Sisters Reunion

my sisters and me

I'm so sorry for not being around much this month. My husband had the flu then gave it to me and for about 3 weeks, we only got out of bed enough to take care of the animals.

Then my sisters arrived from the mid-west this past Friday and left yesterday so we were very busy catching up and giggling and generally acting like we were kids again (minus the arguing! lol) Our brother and his family came from near Winston-Salem on Saturday and we had a big cook-out and even more giggling and cutting up. I'm sure our adult children who were there thought we were nuts but that's ok - how many people in their 50's and 60's get to act like kids again?

My sister, Sue, is a photography buff and got to see a lot of our wildlife - maybe too much actually as a skunk came up into the yard one evening! We got photos of it but it was moving around a lot and we just weren't going to get all that close to it so the pictures came out a little blurry!

I'll probably show some of the photos I took in future posts but I do think that pretty much all of the wildlife we have here showed up at one point or another during their visit. It became our ritual to sit out on the back porch in the early mornings and evenings to see what wandered by!

Anyway, I hope to do better keeping up this blog now that life has settled down again!

Nicole Caulfield Giveaway

copyright Nicole Caulfield

I so apologize for not being here lately and I apologize especially to Nicole for not publicly acknowledging the winning of one of her wonderful paintings. Not long ago, Nicole said on her blog that she had some paintings that she had done in her classes that had been marred in some way and would give them away to the first people to post on her BLOG that they wanted one. I was fortunate enough to have been one of the first to ask for and receive one of her paintings.

I was thrilled as Nicole is one of my favorite painters! She's a colored pencil artist and I have great respect for her talent.

There's a story here that I want to share but first will tell you that I emailed Nicole to ask how she chose which painting to send to which winner and she said she packaged the paintings then mixed them up so she didn't know who would receive which painting. Then she addressed and sent them out.

I figure there was a divine hand in my receiving this particular painting. You see, my mom passed away several years ago and she loved the color red and because she was very tiny, she liked wearing high-heeled shoes. To make a long story short, this painting reminds me of my mother in a very good and fun way. It was the perfect subject and I feel very blessed to have received it.

Thank you so much, Nicole!

What Lurks in YOUR Apple Tree?

copyright
Jan Gibson

Today is my dad's birthday and I was on the back porch talking to him on the phone when I saw something streak across the back orchard and climb into the last apple tree before the hay field. I told my dad what was happening and he said to go get my camera quick!

I thought I'd done fairly well with the doe and twins that I posted the other day but conditions were so much better today that all the pics I took came out very well indeed and I took 31 of them! This is just one of the close ups - isn't he cute?

I'm not 100% sure but I think this is a groundhog or woodchuck as he looks like the guy they drag out in February to tell us whether we'll have more winter or not. Maybe not as fat and well-fed but with the same features overall. I've been told that they're just making their way into this area which is why they're being seen more often.

Anyway, I'm finally fulfilling my desire to photograph as much of the wildlife here as possible but I'm spending so much time with the camera that I haven't had time to actually paint anything in a goodly while! Well, it's supposed to rain a little later this week so I may get in at least one painting day!

In the meantime, enjoy our little furry friend here and the beautiful weather - he says winter is over for our part of the country anyway!

Totally Awesome!

Doe With Twins
copyright
Jan Gibson

I just wanted to share a wildlife photo with you that I took with my new camera this morning.

First, a little background so you'll understand my enthusiasm. Our driveway is about a tenth of a mile long and has pecan trees on one side and pecan and peach trees on the other. It's a "far piece" from the back of the house (where I was trying to hide) to the area where the deer were under the pecan trees. Not only that, but it was getting ready to rain so the morning was pretty dark. As any photographer knows, the more extended the zoom, the more light is needed to get a decent photo.

This was a situation that my old camera would have refused to even consider taking a photo and would have laid down without even attempting the shot. With my new Canon, I not only got to take the pictures, but they actually came out fairly well. The fact that they weren't all perfect was operator error along with the conditions and not the camera's fault. However, Christine (from Creative Life Studio), an accomplished photographer, told me that even professionals take hundreds of photos to get that one that's absolutely perfect so I guess I don't feel too badly about these.

