The Green Mile

When I came face to face with this fella I thought he was a mosquito, and then I realized he was a Crane fly.  All I can say is good for him.  It bought him a pardon.

Hey, Little Fella

Sometimes when I'm lying in the grass peering through that big ol' macro lens I'm suprised by what I bump into.  Like this cute little guy.  I spent a full fifteen minutes watching him slide around in the mulch in my flower bed.  Fascinating. 

Had it been a garden snake?  I would have been fascinated from afar.  Very afar. 

Out Back

Winter may be kicking us around, but there are still signs of life in nature. If you look closely.

I Like 'Em

While traipsing around the woods behind my house this past weekend with the macro lens, I stumbled across the most interesting little plants. I say stumbled because I literally tripped on a vine and grabbed a branch to keep it from whacking me in the head. The branch was attached to a tree that was covered in lichens, and I thought visually they were very intriguing.

Which prompted me to read up on them a little. And that prompted me to share my new found information with you. Because that’s what bloggers do, they share. And share some more. Until they’ve over-shared. So here you go, ten things you may or may not know about lichens.

1. They come in many colors. Most of the yellow ones are poisonous.

2. The form of a lichen is determined by the genetic material of its fungal partner. Sounds a lot like marriage to me.

3. Some lichens are gelatinous. To which I say, “Eww”.

4. Most are asexual. Calm down, Sean Hannity, they don’t want to get married.

5. That makes me wonder what I’m looking at here.

6. Lichens are often the first to settle in places without soil, making up the sole vegetation in some extreme environments such as high mountain elevations. Some survive in deserts and others on frozen soil of the Arctic.

7. The European Science Agency has discovered that lichens can survive unprotected in space.

8. There is an ongoing lichen growth problem on Mount Rushmore that requires the employment of mountain climbers to clean the monument. Does that mean somebody regularly picks Thomas Jefferson’s nose?

9. Different kinds of lichens are sometimes eaten. In northern Europe they’ve been cooked as a bread, porridge, pudding, soup, or salad. Northern peoples in North America and Siberia traditionally eat the partially digested Reindeer Lichen after they remove it from the pouch of caribou or reindeer that have been killed. I don’t want to eat anything found in an animal’s pouch.

10. The hair on these lichens makes me laugh like a middle schooler.

The Fence

Sometimes when I'm taking pictures I get fixated on one item and end up with 200 odd pictures of that item because I couldn't stop playing with angles and lighting. Like this fence around a tiny chapel at a local tourist destination.

The chapel and the rest of the grounds around it, including a fabulous restaurant, are just covered in beautiful Christmas lights this time of year, and frankly, I got the seat of my britches and coat very dirty clamoring around on the ground taking pictures of the decorations while we were waiting for our table.

Antique iron fences are one of my favorite things, and I love, love, love this replica because of the crosses on top of the spindles.

There are now about three dozen people in western Kentucky who are wondering who that crazy lady on the ground at Patti's was last weekend.

If I Traveled Every Place My Soul Wandered, I'd Never Stay In One Place

When I stumbled upon this little creek, I had the urge to follow it as far as I could, even though I didn't know where it would lead. To get my feet wet and to bake my face in the sunshine. To become a vagabond and live off the land, letting geography take me where it led me.

As it was, I sat on a rock for a satisfying moment, snapped a picture to savor later and returned to real life.

Shout!

So I shot this wedding this past weekend. And it was a blast. And now I have 538 pictures to review and edit. I purposefully didn’t look at them yesterday because I have this issue where the first time I look at a batch of portraits I don’t feel like I did a very good job with them, and I get really critical of myself. Once I start editing them and looking at them closely I start thinking they’re okay and by the time I’m finished I usually like them. I knew I needed to rest a little and clear my head before I touched them or else I’d be a big old mess of despair when I went through them. I think it’s a security thing since I’m so new to all of this. I was nervous going into this because I’m not a professional, and I don’t photograph weddings for a living. But the bride and her family had faith in me, so I put on my big girl drawers and told myself that if they had seen my previous work and thought I was capable of doing it then I should believe in myself just as much. I just ate the elephant one bite at a time, starting with the beauty shop session Saturday morning and working through the wedding party shoot, family pictures and the wedding.

Overall, I’m happy with them. There are several nice portraits of the couple suitable for framing and several beauty shots and fun shots that are appropriate for the book the bride wants to put together. What struck me as interesting though was how much I liked the pictures of the reception. I have to say it was the most fun wedding reception I’ve ever been to. It truly was a celebration. The dance floor filled up on the first song and stayed that way all night. They were still going strong when I left at 10:45pm. Even the bride’s mom and dad who I'm told don’t normally dance burned up the dance floor. There was a rousing rendition of Shout that included mom.
And even grandma.
A great father daughter dance.
And even a little do so do-ing by the bride and groom.

Who each took a turn at solos.
It was a great night filled with lots of memory making, and I’m glad they asked me to be a part of it. Wedding photography is hard work, and I’m sure some brides are not as fun or easy to work with as J., but I would definitely do another wedding. I’ve decided elephant is kind of tasty.

Boy, Are My Knees Relieved

I have been trying like crazy to photograph some dragonflies. They are fidgety little suckers. They just won’t sit still, and I’ve tried every way in the world to catch one on a memory card. I see them when I’m busy and don’t have my camera. They tease me by flitting around my head and disappearing. I see them everywhere but home, and when I do see them they’re downright elusive. I have squatted in the garden until my knees locked. I’ve hidden in the neighbor’s flowers, and I spent a fair amount of time Sunday stomping around the muddy and poo filled banks of a pond at a friend’s cattle farm where about a dozen of them danced and dived all around me, never landing long enough for me to snap a decent picture. I’ve been in a bit of a panic about it because it’s dragonfly and butterfly season around here right now, and my window of opportunity to get some pictures is fast running out. Another week and I’ll be out of luck for another year. What a tragedy that would be.

Enter my lovely assistant, Hubby. He gets sucked into my shenanigans all of the time, and he’s watched me for days bouncing around the yard in pursuit of dragonflies. Last night when he walked the dog at bedtime he saw a lovely green dragonfly by the garage door. He shooed it inside the garage and closed the door so I could find Miss Dragonfly this morning. I did. The only problem was she didn’t want to cooperate. She wanted to hang onto the ceiling, out of lens reach. (See, I REALLY need that 70-200mm lens.) He tried carefully shooing her onto the end of a broom and bringing her down to eye level. But after several attempts at that I told him to turn her loose because she was obviously distressed. I know it’s just a bug, but I can’t stand to see critters in distress. Just ask my brother about the great frog incident of 1977. I’ll never shoot a BB gun again.

Hubby guided her onto the broom and set her on the flowers next to the garage. I figured she would zip off into the wild blue yonder, so I picked up my bag to leave for work. Much to my surprise, Miss Dragonfly didn’t go anywhere. Perhaps, she was tired or hungry. Whatever the reason, she stayed put. There she sat, bathed in the warm early morning sunlight, with glistening wings. It was as if the photography gods had placed her there, just for me. I said, “Thank ya’ Jesus,” and grabbed my camera. I snapped away, sweating in my dress clothes and getting wet cut grass all over my feet. I didn’t care. I was in dragonfly heaven. It was bliss, I tell ya’. Hubby just watched and laughed. I have to hang onto that man. Few men would put up with my nonsense. He gets a “production assistant” credit for these photos.

I'm In Love With Bugs

Who would have thought locusts could be so cute?

I just had to get really close and look past that crusty exterior. You know, like we have to do with people sometimes.