Macro View of a Cactus

I took this image with my Lensbaby, +10 macro filter. I was trying a few other things today and this is not quite as good as yesterday’s image. I like the colors and the composition. It is a very old cactus and we have had it for many years. The yard is looking pretty nice now as a lot of the geraniums are blooming and the fruit trees are full of buds. The lemons on the lemon tree look like grapefruits! Willie does a very nice job. There is always a lot to do.

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Lensbaby Macro Shot

I am so proud of this photograph! I thought I would try my +10 macro filter on my Lensbaby 2.0. I had only used the +4 macro filter before. Now the +10 is  my favorite. I was finally able to get a good focal point and so lucky I was able to get this bee. Isn’t it great? When I went outside, there were a few bees buzzing around my basil plant that is very large and has a lot of flowers on it. I will work on getting closer to the bee next time, but they really like to buzz around a lot!

This is a great Lensbaby macro photo…

We had some of the fresh basil from that plant on the spaghetti I made earlier in the week. It was great! The day started out very overcast and even a little chilly. I have been waking up early, so when I went out to get the newspaper at 5:30, it was pretty cool outside, and oh so nice and quiet! Willie took the dogs for a good walk today at Central Park. He said Donnan was really good until they went into the dog park. Why can’t he learn from Kyla? Willie said Kyla kept an eye on Donnan and didn’t go very far away from him. The Dodger’s are playing the Cardinals – has not been a good series for them! We’ll see how it goes!

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Faster Than the Speed of Light!

See my little baby boy running with a tennis ball in his mouth? He had just taken the ball from Kyla and he appears to be running away from her. They go back and forth chasing each other. It was very unusual for Kyla to have a tennis ball. I went outside to take some photos because Willie yelled to me that Kyla was keeping the ball from Donnan – so very unusual. Donnan has not much interest in balls and Kyla has even less. I know this is not as sharp as it should have been, but I think he looks great!  Quite a contrast between today’s photo and yesterday’s!

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This is Budley

Isn’t he a cute golden retriever? He is a member of my friend Robin’s family up at Blue Skeye Ranch. I was going through some images today I took up there and I wanted to share this photo with you. He is so very sweet and a very good boy. He gets along with everyone and is a joy to be around. Robin has three other dogs and they are all very good. I took this photo along with many others the last time I was up there. I will be up there again in less than two weeks to shoot photos Robin wants to do as a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness, an important cause. Isn’t he a sweety? As you can probably tell, I literally layed flat on the floor to get this photo!

Budley up at Blue Skeye Ranch…

Well, I met with Carol today to discuss the calendar Robin wants to do. Carol was real good at playing devils advocate and came up with a lot of good questions. I hope Robin calls me soon so we can go over all of the details. We do not have a lot a time and will be rushed to get it done in her time frame. But it can be done and we will do it! Carol and I had lunch at Super Mex today. I haven’t been there in a while and the chicken burrito was great! It seems Willie and I used to go there about once a week, but times have changed and I think it has probably been close to a year! Have a good evening!

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A Bright Summer Sunflower

This is a big sunflower growing in Larry and Shelley’s backyard. Shelley said they are very easy to grow and that they grow very fast.  They have quite a few that they have planted and also some that have been started by birds dropping seeds. The colors are so pretty and bright. Aren’t they a beautiful  part of summer? This coming Saturday they are having a family barbecue and I am looking forward to seeing everyone I haven’t seen since the wedding in May!

A beautiful sign of summer…

Yellow was always a favorite color of my mother’s. She would have really enjoyed these flowers. I took some time today to look at some of the other PhotoWalk photos from around the world. There are some beautiful images and I am very honored to be a part of such a wonderful thing. I spent some time on my gallery today and added some images. They were galleries I had on my website but I am putting everything  on the new site. They do a nice job of presenting the slide shows. I have a little more work to do and soon I will launch the new look of my website!

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Don’t You Love Fresh Asparagus?

I bought this today because I love asparagus and it was on sale! We will enjoy it either tonight or tomorrow.  I like to put them on a cookie sheet, add a little olive oil and garlic salt and then roast them in the oven. This is also good with a little parmesan cheese grated on top. This is a thin (pencil) asparagus which I prefer to the thick stemmed kind. I used my fixed 50mm lens for this photo at f9 and I used my photocube. It is great and I love it! I told you no PhotoWalk photo today and I kept my promise!

Crisp fresh asparagus…

Larry came by today to pick up a table . We were talking outside and Donnan was with us. That little dog was so scared that when Larry went to pet him, he cringed and urinated and quivered. He knows Larry and Larry was very nice to him. Why is he so afraid of everything?  Larry said he seems to be getting worse. I do not know what to do. Should I take him to the doctor and put him on drugs or will a trainer be able to alleviate his fears? Why does he have these fears? He is such a sweetie, so what is going on? I hope someone can help us!

