Macro Playtime

Santa was good to me this year- especially in the photography department!  Under my tree, I found some Cokin ND filters, a download code for onOne’s Perfect Photo Suite, and a ballhead for my tripod!!! Within a day or two, I had the ND filters figured out and the new software installed, but attaching the ballhead to my tripod required a trip to the hardware store for the correct sized Allen wrenches. Yesterday, I put the ballhead through its paces when I used it to set up some macro shots.

The first is a detail shot of a small Christmas tree made from gold wire, and the second is (obviously!) a pinecone.

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Looking Back

I seldom take photos in our back yard.  When you look out our back windows you see a nice patio, a low wall, some rocks, a couple birdhouses- and then an abrupt rock covered slope.  One of this week’s Flickr topics is looking back, so I decided to do a literal interpretation and take a photo looking into the backyard. I actually looked UP and back and found a tree (ours? our upslope neighbors’?) which I liked silhouetted against the blue sky. I had fun doing a collage of two different photos of the same tree in color and black and white, then added two layers of anne and one of she loves you yeah from Kim Klassen.

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I’m linking up with Friday Finds on kimklassencafe.com.

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‘Twas the day after Christmas. . .

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great day- full of gifts, cooking, and eating- and we even caught a movie! It was just the three of us- my husband, our son and myself.  We were sorely missing a big chunk of our family (our daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons), but were able to connect with them through facetime, texted photos, and a phone call. All in all a lovely day.

Today’s photo is a detail from the beautiful and fragrant sage wreath made by our daughter for our front door. It is so pretty- and so special to us because she made it herself!  Thanks, Caity! <3<3<3

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Textured with ecru from Kim Klassen’s Cloth and Paper collection.

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Catching up

Inspired by my friend, Carol’s posting of her overlooked (and gorgeous!) hummingbird photos,  here are a few of my photos from the last couple weeks that didn’t make the blog:

Another view from our driveway – notice the P for Prescott on the hill-

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A leaf on our snow day-

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Two more driveway views (I’m lazy that way. . .), at sunrise-

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Top photo textured with ecru from Kim Klassen; bottom photo textured with Mumbai, Depression Glass, and Brood from Jessica Drossin

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Arizona’s Christmas City

We spent a very cold hour or so wandering around Prescott’s Courthouse Square just after sunset last night looking at the lights and enjoying the festive atmosphere. My flickr group’s topic was front and center, an easy one for me as we walked around all sides of the imposing courthouse building.

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Here are a few more shots give an idea here of just how MANY tree trunks are lit up and how each side of the courthouse is decorated slightly differently from the others. The top two images were taken as we started our walk and the others after we had walked to the other side and it was getting dark.

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White Christmas?

To start things off on a positive note, I did some Christmas baking!

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I had hoped for some beautiful snow photos on my blog today. We had snow predicted for last night, but all we got at our house was rain with a few snowflakes and some sleet. Nothing stuck (unless you count puddles).  And then we woke up to fog- fog in Arizona!?!?! I might as well be in the Bay Area! Here is the view from my desk window:

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Basil

When I visited Carol last week, I kept coming back to the basil in her back yard, which made a beautiful subject for my camera as I experimented with two of her lenses. The first two shots were taken with her 70-200 f/4 and the last with her 24-70 f/2.8; both are dream lenses!

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Carol kept urging me to post one of my basil shots and call it “What a pity, Basil.”  I had no idea what she was talking about! She finally explained here. 

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I Heart Christmas

My talented and creative friend, Debbie, made this sweet ceramic heart for our Christmas tree this year. In fact, if you walk around my house, you will see quite a few items handmade by Debbie! We are so lucky! ❤

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Textured with rue, magic film, and desert from Kim Klassen’s cloth and paper collection.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

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Little White Lights

Last night we returned home from an all too quick trip to California, where we managed to reconnect with many of our friends, despite the last minute notice and short time frame.  As I wrote in my last post, my friend, Carol, put us up for a couple nights in the Sacramento area while my husband had an appointment.  We drove down to the Bay Area Friday, where I dropped in on my school (where I had taught first grade for 23 years) and visited with some of my very dearest friends and colleagues. Saturday was a whirlwind- a visit with our HeartMath class at Unity of Walnut Creek, lunch out with a group from the class, afternoon coffee with two of my teaching partners (and dear friends), and a wonderful dinner at Sailor Jack’s with Jan and Jack (Jan is one of my Rapunzel friends- and the only one who was able to make the drive over from Petaluma this time).  I know we will be coming back, and we’ll catch up with those we didn’t manage to see on this latest visit.

As we walked out of Sailor Jack’s Saturday night, Lonnie said, “Take a picture of the lights.”  He knows how much I love the little white lights that dot all the trees along First Street (all year long now!). I only had my cell phone and just took the one shot, which I posted on Facebook.  Last night, I converted it to black and white, which I may like even better.

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Carol’s Hummer

We are visiting California this week (my husband has a business meeting), so we spent the night at my friend, Carol’s house. Carol is an avid photographer and lover of all things BIRD. She rescues hawks, and is the official photographer for the California Foundation for Birds of Prey. She is also the proud owner of Bobo, an Amazon parrot who is the real caller of shots at Carol’s house. I have photographed Bobo before for this blog, so today I took some photos in Carol’s back yard, which is a haven for the hummingbirds who bathe in her fountain and eat out of her feeders. Carol let me play with two of her favorite lenses (attached to my camera), the Nikon 70-200 f4 and the 24-70 f2.8, both of which are fabulous. The photo below was taken with the 70-200 and edited with Snapseed on the iPad.

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Lit Up!

Prescott is known as Arizona’s Christmas City (as well as Everybody’s Hometown), and they do take decorating seriously downtown.  Having missed the tree lighting Saturday (cold, windy, with snow arriving any moment. . .), we walked around the square late this afternoon and looked at the lights. Holy Moly! This is just a small part of the square, but gives you an idea of the color scheme. I shot this with my iPhone; I hope to come back for more photos soon.

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