Black and White: Balloons

Hot air balloons jostle for space as they slowly expand and rise at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.

Posted for The Weekend in Black and White

52 Photos Project 6: Uncommon Shapes

What would you guess this is? Maybe an aerial view of a barren mountain range? Undiscovered pyramids in the depths of the sea?




Nope. It's a closeup of a Galapagos tortoise shell...





Which bears an uncanny resemblance to an African desert plant found in the Albuquerque arboretum.

Strange coincidence, no?




Check out more weird and wonderful shapes at The 52 Photos Project.

Friday's Fences: Here There Be Dragons

We're gonna need a bigger fence...

Posted for Friday's Fences

Black and White: Moth

Happy weekend, everyone! I couldn't decide which of these I liked better, so I posted both. Which do you prefer?








Posted for The Weekend in Black and White and for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

52 Photos Project 5: Water Drops

I was pretty excited about the subject this time. I've been meaning to work on water-drops for a while now - the falling, splashing kind. Turns out that's harder than it looks. None of my new efforts were share-worthy.

So here are two of my favorites, featuring drops that stood still and smiled for the camera.




Posted for 52 Photos Project

Wordless: 17

Posted for Wordless Wednesday Bloggers

Macro Monday: Coat of Many Colors

This is a detail from a photo of a Giant Atlas Moth, taken at the butterfly house of the South Bend zoo. They are native to Malaysia. This one had just emerged from its cocoon that day and had a wingspan of about 10 inches. (They can be a full 12 inches wide.) Can you imagine seeing one of these floating around in your yard?

Just for fun, here's an even closer look:





Posted for Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos.

Last Call

These were waiting on my kitchen island to be put away after a recent get-together. The star-like shadows and reflections caught my eye. The bleary quality comes from the Orton effect in picmonkey.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2 and for The Weekend in Black and White.

52 Photos Project 4: Crop It

I had a different photo in mind for the "crop it" theme (click here to see that one), but then I snapped this shot of Gatsby and was overcome by the awwww factor. You'd never guess from that innocent face that he is also known as "Gat the Destroyer". Every carpet in the house ... well. Let's just say it's a good thing he's cute.

Posted for the 52 Photos Project.

Macro Monday: Incandescent

The prompt for 52 Photos Project this week is "Crop it: a before and after view". Since this is the way I produce most of my macros these days, it seemed a perfect match for both memes.

I don't have a macro lens, but I can get about two to three feet away from the subject with my 50mm fixed. It takes very sharp photos, if I can get the focus just right. My little Canon G9 point and shoot lets me get very close, but it's hard to get a decent depth of field from inches away. So ... I take a wider shot with the T2i and crop the daylights out of it.

Here we have a burned out decorative lightbulb with rippled, iridescent glass, before and after the crop. My husband always shakes his head when I hoard stuff like this for its photo potential. Wait until he sees the six dozen broken egg shells I've been saving up.

Here's the "before" straight out of the camera:




Posted for Macro Monday and for 52 Photos Project.

To Moms

For Mom and Gran, who made childhood a land of love and magic. I miss you both so very much.

Black and White: Rock On

A resting spot between rides at the Silver Beach carousel in Michigan.


Posted for The Weekend in Black and White and for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Friday's Fences: Boy With a Ball

The fence to the right has mirrored fish, lizards, and frogs on it that reflect their shapes onto the pavement. I'll be revisiting this park and its unusual fence, now that spring is here.


Posted for Friday's Fences and probably The Weekend in Black and White.

52 Photos: Street Art

Spotted on a back street in Santa Fe. The more you look at it, the more you see...





Posted for 52 Photos Project

(Wordless)

Posted for Wordless Wednesday and for Wordless Wednesday Bloggers

Diagnosis: Glaucoma

It's taken me a week to process the shock of this news and to write this post. I went in to the eye doctor last week for a minor eyelid infection. Two hours and several tests later, I walked out with a diagnosis of glaucoma. And I am already partially, permanently blind in the left eye.

I worried about the cataracts I already have, and about diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. The good news is, I still don't have those and the cataracts are still small.

But I do have glaucoma, which was not even on my radar of things to worry about. The right eye compensated so well I was unaware of it.

The bad news is it is progressive and incurable. But there's good news too: The blind section is not yet in my field of straight-ahead vision, the right eye seems OK so far, and it can probably be slowed down with a simple eye drop. They say most people don't go totally blind if they stick to a care regimen.

It's funny. Now that I know about it, I keep closing my right eye, looking at things through the left and watching sections of them disappear into blank darkness. The blind section is about a fifth of my field of vision, directly above my line of sight. How could I not have noticed that? How could those puff tests every year at the optometrists have not picked up on the increased pressure?

Better yet, how can I get past this. Blindness is the one thing I don't think I could endure.

52 Photos #2: Microscopic

The topic is "Microscopic", and I kinda missed the boat on this one. These tree catkins are only about an inch long, which is pretty small. But within just a few hours they had opened up, turned totally yellow, and were sitting in an absolute drift of pollen. The pollen would probably have been a better choice of subject here, but I really didn't want to get up close and personal with that. So. Here ya go. Catkins.

Posted for 52 Photos Project and for Macro Monday

Shadow Shots: Bloodroot

I was hoping to spend a little more time photographing these newly discovered bloodroots at the edge of the woods, but the deer have eaten every single one right down to the ground. (Bambi has a dark side.)

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Black and White: Frills

Posted for The Weekend in Black and White

*I'm doing a yard sale Saturday, so I apologize in advance for being late to visit. So much stuff, so little time.

Fridays Fences: Red Hollyhock

I couldn't resist the contrast between the immaculate white fence and the old barn beyond, sinking into lavish decay.

Posted for Fridays Fences.

Wordless Wednesday: Radioactive Mutant Chickens

(Credit: Joe Fralick and Middle School Students at Upton Middle School. St. Joseph, MI.)

Posted for Wordless Wednesday and for Wordless Wednesday Bloggers