Was that your cell phone, or mine?

Caption options, anyone?

Wildlife Battles; Maybe We Should Even Keep an Eye on Bambi: Subtitle--Where's Homeland Security When You Need It?

OK, at risk of being permanently banished from boarding airplanes because of my reference to Home Land Security, I'd like to suggest that there's a threat to our homes from the Bambi-like creatures looking all innocent Amongst Us.

First there was the deer that smashed through my church windows. (Very ugly and messy. And my attitude about the Bambi-Bamboozlers really did change as person after person in my neck of the woods was taken down by sweet appearing deer smashing through their windshields. Seriously. I grew up in the Chicago area, and we didn't view rodents as pleasant Disney-esque buddies. Deer are like rodents, only bigger.)

And then there were the Cedar Waxwings, looking beautiful, (but masked), and eating my house. (They're gone now.) And the dead squirrel in my driveway, which I'm not CERTAIN had to do with the Waxwings, (and I did so appreciate the duck that showed up to stand watch after that.) (Ok. Ducks are on the "good" list.)

Enough with the preamble. Wouldn't you like to chomp on a nice, bright, yellow tulip bulb? MMMMM, tasty!!!! Feel free to just take one bite, --and most definitely, leave the stem.

The prize:

The fiend:

OK, Easter Bunny Imposter, I'M KEEPING MY EYE ON YOU! And don't even try the cute stuff; my daughter has you beat by a mile, what with how she used to practice, in the mirror, her "puppy dog eyes" before begging for her little ole heart's desires. I'm immune to that now.

Carnation Petals and LAB Mode editing

Soon, there will actually be flowers like these outside! Until then, I'll have to content myself with my 105mm macro lens, flash, and photographing indoors.

f/4.0
1/80
ISO 400
SB00 Flash
105 mm
RAW, manual, AWB
LAB a&b channels
High Pass Sharpen

Itty Bitty LAB mode editing Tutorial:
1.Change to LAB mode
2. Curves: on "a" channel, change white point input to 97, black point input to -98
on "b" channel, change white point input to 97, black point input to -98
3. Curves: on lightness channel, change black point to 12 and white point to 88
4. brightness/contrast: brightness to 10; contrast to 30
5. High pass sharpen in overlay mode
6. Convert to RGB mode (rasterize; merge; flatten); save, size for web.

Breakfast at Starbucks

I don't remember when I've enjoyed a breakfast as much as yesterday's! Brian took me out for breakfast.



The conversation with Brian was very heartwarming, and out-and-out interesting, and the oatmeal wasn't too shabby either!


And this is just a sprig of the flowers from a bouquet that my husband bought me.
f/ 4.0
105 mm lens, focused primarily on the stems
1/80
Manual
RAW
SB800 bounced flash
Edited in LAB, a&b channels, lighting channel, bright/contrast adjustment, high pass filter in overlay mode. Slight vignette applied back in RGB.

Doesn't Everyone Plant a Garden on the Hood of Their Car?

Every night, lately, I bring these flowers in from my yard and put them to "bed" on the hood of my car. Because it's still friggin' cold here at night (and most days)! Last night, it was 29 degrees! You wouldn't want to sleep in my yard either if it was 29 degrees!



You'll be pleased to know that not once yet have I driven off to work with them still on the hood. (Then again, maybe you'd be delighted to see me doing so, and would all line up along the side of the road with your Nikons and Canons!)

SpringFest '09; Sort of a Party

A Recipe for a Party. . .

40 degrees and a park. Porta-potties and music. Lots of college-aged people.

Beer. And a guy with a determined way to transport it. He really hoped I wasn't with the paper.

And lots and lots of police.

And more police.



There were even the usual squad cars, but also police vans, and police on foot. I had no idea our little city even had this many police!

By the way, it's just a coincidence that my last two posts refer to beer! I'm truly not an alcoholic! Ask my friends and relatives! I'm much more likely to be a one-drink-fall-asleep type person!

"Good People Drink Good Beer," Hunter S. Thompson

Do you remember Hunter S. Thompson? He wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, "gonzo" journalism. Apparently, this is a line of beer in honor of him. I'm not sure what's more fun, photographing the bottles, or drinking the beer!

I put them in my window to photograph, so I could blow out the backgrounds. My neighbor across the yard watched me, probably wondering what I was doing. But I don't care; there's nothing that I could do that would be weirder than these neighbors. These are the same neighbors that gave my husband a bag of dog poop one day. The man-neighbor rang our front doorbell and handed my husband a paper lunchbag. Doug said, "what's this?," looking inside, probably thinking it was donuts. The guy said, "I think your dog left this in my grass."

Well, I hate to dispute his poop-identity forensic skills, but the beautiful Ms. Bonnie only frequents our thoroughly fenced-in back yard. In her younger days, she might escape out the front door and race across the street (opposite direction of poop-neighbor), to the pooch parlor to check her email, but I usually was in hot pursuit with a dog treat (or piece of styrofoam because I could fool her.)

We just don't walk our dog through other people's lawns. Doug just looked at poop-neighbor and said, "OK" with a look and that tone of voice that also says, "What are you? Some kind of crazy nut, addled fool?" and walked the poop-present to the garbage.

I'm not sharing my Hunter S. Thompson beer with the poop-neighbor even if it was an innocent case of mistaken excrement identity, and Hunter would agree with this!

The Fertile Trip

A few more photos from my trip to Bergeson's in Fertile, MN. Your reactions to "Fertile's" name cracks me up! If you liked this, you're sure to love little old Climax, MN, pop 264!



I printed this photo today, and was very unhappy with it. I understand how much better photos look on computer screens, and the translation necessary to a paper medium, CMYK ink profiles, but the photo turned out looking like mud.

Actually, I've been hating my printer, an HP Photosmart C5180 for about the past year. One night, I spent an hour on-line with an HP person (in India?), at the end of which he told me my printer was no good and he had a "special deal" on a new printer for me. The "special deal" turned out to be a refurbished printer, for the same price as a new one from Amazon. I declined.

Do you love your printer? Or hate it? What do you have and what are your best tips for printing?

Petunias, Geraniums!!!!! Garden Bliss!

My Weather Pixie is practically intoxicated with the temperature today! 60 + degrees!!!!!!!! As in, OUTSIDE!

Oh, yes! I'm blissed out, I tell you! You should see all the SKIN around here these days. True . . . pale, ND skin. . . . but it's really SKIN! Of the NAKED kind!

Once again, it appears that people have legs and arms under all that down and parkas and knitted Norwegian-wear.

You should see how much better these colors look in Bridge than they do in blogger! Then again, you should see how much more beautiful they are in real life than photographed!

Can you tell I'm excited about the warm weather? Even the WORMS are making me happy! (but not the birds.)

Fertile MN pop. 893

I love this place! I want to head back there and explore it further on a day when I have more time.

We were headed to Bergeson's, a glorious nursery stuffed to the brim with perfect plants; 2 quonsets alone are filled with geraniums.

I can't say much about the "welcoming committee" that crossed the road in front of us, however. . .


It's important to note that these are TURKEYS and not vultures, given my recent history with foul fowl.