Good morning bird of paradise! (Danville, CA)

First springtime in our new California home…and excited about watching our first bird of paradise open up in our backyard! 🙂

Bird of paradise – springtime Danville, California

365 Project: Fairy blankets and gossamer spiders…cobwebs everywhere!

Our juniper shrubs have been covered with cobwebs which, up close are beautifully delicate and intricate. From my googling, these cobwebs may have been woven by gossamer spiders or some other spider, and are referred to as fairy blankets. Apparently, any delicate, airy spider web can be considered a fairy blanket. My daughter still likes to believe in fairies and leprechauns and unicorns so any sign of magical creatures is pretty exciting. And, I just loved adding the magical word gossamer to to my vocabulary. It weaves such a pretty picture in my mind. 🙂

365 Project: Greenwich Village brownstone – New York City (September 23, 2013) #newyork #picsoftheday

A quaint window garden from a Greenwich Village brownstone. Manhattan is bathed in sun, clear blue skies and warm temps. It’s a great time to be in New York! 🙂

365 Project: Reaching for the sun #indiansummer #portangeles #picsoftheday #365project #iphonography #sunnysaturday

After the fog burned off… We continue to be blessed with summer in Port Angeles! Sunny and 74 in our backyard – awww…

365 Project – 237: Blooming lotus flower (September 5, 2013)

In our backyard right now. 🙂

365 Project – 221: Flight of the bumblebee (August 9, 2013)

Summer with my kiddo at home and my yoga teaching schedule has kept me from photo blogging much but, today I took my D7000 and 85mm/1.4 lens out for a spin, while a ton of bees were buzzing around my lavender.  I stayed calm, believing that bees could smell fear, because I’m allergic to bees.  I squatted down, played with my settings on Manual with 1.4 aperture and the Sports setting, and became mesmerized by the bees buzzing between the lavender stalks.  My eye was drawn to the contrast of the striped black and yellow bumble bees, although another variety of predominantly yellow bees were also buzzing about; they just didn’t make the cut for the photo shot! LOL

I quickly became obsessed with capturing these bees in flight. With my lens set for continuous shooting, I aimed, focused, and shot four hundred and fifty one frames! Here are ten of my best shots…capturing bees in flight is hard!!  I definitely have an increased appreciation for action and wildlife photographers!  Enjoy and I hope your weekend is buzzing with excitement, fun and adventure! ;D

365 Project – 163: Dewy hollyhock (June 12, 2013)

365 Project – 162: Red Cross shield bug – macro photography (June 11, 2013)

365 Project – 155: Using my macro lens in my garden (June 4, 2013)

Since tent caterpillars invaded our trees and garden, part of my daily ritual is removing these critters from my garden by hand (gloved hand that is.) As I picked TEN tent caterpillars off my blueberry bushes this morning I decided to capture them first with my macro lens. As much as I detest them right now, well, detest what they do to my garden that is, they are kind’ve cool looking. While I was at it, I also got a shot of this slug (yup, got rid of those too…yuk!). And, to balance out the ICK-factor, I included a pic of some sweet flowers my daughter planted by seed last year. 🙂

ABOUT MY CAMERA: For these pics I used my old (10+years old) Olympus E-500, which I keep because of my prime macro lens. Because of its light body, it’s a great camera for hiking and capturing closeups of wildflowers and critters.

365 Project – 143: I hate tent caterpillars! (May 23, 2013)

Hate is a strong word which I rarely use but, I really do hate these tent caterpillars, especially when they try to kill my fruit trees!! I just noticed this infestation on my cherry tree, which produces the BEST cherries! Time to prune and drown them and hopefully save this cherry tree. It apparently is a bad year for tent caterpillars. UGH!