Fun with the macro lens

I had lots of chances to try out my new lens on flowers and bugs. I ended up with a lot more throw-away shots than keepers (especially on the bugs--darn things keep moving around) but I'm learning!



The morning after a rainstorm I took some shots of the water droplets on the flowers. This one was especially fun--I didn't notice till later that you can see the car (upside-down) in the water drops.

My mom has these flowers called Autumn Joy Sedum in front of the house. They attract lots of bees--big, beautiful carpenter bees, bumble bees (I didn't get any pictures of those), and honey bees, as well as butterflies and flies. Of course all of these attract a fair number of spiders as well. My sister Betsey, who loves bugs and has worked several summers collecting and cataloging bees, says she's going to plant some of these flowers at her house (when she has one).





Out of consideration for my friends who don't like creepy-crawly things, I have made these thumbnails very small. Don't click unless you really want to see.

Spacious Skies

We flew out early on a Wednesday morning. Our flight was at 9:00, and we had to leave our house at a little after 6:00, so we were feeling rather groggy. Doug dozed off shortly after takeoff, but then I woke him up to tell him that we could see Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens all at the same time. I knew he would want to see them. As we were gaping out the window Mt. Hood came into view as well. We'd never had such a great view. Of course I got out the camera (this picture is stitched together from four shots--pretty good, no?) Then a little later I told Doug I could see another mountain past Hood, and he said it must be Jefferson. It was a great day for mountains.

Kate slept a lot, and when she woke up she was mostly content to sit and play with whatever was handy (we brought along her pencil from the fair). People commented on what a good little traveler she was.

I got out the camera again as we were nearing Detroit and took some pictures of the clouds. That second one has some shapes in it that make me think of bears.



In Detroit we got on a little commuter plane that took us to the Dayton airport, and my family picked us up there.

Back from Ohio

We're home! Actually we got back Wednesday night, but I just haven't gotten myself together enough to post anything. I took over a thousand photos and I've been going through them and picking out the ones I want to post. Big job!

We had a good trip. When we scheduled it we didn't know that we were going to be moving right after we got back, so the timing was a little awkward. It was made more awkward when we realized that, though Doug's classes at one college start on the 26th, the other college where he teaches started on the 21st. That's the day we got back. We didn't notice this until the day before we left. So Doug ended up missing the first day of class, but it worked out okay. I'm glad we got to go. Kate got to see her grandparents again (or, more specifically, they got to see her, which they hadn't since she was three months old).

I was born in California but grew up mostly in Ohio. My parents still live in the same house where they were when my youngest sister was born. That will always be where I'm from. Things change--places change, and people change--but it's nice to get back. There's something about the Midwest that my senses respond to, knowing I'm back "home." The air is heavier. I imagine that the colors even seem a little richer. We missed the fireflies, but got a fine concert of loudly singing insects every night. That's Ohio in late summer.

We had a good time but were very glad (and tired!) to get home. Now we're trying to track down some boxes to use in our move. Scott said to try Grocery Outlet. The people at Grocery Outlet said to try Safeway. The people at Safeway said to try Fred Meyer. We haven't tried them yet. Now Doug is off helping with an Eagle Scout project, Kate is taking her morning nap, and I'm going to try to get a few of these pictures posted!

Kate at 37 weeks

Kate demonstrates her "almost crawling" technique. She's got the hand part down, but can't quite figure out what to do with the back end. She still manages to get around quite a bit.

Yep, still painting

Went painting twice last week and again yesterday. That's the last I'll be doing for a couple of weeks, since we're going to Ohio and then moving apartments. I was hoping to get that wall all finished (except for the rocks) before we left, but it didn't happen. I spent way too long on those windows.

September Light

I took this today with my new lens. Pretty!

Kate does the Puyallup (or, "A fair is a veritable smorgasboard")

We spent Friday at the Puyallup fair. You can get in free before noon on opening day, and we took along our own food, so the only money we spent was for the bus. Good cheap family fun!



