Such a beauty!

My daughter spotted this beautiful dragonfly on the edge of the sidewalk earlier today.  It allowed her to pick it up and hold it for quite a while.

Dragonflies are so beautiful!

I'm really pleased with the quality of photos from my phone.  I upgraded to the Galaxy S4 and, while it has some quirks and toys I don't like or want, I've been really happy with it overall.

I love my BlackBerry

So these are before and after pictures using BlackBerry's built in software. 

I'm loving this phone :D 

Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

A moment..

shieldbug5370
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: I got a few good macro shots of this shield bug on my thyme. I caught this shot a moment before it flew away.

Just hangin'

bee4588
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: The girls and I went back to Taste of Edmonton to use up the last of our tickets before heading to the library. The square is looking beautiful this time of year, with the gardens at their peek, much to the delight of the bees. I didn't have the macro lens, but still managed a couple of ok photos using the 18-55mm lens. Bees are solar powered - with the heat and sun we're having right now, they were doing double time! I was lucky to get the few shots I did. :-D

Dust check

Philippe: So Anna's been having dust issues on her camera; while we've been able to resolve those, I noticed spots in some of my shots and so went over all my lenses to clean and dust the optics. this, of course, had to be tested afterwards :D

243:365 Double duty

Anna: We ended up at the museum again today - and left late enough that Philippe was even able to join us. A few of the photos today are here.


One of our favorite areas is The Bug Room. This is a Macleay's Spectre Stick.














We also had another pass through the temporary exhibit, Heights of Fashion; History of the Elevated Foot. This shoe with the filagree heel is one of my favorites.

Taking photos at the museum is a challenge. No tripods allowed. Most exhibits don't allow flash, which I wouldn't use at the museum anyhow. Even the areas that do allow flash don't allow external flash.

I had the macro lens on today, which is a notorious light hog to start with. I had the ISO at 500, but I don't like how grainy the photos get. I also played around with the various settings to try and compensate. A lot of the photos didn't turn out, and even the ones that did were quite dark. I played around with the curves to lighten all of them. I did a noise reduction on the stick bug, but not any of the others. I may not like the noise, but I like the faked out smoothness a noise reduction resulted in even less.

One of these days, I'll figure it out.

195:365 Here's lookin' at you, Kid!

Anna: My younger daughter spotted this bright eyed visitor on our sliding screen door. Of course, I had to break out the macro lens. :-D

That second set of "eyes" is really interesting. I wonder what it is?

182:365 Happy Accident

Anna: I love happy accidents like this! This was taken at one of the flower gardens at our local museum.

More of the day's photos here.









We also took in the closing show for our local museum's summer theme, Dragons: between science and fiction. The show was Fire & Water: The Dragons Awaken by Scarab Productions & the Edmonton Stilt Walkers. (When we tried to see a performance last month, it was canceled due to high winds.) It was really fantastic! You can see my flicker set of the show here.

The walker in blue's sword is hooked up to the tank on her back and splashes water.

175:365 - Leg trip - updated: This is my Good Side

Hit the leg for basic shots, just to get back in the habit.

Philippe: This was just cute, and frankly it's not like I have access to my macro lens these days

:P

Philippe: though I blew out this shot, I got me some *new* software (The latest version of Nikon Capture NX) and I'm playing with it a bit. Here are the before and after shots. :)

Anna: It occurred to me that the title and comments above might be a touch confusing. "Leg" is short for "legislature" - we went to the legislature grounds this afternoon to play with the cameras.


*ahem* I was having fun with the macro lens again. ;-) More photos uploaded here.

This wasp was decidedly co-operative. She kept wandering around the flower, letting me get some good views. I had a hard time choosing which one to post here.

174:365 - Flight - updated: playing with macro

Philippe: First time out of the apt since thursday or so.. Figured I was due. caught him as he was launching off of a branch :D

Anna: I got to play with the macro lens today. :-D More uploaded here. I'm really happy with the most of the results.

Gosh, I love macro! :-D

For this photo, I was testing out one of Philippe's birthday presents on my camera to see if it would work on an older model. I can't remember the proper name for it, but it's a cable for the flash, so it can be held off to the side, or wherever is appropriate. For this photo, I had our elder daughter holding the flash for me, above my head.

