364/365 - Jim - Autumn Bouquet

( f/11 50mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

We went out shopping tonight for a little while and Jameson and I decided to get mommy some flowers. Carol isn't into the regular flowers and has liked these Autumn type flowers in the past, so I was sure she would like these. I asked Jameson what he thought mommy would say. He said "Oh those are some nice flowers there Jameson and then I would say yes, they are." That made me laugh. He was very talkative today.

339/365 - Jim - Smell the Flowers

( f/7.1 105mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I will be leaving for Canada tomorrow for the whole week. So today I spent some playing time with Jameson out in the front yard. He likes to investigate the flowers and then "accidentally" rip them to shreds and say he broke it. I told him to smell the flowers when I got this shot. I made sure to include all the flowers in the background.

Now I need to prepare for Canada. I won't be posting any photos until I return. Hopefully I will bring back a bunch of nice photos and have a difficult time picking just one for each day. Have a nice holiday and enjoy your week!

335/365 - Jim - Unknown Plant

( f/3.2 50mm 1/400 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Can someone tell me what this plant is? It has these orange flowers all over it and the seed pods hang down and spring or explode when you squeeze them. Since I was a kid, I have always loved to find the largest seed to squeeze and let explode. I'm not sure how I never knew what this plant was called. Maybe I actually have been told and have since forgot and when I hear it, I'll say "Oh yeah!".

320/365 - Jim - Flower

( f/8 70mm 1/80 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I don't know what the names of flowers are and I did try to look it up, but have no idea how to find it without wasting way too much time. I did take some photos today, but they were mostly just snapshots so I decided to go with the flower shot. Boring I know, but it was a busy day.

305/365 - Jim - Clearwing Moth

( f/4 105mm 1/100 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I saw this clearwing moth feeding on the flowers so I ran for my camera. It was a fast little thing so I wasn't able to get focus very well. I probably would have taken a different photo if I had seen how bad these were, but I also had friends over, so I didn't have time.

298/365 - Courtney - Hibiscus

( f/5.6 7.9mm 1/320 sec ISO 100 Sony DSC-P200 )

Courtney said this was the only plant that she got for her new house. Her mother bought it for her at Lowe's while we were out visiting. I had intended on taking out the little money plant photo that I took, but it started growing and producing twenties. I wish... Really I just forgot it.

298/365 - Jim - Purple Flower

( f/8 70mm 1/40 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I was driven around by my wife to find something to photograph. I had a couple things in mind, but it didn't work out. So a flower photo becomes the default...

283/365 - Tyler - Summer Flowers

( f/8 50mm 1/640 sec ISO 500 Nikon D80 )

Tyler sent me this photo a while back and I intended on doing something that would match it, but it seemed like something came up every day or I forgot. But I finally took a flower shot as well. Maybe Tyler can shed more light on this photo. I like how sharp the flowers are and how soft the background is. It seems I always have trouble balancing the two when I take flower shots.

283/365 - Jim - Water Cooler for Flies

( f/8 200mm 1/320 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I walked out to just get some simple flower shots, but found some interesting bugs hanging out. These green flies look so cool on a daisy. Instead of using my macro lens, I thought I would try out my 70-200mm with the Canon 500D close-up lens on the front of it. Turned out pretty well but was pretty difficult to hand hold. A tripod might have been equally difficult to setup though.

269/365 - Jim - Pushing Daisies

( f/11 70mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I have seen several photos like this and wanted to try one. The daisies in my landscaping just started blooming last week, so I went out and cut one off. Then asked my wife if she would model for me. She said no... But then she found out it was only her hand, so she agreed. I took the photo on a white backdrop and then used Photoshop to edit it out and put an old sky photo in the background. The white version looked ok, but the sky version is more interesting.

246/365 - Jim - Mocha Flowers

( f/22 210mm 1/100 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

These flowers are very tiny. I used my 105mm macro lens along with the 2x teleconverter to get really close. They are bright yellow and the original looked nice, but I preferred this mocha effect. It gives it an old look. There were some ants crawling all over the flower, but I wasn't able to get any of them in focus as well as this shot.

243/365 - Jim - Gerbera Daisy

( f/6.3 70mm 1/100 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Carol planted some gerbera daisies today, so after I watered them I got this shot. She really likes them, so they have been planted every year for the last few years or so. It was funny that when she planted the third flower, she ran into an ant home and they came out in full force. If you are wondering why I wrote gerbera instead of gerber, it's because they are both used and I don't know which one is correct...

238/365 - Jim - Memorial Day

( f/5.6 140mm 1/1000 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

It is Memorial Day today so I thought I would try to observe it on my blog. I went to a local cemetery and got some photos of all the flags for the veterans. It is easy to take for granted the freedom that all these people fought to keep.

224/365 - Jim - Carnation

( f/11 60mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My wife was given this flower at Giant Eagle for Mother's Day when she went grocery shopping. And I couldn't let it go unphotographed... I put a flash with softbox behind my Translum background to blow out the background. Then I did some touch-ups with Photoshop to make it as clean as I could.

210/365 - Jim - Blossom

( f/8 200mm 1/250 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is from one of the trees in my front yard. Yeah, more flowers, but it blossoms nicely. I guess I need some themes to keep me from photographing flowers every day.

209/365 - Jim - Tall Flowers

( f/9 18mm 1/320 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

They aren't really very tall, I put my camera as close to the ground as possible to get this photo. It was a guessing game because I could not see where it was focusing. The first shot was without a flash and turned out really dark, so I turned the flash on. I wish I had used a remote flash though so it would look more natural, but I didn't take the time. I have a headache, so this is the best I could do...

207/365 - Jim - Shy Flower

( f/5 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

There are a bunch of tulips in my landscaping, but only one so far has opened up. I am guessing with tomorrow being a nice day, they will mostly come out of their shell. To get this photo I laid down on the sidewalk to get as low as possible. The live view helps sometimes for low shots, but not this low. Nikon announced the new D5000 that has a vari-angle LCD which would have been handy for this shot. Although, I would probably end up breaking it off at some point or never use it.

200/365 - Jim - Blooming Flower

( f/25 105mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Today was the first day the flowers have started blooming in my area. Tomorrow is going to be another nice day and I'm guessing that the tulips might bloom. I plucked this from our landscaping and held it in front of the grass that the sun was shining on. I don't even know what these are called, but they grow like crazy in the spring and then die off in the summer and are just a healthy leaf plant.

163/365 - Jim - Sign of Good Weather

( f/5.6 105mm 1/15 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Hopefully these tulips know the weather is going to change soon and start getting real nice out. I'm sick of the cold weather and ready to be outside more. I'm sure you will see one of these flowers on here once they bloom.

107/365 - Sherri - Wall Flower

( f/2.7 6mm 1/64 sec ISO 80 Kodak Easyshare C813 )

My guest blogger today is my sister. She sent me the picture, but didn't really give me a good description, so I'll just paste part of the email.

Here is plant. I tried taking pictures of a bamboo plant which is my favorite...but didn't go well. My camera sucks. 8. something pixels. Oh, well, it was fun. This was off my wall in the hall way. I used my lamp in my living room that has an umbrella type outside around it to try to make it look good....ha.