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My Very Last PhotoWalk Image (I Promise!)

Today was the last day to download our photos to the PhotoWalk site. I had some work to do and decisions to make as to what two photos I chose. This was not one of them. I also selected 16 or 17 images from the PhotoWalk and put them on my gallery site. Please have a look. I have shown you a few of them here, but the majority of them you have not seen. I decided to put together this panorama today. I am happy with the result.

Laguna Beach twilight panorama…

There were a lot of families at the beach having a real good time. As you can see, this is a South facing beach. The sun is setting straight ahead in the West. As I said before, I spent the majority of the day sitting in front of the computer. I was able to make some spaghetti sauce for dinner. It was very good with angel hair pasta and a little garlic toast. I am a good cook – have I ever told you that? I learned a lot from my mother and I enjoy watching the Food Network and the cooking shows on PBS. Have a good Sunday!

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Do You Have a Sweet Tooth?

Willie went absolutely crazy when he saw this pastry in a merchants window. His mouth was drooling, but he did not buy anything! Didn’t do that much for me – I am more of a crunchy cookie person myself!  I took this in Laguna at the PhotoWalk. I had my polarizing filter on my lens to take better photos in storefront windows, but it did not work too well for me. This one worked somewhat – I just had trouble with the florescent lights at the top of the case – but I think it worked out alright.

Some delicious (and high calorie) pastries…

I got some sad news today. I learned that my cousin Denny Smith died three days ago. I have tried a few times to find him, but like everyone else, I assumed I had all the time in the world. He was only one year older than me! At one time as young kids and teenagers, we were very close and very good friends. Our lives took us in different directions and, well, what can I saw… He was the son of my mother’s sister Mary, who died at the very young age of 45. His brother, Tommie, sent an email to my brother Frankie and he forwarded it to me. I am very,very sad and very, very sorry. Will we learn a lesson from this? Probably not, but, if there is someone out there you want to make contact with, do not put it off thinking you have all the time in the world.

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Some Great Looking Watermelons

A good ripe, sweet watermelon is definitely my favorite summer fruit. Why do they have to be so expensive? The average price around here is $5.99/each. That is too much money for a piece of fruit! We have only purchased one this year and that was when they were on sale for $2.00. I can just look at them and dream and maybe take a photo like I did today. What can I give up so I don’t feel guilty about buying a watermelon?

Some great looking watermelons at the grocery store…

I had a very nice lunch today with my friend Robin who has asked me to photograph a calendar for Breast Cancer Awareness. We made a lot of plans that need to go into effect right away. My friend Carol has volunteered to help me out so that will be great. The calendars need to be done and ready to sell on September 25th. I am hoping we will be able to do it all in one day – but it will probably need two. She will be getting sponsors for each page so that will help her raise more funds. Hopefully it will be a big success for her and all of her friends!

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Santa Ana English Pub

I took this at a pub in Santa Ana through some glass that was quite beveled and looked like a coke bottle bottom. I really like the way the sunlight coming through the North facing window and the table look behind the glass. You can definitely see the distortion. I hope you like it. I gave it a little of an infrared filter with a touch of blue so it has a different look to it. Let me know what you think.

A great pub in Santa Ana with a great looking menu…

It was a nice warm summer day today, not too hot, at least not yet. It will happen and when it does I will probably be complaining to you.  Willie was in Long Beach for a while today. I received an email from an old friend today. We have known each other since the 3rd grade and hooked up at our HS reunion two years ago. She is having a luncheon for her mother’s birthday on Aug. 1st and that happens to be the day Larry and Shelley are having a family barbecue. I haven’t seen her mother since Larry was a baby. It seems whenever she invites me to something, I already have something going on. It is just not fair! I have to arrange something to see her folks. She was 3 days too late going to visit my mother. You know me, most of my week-ends are spent at home with nothing to do!

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A Lifesaving Lifeguard

I was hoping when I took this photograph that it would be a good one. I was right and I am very pleased with the result. I see it as a little posterized, but I think the image can handle it. Do you think it could use some more adjustment to eliminate some of the posterization? I would really like your opinion on this. Maybe just on the water to his right. He never stopped scanning the water in front of him. What a responsibility!

What is it with Lifeguards and Paramedics – is being real cute a job requirement…?

Annette and I had a great time at lunch today. We sat on the patio at Corner Bakery for about two hours. There was a very cool ocean breeze blowing. We just stayed out of the sun! We talked about Photoshop, dreamweaver, web design, lynda.com and so much other stuff. We have so much in common and it is great to have friends like that. But, I guess that is what a friend is! The dogs have been enjoying their ice cubes (we call them cubes) and they get very excited when we break them out!

