Purple wildflowers

I love wildflowers in meadows. I think this is a Canada thistle.

Canon 40D with 70-300mm lens at 300mm

ISO400 F5.6 SS1/1600

Red berries

Canon 40D with 100mm macro lens
ISO400 F5.0 SS1/320

Friends, I got peed on last night. I was standing in line to buy ice cream for my kids and felt a splash on the back of my (bare) legs. I turned around and saw that the cute little girl behind me had wet her pants rather forcefully. I didn't want to make her feel ashamed so I didn't yell, "Hey man, I'm not into water sports." This has nothing to do with my photo; I just wanted to share. How often do you get peed on when you go get ice cream? Wait, don't answer that.

Black groundhog

I kept expecting this guy to bust a move a la Caddyshack.

Flower

My dad got released from the hospital today!
I haven't posted a flower shot in awhile. This one reminds me of the way I used to draw and color the sun when I was little.

Canon 40D with 100mm macro lens

ISO400 F3.2 SS1/1000
Boosted contrast, sharpened for web

a la cart

Canon 40D w/100mm lens
ISO400 F10 SS1/30
Sepia action, burned edges, added noise

A cute pair of hoots

Do you think I'll get any hits from creepo searchers with this post title? I went on a little field trip to the Maine Wildlife Park back on July 1 and am getting around to editing some more of my photos. Darn those chain-link fences for getting in the way of my shots. Usually with chain link I put the end of my lens right in one of the holes, but there were two layers of chain link between me and all the animals, so I backed up, zoomed in, and used manual focus to try to get the chain link as out of focus as I could and the birds as in focus as I could. Any hints for me on a better way to go about it? I also think it could use a trip through Noiseware. What do you think?

Thank you

Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes for my dad and the rest of our family. He came through the surgery really well! We're hopeful he'll be released from the hospital on Saturday. They were originally scheduled to fly home to Florida on Sunday, but they'll be around for a couple of more weeks.

I haven't been taking many photos, but here's a toadstool from my yard sometime last week: