This Challenge....

Manual focusing with a Lensbaby lens. The following shots were taken with a Lensbaby Sweet 50. What the heck is that?

Well the lens itself is odd looking because you can change the place of focus. Choosing your aperture and place of focus is a challenge. Most lenses are static, they stay in place and you focus on what you want composing your photo with a fair amount of ease.

The Lensbaby Sweet 50 looks like this. You can swivel the lens about to change the spot of focus you wish to have. The one pictured is a Sweet 35. To the right of the shot you can see the apertures that can be picked for shooting.

The lens can be locked in place so your focus point is in the middle or slightly off center. The smaller the aperture, the smaller the point of focus.

Why on earth would anyone want to monkey with something like this? This is considered an 'art' lens. It allows the photographer to step out of their comfort zone. The lens can create unique affects inside the camera. Meaning, no after processing needed in most cases.

The shots can create dreamy bokeh with dreamy distortions...or produce unusual effects in camera.
 

I shot this crab spider on a white moss rose. The focus was moved by me to try and catch this little spider crawling around on the petals. Was it easy? Oh heck no!

It wouldn't have been easy with any lens at all. It took me several tries and a lot of patience to get this one shot. I shot it at f 2.5 which didn't give me a whole lot of focus room. But I liked the challenge.

Here is another example. A spent sunflower in black and white.

I went to a larger aperture and backed away from the flower to capture just the flower in focus. I could have done this one with any lens, but I wanted to practice with this one.

These are a few of the other shots I felt worth keeping after walking around with this odd contraption on my Olympus camera. 

I used focus peaking which works most of the time to see what exactly was in focus. Not every shot came out as expected. 

This is an alphalfa flower blooming in a hay field.

A beautiful blue Chicory flower.

Highbush Cranberries

Nasturtium, ready to open.

In this shot, I shifted the focus slightly to the right on this oak tree. I wanted to show how the focus shifts and the areas around are 'blurred'. 

I'm fairly sure that this beloved tree will disappear once the loggers get to it. 

Sunshine walking past some Vervain flowers in her pasture. [Yes, she still needs a hair cut and a few burrs pulled from her mane]

Flower garden tour...

Just a walk around the house with my camera... well except for the Queen Anne's Lace and the white clover those flowers were in the yard.

Enjoy

 

Sunday

Today is Mother's Day and a fine day to just chill out and relax.

Charlie and I worked on the east side flower bed yesterday. Well, he supervised.

It will look much nicer after I put the mulch path back in and put in some annuals.

I am taking my time and enjoying the process. I have to go all the way around the house but this is the most colorful summer flower garden I usually have.

Our farriers Danny and Dan were out Friday and I showed Danny how I was using his Horseshoe Sunflower he had created. He'd made it originally as just a garden decoration, but I thought it would make an interesting Oriole feeder.

I was absolutely right!

The Orioles do knock down the oranges. I just sent these photos to Danny so he can see how I've used his creation.

He also made me a  handcrafted Shepard's Hook last fall. I gave him a price I'd pay and told him to surprise me with a design.

He did, and it is gorgeous. I set it up for my Hummingbird feeder.

Funny how even the goldfinches loved the design!

I couldn't get the whole hook's design in one shot. There are vines and delicate metal leaves twisted around the hook. It is delicate looking and just plain gorgeous. I'll keep that where I can admire it all summer long. My other mundane hooks can hold hanging flower baskets.

Somewhere in one of my older blogs, I have photos of the hooks Dan made for me. They are works of art themselves. Metal leaves and twisted vines look delicate but aren't. I just need to finish off a nice 2 by 4 and mount it by the back door to display them.

So today will be just a quiet day. Reading and enjoying the soft rain that is falling.

Tomatoes or Toomah...toes?

 

First off, I needed to have some fun with the tomatoes. The toys were already in basket on the porch and I just decided to spend some time after picking the 'maters  to have some fun.

I know, childish, but there you go. It also let me practice using the auto stack and auto focus selection on the camera. There is an option for in camera focus stacking on the red pocket camera and the Oly OMD M5iii. Basically it takes a photo shot in macro and takes several shots to pull more items into focus when using a short focal length of 1.8 to 2. I know, gibberish to some, but practicing makes it easier to use when I get out to the woods and want to have some Fungi shots.

The 25mm lens is incredibly clear and will quickly become my favorite to use in the woods along with the macro lens which will actually do IN camera focus stacking. Love the computer chips inside these newer updated cameras.

Ok. I got off track again.

Tomatoes, yippee for canning! Here is yesterday's loot along with the sauce we had for supper which I froze all the extra with mushrooms and sausage for quick meals later this year.

Marigolds...a bowl of them!

Zinnias...I love Zinnias.

Each week I pick a plastic bottle or a can and fill it with Zinnias and drop it at my neighbor's bench. She claims to have a brown thumb and flowers are still a mystery to her. Though she is doing very well with her little green house.

Tomatoes on the porch....

They are the next ones to get ripe and canned. 

However I am setting aside Thursday or Friday to get out with my pal Bill and go hiking. 

I do put my foot down on getting OUT to go somewhere with another human and spend time hiking or biking. This is part of my self care. Bill is willing to hike in all seasons which means we can continue through the winter months. It is something I look forward to a LOT each week.

