My Favorite Photos of 2012

Since I started blogging in 2010, I’ve done a wrap-up of my favorite photos of the year.  They aren’t always my more “technically” good photos, but photos I’ve come to enjoy for one reason or another.  I believe these photos have all appeared on the blog already this year, but that is because I am always anxious to share my favorites with you!  The photos that follow are in chronological order approximately one for each month of the year, but in one case I didn’t find anything I liked all that much in a month (February) and for April and July I couldn’t make up my mind between two shots, so you get them both for a baker’s dozen total.

In January, I was finally able to get a close-up shot of a Mr. Cardinal that made me happy:

In March, I felt lucky to grab this shot of a soaring hawk, with feathers strongly defined:

In April, I went on and on about one of my favorite vacations of all time, the cruise we took. Meghan and Sarah, first day on the ship and taken with my Blackberry, remains a favorite:

There were so many beautiful sights from the cruise, but I wanted to share a shot that I love for its simplicity:

The warm, turquoise Carribbean water brings me back to those precious days when there was little to worry about and happy memories were being made.

May brought me a picture of one of my favorite types of flowers, a bearded iris, that I was very pleased with how it came out. It was the header picture here on the blog until very recently:

Ah, June! The end of the school year, the start of my favorite season. Yummy raspberries are a nice representation of the many good parts of summer.

July is the month when my butterfly bushes start going wild and bring many winged visitors. This monarch was one of my best butterfly shots this year:

I just love this photo of Sarah from her birthday party. Her braces had been removed and her smile was big and genuine:

As part of a photo hunt that everyone really seemed to enjoy, the “Ends of the Earth”, I took this photo in August from our little mountain here in town:

In September, my summer dreams faded away with the weather. This dahlia reminds me of the warmth of the afternoons that I continued to enjoy as long as I could:

October brought a blog-along walk over at Robin’s Life in the Bogs. I found myself doing some quiet contemplation while watching birds appear before my lens. I loved this sweet little chickadee:

I was happily surprised to have the opportunity to photograph an eastern bluebird for the first time in November. It isn’t a wonderful photo, but I was thrilled with the chance to get this picture:

How ironic that I spent December wishing for a gentle blanket of snow to take pretty pictures in and then ended up sharing this adventure with you just yesterday! (If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead, have a peek!) I still really like this picture of my new snowman ornaments, even if I could now do without the sentiment:

Happy New Year everyone. I hope that 2013 brings you good health, and paraphrasing the words of a fellow blogger, enough of what you need most.

I just couldn’t let September end this way!

Gee, what a slow and blue blogging month it has been for me.  The End of the Earth and the End of Summer – that’s all I blogged about.  I couldn’t let it end this way.  I did get out and take some cheerful pictures last weekend, the first weekend of autumn.

In the comments of the “Transition” post that I linked to up there, Michaela and  I were having a little discussion about taking pictures of pretty flowers in someone else’s yard and whether we should do it.  For several years now, I’ve admired the dahlias in the front yard of a house up the street a little ways from here.  They are right along the sidewalk, and I’ve always meant to tote my camera along and take some pictures.  This time I finally did it.  I’m afraid this is really not a  great representation of all the beauty in this yard.  I still felt a little funny shooting someone else’s flowers, so I just did it quickly, didn’t change lenses when I probably should have and got back in my car really quickly!

This last shot gives you the proof of where I was standing, plus it is a really cool looking dahlia:

The dogs and I also went on our first walk of the autumn season.  There were still plenty of wildflowers in bloom and the air was warm, so it did help ease my transition and my mood.

I thought this looked like a little bouquet that Mama Nature had left behind:

All along the path, I found little reminders that there is beauty to be had in all seasons.

In addition, as October approaches (would you believe I just typed “August” there instead of “October”?  Apparently my wishful thinking continues), I hope to rejuvenate my blogging habits.  Robin, over at Life in the Bogs has provided links to NaBloPoMo’s blogging prompts for October.  While I am sure I will not make the commitment to blogging every day in October, the prompts provide some interesting food-for-blog-thought.  I’m hoping to tackle a few – maybe you’d like to also?

Robin provides more inspiration in her idea for a group blog walk.  She had mentioned over the summer about how she’d like to take a really long walk someplace she doesn’t always walk, take photographs and blog about it.  She suggested some of us might enjoy doing the same.  I may have helped a little bit in this inspiration by suggesting that she turn it into a blog-along type of event by choosing a time period to complete the walk and allowing us to share our blog posts with her.  She chose the week of October 8th, and I’m hoping to participate if Columbus Day provides this area with some nice weather.  I hope you’ll think about walking along with us.

I will have to decide soon if there will be an October photo hunt too. If inspiration strikes me, I will try to post something during the first week of the month.

Now, that’s a bit better, right? No more gloomy funk. Here’s a better kind of funk to end the month 😉

Portrait of a Summer Evening

I don’t have to tell you it is hot.  Seems most of the country has been experiencing a heat wave over the last few days.  Thankfully, at least around here, it seems to be breaking today.  Highs should only be in the upper 80’s and we have a chance for showers throughout the day.  Due to the heat of the day, evening has been the more pleasant time to head outside, and it is a nice time for taking pictures.

