Remembering Mom

It has been a rough couple of weeks.  My mom became ill, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in less than a week she passed on.  I am glad she did not suffer long.  She is also reunited in heaven with my dad who passed away last October.  We had been going through old pictures this summer.  I am sure glad my mom was interested in photography like I am.  We have a wealth of family pictures to look at and remember events of our lives.  Here is a collage I made to remember my mom.

Simple Kindness

We went for a bike ride on the Kenosha Bike Trail this afternoon and came across a Doggie Oasis that some people made in memory of their two dogs.  What an act of simple kindness.  We stopped so our dog Sebastian could take advantage of it.

Remembering Dad

With it being Father's Day tomorrow, I thought it would be a good idea to post some pictures I have been working on.  When I was little, stereo cameras were a big thing and my parents took a lot of pictures of us.  The only way we have to view them is with a handheld viewer.  They are cool to look at, but the bulbs in the viewer keep blowing out.  What I wanted to do was make digital copies of them to save them as the slide mounts are old and getting fragile.  However, being stereo slides, they will not fit into my slide scanner and sending them out would cost a fortune and I am not sure what shape or order they would be in when I got them back.  So the idea I came up with was to mount my camera with a macro lens attached on an old copy stand I had which would point straight down at any picture I wanted to take an image of.  I then put the slides on a little light box to illuminate them.  It took some time, but I got digital pictures of all the slides.  I could then fix them up in Photoshop Elements.  My brother got involved in helping on this part of it.  I think they turned out quite well and now I can share the pictures with the rest of the family for a keepsake.

Daily Surprises

On the way back to work this afternoon, I screeched to a halt when I saw these two little raccoons playing by the side of the road.  Where is your mother little ones?  Always keep your eyes open as you never know what surprise you will come across.

Close to Home

You don't have to go far to get some nice pictures.  I had fun this morning taking pictures of flowers in my own yard.

It's Not Nice to Fool a Nature Photographer

We were driving to church and my husband suddenly said, "Look, there is a coyote by the pond!" I looked and sure enough, there he was.  I grabbed my camera that I always have in my purse and got out of the car.  I took a quick shot and then carefully moved in closer.  What luck, he didn't move.  I took another shot and then moved closer.  He still didn't move, not a twitch.....hmmm!  So now I move a lot closer and still no movement.  Oh, man, he is a fake!  I should have known, we saw a fake fox my a house up the street from us near a pond.  This is apparently the new thing to keep geese away from people's properties that are near areas that geese like to habituate.  So beware if you see an unexpected fox or coyote.  It's not nice to fool a nature photographer!

Spring is Coming

The weather is still blustery around here, but spring is coming.  I know because I took our dog Sebastian out for a walk today and I heard the birds singing in the trees and there were robins hopping around the ground.  I just finished a book on my favorite bird pictures and this one of a robin was one of the pictures.  It won't be long before eggs are laid and they are hatching.  Can't wait to take baby bird pictures like this one I took a few years ago of a robin's nest.