A-Z Project

15 more pictures above in notes! Over the past year, I have accumulated a massive library of photography, as I created pictures every day for my 365 project. Almost without exception, I got several--if not dozens upon dozens--of images that I wanted badly to process and share, but could not due to time constrains. I hoped that at some point I could revisit some of these pictures and give some a moment to shine. This beautiful iris was photographed at a friend's estate last May, where she and her husband have planted countless irises all over the many acres around their home. We were invited to spend the day taking pictures and I found myself overcome by the variety and stunning colors of the countless irises in bloom there. Today I will be sharing just this one spectacular blossom, but I've processed many others, which I'll upload at a later date. I'm so happy to showcase one of these flowers for my A-Z project!! By the way, on that day, we arrived home very late, after a lovely dinner with them, and I had to process one of the very first pictures I took because I could not spend the time to look through the many hundreds of pictures I took that day! You will see that picture above in a note, as well as the other pictures I had time to process from my visit. I never even touched the iris pictures because there were far too many to look at and I wanted to take the time to look at them carefully. Enjoy the show! :) Explored on April 11, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(5 more pictures above in notes! :D) I used to think that a Jonquil was any kind of daffodil, but I found out that it's actually a specific type. In truth, "Jonquil" is an accepted term for "daffodil in some places, so I was very tempted to open my selection to every daffodil in my archives. But...no, I wanted to show a true jonquil. Narcissus jonquilla flowers are smaller in size and grow as clusters from one stem. They are also the most fragrant of all daffodils. To my surprise, I have very few pictures of these fragrant beauties. Although we have some growing in our yard, I immediately remembered the grouping I photographed last Spring at my friend's home. The same friend who has the beautiful irises in fact! :) Weeks before, we visited to take pictures of her daffodils, and she'd picked a bunch of them for the house. I remember how wonderful these smelled! If you would like to know more about these flowers, Wiki has a page here: Wikipedia: Jonquils Explored on April 15, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

+ 10 more inset images above in notes! :) "Killer" is also slang for "cool", which is what this stunning, beautiful, gentle and non-venomous snake is! I found this amazing California Mountain Kingsnake on our property 1.5 years ago and when I discovered that this reclusive species is actually quite common in this area, we decided it would be ok to keep him as a pet. Affectionately named "Snakey McSnakerton", he's doing great and growing larger with each passing month. When I found him (we don't actually know the gender, but call it a male!), Snakey was about 10" long, and is now about 16". There are about 45 species of Kingsnakes, which also include Milksnakes. They come in a large number of colors from solid black to almost white, with a dizzying variety of patterns. In fact, some species, such as this one, mimic the highly venomous coral snake , which only lives in the southern States. (NEVER approach a snake unless you are SURE it's harmless!) Kingsnakes are among the most popular pet snakes due to their docile, friendly dispositions and ease of care. In the wild, they are secretive, usually moving about during the day, and eat rodents, reptiles and birds. If you would like to know more about Kingsnakes, Wiki has a nice page here: Wiki: Kingsnake This picture uses some texture in the background, courtesy of Jerry Jones: Soft-Faux-n-Grunge-Bokeh Explored on April 18, 2014. Highest placement, #2.

