The Lake

If you belong to my family, “the lake” can only mean one place. Here are some pics from this afternoon.

The Rose

The other day I leaned over the fence and caught this picture of one of our neighbor’s roses. I’ve been trying to get more proficient with Photoshop Elements, and after a lot of fits and starts, I think the image is finished. It’s presently on my webpage, I’ve entered a crop of it at MacroDay, and had it printed this afternoon. It seems to be pretty good in all its incarnations  (or would that be inroses?). Anyway, here’s a before and after animation for your viewing pleasure:

Sunset

Last night I went for a (2 mile!) walk along the waterfront. It was near sunset and the light was pretty good. Looks like they had the same light in Iowa at about the same time. Anyway, here are a few pictures.

Tonight’s Walk

We went for a walk to Carter Lake tonight. Here are a couple of pics from there and then a few of Jan’s first rose of the season.

From the Zoo

Some from Henry Doorly Zoo this afternoon.

Spring has Sprung

The grass is greening up, the trees are finally budding, and, most importantly, there are pretty things outdoors to take pictures of again! Here are a few from Heartland Park.

FlipBac on the FZ28

In response to a thread on Flickr, here are some pix of my FZ28 with the Flipbac installed. Sorry about the quality – I had to use my old Fuji S700, which didn’t like the lighting conditions (and which I’ve partially forgotten how to use).

Here’s the FZ28 with the Flipbac installed and closed:

And here it is with the FlipBac opened downward. Note that you have full use of the LCD:

Here with it opened to the side:

Here it is in use opened to the side:

And in use opened downward:

It’s hard to see the reflected image in the pics, but maybe you can see the reversal of image and trapezoidal distortion, both of which make using the FlipBac quite an adjustment.

Some Animals for the Grandkids

Jan had the week off, so we spent some time wandering around the area (mostly in Iowa). Didn’t get any really great pictures, but here are a bunch of animals that the grandkids should enjoy. First off, some from Hitchcock Nature Center.

This is a cedar waxwing:

And we think this is a bluebird:

These next are from DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.

This is a woodpecker. Probably a yellow-bellied sapsucker:

Maybe a sandpiper:

A really bad pic of a deer:

And another not-so-great one of an owl:

The rest of these are from Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, where we took Ryan and Sam yesterday:

Some kind of finch:

And another probable finch. I like this pic:

Lion:

And, prairie dogs:

Love you, grandkids!

High Art

In keeping with recent blogs by my daughters, I present this drawing, done by a young visitor to our church last Sunday while I was serving communion.

No Soap…

This week’s MacroDay Challenge is “Radio.” Here are my out-takes. Finalist is in my macro gallery.