Explored on Flickr (103!!!)

It rained a bit today, the skies dull and grey. But as the afternoon wore on, the sky began to clear and we started to see amazing cloud formations marching past. I kept my eye on them, and as the sun began to set, I was ready and waiting! I hope you'll click on this picture to get a larger view--panoramas really need to be seen large for best impact! :) Elbert Green Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he met early success as a traveling salesman with the Larkin soap company. Today Hubbard is mostly known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Among his many publications were the nine-volume work Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great and the short story A Message to Garcia. He and his second wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, died aboard the RMS Lusitania, which was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915. Wikipedia: Elbert Hubbard Explored on Flickr on February 19, 2013. Highest position: #417.

(+2 insets) Today was another busy day, which meant I had to wait until the evening to get my pictures. I came upstairs to the computer room and saw a graphics card sitting on a shelf, and before I knew it, I'd grabbed it and trotted downstairs for some macro fun! It's after 10pm now but I'm happy to present my picks of the day! This picture shows one of the rows of pins along the edge of the graphics card which get seated into the slot inside a computer. It looks kind of like piano keys, doesn't it? The red comes from a grill on the side of the card. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008), was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction. Wikipedia: Arthur C. Clarke Explored on Flickr on February 20, 2013. Highest position: #307.

This morning I woke up very early and started thinking about the lovely crocuses which I noticed in the garden two days ago. I knew I'd be taking pictures of them today, and I also knew that if I got my lazy butt out of bed, I could get pictures of frost on them before it melted! So I tiptoed downstairs, bundled up and went out into the garden. To my delight, the crocus still had some unmelted frost on some of them, and on the others, beautiful beads of water. YAY! :) (By the way, this was the 3rd Flower of Spring last year too! :D) Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. Giraudoux's dominant theme is the relationship between man and woman—or in some cases, between man and some unattainable ideal. Wikipedia: Jean Giraudoux Explored on Flickr on February 21, 2013. Highest position: #311.

We are now having crazy weather days, when it rains hard for 15 minutes and then the sun comes out. Just when you think the day will be beautiful, the skies close in and the rain pours down again! The air changes from still and quiet to a gale-force wind within moments. The sky can be dark and ominous one hour, and bright blue with puffy clouds rolling by the next! I didn't know if I'd be able to get out between the storms, but every time I looked out our downstairs bathroom window, I kept looking at the window screens we have leaning against the house. Some of them have been blown over from the wind and are laying on the ground. It is not possible to resist staring at the droplets of water resting there, shimmering when puffs of wind make them tremble and shake, glimmering brightly whenever the sun peeks out from behind the clouds. I have been waiting for the perfect day to take pictures of these screens, and today was it! :D The one thing I did was to carefully pick up one of the screens and bring it over to rest on the cover of our spa so that I could take pictures from underneath. I'd taken test pictures a couple of weeks ago and decided that it would be nice if I could take some from below as well as from above. This is the picture I liked from underneath, capturing a droplet complete with a starburst. If you look, you can see a partial yin-yang symbol in the droplet!! There is also a heart in the background, do you see it?! :) John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. Wikipedia: John Ruskin Explored on Flickr on February 23, 2013. Highest position: #435.

I am very lucky to know so many amazingly talented bird photographers on Flickr! You all know how much I adore your pictures, the vast variety of bird species, in flight or perched on a branch. My biggest problem about taking pictures of birds is that I lack the patience to wait for them to land where I can take a picture, or else I cannot aim my camera fast enough to capture them in flight! We have a 100-400mm telephoto lens, which is great for bird pictures, but it weighs almost as much as a truck so I rarely use it. However, today I decided to go outside and have a seat near our bird feeders and wait for them to forget about me and return to their eating. After about 10 minutes, back they came! Lucky me! I got a nice picture of the bird I wanted most to capture, the beautiful Oregon Junco! This lovely male shown here is showing off his black upper body and creamy colored chest feathers. This distinction sets these birds apart from the much plainer parent species, the Dark-Eyed Junco. We see several types of Dark-Eyed Juncos here, but the Oregon sub-species are especially pretty! They begin showing up in about November and the last ones leave in about April or May. If you'd like to know more about these lovely little birds, Wiki has information here: Wikipedia: Dark-eyed Junco Chinese proverbs are developed from the formulaic or social dialect/saying/expression and historical story in Chinese. Some proverbs are literary; that is, from a written source. Others originated among families, street vendors, and other commoners--all walks of life. ' Wikiquotes: Chinese Proverbs Explored on Flickr on February 24, 2013. Highest position: #462.

Today was very blustery and I wasn't sure if I'd be successful getting pictures in such wind, but out I went for an adventure! I ended up wandering along the upper edge of our larger meadow and following a deer trail up onto our hillside. There I found myself staring at a magnificent old Madrone tree which stood some 60+ feet tall. I went up to it and put my hand on its cool, smooth trunk, and stared up into its branches, feeling its age and wisdom of so many years. This tree stood tall and proud, and yet, I could see that it was a survivor from a wildfire that ravaged this area some years ago. I could see a singed branch and charcoal areas around the base of the trunk. Amazing that it not only survived, it was massive and doing fine! I wanted to take a picture for my 365 project, but as you may have discovered, it's not easy to take a picture of a tree in a forest. So I decided to take lots of pictures to show the lovely details that I found in this old warrior. You will see that most of the images highlight the wonderful curling bark of this tree which leaves the trunk and branches smooth and glowing. They are my favorite type of tree on our property because they're so interesting and have such lovely colors and textures! It was such a treat to discover this wonderful tree and share its details with all of you. William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and English Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti which profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. As an author, illustrator and medievalist, he helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, and was a direct influence on postwar authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, now a statutory element in the preservation of historic buildings in the UK. Wikipedia: William Morris Explored on Flickr on February 25, 2013. Highest position: #363.

This morning I walked down to the mailbox and naturally I brought my camera along. I was enjoying the sound of birds in the trees when I saw a flash of white and looked to see a female Downy Woodpecker fly from one tree to one quite nearby. I started taking pictures and to my surprise, this cool little lady wasn't very timid and allowed me to get close enough to take a bunch of nice pictures! I will never cease to be amazed that I can take nice non-macro pictures with my macro lens!! I feel incredibly lucky today that I got this picture to share with you all! When I started working on this picture, I thought it would need a texture, but when I was done with it, my husband pointed out that it looked just fine without the texture and at most, might benefit by having a light vignette. I tried it and agreed! However, I have the picture below for you to see! You will also notice that in this final version, I removed a few more sticks to make a cleaner outline.) Downy Woodpeckers are the smallest woodpecker in North America! They can be found in almost every state, but we only started seeing them around here a couple of years ago. Last year we saw a bunch of them and we think there were probably two pairs nesting and coming to our feeders to fill up on suet. I started seeing them this year about a week ago and I really hoped to take pictures of one in a tree, though I didn't actually think it would happen. Hooray for great surprises!! :D (If you'd like to know more about these adorable birds, Wiki has a very nice page here: Wikipedia: Downy Woodpecker ) Coleman Cox (1889 - 1967) was a writer from the 1920's who wrote short books of great quotations, usually directed toward sales. Employers were his biggest audience, often buying the books to give to their employees as gifts. Coleman Cox Bio Explored on Flickr on February 26, 2013. Highest position: #332.

