Tip-top shape

HSMSHS prompt: TIP "The pointed or rounded end or extremity of something slender or tapering".

Having lots of fun this morning photographing the tips of things in my space. My favourite turns out to be the tip of this Cherry Quartz that we have. It sits on the computer desk beside the harddrive. At just shy of 17" tall, it's actually taller than the harddrive and gives you a nice point to refocus when you've been at the computer too long. Being where it is though, I rarely get the opportunity to really study the tip from above, as I'm usually looking up at it; so this was a fun change of views.

Lots more quartz tips around here to photograph, and even some amethyst. When I loaded it onto the computer though, I discovered that the camera is trying to tell me something: I really need to dust.

Thanks for that HSMSHS!

So I won't share any of those. But I would like to share some more.

The tips of the trees outside my window. Bleak wintry day...


My cactus. Makes me think of octopi. Especially the second shot.







Speaking of underwater creatures, how about the aloe. Tentacles anyone?




How about you? Any tips to share? ;)

The one that got away...

Alternately titled: A case for Manual Focus

Living in the country, we get a lot of "visitors" to our home. We have a small family of deer that drop by regularly. There are songbirds and butterflies, despite the incredible number of cats between ourselves and our neighbours. You know spring is here when you hear the spring peepers singing (frogs) and fall and spring are heralded by the ducks and geese flocking overhead. In the summer I love to fall asleep listening to the loons on the lake and there's a flock of Canada geese that nest just down the road and are one of the reasons for purchasing a lens with telephoto abilities--those goslings are adorable but their parents are crazy protective!

Then there are the occasional visitors, the ones that you don't see all that often. There is a nesting pair of bald eagles on the lake that occasionally come and rest in the trees outside our house. We've never seen them here by the lakes, but a couple of kilometres away at the farms coyote sightings are not uncommon and the farmers are often serenaded. We've seen black bear and moose a couple of times (not together of course). On one very memorable occasion we saw what we think was a bobcat. Those are the sightings that you miss if you don't have the camera on and ready, the ones that make us call up family and friends to make them play the "guess what we just saw" game.

And they rarely believe us. Skeptics, one and all.

So when I looked out the window the other day and saw something I hadn't seen at our place before, I knew I needed photographic proof of its visit. I grabbed the camera and flipped to auto so I could get a snapshot or two before it disappeared.

Big mistake.

Oh auto mode, how you failed me. I know it's hard to focus through the screen on the fleet-footed black animal in the white snow, but come ON! Can't you do better than that?

Unfortunately it was gone before I could do anything about my settings or my lens. I've been frustrated quite a bit lately by the camera's focus points differing from MY focus points, and this was the last straw. I flipped the switch. My lenses are ALL now set on MF, and I'm having a blast.

So, two questions:

1. Do you shoot on MF or AF (and why?)

2. Any guesses as to what our visitor was?

Glow

I missed yesterday's prompt altogether so didn't want to miss today's; even though life is no less hectic. These countdown days to Christmas are just jam-packed, aren't they? But one of the reasons I wanted to participate in HSMSHS is to get me thinking about my space everyday and (ideally) picking up the camera EVERY DAY.

With that said, today's photo was actually taken a couple of weeks ago. At this time of year, I am often found in the office right around sunset, and this is the view out my window by around 4:30 in the afternoon. Perfect for the prompt of "glow". You get an older photo instead of "fresh" because I won't be in my office at the right time today, more's the pity.

No wonder dinner is so often late...who wouldn't want to linger for the chance to see this every day?

Trees of Glass

This is one of my favourite winter shots. Taken February of last year with my old point and shoot (a Fuji FinePix A510). We had had a terrible freezing rain in the night, but not enough to melt away the underlying blanket of snow. Absolutely everything was covered with a sheet of ice, and once the sun came up the world sparkled and shone like something out of a fairytale.

This tree stands in our front yard and I had to wait all day for the sun to get around to it, but I was glad that I did, because it just lit up.

Thanks for looking at my winter!

Winter

This may be the last I see of it for a while, as we're supposed to get freezing rain then rain tonight. That's winter in the Maritimes for you: a constant mixed bag of surprises.

No need to adjust your monitor

No, these aren't black and white pictures. This is just our world yesterday afternoon!

The weather was crazy.

On Friday there were all sorts of doom and gloom forecasts for snow changing to rain, changing to freezing rain and back to snow. We were basically told to get out on Saturday because we wouldn't be able to on Sunday.

Then on Saturday all the weather people changed their minds and said "never mind, nothing much is going to happen". Believe it or not, that happens around here. A lot.

On Saturday night, as I was finishing up the home tour (So. Much. Fun.), big, beautiful, fluffy flakes began drifting from the sky. I was kind of annoyed at myself for using up all my memory in the houses when I was being gifted with this beautiful snow. I guess that photo shoot will have to wait for another day. It snowed all night and Sunday morning we woke up to a small but pretty amount of snow. The roads were still fine and the weather reports good (2-5 cm total they said), so off we all trooped to church. While we were there it just kept snowing and snowing. Any idea how hard it is to pay attention to a Sunday School lesson with all of that beauty out the window? I felt like a total space cadet all day.

The drive home was scary but gorgeous. I had to keep biting my lip to keep from yelling at Hubby to stop so I could get out and take photos. I wasn't sure stopping was an option, and hitting the brakes would have been a very, very bad idea. We were disappointed that there was less and less snow the closer we got to home. Fredericton definitely got more than us. What a gyp!**

By choir time it was truly a marshmallow world. All of the Christmas lights looked so gorgeous sparkling out from under their fluffy little blankets. Silly me, I left the camera at home!

(I plead illness. The laryingitis appeared to be aggravated by my earlier attempts to sing at choir practice. It feels like I've poured crushed glass down my throat.)

It just kept snowing for most of the night. I loved every second!

This morning the colour had returned and I tried to get a few photos without leaving the house (sick, pj's, bedhead) and semi succeeded:

(Photographic Where's Waldo?...can you spot the girls waiting for their bus?)





All morning, as I coughed and hacked, I just kept staring out the window. I was breathless anyway, but the scenery would have clinched it. Finally, by lunchtime, mindful of the fact that the wind has been blowing the covering off the trees, I made it out to capture more of my world:







This is why blue is a perfect Christmas colour.

Good golly I love Canada!


____
**Fredericton also had major power outages and we did not, so I guess I won't begrudge them those few extra inches.

Freezing

The soundtrack for Sunday night's sleep was punctuated by little pings and taps of varying intensity. Freezing rain was striking the Maritimes once again.

In the morning schools were closed and the outdoors looked like a magical crystal world. I had to wait for the rain to stop but got a couple of photos with my new Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II in the afternoon.