Wordless Wednesday

Lots of lazy, languid, late-sleeping lounging going on around here. It is such a welcome break from the hustle and crazy bustle of the normal school year. Loving it!

Happy WW. :)

Maybe the Best Mellow Yellow Monday Picture Ever

It's Mellow Yellow Monday and we are trying to remain mellow. It is hot here. And sticky. We have yet to put air conditioners in the downstairs windows so it is all ready overwhelmingly warm. One boy is at sandlot baseball at the park and another is lying on the couch complaining of a sore throat. This is not the weather for a sore throat. Hopefully it is just the result of too much swimming yesterday, in the pool more than out. My teens are upstairs still blissfully sleeping. I took this cousin photo this weekend. It was taken late in the day as the sun was going down in our yellow dining room. That and the props make it mellow and yellow in a variety of ways. I love it; makes me smile. :)

Sky Watch

I have missed at least two rainbows in the past few weeks! Arrghh! I never seem to have my camera when I need it. Once I turned the car around, still on my street, and dashed back in the house for it. A total of one minute had passed and so had the rainbow. This will have to do as my skywatch shot for this week. Taken with my point and shoot, I never got out of the car. I like the angle and the warped perspective that is common with photos of buildings. I think it adds to the surrealness of the building popping up in the fluffy white clouds drifting by.
I am looking forward to checking out skies around the globe at: http://skyley.blogspot.com.
Happy Friday everyone!

Before and After with Pixel Perfect

I am excited to join in with:http://www.pixelperfectblog.com/ for Before and After, so glad I did not miss it this week. This is a recent photo I took of my moody 14 year old son. I sharpened first his eyes to add a little drama and then turned the photo black and white playing with sharpness and contrast. I decided to then posterize the picture slightly. I like how that effect can make photos look 3D. I took this with my canon rebel with my 50mm lens with an f-stop of 1.8 which is why only one eye is truly in focus and the photo is so up close. He gave me 4 photos and refused to smile. He's just tolerating me here. Can't you tell. :)

Summer Weeds

Pool Liner Blue

Having the mid-week blues:http://thedustycellar.blogspot.com/2009/06/midweek-blues-1.html, and loving it. I have gone back and forth all day trying to remember if today is tuesday or wednesday. I guess that is a good sign when your losing track of days that Summer is in full swing.

First Day of Summer

This is my Summer so far mosaic for Monday, including a picture of my neighbor Summer. She is the dark shiny beauty who likes to lay in the green grass and chase sticks. :) Now I need to go check out Mary's mosaic, she does not disappoint.

http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com.

Monochrome

Could not decide which monochrome I like best. The ball field is a re post from yesterday that I like just as much without color as with. The portrait is my cute little nephew who was more than willing to pose for me. He came over yesterday and asked if I could take some more photos of him. It's monochrome weekend, but everything is in vivid color here. Enjoy!

http:/monochromeweekendtheme.blogspot.com.

Skywatch, Sand lot

Lovely skies above the sand lot ball field yesterday morn. Today too, and it's going to be a hot one. Check out skies everywhere at :http://skyley.blogspot.com.

Don't Stop Beelieving

I took these bee photos last Fall, many of them re-posts for me. The Pioneer Woman is having another photography contest and this time the theme is: Bugs. I do beelive these qualify. I can only post one a day until contest ends so I will be choosing from these. Go to her site in the photography section and check out the thousands of incredible entries. It is all so inspiring and overwhelming. How she has time to go through all I find difficult to beelieve, but she is a pioneer woman and certainly stronger and with a longer attention span than me. The things she and her family accomplish in one day would probably take us suburbans all Summer. Anyways, I love her and her blog and her contests. Wish me luck, and don't stop beelieving!http://thepioneerwoman.com/.

Summer Light

Wordless Wenesday at:
http://wordlesswednesday.blogspot.com.
Shhh.

Warm and Sunny

Mosaic Monday at http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com.

