Nature Walks and Family Visits

Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?  I apologize for the absence here on NPD, but I'm not sure where the time went!  I have been creating, visiting with family and friends, and enjoying a milder than usual Fall here in my part of the PNW.

I built that table just in time for company!  My brother came out for an early Thanksgiving in mid November, and we had a great time catching up, touring the area, and I got my crash course in "iPad".

Our first full day together we ventured out into the woods via the trails behind my house.  It was a little rainy, but not too cold.  We walked and walked, spotting mushrooms and little picturesque openings in the trees.  All of the plant life looked as if it had been carefully placed there in perfect order.

Later the sun came out through the fog and our walk back was even more picturesque!

I especially like this photo he took of me walking down the path.

I saw this interesting old stump that has been eaten away by woodpeckers and weather over the years, eventually forming into an amazing natural abstract sculpture.

It was a great time and a long awaited reunion.  Now all but one sibling has visited the NP pad.
I am so glad I have this blissful area to share.

Refresher Course

I love learning new things!  I also love returning to refresh my mind and skills at things I haven't done in a while.  

Recently I took an online course in Nature Photography.  I know, you wonder why someone with a college degree and years of experience in photography even needs to do this.  Well, it's fun, for one thing.  I love the classroom environment - in this case the virtual classroom.  The students are always interesting and eager to learn, curious and open minded.

The course was challenging and I learned new skills with my digital camera.  I admit, there are just some things about digital photography that have eluded me until now.  When I was in school it was all film!

So this was great fun and a great step to better understanding.

One of the things I most loved about my early photography education was the challenge of light and time.  With a little time exposure and the right aperture, you could make water look like this.  That was one of our assignments in this class.  I have to say that I haven't really experimented that much with my manual settings on this camera, but with a tripod and using the timer it worked out!

We were also asked to find something abstract in nature.  It's not as easy as you'd think!  I am attracted to abstract patterns everywhere, but they are usually buildings, rocks, and fabrics, to name a few.  So for this assignment I chose this log.  I was surprised by the perfection of circles here and how it blended so easily with the cross lines from the saw.

This one I used in my previous post.  We were supposed to go out and find something in nature to use the macro lens on.  Another of my favorite pastimes here at my place that borders on the forest.

These tiny mushrooms were growing all over a stump.  The sun was just coming up over the hill and this angle allowed me to get the light to almost illuminate them.  These little guys were only about one to two inches tall.

So if you ever get to thinking you're getting too old to learn new things, think again, go out and do something you've already done!

Have you done anything like this recently?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

You Know It's Spring When...

You know it's Spring when......   you have to wash your car three times just to get the grime off - and - that it's even warm enough to wash your car.

....when the dish water runs over because you're too busy trying to photograph a flock of pine siskens who just flew in for a drink.  (Nope, I didn't get the shot.)

.....when it's dry enough out to fix that gutter that's been bothering you all winter.

.....when you can't get through a meal without picking up your binoculars three or four times to see what new birds are at the bird feeder.

.....when there are enough returning Rufus hummingbirds to put out a second feeder.

And lastly, but not least important, you know it's Spring when it finally hits 60 degrees!!!!

How about you?