As per my usual photo-taking when I don't use my lightbox, I set the flowers on the floor to get a wide shot.
And guess who came over to investigate?
Yes, the Girlie-girl had to get right in the center of things.
I actually had to herd her away to get that first shot, because she kept wanting to lie down in the sun. This made her tail, or some part of her, in the photo.
Finally, I shoo-ed her away and got a shot. But just one, because she was quickly back.
Close-ups will be here when I take the ones with my 70-210 mm lens with the Kenko extension tubes.
But here is a hint of some photos taken in the late afternoon sun with the lens that came with my camera.
Posted by danielle at 10:11 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
The Girlie-girl just loves the tree skirt. The funny thing was that she was nowhere near the tree when I was decorating it. Then about 1 minute after I got the tree skirt down - bam! - she laid down on it. At first, she had this hunched look like she was sure I was going to scold her about it. But once she realized I didn't care, she relaxed and got into her favorite sleeping pose with her front feet all tucked in. And then, of course, I got the camera and the nap that she had planned had to be post-poned. Hence the grumpy look, I'm sure. ;-)
I hope each of you finds somewhere to snuggle up and be cozy this Christmas season. Maybe on the couch with a fuzzy blanket. Oh, well, that is my favorite place, at least. Isn't it everyone's? ;-)
I hope to take some poinsettia pics to post on Christmas Eve, so if you are around, see you then! If not, Merry Christmas!
Posted by danielle at 10:03 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
We had a visitor the other weekend during our Sunday morning breakfast! A wild rabbit jumped its way up onto our top deck and sat and stared into our dining room!
You can see in this zoomed out photo how close the rabbit was to the window. And you can also see how Girlie-girl is ignoring all of it. I don't think she ever turned and looked to see the rabbit during its brief visit.
The other thing you'll notice is that I didn't take the photos. HB did. I was concerned that if I got up, the rabbit would jump away. Whereas he sits on the other side of the table and was just far enough away that the rabbit didn't leave when he got up to get the camera.
All in all it is quite strange that the rabbit came up onto our deck like that. It is a second story deck, so it had to jump all of the way up the steps and around the corner to come up there. I kinda wondered if it was attracted to the fallen bird seed or perhaps the zinnias and other flowers that were growing in the pots (note that the zinnia pot is dumped over by the wind in that photo and not by the rabbit).
The rabbit didn't stay long. After HB got close enough to the window that he was about even with my chair, the rabbit took a bounding leap off of the deck.
We got a little worried about it jumping from such a height and went outside to check on it, but we didn't see any injured rabbit, so we assumed that it was fine.
We haven't seen the rabbit up on the deck anymore since that time, but it was nice to have it as a brief visitor. :-)
Posted by danielle at 08:48 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
First, there was one.
Then there were two.
Then there were three!
These photos of the wild rabbits who came into our yard remind me of my seestor. Why is that?
Well, first there was one (Texas Seestor).
Then there were two (Texas Seesor and Trainwreck).
And sooooooooooooon there will be three! (Texas Seestor and Trainwreck and ?)
Yep! They are expecting! I'm going to get to be an auntie! Exciting, huh? Well, we think so. She is due near Christmas. I am really thrilled for them.
Posted by danielle at 08:55 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
Guess who discovered the bird feeder today?
Yup! Mr. Chubby Squirrel.
This is the first that I've seen any squirrels at it.
And I might've been disappointed, except that this gave me the perfect chance to try out the zoom lens my dad sent me that arrived late yesterday. He has a Nikon film camera that he doesn't really use anymore and a zoom lens that he was willing to send me. One of the cool thing about Nikon is that they've kept all of the lens threads the same over the years so that any Nikon lens, or Nikon-compatible lens, will fit onto the new camera models too. (Note: I believe Canon has done this too so that older Canon lenses will fit onto new Canon cameras.) Anyway, the lens is a Vivitar 70-210mm zoom lens.
Now, I've barely gotten to experiment with it, and since it is an entirely manual lens, I'm learning how to change settings to get the exposure the way I want it. But this will give you an idea of where I am today with it, and then as I (hopefully) get better, you can see my progress.
Now, that photo above was taken with the 'kit' lens that comes in the camera kit (if you choose to buy the D70 in that kind of package). The kit lens is an AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm. And in the photo above, I have stood inside the patio window and zoomed as close as possible with the kit lens.
Here is another example.
What I've often done in my bird pictures in the past, is cropped the photo so that you can see the birds (or in this case, the squirrel better).
Now, after taking those photos, I switched lenses. Lucky for me, Mr. Chubby Squirrel was happy to continue eating while I did this. And I started attempting to get the exposure right with the zoom lens.
Well, what you'll see is that it isn't quite where I wanted it, but you'll get the idea of how different the zoom is with this one. I zoomed in as far as possible for these shots.
In this next one, the wood and screws are in great focus, but the squirrel is not.
I could've sworn I was looking at the squirrel's face and feet to get the focus right. But the feeder kept spinning, he was wiggling, and I have/had a migraine, so it could be that I'm goofing up the focus. I also think I'd better double check the viewfinder, because it is possible something has gotten bumped on it and that also changes the focus-ing some.
