Busy Bee

Don presented me with a "Close-up" filter kit this morning. How I manage to rate receiving a gift on Father's Day I'm not sure. The kit consists of 3 filters, a +1, a +2, and a +4 that fit on my 18-70mm lens (67" diameter). Here-to-for, I've been using my 70-300 mm zoom lens for closeups, so it will be fun to see how the results differ. So far I can say that it's nice not to have to be so far from my subject, and its nice to have a lighter lens when trying to hold the camera still.
Here are a couple of today's shots. I have actually cropped most of theses photos a bit in Picasa2, so the images look bigger here than they did in my lens.

Where DO those pictures keep going?

Yes, I know they've been missing for a week. I had found the e-mail for the blogger folks to report bugs to, so I was reluctant to re-load the images in case they could fix it. Last time I reported the problem, which, BTW, was the first time it happened, the images reappeared after I reported it. (It was the 2nd time it happened that I couldn't find the address to report it to and reloaded them) This time the images did not reappear and I got an e-mail about 4 days after reporting it asking me where the problem was. That makes me wonder why I was asked to select from a pull-down menu which blog my problem was on when I reported the bug. Thinking perhaps they DID have that information based on my selection at the time of reporting it, I replied to the e-mail with the specific posting...but here we are two days later and images are still lost in limbo. I wonder if I've just overtaxed the system with all of my images in general. Sorry if I've already wondered that at you. Anyway, I should probably give it more time, before I reload. Or, maybe they've been able to fix it so it doesn't happen in the future, but can't do anything about the current absence. I'm guessing those blogger developers keep pretty busy though. Perhaps I'll reply again to their e-mail with an inquiry of whether they've had a chance to look at the problem after my last response. I suppose all this wondering is pretty boring to you hah?
OK, well I'll move to one of the other blogs this weekend--"daytrippin" is due for an update--maybe I'll work on that one.
If no one has any thoughts on why my images keep dissapearing the day after I load them I guess I'll just mosey on off to bed.
Good night.

Backyard Wildlife 6-9-07

Often when I glimpse the backyard there will be a bird on the fountain or on one of the fenceposts. I race for a camera, click the shutter, realize I haven't turned the camera on, turn the camera on, and re-aim at the now vacated perch. But once in awhile the bird is patient enough to wait for me to get my act together.

And here, the camera doesn't seem to realize that the subject is the bird, not the fountain. Moral of the story? Take the camera off "auto focus" when the subject is tiny and black.

If you look close, you'll see that my little friend is now taking a quick bath. You might have to click on this one and enlarge it to actually see much of the bird.

Apparently miffed that there's no soap or towels, he didn't stay long.

Here he is all clean and shiney wondering what this second perch is for.


Oh, and look! What are these wild specimens?

Re-posting

Apparently, my images are not coming back. Somewhere in the Blogger excuses for problems, it says that loading several large images at one time can be a problem for the server. I'd accept that reasoning if it were not for the fact that both times I lost images showed up on the Blog right after I posted, and didn't disappear until after having been there for an entire day, and the first time it happened they some how recovered by the next day. So if the server wasn't big enough to handle them how did they post in the first place, and how did they re-appear without my re-loading? Possibly because that time I was able to find an e-mail to complain to. This time I can't seem to find that. Either I've gone blind, or they've removed it.
Well, whatever the reason for the dissapearance, the Blogger developers seem to be correct that it's when I load several images in one post, so I should probably limit that kind of thing to my Flikr account (I read at Yahoo recently that Yahoo albums are soon to be discontinued so that's not a good option anymore).

At any rate, I guess what I'll try is shifting some of the "Spring" post up to here. I hope it won't be too confusing.
Here goes:

Inspired by something I'd openly admired at Roger's Gardens, Joan created this and helpfully explained how I can keep it alive.

Joan bought a beautiful pink succulent at Roger's Gardens. I'd wondered how she'd get it back to North Carolina. I should have known it was intended for OUR garden. Here she's put it in a couple of pots (the two lower ones) with shells, driftwood, and succulents we'd not yet gotten around to re-potting.
More re-potting, and my Victorian lady rabbit, that I bought just before we moved in--knowing she'd look great somewhere at our new house, was given a place of greater prominence.

Don replanted the larger pot several weeks ago and Joan gave the little pot some of that pink succulent I mentioned earlier.

The little green "leaves" with white edges draping over the front side of the rooster are the ones I keep calling a pink succulent because some of those "leaves" are pink. I think they start pink and then turn green and white, but I'm not sure yet.

Here's a closer look in another pot.

Great touch, the raccoon, hah?

Well, that's annoying. It's was a major struggle to get rid of those pesky rectangles that used to be images. It might have been easier to just retype captions instead of pasting everything here. So now I'm a little curious if those images might still reappear in the "Spring" post.
I think I'll hold off another day before re-loading the other half of the images in that post.

The case of the dissapearing photographs

Well shoot! It's happened again. My images have vanished and left empty little squares and rectangles in their stead. I've got no one to blame but myself if those images don't reappear. I'll have to load that last post as two or three different posts I guess.
OK, from now on I won't load so many pictures at once. (Doesn't the beginning of a prayer always start with a promise to never do it again if you can just get approval for this one indiscretion?)
It's so time consuming loading those puppies. I do hope they come back on their own. I'll let it go until tomorrow. If they aren't back by then I'll do it over. Sigh.