I started the Veteran's Administration CareGiving class yesterday. More on that later.

My sunflowers are just about done and I toss the stems to the mules. The flower heads I leave out for the birds.

And last but not least. August 31st had an amazing sunrise.

I leave you with that today.

Until tomorrow.

Be well, stay safe and healthy.

slow down...

So while talking to some of my CrossFit friends one of the other gals turned to me and said.

"Well, maybe this is a sign you should slow down a bit."
So I thought about that for a moment.

She was right. I had been taking on everything with a whirlwind mindset. Summer had been busy with projects that had me going in several different directions at once.

This would be a forced slow down. So I mulled things over in my mind. The winter hay was ordered to be delivered. The yard was under control, I'd taken more than one truckload of junk to the dump this summer. Rebuilt the fence in the woods, and had been taking Rich on the average of 3 to 4 days a week to appointments or PT. I visit MIL in the home at least 3 times a week too.

I was ready for a breather of sorts.

But I argued with myself that winter is for that. The slow down part, right? Who was I kidding. I loved winter especially snow when I could use my snowshoes.

Time to take a breather. Well indeed, that is easy but after 5 days I don't really like the 'sitting' around.  Getting in and out of the car took some effort and was pretty uncomfortable.

I've done a lot of stretching and walking outside on the flat. I just cannot sit still unless I am reading a good book.

I've revised my lists of to do and re-organized it. Next week will be very busy with multiple appointments and drives to Madison. At least Rich's physical therapy will be in town.

Frankly I got pretty bored watching TV. The CSI program Rich is watching now has the same theme as all of the other shows. I can ID what show is coming by the theme music being used as an introduction. Interesting that the music is old rock and roll from my teen years. Oh well, it keeps Rich busy and by good luck I found this program had 15 yrs of episodes.

I'm waiting for The Last Ocean: A Journey Through Memory and Forgetting  to arrive. I was able to read the first 40 pages and was fascinated. I found a used book of poems by Mary Oliver also. Her poetry is incredible. I am not one to just casually read poetry.

In the mean time, I am watching the goldfinches dine on my sunflowers outside the kitchen window. The humming birds are dipping into the 4 o'clocks and sipping nectar from the feeder.
I miss the morning chatter of all of the other summer birds.
That makes me sad.
I guess that is the one reason I don't care for Autumn. The birds leave and it gets too quiet outside.

Slow down.
Well by this morning after days of being 'slower', I feel much better. Amazing as to how the body can heal itself. I'm going to give a nod to CrossFit and working out as to one of the reasons I am feeling better much faster.

I will however have to make sure that feeling good doesn't mean I will go out and start pounding posts or lifting heavy things.
Perhaps it means I can go out for a walk to the woods to check on the fences and pastures.

While I was practicing ... slowing down a bit... I messed around with the Incendia fractals program and came up with some Digital Art which I haven't done in such a long time.

Here is to stopping and smelling the 4 o'clocks and admiring the day.

I love bugs, well...

I love to photograph bugs as a fun experiment.

The neighbor kids do a 4H project and collect bugs. Last year I started to take an larger interest in bugs I could find around our farm. I was so surprised to find that I really don't know my insects!

What a beautiful colored grasshopper right?
No!
Fork Tailed Bush Katydid!

This beautiful creature was on my Gerbera daisy plant on the porch.

 I found this the other morning while watching the sunrise. The flower is a Woodland Sunflower and they grow wild in the ditches.

The exotic looking creature is a Goldenrod Crab Spider. Apparently they blend into the plant and eat other insects such as wasps! I am thinking that I could love this gorgeous spider!

A spider I found on the porch last year is one of my favorites.

I had help identifying this one from another photographer friend who really digs spiders.
Basilica Orbweaver.

Milkweed plants and flowers are great places for 'bugs'.
I'm not sure what the insects are in this shot, but I think the insect in the bottom of the photo was dead and the insect in the top of the photo was going to eat it!
I didn't realize this until I was reviewing the shots later.

I am pretty new to the insect world. I mean I a novice yet at trying to figure out what they are and what they do.
I find them quite interesting.

Milkweed plant with Japanese Beetle. Beautiful colored insect, but an invasive species!

My vegetable garden is another great place. Although after looking the following insects up, I guess I should be aware also of what they feed on and destroy.

This is by far one of the prettiest little bugs I've ever seen. It is called the Candy Stripped Leaf Hopper. Apparently they like to eat the leaves of sunflowers, I guess they actually suck the juices out of the leaves and can do some damage.
I let it be at the time as I am still squeamish about picking up insects.

I found this Helmet Squash Bug on my sunflowers also. The squash plants in the garden make their way through my sweet corn and sunflowers.

This insect is in the Stinkbug family. There appears to be another insect on the squash bug.
When I moved around to look at the other side I saw that two bugs were attached.
Um.
I think I don't have to explain what they were doing.

And just near the house on some Queen Anne's Lace I found these ants scurrying up and down the flower.

These flowers are quite fragrant, however I was curious as to why the ants would be all over it like they are on my Peonies in the spring.
Apparently there are aphids that feed on the Queen Anne's Lace and the ants are hunting the aphids.

Bugs or creeply crawly things...Insects.
They are pretty cool.