Join us. :)

Tornado Skywatch

I should have known better than to announce to Gabe the tornado watch that had been issued for our area of the state. In New England tornadoes are relatively rare so there is always a little bit of a thrill when you hear there is a tornado warning. Gabriel is notoriously frightened of thunderstorms and crazy weather in general. His face went still when I calmly explained what I was doing peering at the sky from our front stoop. Suddenly his face crumpled and he began taking breathing deeply as panic and nearly tears set in. He ran to the kitchen and dragged a counter stool over to an upper cabinet. He climbed up, now on his knees and frantically grabbed for the binoculars we had inherited from his great grandfather. My grandfather then living, would often sit on his front porch, checking out birds and squirrels, and probably neighbors as well. He had always been a bit of a neighborhood busy body after his retirement, keeping tabs on the coming and goings of those who lived near by. Gabe and his little cousin now stood on our front porch binoculars of a great grandfather they had never met in hand, peering off into the distant sky, and verbally debating if this could really be true. A tornado??

But it was not to be. Within half an hour the crazy clouds had passed and the sun reappeared. The cousins soon loss interest and went off for a swim on that humid Sunday afternoon.

Now that is literal skywatching!

You can check out what others have seen this week at:http://skyley.blogspot.com.

Mother and Child

Black and White

I am happy to join in with Black and White Wednesday at:http://thelongroadtochina.blogspot.com. I turned several photos I took over Memorial Day Weekend monochrome. I seem to end up more in the sepia range rather than stark black and white. I think I like the warmth.

It's a watery world

It's a watery world when you have a pool I am finding out. Little water filled footprints all over the wood floors, wet towels balled up in bedrooms, and sopping wet bathing suits flung everywhere. Watery, but worth it. Looking forward to a wet Summer. :)

Oh, and it's watery wordless Wednesday. Check it all out:http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/; and bring your own towel, please.

Mid Week Blues

I was so looking forward to photographing the peacocks at the zoo last week while on the third grade field trip. I took these lovely shots two years ago when my middle son was a third grader. I got so distracted taking these photos when the bird opened her full wing span that I actually lost track of one of the kids in our group for a few moments. Luckily she was quickly recovered, lagging behind in the reptile house, having been a dreamy slow-poke all day. She had already been nearly left several times as we moved throughout the zoo from exhibit to exhibit. (Regardless, I felt awful!) I quickly bought everyone in our group ice-cream and held tight to the little girls hand for the rest of the trip. Surprisingly,:) they let me chaperon this same field trip again this year with Gabriel's third grade class, but more beautiful wing span shots were not to be. Sadly, every peacock we came upon remained closed tight.

Believe it or not very little editing was done to these original peacock photos taken two years ago. The body of the bird is really this vivid blue. Gorgeous. And, hopefully a perfect picture for me to join in with the mid-week blues at:http://thedustycellar.blogspot.com/.

Regards!

Gifts of Summer

Summer's Soon

Make your plans

Hurry up and Relax

Enjoy!

Its Macro Monday

joining with www.lisaschaos.com.

Shadow Shot

If you go to the zoo on a third grade field trip and 6 prairie dogs in their exhibit see their shadows it means only 5 full days of school and 3 half days left. What?? Where did the school year go??

It's shadow shot Sunday where you can check out many cool photos.

http://heyharriet.blogspot.com. :)

Monochrome Duck

Have a good one!

http://monochromeweekendtheme.blogspot.com.

Pretty Peony

Wide open aperture here = very narrow depth of field= dream -like quality to photo. I like what this does to macro flower shots especially. Petals are forgiving.

Wordless Wednesday

What silly boys will do to amuse a cute girl.

Happy Wednesday.

I Heart Faces Bare Foot Week

I am entering this photo in the weekly I Heart Faces Photo Challenge. The category this week is feet, bringing attention to a great cause. To gaze at many more entries check out: Iheartfaces.com and read more about Souls 4 Soles.