Day 89

“Oooh, smells so pretty, mom!”

Heheh. No it doesn’t- it’s a scentless weed. But, he’s awfully cute.

Day 23

The main pool at Green Springs Park, a beautiful nature park right around the corner from us. We’ve nicknamed it “stinky springs”, because the sulfur that makes the water that crazy color, also makes it smell… not so good… only if you’re really up close to it, though. So, the rest of the park is enjoyable.

Gabe did some time at the playground and we did some walking along the trails, while Gwen slept in the stroller (a first for her!).

On our way home, we missed a turn. If we hadn’t, we never would have encountered THIS guy:

“Wait- WTH was THAT?!” Luckily, our toddler decided to skip picking that phrase up, and picked up on “That’s a flipping turkey!” instead (and just as fortuitously, I happened to choose “flipping” instead of another word ). Apparently, wild turkeys are found in FL year ’round, but, this was the first time I’ve come across one. Turkeys are a lot taller than you’d think. Google taught me that this is a juvenile male- spurs, long beard, and nekkid head and all. Poor creature.

Day 1

A chilly and wet New Years Day around here. The Dutchman’s Pipevine I planted years ago to attract swallowtail butterflies is busy sending out fresh leaves, after the caterpillars did their number on it. One set of the baby leaves on this new vine looks like it’s hungry for the other.

The beach in March

Nice. I have a TON of pictures to edit and upload- another day. But, look- a non-kid picture! Unless the gull is a kid, of course.

And a few cute pics from this afternoon. Love that late light- it’s magic.

One Daisy

Lotsa fun with Photoshop!

The little things

After babies, kids, and puppies, my favorite subjects to photograph are the itty bitty things that we tend to look right past. Yes, I’ve said it before, but, I LOVE my macro lens! Here are some interesting things we found when we were haunting our backyard this afternoon…

Brave little lizard- he barely blinked at me, even when I got REALLY close.

Red Shouldered Bug- a true bug, not just a insecty thing we call a bug. They eat nasty goldenraintree seeds- bad, bad, bad super invasive plant, that’s also messy. These are the little superheroes that try to keep them in check. He’s cool with me- and his little beady red eyes are pretty!

A tiny bit of moss on bark looks kind of looks like a creepy little world, when you run a few actions on it, huh?

Awww- do you see the ant carting around the baby ant? That ant and I have something in common- see, I’m carrying a tiny baby, too. Only, mine is going to be much, much cuter (sorry little ant larvae, but, you’re not very cute at all- in fact, you’re kind of gross), if s/he is anything like Gabe.

Yup. Gabe’s going to be a big brother. More details soon.

Buzzzzz!

The thing is, I’m not as impressed by the bee or the weed in this picture, as I am by the freaking amazing bokeh my new macro lens gives me! I love it. So so so much. Get a Tamron 90mm Macro- you won’t regret it.

Unless you don’t have a camera body to go with it. That would suck.

These were shot the day it came.

And a quick snapshot of the kid while we were chasing down bugs to photograph in the yard:

Pretty sky

I love it when the clouds do this- it kind of reminds me of popcorn. Weird.

I have a new camera!!

So, I’m going to moon everyone!

Sadly, Gabe’s naptime didn’t leave us much daylight to play around, but, it is fabulous and we’re going to be the best of friends! The moon was full, or pretty close to it, so I threw the 300mm zoom on it and here ya go. Not the best shot, as I’m still learning this camera’s settings, and I don’t own a telescope or a satellite or anything, but, you can recognize it as the moon, right?

I can’t wait to take pictures tomorrow (today, by the time you read this)! Yay! Oh, and my new lens is super cool, too.

Loves me not. :(

Well, that’s what you’ll end up with, if you play that game with this mean little six petaled daisy. Unless you start with “loves me not”. But, that would be cheating!

Eh, it’s a weed, don’t listen to it, anyway.

And for the record- ladybugs SUCK. But, my new camera should be here today. These should be the last days of D40X pics for awhile!