Another step

Last night I entered a photography contest for the first time. Outdoorphotographer.com posts themed assignments every week; the one I entered is on "heat." In thinking how to approach this, I chose to get Scarlett taking a drink after running amok. CJ helped with the shot. My entry can be found below, or here if you'd like to vote for it.

Storm clouds

This one looked really nasty. But does the photo properly show the intimidation factor?

At the fountain

I took this at a big fountain close by over the July 4 weekend. Given the coming heat wave, we may be making a return trip soon!

First attempt at panning...

As CJ led her friends in doing laps around someone's backyard, I tried to experiment in panning the shot: tracking the action and shooting with a longer exposure while staying focused on the subject.

I was somewhat successful; the picture below is more abstract than I wanted but successfully shows some of the motion, along with the joy of being five and running around in circles.

A weird bug visits out butterfly bushes

Undoubtedly, I'll be able to figure out what type of bug this is (some type of moth was our guess). At first I thought it was a hummingbird. It was pretty neat though. And Scarlett didn't really bark too much despite how excited we were to look at it. Will wonders ever cease?

My butterfly bushes are now peaking

The only thing better than looking at these bushes is smelling them. Until smellovision comes to the internet, you're just going to have to take my word for it.

The tulips were popping

This was a scene from the garden in April. The morning sun hit the new tulips perfectly. Sometimes, a flash is used to light up the subject and as a result the background is a perfect black. But in this case additional light was not needed.