Victoria Grid Project January Ten Mile Point

I have loaded these 6 photos to Flickr's Victoria Grid project for January. The grid is at 10 mile point this month. When I was out shooting there was very bright sunshine. I was shooting south over the water. Despite those difficult shooting conditions I think the water ones turned out not too bad, after all.

Steve C. is getting his photos from his trip to China set up in a new album on his web site. Gorgeous landscapes. He is getting to be more and more well known for his photography and managing to sell a few, too.

Yesterday we went out to the place that used to be the George and Dragon. It is all newly renovated and looks really good. The food is pub style, but really quite good. So, next time we go to the Belfrey we will be able to have dinner here.

Beetle Blacklight Ballet

I found this lady bug in my house. I have had these beetles on my house plants for a few years now. Once in a while one will excape to the dining room table or somewhere I notice it. When I found this one I tried to do a few macro shots without very much success. Well, if you consider the size of the bug to the pen point, I guess I was having more success than I thought. I just want MORE macro which is just not possible with my Canon S3 IS, as it is not DSLR and I cannot add any macro lens or extenders... I think... I should look into that, as I can add a Canon macro 500D and others use a Raynex or some such name.

Anyway, after shooting a few of the lady bug, I got out my blacklight and fired it up. Cyrus said in one of the photo discussions that he used blacklight, overhead light and ambient light, and a ordinary lamp for lighting on one of his gorgeous dragon shots. So, here are my blacklight with just ambient light. I am calling it the Beetle Blacklight Ballet. The first photo is the Auditon..2. Signing the Contract... 3. Rehearsal... 4. Stage fright... 5. Preformance... 6. Encore

Flower Petal Art

Eileen called today. What a wonderful treat to hear from her. They are going to be in PoCo end of Nov. and might just get over to the Island. Would be great to see them. After hearing from her I read my email from Irene. Her dearest friend has recently had some very invasive surgery. Hope you heal quickly Vicki!

Tomorrow we go look at the newer camper van with a view to upgrading. Now that we have the Passat we do not seem to need the Van for running about to fetch things so often. So, the slightly wider van should be better for camping. It looked good when we saw it last week end.

Flickr has some real characters and interesting groups. So many groups of interest. Cyrus is working like mad to get his site up and running. Its gonna be one fabulous mega photo upload site, with endless up to date features. Its quite exciting to watch this site being conceived and built.

Flower Petal Art

While out shooting for the Victoria Grid Project last week I found some flowers to try shooting in macro and super macro mode, for Chrissie's Flower Petal Art group. The kale is not allowed, since its a leaf.

I made some applesauce today. The days has been sunny and lovely, deceptively warm in appearance. Was quite cool when I went out.

Magnolia

My magnolia is in bloom. The crazy thing is rather mixed up with this weather we have had, or maybe its reacting to Pat's innovative pruning .. cutting off its large branch that was sticking out over the drive-way. Trouble is the new blooming branch is growing out over the driveway. Hmmmm I wonder if the tree needs pruning? The new healthy growth looks so much better than the old.

I should get my roses pruned too. Its not the time for them to be pruned either. They are kinda close to the house, anyway. So if they die its not a big deal. I should replace the Peace rose and maybe move the Iceberg farther away from the door. Perhaps this winter, in their dormant season. Sometime after Christmas and before March 1.

On Flickr, Cyrus' MIMS group has an assignment for shooting back lighting of flowers. I was trying to get it with this magnolia bloom, but my best back lit shot is too blown out at the top. I shall have to redo it, or do a set up using a flash light for the extra light from the front. Hmmmmm. Now if only the sun would come out again.

We are having cooler, cloudy weather with only spits of rain today. We did get a nice shower a couple of days ago, though. My lawn is still brown. I had to fill the deck tub and the front garden tubs to top them up.

Some Gardening Stuff

Pat got home on Sunday. Thanks Dan and Irene for all you have done to help him get his 1912 Ford Torpedo Roadster. As the car is not yet completed or drivable, it is still in Dan's trailer. They might bring it up to us in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday Pat got some good groceries in. We had a scrumptious salad with avocado and scallops with peaches and frozen yogurt for dessert. A chardonay white wine. Yumm

This is a macro photo of the Iceberg Rose that blooms prolifically by the front door. The other one is one of the iris shots from June. I used these 2 photos on Flickr to thank Cyrus and Ken for their help in getting the ban lifted from the Canon Macro group, that this shithead control freak calling herself Captain Morgan... go figure .... put on me. The Admin of the group.. Greetz made me a Moderator along with her of the Group. Too funny. Hopefully that weed will soon be weeded out of the Canon S3 IS group. She deleted their entire Welcome thread because it was too long. Good grief what an idiot.

Gardening stuff? Oh yeah. I attached the old yellow sprinkler and it worked perfectly this year, and got some of the back watered. I filled the pond. I saw 5 of the new fish hanging around under the water fall. One of them was small like they were when I bought them. The others were twice the size. I wonder what happened to the tiny one. We had some red lettuce from the veggie garden, but the rest of the stuff is not going to amount to much. I have no idea why things are not growing in that soil. I shall have to add more manure I guess. Regular watering would help too, I guess. The yellow plums are almost ready. The first figs are starting to get brown. I need to mow the lawn and continue with dead heading, weeding and watering. In the Fall, I shall have to replace the little cedars along the fence by old weird's place. Funny how the cedars there all died but not the ones at the front that are in soil that is much more clay! The old baggage has been killing my trees.

Pete and Audree stopped in for a short visit on Saturday. Was good to see them. Hopefully we will get together with them at month's end for a week end and a trip to Steeples for a gala dinner for their anniversary. I don't know what they will do with their new little puppy. It is so cute and smart. They are getting it paper trained already and it even listens to them when they tell it to stop biting or barking.. its really just doing a natural puppy play thing, but it obeys them really well already.

Genoa Bay

This is from our trip up to Genoa Bay on the Pacific Coast Honda. I was using the wide angle converter on this shot, with the settings for quality set to wide. The lunch was good. We ate inside as most of the tables outside were reserved. It was very sunny. I got home with wind burn on my previously sunburned/wind burned speedster nose from the Antique Car run.

I loaded this to Flickr for the S3 IS group for our wide angle shots. On the matter of 72 dpi or 180 etc. dpi, Ken on Flickr has told me that it can be changed in photoshop, under Image/resize. So -- mystery solved. I think he was partially right, too in saying that it depends on the setting of photo size/quality in the camera also. I know on my scanner I can set the dpi for each scan. I haven't scanned for so long, though, I forget all that stuff. Next I have to learn to do the black backgrounds on Flickr. I hope to get a lot more of my photos tweaked. I want to get down town one day this week and shoot for the grid. I have to get the house cleaned up this week also.

I have a new book called Imperium by ___ Harris. Its about Cicero. It should be a good read. Its nice to be able to find something on the shelves besides murder mysteries and horror crap.

Reflections

From Wednesday morning while waiting to have the Bentley fitted for its decorations. I got quite a few good reflections. This was on July 31st. Some of my shots are from just within the August Grid, but taken one day early. I also have shots from a couple of months ago from Lo Jo and the whole area of the August Grid. Oh well, maybe I can go down there again. It was fun to shoot. Also, the dragon boat festival is on in 17 to 19th. I am going to miss the Splash because the wedding is the same day. Oh well.