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Blowing in the Wind

This was hanging down at the beach outside a little store. It was whirling and twirling around. However, I do not know what to call it! It is not a flag or a banner, but like a stationary kite hanging from a pole. I thought it was very pretty and colorful. I stopped the action for the photo but maybe I should have lowered my shutter speed so you could see some movement! Or if I had had a video camera, I could have shown you the whole show!

A great summer image from Laguna Beach…

I am going to meet my friend Annette for lunch tomorrow at Corner Bakery Cafe. She has never been there. Have you? I heard back from Randi today (my nephew Geoff’s girlfriend) who said it was very hot and an unsuccessful week-end for all of the Monises at Fontana Raceway. I thanked her for alleviating my guilt for not going – she said I made a wise decision.  It was quite warm today and I spent time sorting and working on some of my photos from the PhotoWalk. I will download some of them at the end of the week. Until tomorrow!

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Beach Volleyball!

Here is my second photo from the Laguna Beach PhotoWalk. It is a common sight and I believe it is very representative of the lifestyle of Laguna Beach. There are many volleyball nets on the beach where Laguna Canyon Road meets Pacific Coast Highway. You can tell from the long shadows that it is late in the afternoon. I will be downloading my images to a Flicker account our Leader set up.

Beach volleyball on the sand in Laguna Beach…

We didn’t make it out to Fontana today for the races. I hope it was a good day for everyone! I am sure I will hear about  it later. We were over at Larry and Shelley’s for a little while this afternoon. They have been doing a lot of yard work and everything is looking really nice. We took the dogs with us and they had fun running around the yard. Willie is going to barbecue us a steak for dinner. He does that really well. We will split the steak and split a potato I put in the oven. I am sipping a vodka tonic he made for me and all is right with the world!

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Laguna Beach Photo Walk

Today was finally the day for over 25,000 people to be part of the 2009 Photo Walk. It was a beautiful evening in Laguna Beach, CA, with a great turn-out of fellow photographers. Willie and I met some very nice people. Our group leader was Alan Sisto, a professional photographer himself. Our friends Carol and Bill were there and it is always nice to spend time with them. I finally decided what photo to show you from today!

The photographers are ready to start walking…

Dinner was good at BJ’s in Laguna Niguel. Overall, I think it was a successful evening. The weather was great, in the low 70’s. There were so many people at the beach! I will start going through my images and Willie’s tomorrow. Everyone was very nice and very willing to share and talk about photography. There was a wide range of equipment too – from camera phones to high end professional gear. It will be interesting to see everyone’s images when they are downloaded. Laguna Beach is beautiful. Maybe next year we will go to San Diego or Santa Barbara!

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Willie’s Orchid

Please excuse my second photo of the month of this orchid. It is so beautiful and has eight blooms now that I could not resist taking another photo to share with you. Isn’t it beautiful? It is sitting on our patio and Willie stood to block the afternoon breeze from moving the plant around. That can be a problem! There are still many buds waiting to bloom and if needed, I will share them with you. I used a  wide aperture of 5.6, but it did not blur the background very much, at least not as much as I wanted it to!

A very pretty orchid… 

I added the five star rating system to my blog today. So if you are looking at this post, please give it a rating! It was a gorgeous day today. Willie was finally feeling normal today do we took the dogs and went up to Corner Bakery Cafe for lunch. It was very nice. We sat outside, of course, and the dogs were very good. Donnan did bark a few times but, in all, he was very good. Kyla was a little lady and behaved very well. I did get some bad news from a friend today. Her and her husband found out he is going to be laid off his job in 60 days. I am very sorry. She sounded very depressed and I am sure her husband is very scared. I was hoping things were looking up for us all! Have a good week-end!

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Some Very Special Ice

I  am very happy with the way this image came out. Does it look like ice melting in the summer heat? or does it look like a pile of uncut diamonds? Well, actually, it is neither – but I won’t tell you what it is. Try to guess and let me know what you come up with. I took this with my +4 macro filter with an aperture of 4.5. I converted it to black and white but that is pretty much what it looked like originally!

What could this be…?

We have all been pretty lazy today – not doing much. I looked at some new lynda.com videos, checked out my Twitter account, did some reading on Saturday’s PhotoWalk, watched the movie Caprica. It could be an interesting TV series. Then I watched my soap (AMC) while working on the computer. Willie is still not at 100%, plus he has to take his dad to the doctor in the morning, so we will not be going to San Pedro tomorrow. It will still be there on Monday! Took Kyla over to Larry and Shelley’s last night. She loves running around their grassy back yard!

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