No, they aren't perfect, but I did get photos good enough to be used as painting references which has been my goal all along. And, I hope as I keep practicing, I'll get shots that are better and better.

Just doin' the happy dance here!

After the Memorial Day Holiday

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day and gave more thought to the reason for it than to the food on the grill.

We had a quiet day which is always nice. We really don't like to go anywhere on a holiday because most of the time the crowds are overwhelming. However, we did go to Chapel Hill on Sunday and ended up going to Trader Joe's. It was the first time I'd ever been in one although I've heard about them before.

It too was very crowded which made it difficult to look at what they had available. We bought a few items and came on back home.

The country feels sooooo nice after a trip like that!

Introducing Chance

Chance

This is Chance, our male lab mix. He's just a month or two older than Coal and this is the first decent photo I've ever gotten of him! They both hate(d) getting their pictures taken and I probably got this one of Chance because I was ready for him when he came around the corner of the house. I also got it because this camera doesn't have the lag time that my old camera has so I snapped the picture and actually got it before he turned away. Don't pay any attention to his poor nose - this is the result of his last run-in with a skunk when he scraped his nose in the grass to rid himself of the spray. Unfortunately, it will sort of scab over but just doesn't seem to heal. I've tried numerous things including some ointment from the vet but nothing seems to work. I'm putting some Wounded Warrior on it now and hope that will do the trick. You have to be so careful since he'll lick it off but the WW is supposed to be ok even if they lick it. I just wish there was some way to get him to leave any medicine on long enough to do any good! I don't think I can bandage his nose!

Teresa from Blueberries, Art and Life had asked me about macro shots with the new camera. I had to go read the manual to find out about them but I'm pleased to say that this camera has both macro and super macro capabilities. I'm still figuring out the difference but I did take a couple of macro/super macro shots this morning and the feature works very well as you can see below. This is a macro shot. The super macro was a little blurry so I'm not posting it but I think that's operator error and not the fault of the camera!

One thing I found also is that there's an "aquarium" setting. I don't have an aquarium but I've tried to take pictures of various ones with my old camera and they were so blurry as to be unusable. So, I'm eager to find an aquarium and try this setting.

There are a lot of features to this camera that I may never use but it's nice to know they're there. Who knows, I may eventually figure them all out!

New Camera & Thank You

Lantana

Clematis

I just wanted to thank you all for your support and kind words about Coalie's passing. And I wanted to tell you that I finally got a new camera. I have it out on a 30 day trial and if I don't like it, I can take it back.

It's a Canon SX10 IS and so far, I like it very much. It's a lot larger and heavier than my previous camera but I think it takes great photos. The camera does anyway, but I'm still learning the camera! lol

I've gotten some really nice shots of some of our flowers but I'm really impressed with the zoom on this thing! It has a 20x zoom and I extended the zoom completely and focused on a shadow in the area where we had seen the foxes earlier this spring. When I downloaded the photo, I could see that it wasn't a shadow at all but a weed growing in the hay grass. I could even tell that it was a broadleafed plantain! Think of the photos I'd have of those foxes if I'd had this camera back then!

I really think it's me and something I need to learn about the camera, but I cannot seem to get a decent photo of any of the wonderful birds we have here. I did get a good shot of a female bluebird but mostly, by the time I get the camera set, even on automatic, the birds have flown away! I need to learn to get the controls set quickly! It's just that the controls, such as the zoom and shutter, are in a slightly different place than they were in my old camera and working them hasn't become second nature yet. I've only had the camera since this past Sunday and a couple of days were very rainy so didn't get to play with it as I would have liked.

Anyway, if anyone would like to use the flower pictures above as a painting reference, please feel free. I've left them fairly large even though I had to resize them for the web and I did watermark them just to deter other uses. Please don't use them for anything other than a painting reference - they aren't public domain photos.

If you use them, I'd love to see what you do with them! I know Jeanette will be the first to grab one since flowers are a favorite subject for her to paint! lol