This afternoon I came downstairs with Pumpkin (my parrot) and I saw a flash of something out the kitchen window. A tiny Sharp-Shinned Hawk had just landed on one of our plant hooks, hoping for a finch or junco to fly up to one of our bird feeders for a snack. My camera was right there so I grabbed it and started taking pictures while Pumpkin proceeded to crawl from my hand up to my shoulder and down the other arm to my camera...silly bird! After about a minute the hawk flew off and it was then I realized to my horror that I'd left the ISO at 1000 from this morning!! I was taking pictures of the sunrise and needed the higher ISO because I didn't have time to set up a tri-pod...and I didn't set it back. DRAT AND BLOODY H...well you get the drift! When I looked up, the hawk was back again! However, this time it was on a pole about 20 feet further away. I lowered my ISO and got a bunch of pictures, but when I compared all the shots on my computer, the best pair were with the high ISO...go figure! Anyway, I had to deal with a lot of noise and you'll see it in the wings, but I was able to alleviate most of it. This picture is another example of having a separate layer for the bird and another for the background. The background is smooth and noise-free and has only a bit of tint in it with soft vignetting. The bird has only as much noise reduction as I could get away with before I started losing too much detail. I then applied a light detail filter. Charles Robert Darwin, (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Wikipedia: Charles Darwin Explored on Flickr on February 27, 2013. Highest position: #85.

Every day I go out to appreciate the beautiful crocus that are in full bloom in our front yard, and naturally I cannot help but take pictures. Yesterday afternoon I saw something on one of the flowers as I approached and whispered to myself, "Oh! Could that be a bee?! I moved over very slowly and sure enough, there was a bumble bee on one of the flowers! But wait!! There were TWO! I couldn't believe it!! And the story gets better!! I was a little sad because I would have liked to make the bees my pick of the day but I'd already chosen the hawk from earlier. No matter, they would make lovely alternate shots, right? Well, last night when I let the dogs out, I had a suspicion so I checked the flowers. I wondered about them yesterday afternoon because they'd been moving very sluggishly in the rapidly cooling temperature. As it turned out, they were too cold to fly away and decided to sleep inside the flowers overnight!! Absolutely amazing! And best of all, I popped outside this drizzly morning, hoping it was still too cold for them to fly, and what do you know...the cutie pies were crawling around in and out of the flowers and I got my pick of the day!!! YAYYY!!!!! I feel so incredibly lucky and fortunate to get these pictures!! (By the way, I'll have a couple of others to share of them in a week or two--I thought it would be better to spread them out.) Jacques-Yves Cousteau, commonly known in English as Jacques Cousteau; 11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. Wikipedia: Jacques Cousteau Explored on Flickr on February 28, 2013. Highest position: #106.

This lovely blue blossom is open wide to the sun, and yet stands no more than two inches off the ground! Such a pretty little flower, is there any wonder that I love them so?! :) Explored on March 1, 2013. Highest position: #486.

This tiny flower is one which holds a cherished place in my heart. It's called a Birdseye Speedwell, and it's one of those flowers which you can find growing in the cracks in sidewalks. So small you must get very close to the ground to see it well, but if you do, you will see its greatest lesson: just because a flower is tiny does not mean that it isn't incredibly beautiful! I remember finding these as a child and presenting tiny "Mouse Bouquets" of them to my mother, who would put them into a thimble and place them on the kitchen table to be admired! The quote I chose for this picture is directely related to the fact that this delicate blossom lives for just one or two days before falling off into the grass below. A very short life indeed! I took this picture in the late afternoon and was careful not to touch the blossom or shake the stem because it would have surely fallen! Henri Frédéric Amiel (27 September 1821 – 11 May 1881) was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic. Wikipedia: Henri Frederic Amiel Explored on Flickr on March 1, 2013. Highest position: #156.

Today Steve and I went on a bike ride and this time I remembered to take my camera!! We stopped at a Rogue River boat launch and while Steve kicked back to relax and listen to an audio story, I wandered happily along the bank with my camera in hand! There were many lovely things to take pictures of! I especially like these dried-up Snowberries with fun, artsy bokeh behind. You guys would have laughed to see me forcing my way into the bushes to get this angle! One misstep and I'd have tripped and landed in the river or face-first in a blackberry bush, ack! So I was very, very careful while I got into position. I couldn't get all the way around, so some of the berries are in the shade, but I captured the glowing translucence of the sun shining through! YAY! Marcus Tullius Cicero ( 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) sometimes anglicized as Tully was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. Wikipedia: Cicero Explored on Flickr on March 3, 2013. Highest position: #317.