I also kept changing some of the settings to try to get everything optimal, but I kinda knew I was working against time, because he'd already run away once. Finally, he'd had enough of that crazy lady inside the house with the beeg skeery black thing.
And off he went.
As he scampered along the railing, he paused for a second...
... and I got this one.
The fact that his front feet are in focus makes me think that some of the focusing issue may be that he was sniffing/moving slightly. Changing the film speed or exposure would probably help with that. But I've still got to figure out how to do all of that. ;-)
and off he went
I have lots to learn about how to get the kind of image I'm looking for, but now you can see where I am today. And then when I manage to get a shot with the squirrel's eyes in focus, it will be all the more exciting.
Posted by danielle at 01:07 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
It took me many tries to get a photo that I liked of the daffodils in my bouquet. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to use a small depth of focus, I needed to get the flower angled so that the ruffly part was the same distance from the camera as part of the petals. This is where I smack my forehead and say "Well, duh!", of course you can't shoot it straight on and get both parts in focus! Thank goodness for digital cameras where I can take some shots, look at them, then take more, if need be. I may be a slow learner about some of these kinds of things, but I am learning.
And now, the Girlie-girl reminds us that it is important to stop and smell the flowers.
mmmmmm smells good, doesn't it?
And as I was taking shots one day, she just had to come over and plop herself down nearby so that she could be in the photos. And you know how I love to show her off...
And look how good her face looks! After 4 solid days of wearing the cone back in um, December, I think it was, we finally got her to stop fussing with her eye and nose. I think it just had to get a chance to get past a certain stage of healing. Now, if she starts to rub at it, I stop her from catching it with her claws and then clean it for her with a warm washcloth. That seems to get rid of the little scabs that must be what is making her want to scratch. Her white fur is growing back too. Pretty soon, she may be back to normal completely, and that would be terrific.
I've found a couple groups on Flickr for that picture. One is for cats that have a black mask. Girlie-girl's mask isn't perfectly black, so we'll see if it stays on there or if someone removes it. The other is for pictures of cats that are staring. Well, this pic is about as intense as she gets, eyeball-wise. In the process of looking for those groups, I found a heck of a lot of cat groups. My goodness! Who knew? I've got all kinds of photos that would fit into some of the groups... close-ups of whiskers, eyes, cats on computers, cats with their human family members, and stuff on the cats, amongst others. One could spend hours looking for groups and looking at photos! Because I am trying to limit how much time I spend doing stuff like that, I really haven't delved into it much, but I may slowly keep my eyes out for stuff like that.
Posted by danielle at 01:01 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
And THAT is true Christmas spirit; the cats, dogs, and mice all get along.
Posted by danielle at 02:57 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
One of the nice things about visiting friends is getting to visit their pets.
While we were in Texas, HB and I stayed with Texas Seestor's very close friends, since her home was a bit filled up with other guests. It was wonderful to get a chance to visit with them a bit more than usual. It was also wonderful to get to spend some time with the doggie members of their family.
And OH! were they happy to see us! It didn't take the doggies long to figure out that we lurve doggies.
One of them, Happy
latched onto HB's willingness to throw a tennis ball over and over and over and over again. He was so dang cute about it too; how could HB resist?
Here is Happy, without his tennis ball.
The other one, Gus,
realized that I was a sucker for petting doggies.
Nothin' quite like a nice belly rub, huh?
Well, except maybe if you have some food stashed away in a bag somewhere for him to find.
I tell you, Gus's nose was always working.
I laughed that he ought to be one of those dogs they use at Customs to look for food, because, I tell you what, if you've got food or any kind of scented product on you or in a bag, he will FIND IT. I was warned with various (rather funny) stories. And then I witnessed his interest in my back-pack. Of course, I paused and tried to remember if I had any food in there or not. I decided that if anything, there might be residual nuts or candy from when I've carried stuff in zip-lock bags on previous trips. But I zipped up my bag, just to be safe. And moved it into the bedroom and kept the door to our bedroom shut.
On the day I was packing, I let them hang out with me for a while. They seemed sad to see us go. And I was sad to leave them, so I figured we could spend that last bit of time together. No sooner did I go in the bathroom to pack up my toiletries but Gus nudged his way into the bottom of my back-pack to help himself to the pretzels in a zip-lock bag that I'd forgotten about. Little stinker. ;-)
Actually, they are both little stinkers. It didn't take them any time at all to wrap their little paws around my heart with their antics and unconditional love and kisses.
Posted by danielle at 08:46 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
I haven't had time to upload any pictures to Flickr other than these.
But isn't he the cutest!
And he LOVES cheerios!
Look at that leeetle tongue!
And those chubby cheeks!
soooo cute.
He is all about the post-it notes.
My what beeeeg ears you have, Max!
This is Max in his hidey/sleepy tube. Isn't he just preeeeeeeeeeecious?
:-)
See you around!
Happy Friday everyone!
Posted by danielle at 10:30 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack