Macro

I was the one that proposed the theme "Macro".

Fungi the size of a pinhead on a log in the Grove of the Patriarchs.

Macro is, loosely, extreme close-up of small subjects.

My last two cameras had a macro setting accessed by pressing a toggle button on the back of the camera.

lunch

My newer one does this automatically--switching between auto and macro depending on how close you are to the item you are focusing on.




I find it weird. I think I prefer the older method.






Most of the other headbangers have fancier cameras than mine. DSLRs with separate macro lenses. Their entries for today will be found linked in the sidebar.






Whether taken with a true macro lens or a pocket digital, it is a lot easier to make macros -- or nearly macros--with today's cameras that it was in the days of film.

Here's lookin' at you!

 

 

To prepare for today's theme I took the new camera out into the yard. -- well, after I tried to get shots of the ants that have been plaguing me lately. The photos above were made with my earlier cameras. Here are some of today's shots.

coreopsis

lily

yarrow

rose

Grape vine tendril grasps the support wire.



Recent Photos--Headbanger Challenge

What is this cat doing?

 

Cats being playful, and this one young, it could be most anything.

 

Stalking?

 Digging?

 What's that?

 Ah! Mousing!!!

 Playing!

 Where'd it go?

 

Lost my toy!

 

For the theme of Pictures taken recently, I present this sequence taken through the window on Sunday.

 

Not sure what the other headbangers are up to yet, but I do know that Tom the Fishing Guy is not displaying fish in his header. That is unusual. Check them out from my sidebar links.

Shadows

Trillium, I believe, spent, gone to the pod, and there its shadow.

When I go to the Anaheim Convention Center each spring, I always take a picture of the palm trees from the upper floor balconies. Why, I wonder. Don't I already have four or five sets of pictures of this scene? I like the shadows in this one.

We visit our daughters in Arizona once or twice a year. There are always interesting hikes and interesting flora and fauna. And, in this case, interesting spikey shadows.

Our older daughter in Arizona had several vacant lots in her housing development. The housing situation has settled and now there are houses on all of those lots. I was surprised by these shadows across the street.

 

But for my Shadow header, the frog in Shadow Lake (what a coincidence) throws not only his own shadow but the shadows of the rings in the water.

Shadows.

The other headbangers are linked in my sidebar. I am tired. I did a dinner honoring our volunteers this evening. Though it was a simple meal, any time you serve fifty or sixty people it is exhausting. And we must be up for an early doctor appointment tomorrow.  I am glad I remembered the header challenge for this week.

The Lord is my Shepherd

There is nothing I shall want.

Starts with a "C"

I didn't have to go far to find some things that start with C for our header challenge this week. Our trip to Arizona a couple of weeks ago yielded quite a few, and as I had not been thinking about it till I saw Fishing Guy mention it on Facebook, I was glad I had a reminder. As I am the furthest west of the group and when I do not post ahead of time am usually offered a reminder when some of those east of me post, I am either the first or the last to post.

Then totally forgot again after some stress this morning.

So I was glad to find these possibilities and more in that recent file.

Starting with a CHICKEN with a bad hair day.

LOL--that chick was sooooooo funny,

Maybe not a funny looking as the javelina, but the javelina does not start with a C.

Some more from Bearizona--first, some actual CATS:

 Bobcats, that is. A lot of the animals at Bearizona started with B--bears, buffalo, bobcats, big horn sheep. The foxes start with F but here they are CAVORTING around the COMPOUND.

We took in a spring training game while we were in the Phoenix area, so here is the CATCHER actually catching..

 

I have always said that it would be a lot shorter trip between Washington and Arizona if it weren't for that big hole in the ground.

So this time we went along it rather than totally around it--well, we went along it in order to go around it. The Grand CANYON.

 Here are some folks down in the Canyon enjoying the COLORADO River close up. The raft trip is a two week trip. The other options are to raft to this point and hike up to the rim--one week. Or hike down to the river and meet the group there and take the second half of the trip.

