Day 159

Today is about what I found while looking through my living room windows.

I was looking at a bee, but noticed this inchworm crawling in a holly leaf. I like that it's able to hang on and stretch out so well.

Alex noticed this inchworm climbing up a strand. My camera wouldn't focus well on the tiny subject, in the air. I patiently waited for it to reach the tree.

This egg shaped web is perfect for Easter.

Later in the evening, there were several insects on the window.

This is a ladybug. I confirmed it had spots and wings, but I wasn't able to take a nice photo of those features.

This is another flying bug.

Day 120

Today, I stayed at the house doing work.

I am happy to finally get a decent photo of these birds. They are very small and tend to move around quickly. Today, there were two in this tree. I suspect they are making a nest by my balcony, or re-purposing the old nest that I never removed.

Just in case you can't easily see, there are two birds on this branch.

I walked with Alex to the bus stop and noticed these white flowers had grown near by.

My neighbor's Daffodils are starting to open up. 

The water on this leaf is like a magnifying glass. It enlarges the view of the white dots on the leaf. Click on the photo for a better view.

While I was taking a photo of the above leaf, I noticed two small birds trying to make a nest in my neighbor's wreath. I made them nervous, but I made sure I wasn't in their path. They kept flying from the nest to this tree. 

This is the female.

This is the male.

This is the female on the left and male on the right. Female birds traditionally are less colorful than the males. I suspect this is so the females are camouflaged when protecting the nest. 

Day 112

Today, I woke up to the North Star still shining in the sky. I photographed it while the sun rose and it faded into the light blue sky.

Later in the day, I took a few photos of leaves sprouting from the ground. I'm hoping these have flowers soon.

Day 111

Today, I was working on projects.

On the way back from the bus stop, with Alex, I noticed there were three crows in the trees along our path. We stopped, so I could photograph them.

Two had flown away, so I had Alex walk towards the last, a bit, so I could photograph it flying.

I noticed another flower starting to come out of the ground.

At night, Pippi (our cat) likes to play "Pippi vs. Moth" and frantically follow the moth along the window as it flies. Tonight, there were three moths, so she was extra frantic.

Up close, these are a lot freakier looking than in real life. They didn't like the red focus light or the flash.

All the flashing light, annoyed this spider, that came out to see what was going on. Upon using the light on it, it ran off to hide. Yes, there is this funky spider web on our window. The dots are paint splatter from the painters that came a few months ago.

Another moth

Day 91

Today, when we woke, there was a light dusting of snow. On the way back from the bus stop, I took photos.

I liked seeing the singular dead leaves with snow on them, against the pavement.

This English Ivy leaf is partially broken. I like the contrast of the white snow against the dark green leaf. Also, the snow dusting shape on the rail is neat, since it follows the shape of the Ivy leaf.

As I was taking photos, I heard crows, so I went off looking for them. They flew off just as I got close. The formation of the trees above where is was, were pretty.

This is a gumball with snow.

On the way back to the house, I notice this mirror globe on the ground, had snow at the top. I thought this would be a nice photo for Amy of Snow Globe 365. Essentially it's snow on a globe, but still fitting. The globe is reflecting the trees and what remains of a garden. You can also see me in it a bit. There is soil on the bottom side of the globe.

I liked being able to see myself in the reflection, in my crouched pose. Whether I am taking photos of the ground or sky, I'm normally crouched. I wear flat shoes. I'm wearing my normal herringbone pattern coat and my grandmother's black faux leather gloves. Photo wise, I like the view of double globes.

This a better photo of the second globe with snow on it. This one also has dirt at the bottom. I suspect this occurs when rain splashed mud up.

When the type of weather changes, different plants are more noticeable than at other times. Today, I noticed the color of these tree leaves. I like the shape and how the snow has laid on them.

I never thought much about Fall leaves until this project. Now, I appreciate the discoloration of leaves and how weather affects the color. 

Day 81

Night photos normally mean that I was slacking off during the day or so busy that I forgot. Today was a bit of both. Either way, to make up for that, I played with some of the settings on my camera to take better night photos.

To take this one, I used the night setting, a 2 second delay (or I would be in the photo) and laid the camera on the ground, pointing up to the trees. I'm never quiet sure what I'll get when I can't look at the view finder while photographing. This takes a few tries, but I like this photo the best.

This was with the night setting. I was sitting down and holding the camera low to the ground. Notice that the photo is blurrier than the above one. This is due to holding the camera, verses leaving it stationary. The night setting keeps the lens open longer, so the light can expose the photo better. If you are holding it, there can be a blur, due to your natural body movements. I used a 2 second delay on the above photo, so I could get out of the way of the lens before it opened. Otherwise, a blurry me would appear in the photo.

This is using the night setting, a 2 second delay, the macro setting and propping the camera in the dirt. This took a few tries, but this is the best. The subject is a ground covering vine, but the subject for this isn't as important as the technique to capture it.

Day 77

Last night, it snowed. This morning, when I took Alex to the bus stop, I noticed the snow was in a lacy formation. It was in the process of melting. About an hour or two later, it was all gone.

This was on our steps. It's a leaf trapped under the melting snow.

This leaf is of course on top of the snow.

The top of this photo has a heart melted into the snow. I did nothing to form this. Through this project, I'm actually starting to look forward to snow, which is something that I haven't done in years.

This is snow clinging vertically to this plant.

This melting snow on the Camellia bush, looked a bit like a skull. Of course, I liked it.

Day 72

I went over to my parents' house to drop off Alex for a sleep over and to have dinner. Before dinner, I went outside to take photos.

This is the early sunset from their back porch.

I went to throw something away and noticed all the acorns covering this part of the driveway. There had to be thousands of them. Squirrels don't go hungry in their yard.

Mom grew moss along the slate path to their house. It's really soft and is growing over some of the slate. This small leaf was laying on the ground moss.

Their garden reminds me of the beach. They have all these yellow leafed beachy plants.

Day 60

There is supposed to be an ice storm tonight, so I went out to photograph the area around our steps before they are ice covered.

This is a leaf that is caught vertically on our 1st step. We have railroad ties and concrete for our steps. The leaf is caught on a railroad tie.

These are pieces of ice melting on one of the railroad tie steps.

I like the bubble in this ice.

While i was photographing things on the ground, I noticed how lovely the trees looked when I looked up. I was sitting on the ground at the time. These are the trees that are on either side of the path to our house.

I wanted to take sort of an animals' eye view of the trees to the front side of the other trees.