171:365 Co-operative bees

Anna: The girls and I were at the museum again today (we took in an excellent lecture on Mokele Mbembe). As we headed through the museum grounds, skirting the 3 wedding parties that were being photographed, I found myself with quite a number of co-operative bees. Alas, I only had the 18-55mm lens, not the macro. Ah, well.

I've uploaded a set of my favorites here.

164:365 In the flower garden

Anna: The girls and I were at the museum for another lecture today - The Evolution and Extinction of Dragons with Dr. Peter Hogarth. My younger daughter and I really enjoyed it. My elder daughter didn't appreciate his mocking sense of humour. She made a legitimate point, but I still found it enjoyable.

After the lecture, we had to go and pick up Philippe, but we did go through the wonderful flower garden along the way to get some photos.



I'm quite happy with how this one turned out. There were so many beautiful flowers, but sometimes, it's not the open flowers that are the most interesting.










I cropped this one quite a bit. There was this imitation bee hovering near the blossoms. I had to switch to auto focus, as the camera kept wanting to focus on the soil in the background. I'm not confident using auto focus. I always feel that, since I wear glasses - and especially since I know my prescription is now slightly off - there's no way I can truly focus properly. This wasn't too bad, though.

141:365 Take a walk

Philippe: Anna stole my lens..

..So I stole my daughter's 18-70 for this shot.





























Then I swiped Anna's entire camera for this shot.














..And for this shot :D





























Anna: Philippe and I went for a photo walk today, and I stole the macro lens. I think I managed a few good shots. ;-)

138:365 Bumble-ing along - Updated

Philippe: The cat likes sunspots, and I'm an opportunist.. it's a good combination

















Anna: Today the girls and I went to the museum for a most excellent presentation (Dragons and Cryptozoology by Loren Coleman). As we were crossing the grounds back to the car, I stopped under a blooming linden tree to see what sort of incests I might be able to photograph. The tree was planted in a large raised bed surrounded by a low concrete wall. Low enough that, even with my knees, I could step onto it without much assistance. As I was climbing onto the wall to get a closer look at the linden tree, I noticed a bumble bee placidly walking along. I promptly got back down and tried getting some photos of the bee as it kept ambling towards me.

It was moving a bit too fast for me to get good photos, but I noticed another rather lethargic bumble bee in a flowering bush. So I tucked in behind a bench, with my knees braced on the concrete and my butt braced on the bench, maneuvering to get a good angle of this second bee. The girls promptly started telling me that the first bee had turned around and was heading back towards me, and that I might want to move.

I acknowledged them kept clicking away.

Next, they were telling me it was heading for my knee.

Sure thing, I said, still clicking away.

Then they were telling me it was *on* my knee and climbing.

Okay, so now I finally move. The bee was heading up at a good clip and was soon climbing my shirt. My elder daughter tried to persuade it to head downwards again, or even fly off, but no such luck. In trying to move it (without me getting stung, though there didn't seem to be much danger of that), the bee ended up on my camera strap.

Off went the camera, and we spent the next while trying to convince the bee that the flowering bush was a really nice place to go. Still no luck.

At which point I figured, what the heck. Since it was there anyways, I started taking pictures.

I liked this one the best.

We did eventually get the bee off the strap. It never did try to fly.

137:365 - Back at the Devonian gardens

Philippe: So we went back to the Devonian Garden today. Turns out they've got a butterfly house :)


Suntanning on a rock



















Kinda prickly looking, but still pretty













Just plain pretty.














Um, still pretty, kinda :D












Anna: I've uploaded a whole bunch of photos from today onto my flickr account. I was really envying the macro lens today - the one that was on Philippe's camera. ;-) This trip, we went through the Japanese garden, then the greenhouse. We'll have to make another trip to see more.

I wanted to post this photo, not because it's particularly good, but because it shows what a totally geeky family we are. *L* If you click on the photo for the larger image, you should be able to see that black beetle my elder daughter is trying to get a photo of.