I wish I could have done that some time.

So what will I choose for my header? One of these or something totally different that comes to mind when I finish? What will the other headbangers do? We can find out by following the links in my sidebar.

Our Header theme for this week is recent pictures

I've had plenty of opportunity to for pictures this last week as we have been traveling. There are a lot that I have missed because I was the one driving most of the time. I do not encourage taking pictures while you are yourself behind the wheel. There were quite a few times when I would think, "oh, that would make a great picture!" So often then you have to emblazon it on your memory for your own gratification either because you must concentrate on the driving or else you were well past it before you could get the camera out.

We have had wonderful weather--almost too hot--and enjoyed the delight of presenters at our conference who had come from Chicago or other snowed in parts east. We followed that with a side trip to Arizona where our grandchildren were on Spring Break.

Here are some of these recent pictures--I must choose one for the header by the time I get to the end of the list.

Ranney was driving as we topped Satus Pass and saw Mt. Hood in the distance. Hood was not our only mountain view.

 Hi Neighbors. Two of the curious who peeked out when we stopped for gas.

 Lunchtime

 Looking down from the Convention Center balcony.

 Ears.

 More ears. We picnicked with the kids at the park for supper.

 Sunset ducks.

 Spring growth

 When we returned to the house I spotted the artwork at the new neighbors. The kids moved here in 2008 and much of the neighborhood remained vacant until another developer came in last year and filled in all the vacant lots.

Our theme this week was chosen to fill in Craver Vii's turn in naming the theme. We miss his participation in our challenge, as he added some wackiness each week. I hope that when his job responsibilities settle down, he will return to join us.

The other headbangers, in the meantime, are linked in my sidebar. Give them a visit.

Header Challenge -- Vertical

Vertical is Christine's choice for this week's theme for our Headbanger friends. I contemplated whether I could totally rearrange my blog so that I had a header along the side--a long tall image--maybe my favorite animal...

 ...who is definitely on the vertical.

 

Or someone climbing a vertical wall such as this one in Zion National Park.

...or the yet more well known El Capitan in Yosemite.

Do you see them--there just at and above the horizontal light streak?

 

 

All spectacular!

 



But since my daily horizon view of the vertical was made spectacular the other evening, I chose the hop poles as my header. It came too late to use for last week's theme of something red.

 

 

The other header challenge members can be found in my sidebar.



I didn't expect to see THAT here.

That was the theme I proposed, and I suppose at the time I may have had some idea that I would find some apropos images in my files. I didn't really expect to go out on a Sunday drive and find this.

 in a yard in Toppenish. Toppenish is located on the Yakama Indian Reservation. But the Yakamas are not totem pole carvers. I selected this totem...

 from which I created a header image--which I still might use. I really did not expect to see that there.

~

 

It's just that, when I did go looking through my files, I found so many fine examples of the unexpected.

Such as the time two boys rang my doorbell and asked if they could go into my yard to retrieve their ball. I didn't expect to see this there.

 

Just a little matter of an accent.  (I told the story here somewhere but I can't find it now.)

 

I also found this--which I did not expect to see in a rest stop restroom.

 

We were surprised enough to see the eagle over the beach at an urban park, but what is he carrying home for supper. Maybe I don't really want to know.

Maybe it's just something with a bit of seaweed tangled with it?

 

Maybe that is not a leash.

 

I didn't expect to see that there.

 

~

 

I did not expect to see Abraham Lincoln in a London park.

 

And one November trip when we stopped to visit our son in a newly rented home, I did not expect to see a picture postcard view of the Golden Gate Bridge through their living room window.

 

 

We encounter surprises every day. Down the road from us is a flock of sheep in a pasture. This time of year I am surprised several times a week with a new lamb in the family. There were no black sheep till the other day and now there are two. When I went for a visit, I didn't expect to have them be quite so antisocial.

 



What might the other headbangers find that they did not expect? You can check out their entries from the links in my sidebar.