The girls came outside for a swim and hand-stand practice:

The day lillies glow in the evening:

One of my dahlias showed a deep red that I have difficulty capturing in the daytime:

The sky was painted with swirly clouds:

And some of my favorite summer creatures came around for a photo session:

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Hummingbird moth

and my hummingbird took his evening post.

Daphne says, “I don’t care what you think, Mom, it is still too hot!”

And the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down

This is what it feels like here today, so I thought to myself, “Self, how about taking some pictures of all the plants you bought at the garden center yesterday?  Good idea, Self.  That is certainly more cheerful than pouring rain.”

Every May, I make a trip to my local garden center, 16 Acres Garden Center, to stock up on veggies, herbs, annuals, and usually a couple perennials to add to my gardens and landscape.  Years ago, when my mother still lived in the area, my mother and I, and sometimes my sister, would make what we called the annual “pilgrimage” to 16 Acres to spend gift certificates.  Now the trip is usually just me, but I look forward to it each year.  This is my take for this year:

Tomatoes, jalepenos, cucumbers, zucchini, basil and parsley are pictured here.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the other hot peppers that I want in stock.  I’ll still be on the lookout for cayennes and thai dragons.

This tray contains some filler items for my containers like the spike in the back, and the ivy in the front, marigolds for the border of my garden, a bee balm perennial plant (supposedly hummingbirds love them), and some snapdragons.  Garden tip: I plant marigolds along my garden fence to help discourage critters from being attracted to my veggies; many critters don’t like the smell.  To further discourage exploration of my vegetables, I plant the hot peppers just inside the garden fence.  This combination has been working for me for many years now.  Give it a try if you have critter issues.  Even if you don’t like hot peppers, you could make some hot sauce or salsa with them or give them away to your neighbors who do like them.  Or if you are local, you could give them to me! 😉

I thought some of the other lovely specimens I purchased yesterday deserved their own photos.  Even though there is not much sunshine to be had today, I found a nice little protected spot near my front step to set up these shots.  The use of the nifty-fifty lens gave me plenty of light and a pretty focus.

Dwarf dahlia

Dianthus

Verbena

Geranium.  I know one of our blogging friends says she doesn’t like geranium, but I think maybe even Tracy might have to admit this one is kind of pretty, maybe Tracy?

In addition to the bee balm, this is the other perennial I bought this year – columbine.  I was reminded of columbine in this lovely post of Robin’s.  Robin hadn’t seen columbines before and was really taken by them – so much so they are in her current blog header.  I have a few columbine around the yard, but don’t really get a ton of blooms.  I also have some kind of strange looking double columbine (click to see my Flickr photo), but I don’t find them as photogenic as the traditional single blooms.

I’ll still need a few more purchases to complete my plant shopping for this spring, but yesterday was a good start.  If anyone local spies those peppers I’m looking for please let me know!  I also have my eyes out for a trumpet vine; I’d be happy for a suggestion of a place to find one.

As Summer Fades Away

I haven’t put up a new post in a few days, and I’m thinking that will likely be the case for me now that school has begun.  The girls went back last week, and I went back to work, and dance starts up next week – all of which makes for more running around, and less picture-taking time. I’m still planning to shoot as much as I can, but the posts may not come as often.  We’ll see, I guess.  I found a few pictures today with subjects I’ve used already this summer, but something about them seemed to have that “summer is fading away” feeling, which is the way that I am feeling today.

Zinnia in late afternoon sun

The dragonfly, stopping by.. I liked the way this one was lit and the leaf “bokeh” in the background.

I loved the curl of the tongue in this revisit of the hummingbird moth.  I remembered to push up the shutter speed this time (1/1000) to get some stop action.  It was bright afternoon light, so I was able to keep a small aperture (5.6) to go with my now “famous” aperture mantra.

The color of this little dahlia struck me one afternoon.  Many of my purchased annuals surprised me this summer with colors I didn’t expect.  I assumed it was going to be yellow when I saw the bud, but then I noticed the tinge of pink around the edges, almost like it had a late summer sunburn, to remind it of a lovely day in the sun.

That’s my short, late-night post for today.  I had another planned for you but Flickr or my internet connection was acting up earlier this evening, so it wasn’t to be.

Thinking, Learning, Blooming

I want to start by saying thank you to all the photographers who have been reading this blog and giving me advice, especially since I got the new camera.  I’m spending time thinking about shots when I compose them.  I’m trying to remember what I have learned from the many awesome photos I’ve seen on your blogs.  I feel like I am beginning to bloom with my photography skill.   The zinnia above shows one of my better attempts to fill the frame with the zoom lens and keep the shot in focus.  I’ve unfortunately realized that just because a shot looks focused on the LCD, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is focused!

I’ve been thinking about composition.  I remembered Scott’s post about looking at any picture two different ways when I took these daylilies.  I thought they told a little story about daylilies: past, present and future. But I couldn’t decide which way looked better.  What do you think?

I’ve been thinking about white balance and exposure compensation.

I’m learning to take chances and to try to focus on the details.

I’m looking for the beauty and interest in everyday things.

I may be a late bloomer, but I hope that I am blooming and growing.

(P.S. Happy Birthday to Hubby today! 🙂 )