Ribbets, Reflections and Rainbows

(even when you don't know what you're doing :o)

We're not going to talk about exactly how much time I've spent playing around with my digital dream. The reason for this lies somewhere between I don't want to say and I don't want to know *grin*. In case you're new or just missed it, here are the links for my digital drama: Part One and Part Two.    I did finally go back and read some information about how to get better action shots. Although I still don't really get it, I do know that the higher the aperture and shutter speeds the better it will freeze the action. The sports setting basically eliminates the picture preview. This enables you to take a series of action photos more quickly. I made some adjustments to the settings and spent some time practicing by shooting swishing tails. Then I got this still of Bella as she shook her head and swished her tail (she was multitasking).

I cropped it to see whether or not I had a decent shot, and had the overwhelming urge to edit it just a teensy little bit. I lost some resolution in the cropping process, but I think it'll work...don't you?

There is a scenes setting on the dial that offers a plethora of supercool enhancements. I think the one called "Fish Eye" has to be the most fun. I knew exactly who I was going to test drive it on, too. Taya enjoys sticking her nose out and making faces at me (she did it once and made me laugh, so of course now she does it all the time; such a silly girl). I think I'll entitle this one, Sally Schnozola (and move over Jimmy Durante - because WOW :o)
Of course fish eye segued straight into shooting the fish; I wondered if I would get better pictures now (I have a really tough time photographing those little boogers). This is another area I hoped the higher speed would help - they zip around so darn fast in there, most of the time all I can get is a frame full of little orange and white blurs. Sometimes I miss them entirely; they're just too quick for me. Here is a shot of  Faith and Charity...(tubby, aren't they? :o)

Oh, and I did finally get an equine action shot of Rina cantering up the hill. Hey look, it worked - boo-yeah! Looks kind of strange with only one foot on the ground, but her legs aren't blurry at all. Woo! With cooler temps, the horses will be feeling friskier so maybe I can get some really great shots to share. Here's hoping!

There sure are an awful lot of features on this camera. It has a foliage setting? Hm. I wonder what that one does. Boy, that really punches up the color doesn't it? Cooool.

Then there is the sepia setting that I thought was pretty neat too. I took a picture of Champ napping on the job.  He started dozing off while I was busy snapping photos - can't say I blame him, (I was taking forever ;o)
There is an amazing wooden carving outside our local library (it's huge) that I'm going to try to take a picture of to post; it just screams sepia if you ask me.

The poster setting adds some shimmer and shine to your subject. I found this little guy hiding out in the sink in our guest bedroom. Note to self: post a clear-cut definition of the term "guest" somewhere on the premises. I have absolutely no idea how he got in there; no outside door anyplace near that bathroom, and I do NOT want to think about him coming up through the drain - Ugh. He is cute, though (I'll give him that).

I have to say, I think it's going to be another spectacular (on the vivid setting) sunrise this morning. Just in case it's cloudy at your house though, I'll share mine:

Have a great day (the bad ones are just way too much trouble :o)

I

I thought this week's post would be shorter than last weeks, but it may not be (apparently I'm quite the chatterbox these days :o) We've been hard at work on the demonstration area, which is [FINALLY] finished. DH bought some concrete to put in the holes for the posts in the patio/seating area a couple of days ago; now he just needs to find the time to actually pour it. We chatted about this as we wandered over to look at the posts which are directly in front of the demonstration area. I looked down as Rickey gestured towards a post while he was talking about the concrete, and look at who I

spotted down the rabbit hole by the bottom of the post. Hint: It's definitely not Alice.
As you can see by the second photo of DD up to her shoulder, that hole is DEEP. Now I know that those itty bitty green guys can climb most any surface and frogs (toads?) can hop fairly far, but I'm not entirely sure about the climbing skills of these regular ribbeters (anybody know?) We pulled him out just in case, and then...
Seriously? Another one? What is this, some kind of multiple mental moment??  So it was a ribbet rescue rerun (but thankfully Big Bertha over there was the only other one - Sheesh).
Now I don't know about you, but my summer is flying by. I keep fantasizing 

about having 36 hour days, except I'm all but face first at the end of my 17 hour ones. I am pretty much a forward thinking person, I don't spend too much time immersed in what was, but sometimes looking back offers some encouragement when you just don't feel like you're getting anywhere. When I think back to a year or two ago I can be thankful that I am still actually standing at the end of my day (considering that for awhile there I could barely walk and needed two hands to lift a gallon of milk compliments of Dermatomyositis).
That Before photo is what it looked like at the top of the pasture when we bought it; more like a junkyard than anything (wow, right?) Then there were the weeds; like something straight out of a Stephen King novel sans alien life forms. Well, unless you count the girls that is...

The horses could (and did) disappear periodically, the weeds were so high. I took the after shot with my camera phone as Shadow and I ambled up the hill the other day. It's not perfect, but I think you can tell we have made some progress. The white dot you see in the distance between the trees is a barrel (and we put that out there on purpose :o). It's in the same area that all that junk was spread over. Now we just have to fix the grass; the guy that owned the land originally planted centipede grass for his horses; which absolutely boggles the mind (if you're wondering, centipede is a very low-growing yard grass that is definitely not suitable for grazing). Big duh there, right? We're still battling weeds, but at least now we can see where everybody is out there. Of course there's always Mickey Mouse roll call in a pinch - I whistle, they whinny (it works for us ;o)

We've finally started getting some rain again, thankfully. It was getting pretty dry around here. We had some pretty heavy rain on Sunday afternoon, and when the rain stopped there was a beautiful double rainbow in our sky. I thought I'd share it with you here and hopefully brighten up your day a bit...

If you would, please pop over to Purina's site and vote for Sheri (the link is in the top right corner of this blog or you can click here). You can vote every day if you like (I have been!) She's completing in a blog-o-spondent contest, and the competition is fierce. Thanks so much for reading and voting and have a wonderful weekend everyone!