The Twins again

These are a couple of pics from a session I had this morning. This is the second time these 6 year twins have come for a photo shoot. We had such a great time. Usually I'm in the studio but since I have my new lense I wanted to try something new. We took a short hike to a place where I had seen some nice light - just off our property. We had lots of company...my dog and cat joined us, much to the glee of the twins. It was so relaxed and fun. I got the best compliment as they were leaving. They said that they wanted to come back again and that they wished they could live here!

Beach Day

Usually it's not warm enough here to go to the beach until after July 4th. So we're ahead of schedule! I took my older camera today- an Olympus E500, I hardly ever use it anymore but it does have a 40-150mm zoom which I wanted to use today. My husband decided to take the sail boat out so I wanted to try and capture him sailing. While he was doing that we all went down to the little beach. Griffin has been sick so it's not the best representation of him but he was having such a great time in the sand and water...it's the first time he's really been old enought to play. I decided to convert to black and white just for something a little different. Funny how it makes it seem like it's not very sunny out. You can see by the shadows on his face though that it was bright out.

This sea gull was SO BOLD. He walked right onto our blanket and stole grapes from our tupperware! By the time we managed to get to our blanket he had dragged the whole bunch over the sand in an attempt to get one free from the vine. Unbelievable, I thought they only liked chips and sandwiches and stuff!

Here's a sailing one. It's just a little boat but it gets going really fast in a brisk wind. Lots of fun!

Creek Play

My new lense is here! Yippee! I'm really going to love it once I figure out how to use it. I got the 24-70mm L glass for my Canon. I love the way I can be so close and still get a full body in the frame. Such a difference from my 50mm. Here we are practising (well I'm practising!). I had to convince the kiddos that it would be a good idea to go for an adventure hike down the part of our creek below the waterfall. I knew this would be a good area for our little one, so he wouldn't fall down and be in total danger in the creek. The hike down was pretty wild. I haven't been down here since the forest took over and I forgot how enormous things get here very quickly. We managed to beat a path, it was worth it once we were there. I had given the girls some sparkly buttons. They pretended they were jewels, and dug them into the mud to hide the treasure from the pirates! Then they would do a search to find the treasure, dig it up and wash it off in the water. It's amazing how long they played this game! The little man...well he was just content picking up rocks and watching them splash down and of course he loves to bang sticks against the water.

I didn't have much time to edit, so these are pretty much just sharpened for web. Now that I look at them they are quite grainy. iso 1600. We didn't know it but at the time it was raining. We were protected by the canopy of trees so it was kind of a nice surprise when we got out into the open again.

Lambs ears and more

Sorry if you're getting sick of these nature shots but I just can't resist. I thought this first batch of flowers were weeds until recently when they came into bloom. They are so pretty I'm happy I didn't pull them. The second picture is of some of my favorite...lambs ears. I love the way that they are so fuzzy and soft. Tomorrow I'll try to post some people pics!

Grass

Today I got a little alone time to hike around and take some pictures. The mission I was on was to find a good "fantasy" landscape picture. I have wanted to do a fantasy fairy landscape picture for ages. I found all kinds of good trails that hopefully will work, when I get one done I will definately post it...well, only if it turns out. I saw this grass...liked the way it looked in the sunlight. It reminds me of Colorado so it made me all warm and fuzzy!

A boy in his garden

I haven't really been letting him roam in the garden. He just has no respect! He tramples right over the peppers and pulls on the zucchini leaves. But he loves it so much, I think it's the vast amounts of dirt/mud that he loves! So I let him have a gander around the garden today. Here is is actually being quite gentle with the lettuce!

Next he takes to digging under the broccoli and between the sweet peas! So much fun.

I loved the way the rain drops had gathered on this broccoli plant. I was trying to get the reflections of the girls in the drop, you can almost see them!

These little hands are the end product of planting two rows of carrots.

A little bit of nature

Aaaah, it has been so amazing here lately. I almost don't want to say it because I'll jinx it! We have had NO rain for ages! Why that's so great is...less bugs (always a good thing especially those annoying may flies that get stuck in your eyes) and no humidity. Lovely. Today I was out just snapping pics of the kids being silly in the yard when I decided to take some of our irises which are on the way out due to all the hot weather. While I was snapping the irises a lone bumble came along. It was so cool. He/she actually goes right inside to get what he's going for, completely dissapears that goes to another flower. It was hard to capture him since he kept dissapearing but here he is! I cropped a little closer so you can see him, furry legs and all!

A little bit later when the kids were supposed to be in bed we were sitting in our adirondack chairs watching our cat Belle, be a cat. She was staring at a tree so intently the way that cats do. A robin then flew down and landed on the ground...dummy! Luckily the cat did not get him but started climbing the tree. We managed to scare her down and low and behold, look what we found! Now we're just going to have to figure out a way to keep her out of there. I am really looking forward to following these little eggs. I will be so totally devistated if our cat gets at them.

This next one is a bit goofy and just for fun. Photoshop is so fun sometimes!