It's black, about 1 1/2 inches long with antennae about the same length, and with huge mandibles. I don't know what they're actually called, but when I was a kid, we called them wood bugs because we always found them in our log pile and on trees. They bore through wood with those powerful mandibles. We used to tease our barn cats with them by holding them firmly (and carefully!) by the body and holding them out for the cat to investigate. When the cat leaned forward to sniff the beetle, it wasn't unusual for the cat to end up with the beetle firmly attached to its nose. After shaking the beetle off, the cat then usually ate it.

It was on me.

I had been taking photos off to the side and, as I returned to my family, my younger daughter spotted it. With a rather shocked look on her face, said "hey, there's bug on you!" I couldn't see it myself, as it was quickly climbing up my shoulder. Philippe promptly started chasing it with his camera (none of the photos turned out - it was moving too fast) as I felt it go around the back of my neck, turn around, go back around the side of my neck and up my jaw. That's when Philippe finally flicked it off of me and onto the path, which is when my daughter took over with her camera.

It's a good thing I'm not bothered by bugs.

136:365 Fuzzy bee and the kindness of others.

Anna: The family and I headed out to lunch downtown today, and found some flowering "weeds" next to where we parked the car. As I was taking photos, I got visited by this fuzzy bee. No idea what type it is, but it's got a neat, pointy sort of face.

The cool thing is why we ended up going out for lunch today. Philippe actually wasn't feeling well and was home from work, but he felt he needed to get back to this place. It's a place that sells donairs that he goes to fairly regularly. He and some of his former co-workers would meet there weekly, and he kept meeting them every now and then, even after he changed offices. So the people that run the place know him well.

Two days ago, he decided to treat himself to donairs for lunch. After he got his order and was going to pay for it using his debit card, he found out that their machine was down. There had been a lightning strike in the area and the power surge had fried their debit machine! He didn't have enough cash to pay for the whole order, but the owner told him it was ok - he could come back and pay for it another time. How cool is that? You just don't get a lot of places that are willing to do that.

Not being able to get back yesterday, we really wanted to take care of it today - and the 4 of us had lunch, too. Mmmm.... they made the best donairs. They had a sign on the door saying their debit machine was still down, so we made sure to bring cash. While giving our order, we made sure to tell the guy at the till to add on the extra order that we owed. The owner saw my husband and came over to talk. Chatting with him, he told us that they were just waiting for the company to send a replacement machine, but it was taking a while. Meanwhile, he's been loosing a lot of business for lack of a debit machine. People just don't carry cash much anymore, so they just leave and go someplace else.

We were more than happy to bring in a little extra business as thanks.

Not that I need any excuse to have a donair at this place.

132:365 And then I ate it...

Anna: I went for a walk this evening and ended up talking well over 100 photos. I've uploaded the ones I liked the most to my flickr account.

This is a Saskatoon berry. When I was a kid, I used to walk along the roads and in the bush in our farm, indulging in these delicious berries. So I was really happy so see lots of Saskatoon bushes along the top of the river valley. I got a picture of this one ripe berry.

Then I ate it.

Because that's what you do with Saskatoons.

Yum.






I got so many photos of these butterflies. They loved the vetch growing along the pathways. I don't know what kind of butterfly they are, but I was just amazed at how long their proboscis were!

123:365 - Up close and Personal - updated: Street Performers Festival

Philippe: Headed out to the street performer's festival today; we got there early so I looked around for other photo ops :)














































Anna: More photos of the Street Performers Festival here.

We headed out to the square a bit too early. The booths were still being set up and the square was mostly empty. There was this one early bird performer already entertaining the crowd, though.


























As well as the scheduled performers at specific stations, there are always roving performers, such as these stilt walkers.


























This performer started up while we were wandering around, so we were able to find places to sit or stand and actually see him! *L*




























After the show, we'd had enough of the heat and were looking to go indoors for a nice cold drink at the Three Bananas Cafe on the square. I couldn't resist taking some shots of the beautiful cloud formations.

By the time we finished our drinks, the white fluffies were starting to give way to dark and forbidding. Shortly after, as we were going through one of the pedway overpasses to get back to our car, we saw it was pouring rain! It was a fairly quick storm that passed through, but harsh enough to actually interrupt power, as we came home to find both computers had shut down. It's starting all ready! *L* Last year, the festival was frequently interrupted by sudden rainfalls.