Tag Archives: flowers

The Neighborhood

Running errands, clearing out junk and packing boxes doesn’t leave much time for seeing the sights, but here is the view from around the neighborhood.

There is a reason why people want to live here…

 

 

At the Arboretum

I spent part of Friday at Rancho San Rafael Park with a group of co-workers doing clean-up of the Wilbur D. May Arboretum (link).  Of course, I put my rake down for a bit to get in a few shots.

We worked this sunny patch as our first order of business. Temps were expected to get to over 100 later in the day, so we figured it was best to get this taken care of early.

Even at that early hour, it was freakin’ hot.  And dusty.

After getting this area cleared, we moved into shade by the labyrinth where I took a few minutes to capture some of the lovelies.

Day 232 – Fun with fill-flash: Apples, grapes, ants and bees!

Getting this right will mean when I’m shooting people I’ll get it right then too.   All of these were shot at ISO 100 with exposure stopped down one or two stops and then fill flash at about 1/4 intensity. I used the LumiQuest 80-20 with the white reflector and no diffuser.

The apples are getting big!  I should be able to start harvesting them soon. I hope my co-workers are in the mood for Granny Smiths!

 

 

I hope they like grapes too. The vine always gives us far more than we can eat ourselves.

 

This ant was working the nectar . . .

Out front the bees were going at it.

 

 

 

Day 181 – Hiding in the petals

I was able to work from home today and that meant that I didn’t have to leave the house early in the morning.  Taking advantage of the extra time before my “work day” started, I headed out to photograph the backyard in the early morning light. Today was watering day and the flowers still held droplets of water from the sprinklers.

And then there is the purple sage . . .

The flowers are indeed lovely, but they also attract some six-legged creatures.  I’ve given up trying to avoid them, and now seek them out.

After fighting with VPN and reports all day I slipped out into the backyard once again, and guess what I found hiding in the roses? Anyone know what this little guy is? And he was teeny. A grasshopper? Cricket? Locust?