wedding ring on his finger, so I didn't get his in on the shot. :-D And I couldn't decide which photo to use, so you get both. Which do you prefer?

100 mm macro lens at SS1/25 F8.0 ISO 400 Same lens SS1/10 F10 ISO 400

I have another question. Back when I got married, most of us got yellow gold engagement and wedding rings, and now most everyone wears white gold or platinum. Do you think yellow gold will come back in style for engagement/wedding rings? Not that I feel the need to "upgrade" or anything (I have my fake-o big rocks for fun), just curious.

And to answer a couple of questions on yesterday's photos, I used a macro lens. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the yarn. I started a scarf, but I don't like the width, so I might start over. I like the idea of a baby wrap (Heather said she saw one with this yarn), but I don't know if it would be too itchy or if I have enough yarn for that. But I could do strips or blocks of different colors and sew them together maybe...hmmm. When I have a completed project I'll post a photo.

I love...

...buying things on clearance, like yarn. And color. And macro photography.

Thanks again for all your comments. Aprildel said I don't look old enough to have been married so long, so I nominate her as my new best friend. In real life I look every day and then some of my 41 years. I also forgot to thank you all for the birthday wishes the other day, because I'm a bad person. So thanks for those, too. All CC appreciated!

I love...

...this guy! My DH, Chris. We've been together over 20 years now (half our lives!) and I love him more today than ever. Tonight he's been trudging through three feet of snow to clean ice off the satellite dish so I could get online and get my post up. These are the kinds of things he does for me every day that let me know he loves me too. Happy Valentine's Day, honey!

This picture is from a few years ago from my point-and-shoot days. It's one of my favorites of him.And here's one from our wedding. We'll celebrate 18 years this June. How do you like the puffy sleeves and veil? There was even a butt bow!

More candy hearts

A note about yesterday's candy heart shot: I can't take credit for the composition, I copied someone else's idea (I think it was sometime last week and I don't remember who). I've gotten so much inspiration from all of you by participating in POTD, so I thank you!

Settings: Canon XT w/100mm macro lens on tripod F22 SS4 ISO400 CWB. Exposure compensation +2.3 and still had to brighten up. Also popped the color some.And I know selective color is soooo over, but I've never done it before (I didn't know how).