Isn't she a doll?! I found this darling little girl playing at the edge of our larger meadow, and when she saw me, she glided right up to me and said hi! Apparently the word is getting out that I like to take pictures of the little mushroom fairies that inhabit our property, because Lil' Blondie told me that she was hoping I would come by so I could make her famous! :D I was very happy to fill the frame with her tall, elegant form, and told her she reminded me of a famous movie star! I think she liked that because after I took her picture, she squealed in delight and zoomed off into the woods, and I could hear her tiny voice sing-songing, "I'm a movie star!! I'm a movie star!!" What a doll. :) Explored on March 4, 2013. Highest position: #399.

I was so excited to get outside today because I had a mission! I knew that at this time last year, there were beautiful Western Buttercups beginning to bloom on our hillside and today I was out to get some pictures! I also remember that when I saw the first Buttercup, it was our real beginning of spring. It's true...there is an explosion of growth that is only starting. Last year I was completely blown away by the countless varieties of plants and flowers in every color of the rainbow. From today until about June, it will be wall-to-wall flowers and beauty here! HOORAY!!! Explored on Flickr March 5, 2013. Highest position: #196.

Dedicated to my 365 pals, Kat , who's recovering from cancer surgery and is in my thoughts every day, and to Stephanie Calhoun , whose amazing textured images inspired me to try this for myself! You two are awesome!! :D This is another crocus image I took, and this time I had fun playing with it! My desire was to get some separation from the other crocuses crowding around it, and immediately I knew that this would look nice as a textured image! If you haven't tried this yet, please do, it's such fun! Thanks to Sienna62 for the texture! Explored on March 6, 2013. Highest position: #389.

Today was one of those days where nothing turned out as I expected! I had plans of taking pictures of a new flower I found but in the end, I couldn't get the image I wanted! I took so many pictures and finally decided to choose another subject. Just outside we have zillions of tiny Whitlow Grass blossoms, so small you really can just barely see them! I discovered last year that they make a magnificent seed pod, so I thought, "OH! Let's take a picture of one of those!! And I guess that's what I was supposed to be taking pictures of today because of the dozen or so pictures, almost every subject turned out nicely! This is my favorite because of the fun bokeh, but I have another shown below too! Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author in the area of the new thought movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill's death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies). Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill's books. Wkipedia: Napoleon Hill Explored on Flickr on March 6, 2013. Highest position: #148.

I have been waiting for today all week long!! This is because Steve and I invited a couple of our friends to go on a hike to a favorite spot, the Rogue Gorge, which a very special place where the Rogue River squeezes down into a very tight channel and shoots out the other side. It's very impressive to see, but besides the Gorge, this area has lovely trails to hike on, and endless photo opportunities! I was very excited, since I haven't been here for a couple of years, and never with my Mark II! It turns out that we arrived a bit early for this hike, as there was still some snow on the ground and the flowers weren't out yet, nor were the amazing ferns, which were all dormant right now. But no worries, there were so many pretty things to photograph that I came home with hundreds of pictures, of course! :D Since this area is in a deep forest, I kept my eyes open for mushroom fairies and listened for their little giggles to give them away. I knew they had to be near and searched carefully and quietly, hoping I might spot one. Looking around the endless moss-covered rocks as we walked along, I slipped ahead of our group and then I saw these two! Freezing in place, this pair gazed up at me in wonder and I smiled warmly at them as I took their picture. Then I told them that it was time to scoot, as my friends would be coming soon and I didn't want them to be frightened. With a chorus of happy giggles, they turned and glided off the mossy rock and away from me, sing-songing, "GOOD-BYYYYYYYYYE!!!!" :) :) Günter Wilhelm Grass (born 16 October 1927) is a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is widely regarded as Germany's most famous living writer. Wikipedia: Günter Grass Explored on Flickr on April 20, 2013. Highest position: #470

This beautiful daffodil was one that I grew from a bulb this year and I was so stunned by the backlighting I got! I was having a hard time with the background so I decided to add some texture, and I think that was the perfect solution! I hope you like it! :) Explored on May 3, 2013. Highest position #343.