(+16 in notes above!) Last summer, from July until late November, I was given a never-ending poppy show. Every morning I would step outside and see the new blossoms glowing in the morning sunshine and the sight would take my breath away. These flowers are a photographer's dream, with extremely translucent petals and a rainbow of gorgeous colors. I have two very exciting comments to add! The first is that my poppies have reseeded themselves and I have counted half a dozen poppy buds that are already forming! That's three months earlier than last year!! My second exciting bit of news is that I purchased a huge assortment of poppy flower seeds which I will be planting on May 1, which is the official "last day of frost" here in southern Oregon. I can hardly wait! :) Explored on April 22, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(+ 18 insets above in notes!) I have been arguing with myself until this moment where this picture should go: "W is for Wonderful White" or "M is for Magnificent Mushrooms". But M just HAS to be for Mushrooms, right?! Yes, I have many pictures of mushrooms, but this one stands out from all the rest. So, with this upload, the matter is finally settled! These mushrooms are called Ivory Waxy Caps, but they are also known by the name "Cowboy's Handkerchief" because the droplets and moisture you see are actually slime that oozes from this fungus to keeps it hydrated and also serves as a deterrant to any wildlife which might be considering these mushrooms for a meal. I hope that I never encounter a handkerchief used by a cowboy. *shudder* Explored on March 29, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(+9 insets above) This is a developing cluster of male pine cones surrounded by many needles, which are this plant's leaves. The pine cones we are familiar with are female cones. On a pine tree, male pine cones are usually found in clusters like this one, and are concentrated near the bottom of the tree, while the female cones are concentrated near the top. This arrangement helps to ensure cross-pollination between pine trees. There is another story here too, if you look closely. On the right side of the cluster, you will see a small spider, and if you look down below, you will see its newly shedded skin or exoskeleton. My apologies for posting so infrequently. I am busy working on my book, and now that the last day of frost has arrived, I have a garden to plant. And of course, there are a zillion other things going on...work, life, etc! :D Explored on May 6, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(1 inset image above) When Steve and I got married, we went to Australia for our honeymoon. We spent a few days in Sydney and then flew up to Cairns for a day before departing for the Great Barrier Reef for 10 days of scuba diving on a live-aboard dive boat. The weather didn't cooperate with us and most of our trip was spent in a torrential downpour. However, we made the best of our time there! One of the two days we were in Cairns, we wandered around and found ourselves in a square busy with a small crafts fair. We had a marvelous time looking around and eventually found ourselves in front of a booth of beautiful polished rocks that twinkled with opals! We were smitten! Neither of us had ever seen opals in any other way than just the opal itself and we thought these polished rocks were prettier than any opals we'd ever seen. The couple there told us about their opal mine, which so far hadn't paid off with the lucrative opals yet, but they were getting these pretty opal-infused sandstones, which polished up very nicely and could be sold. They had dozens and dozens, and a great many were strung on leather strings as adjustable-lengh necklaces. Steve and I knew what our precious souvenir from Australia would be! We spent a long time looking at every one, and the couple were kind enough to allow us to carry them over to the sunshine. In the end, I picked this one because it is smaller and also has beautiful colors in the opal flecks. Steve picked a larger one, equally beautiful. We were so happy with our special Australian presents! And from that day until today, these necklaces have never come off except to replace the waxed leather string. Explored on April 18, 2014. Highest placement, #2.

Steve and I went shopping the other day and I had my camera with me. There was a garden center so I went around happily capturing the beautiful flowers, and when I came to this one I stopped and gawked. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL PURPLE FLOWER!! This flower was a bit of a challenge to process. The focus was just what I wanted, showing the fine detail of hairs, stamen and anthers. The narrow leaves falling away into bokeh with the glow of light was working too and the color was also right. But the background out of camera....it was too close in value to the flower and took attention away. I tried a few things...making the background really light to make those petals pop...but then I lost the hairs, which are one of my favorite things about this blossom. I could make it go to black...but then the leaves looked horrendous and also, there are a couple of places in this image where the hairs are not on a dark background, and they looked awful. So, I tried darkening as much as I could get away with...and that worked. It's not perfect and I'd really like more separation between the flower and the background, but considering the fact that I took this picture at a gardening section in a store's greenhouse, surrounded by other plastic potted plants, I felt a bit victorious with this result. :) By the way, here's a search on ipernity for Pasque flower, and you can see some of the incredible results when there are better conditions! And also, I didn't know that this flower is very uncommon in this color! ipernity Search:Pasque Explored on May 17, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

Note: I just finished writing the first of a series of blog posts about my new garden! My New Adventure: A Raised Bed Flower Garden! A couple of months ago, Steve and I visited a large public garden because we'd seen a friend's photography and hoped to see some of the same things. There was a huge variety of plants and flowers, and although we were too early for much of the show, we weren't late for the DUCK SHOW! There were two large ponds and many beautiful ducks, geese and other waterfowl to photograph. I managed to get very lucky with this shot, and captured this pair's lively discussion! :D (Thanks very much to Hawkeye (Art) for the extra information about the unusually colored duck on the left, it appears to be either a male Saxony or Leucistic Mallard, how COOL!) Early Announcement and Invitation: I have decided to do another A-Z project after this one is finished, and would like to invite all who are interested to join me! It's going to be about a month before I'm done with this current project, but I wanted to bring it up now so you can begin thinking about it to decide if you'd like to join in the fun! The requirements are as restricted as you want to make them: you can make it easy by having it like mine, "Anything that starts with the letter", or you can have a theme for your project, such as "A-Z Birds", "A-Z Flowers", "A-Z Insects". Keep in mind that a theme can be anything, such as photographic terms, or things that are a specific color, or items in your house or tool shop. The sky is the limit with an A-Z project, and yet, it's only 26 pictures, so it's not a project that will take over your whole life. Start thinking about it now, and if you want to join in, you can begin capturing and processing your pictures, placing them into a folder to upload as I upload mine! Explored on May 21, 2014. Highest placement, #2.