A little sprinkler action in the summertime!

I took this picture yesterday afternoon and was happy to get a clear one of the sprinkler with all the water cascading around. The sun was right, the grass was green, it was perfect.

Then I started in on some edits...

I love the edginess (is that a word?) of this black and white one. With the darker edges and crisp contrast, it just made me proud ;)!

This one I just kept the sprinkler and a little water clear, increased the contrast and blurred the edges, I love this one too.

Both of my edits, in my opinion, were great improvments on the original picture. Of course for both I was using the coffeeshop actions I had downloaded for use in my Photoshop Elements. They work great and I think look perfect. What great fun!!!!

Flowers, flowers, flowers

Ninebark blossoms!

Mock Orange with a tiny spider.

Daylillies

Painted Daisy

The whole batch of flowers.

More painted daisies!

Painted Daisies and Day Lillies

My mom knows that I love daisies and when we first moved in here she helped me plant Shasta Daisies and these lovely Painted Daisies. Too bad that they dont' stay in bloom very long!!!!

My mom had really been kind to me and given me many perenials over the years. Of course I have love in my heart for purple, pink and yellow flowers. I have no clue why those melt my heart more than others, but they do none the less. Here also is one of my first day lillies of the year. They are so beautiful to me!!!

My best flower shot ever...

Beautiful Flower

Here are my attempts at using the gift Minsan gave me for my camera. Instead of buying a specialize (and expensive) macro lens, Minsan found this wonderful Hoya brand Close Up Kit. No kidding it works just like a macro lens for the up close work. It is absolutely wonderful for these close ups. My Canon Rebel can do pretty decent close ups all on its own, but I am still amazed at how much closer I have been able to get with the close up kit. No kidding, if you don't have one and you are wanting to do macro shots afordably, this is really the way to go!

Here are some more iris shots I took this morning too. Irises are very different from some of the flowers in my garden. I actually aquired them from a lady that I buy milk from. She handed me the plants she had thinned out and made me take them... I don't love how the foliage of irises look so I actually didn't want to plant them. But who wants to watch plants die. Well, after planting them last year and watching them just be green (and boring) ...but now they are actually quite beautiful!

Old Antique Brick

While I was waiting for my car to be repaired the other day I was happily snapping pictures of my kids and of my surroundings. I came across this little building next to a full sized home with the same old brick. It is special to me since I used to live in an old apartment building that had been built out of this very same kind of brick. Setiment kicked in, but so does the love for the old brick. It looks wonderful and I loved taking pictures of it too!

I love this shot. The depth of field of the full color antique bricks with the main house int eh distance....love, love, love.

Really they were doing repair to this old building so there were some replacement bricks lying around. I am thrilled that they are taking the time to fix what was seemingly worth nothing!

Check this out folks!

I have a wonderful friend that shared an interview with a very gifted artist in California. Here is a link to the second portion of her interview here and a chance to win one of her works of art. Check it out, you won't regret it!

It’s the cows!

The color of the day is….black! I went out to a friend’s farm and in between visiting, I took a few pictures of some of her cows. They are indeed an interesting animal to photograph. I realize now that I should have taken a few more, but for now, this will have to do! So, welcome to the glorious black and white Holstein cows of Midwest Minnesota.

Can you just see them saying, “whatta talkin’ about Willis?!”

My Beautiful Children!

I have to claim them as beautiful because they are my very own! I don’t “have” to, it is my honor to claim them! I love them and I am so thankful that they are all mine! I snapped these pictures of them when I was outside yesterday taking pictures of my flowers. I think that they are indeed more beautiful than all the amazing flowers in our world! Well the bright blues and the greens, they are just a bonus!

This is one of my wiegelia shrubs that was shocked me today by being in bloom. On top of a wonderfully sunny day, with blue skys, the dark coloring was WONDERFUL! I love being surprised by the beautiful outdoors!