We've been to the fair almost every year that we've been here, and it seems like we always end up looking at the same things--the art hall, the hobby hall, and the flowers. We also took Kate to see some of the animals. She did really well. She wasn't always interested in what we were looking at, but she always enjoys getting out and being around people.



When we got into the hobby hall someone gave Kate a pink (unsharpened) pencil, and she held onto that thing for hours, happily waving it around and passing it from one hand to the other. (And whacking on things with it, of course--we had to keep her away from the flowers. Ooh, pretty! Whack! Whack!)







Coming home on the bus, Kate fell asleep on her daddy's lap. Awwww!

My new lens!

My 100mm macro lens came today. Wow--it's so much bigger and heavier than my 50mm. I've only played around with it a little, but I'm having fun. I can see that it's going to be tricky to keep the shutter speed fast enough in low-light situations (like inside). Here's one I took of Kate when I was first trying it out--it's pretty shaky, but her expression was just too funny not to post.

After dinner Kate and I went on a walk (while Doug went fencing) and took some pictures outside. I tried out the macro feature on lots of things, including some blackberries...

... and cute little toes.

This is supposed to be a good portrait lens, too, so we tested that as well. There's a patch of green lawn over at the middle school that we fondly refer to as "the salad bar," because we used to take Scott's dog Lucky for walks around the school and he liked to stop there and chew on the grass. Most of the other grass is all brown and crunchy right now, but the salad bar is a nice place for babies to sit. Kate thought it was pretty neat.



It's going to take some work to learn how to use this lens well. I think it'll be a fun challenge!

Nine Years

Today is our anniversary! We've been married nine years. I've been getting someone to take a picture of us every year on our anniversary (sometimes this is more challenging than others). This is the first picture with three of us! (Though we do have some cute belly shots from our eighth anniversary.) We had youth activities at the church tonight, so I took along the camera and we got some quick pictures in the foyer afterwards.

I asked Doug if he had anything eloquent and pithy to say about being married nine years, and he said, "Has it been that long?"

Kate at 36 weeks

Kate has been scooting backwards in her attempts to crawl. It's hard not to laugh, but she looks so annoyed--"Dang! Everything's just getting farther away!" She can get herself from her tummy into a sitting position, which is pretty exciting. Teething crankiness continues. We've been having her suck on ice cubes.

I wasn't sure if I really got any good pictures from this shoot. She was pretty distracted and wiggly--but when I saw her expression in that last one I just cracked up. What a funny kid.

Love at first height

My baby sister's getting married! She moved up to Ogden, Utah on a leap of faith--didn't get either of the jobs she was applying for, but met this great guy less than 24 hours after she got there. He's 6'8", she's almost 6'3". They're planning on getting married in December. Congratulations to Barb and Kyle!

Little Swinger

Here's Kate on the baby swing again, earlier this week. (I'm just playing around with a gif animation!)

Just Kate

Doug says this picture really captures Kate's "neutral" mood.

Yet more painting (and camera stuff!)

We went out painting three times this week. Doug has been a big huge help. I'm getting so close to finishing that wall. I've still got that building on the right with all the windows, and I need to go back and put the bars on some of the other windows. And then there are the rocks below, but I'm planning on doing a real quick job on those. (I hope....) The left-hand wall is maybe 75% done already, so it shouldn't take too much longer.

Sylvia's surgery went well, and they think they got everything. Great news!

I'm getting the Canon 100mm macro lens! I was planning on getting it with the money from the mural, and I would have been happy to wait (I'm good at delayed gratification), but I kept thinking it would be nice to have when we go to Ohio in a couple of weeks. So I talked to my mom and she said she would lend me the money till I get the mural done. The lens has been ordered and should be here this next week. Woo hoo! Thanks Mom!

"Fascinating..."

Look what Kate can do--she can raise one eyebrow! I'm so jealous. I've never been able to do that.




In that first picture she's only six weeks old. Amazing. Hopefully she will retain this talent, and it's not just some involuntary baby thing.

Duck!

We were at the park on Tuesday and saw this duck in the pool. She looks like she's having a good time.