It Happens Every Time

I found these very tiny blue flowers the other day, and I thought they would be a perfect subject to write a post about. So I got my camera out and prepared it to get a perfect shot. There was one problem though.

Every time I tried to get these flowers into focus, it didn't work. Argh!! This is what has been happening to me every time I try to get a macro shot. I try all sorts of different camera modes that never work. I tried the macro setting first. Then I tried manual focus, but I can't see well enough for that to help.

After awhile I got everything into focus but these tiny flowers. You can see all sorts of plants and weeds, and even gravel, as clear as day in this picture, but my subject was completely out of focus. Sometimes I just take as many pictures as I can and hope for the best, but that never works in these situations.

So what did I finally decide to do? I decided to post my best pictures on the internet and whine about it to anyone who would listen. Hah! That'll teach those rotten flowers. I will say that I've never been known to always post the greatest pictures. The story's the thing.

Not to worry though. I have other posts coming with better flower pictures. Maybe not the best, but they're certainly better than these. I just like to show what really happens when a person is out taking pictures. Sometimes things just don't turn out perfectly.

One of these days I might lean my lesson and only post the best pictures, but then again, I doubt it. These are sometimes just as fun, especially if you get a little of the story behind them. Real is better. And I guess that's enough. I'll talk to you later.

Another View Of The Flowers

I kept saying I needed to get a few shots of those little yellow flowers from a little farther back. So finally, here they are! They're mixed in with a lot of other weeds and some thistle. The best part this time was that I wasn't attacked by bugs!

I could see bugs hopping around these weeds so much that the plants actually shook as I walked by, but they didn't come out to get me this time. My problem is that even with all of these different plants I didn't know exactly what to take pictures of. I really don't have a good eye for plants.

I did get several different shots of some things I liked, so maybe that's what it takes. I thought this one picture today had a good variety of colors, so I decided to feature it for now. After taking some more pictures, my camera's batteries unexpectedly died on me, so it was time to head back home.

And I'm still waiting on my big news. You'll probably be the first people to hear about it when it happens because I'll probably rush to my computer to write a post about it. It sure is hard waiting. I'll get by though. I'll talk to you later.

Wishing For The Future

Problems, problems. My internet went down for awhile before I could write my post for Friday, and stayed down for quite some time, so I just decided to take the rest of the weekend off from the internet. I was too irritated to continue. I hate when that happens!

There also hasn't been much excitement in the way of nature going on around here for the past several days, so I don't have any new pictures today either. I thought it might be fun to just share some older pictures again to go along with my writing.

I haven't really been going out to any nature parks recently because I've been concentrating on the, hopefully, near future. I'll be doing a lot of traveling around the state here pretty soon, and I'm kinda saving all my money up for that.

I'm really excited about getting to see all the different nature and historical sites that my travels take me near. This will be the first time in my life I've ever been able to do anything like this, and I've been trying to plan everything all at once.

I already have plans to visit a museum inside a riverboat, several huge nature parks, and the biggest dam I've ever seen. What I'm most excited about is that my travels are going to take me near a few waterfalls here in the state. I've never seen a waterfall before in my life, and I can't wait to see my first one.

The only problem right now is that I had hoped for all of this to have begun already, but it keeps getting delayed. It's definitely going to happen, but I want to get going already. I can't even really prepare for my journeys until I'm told I can get started, but at least I can plan for these side trips.

Part of what's holding everything up is effects from my old car accident. I'm almost over it, but I still have to be careful with my head. I can't go anywhere until I can say I'm healthy enough. That should be no problem soon either.

I'm trying to think of all the positive things while not letting the waiting get to me. It's going to be pretty exciting soon. I'm going to be kind of distracted until then, so I'll probably have a bunch of weird posts like this one. I'll talk to you later.

Mysterious Plant

I don't know what this stuff is, but I've seen it many times before. It's an interesting plant because it's so unique. I've never really seen anything else quite like this mysterious little plant.  It seems to grow all over around here. You can see that it's growing in the middle of a lot of gravel.

It's a nice little mystery. This is just one type of weed that grows around here among many. I took many pictures of this stuff, but only these came out okay. I tried to get some macro shots, but they all came out blurry. The top picture is actually a crop of a shot I took while standing over it.

I'm hoping to find out about a few things pretty soon so I can finally get my new camera. I'm not sure if my pictures will improve, but it'll make things a bit easier. All of my other plans are waiting on this news as well. Things seem to be taking a long time. I'm getting antsy.

Until then I'm going to keep taking pictures of things I find interesting around here. Who knows? I might end up finding a few hidden gems. Or maybe I'll end up getting better with my macros somehow. I kind of doubt that's going to happen.

I'll keep trying though. It never hurts to try. I've got so many things swirling in my mind right now. I hope I can do something about that soon. One day soon I'll have some big news and then the excitement will begin. Talk to you next time.

Little And Yellow

I decided to go back and get some more pictures of these little yellow flowers. I was fighting bugs the whole way. I still haven't been able to defeat them but I'm getting stronger. I got these closeups because I'm still obsessed with macro shots for some reason, even though I never can seem to get them quite right.

It never occurred to me until now to take a few pictures of all the flowers at the same time. I hope I can do it before the flowers end up going away. I'm not sure if I'll accomplish that goal because they didn't look so good last time I saw them at a distance.

My camera problems continue, but the day of me getting a new one keeps getting pushed back. I'm waiting for a few things to happen so I can do all the things I want, but it all keeps slipping away. Soon I'll catch up with all of those things and I'll be traveling around with a new camera and a new pair of eyeglasses on my head. I keep thinking it won't be long now.

I'd say I did pretty good at this one picture, even though I was being attacked by a swarm of bugs and I had trouble seeing it all with the camera. I wish the lighting was a little better though. That's what happens when you try to take a good macro shot when you're hopping up and down trying to dodge mosquitoes. That's enough for now, talk to you next time.

Out Back

I decided to go out and take a few pictures at the back end of my property because it is so green and full of nature back there. I have to be honest though. I wasn't feeling like going out very far so I decided to get a few good shots at home. I wasn't in the best of moods. All of the bugs didn't improve that much either.

Those bugs really tore into me while I was out there, so I got my pictures and rushed back into the house. If you would have seen all the bugs that came up from the creek you would understand the problem. It wasn't until I was looking at the pictures that I saw all of the opportunities for pictures out there.

There are good patches of wildflowers back there that I ran from. As I was dodging the bugs I almost stepped on a little snake that quickly disappeared into the weeds. I tried my best to get its picture but it was just too fast for me. There are just so many interesting things back there that I didn't stay around long enough to see. I wish I would have endured the bugs a little better. Maybe next time.

It's funny how negative I was feeling while I was out there, but then I came back in the house and I'm fond of the experience. I think I'll feel better with a second try, and when I remember to allow for my half broken camera troubles. I'll definitely give it another shot. Until then, I'll talk to you next time.

I Like This Stuff

I was wandering around when I found this moss on the ground. I'm fascinated by the stuff, but I rarely share the pictures here because I don't know what to write about it. I tried to get a good macro shot, but as you can see it didn't work out very well.

A combination of camera troubles and bad eyesight are preventing me from doing any better than this. I keep telling myself to go get my glasses, but I never actually go. I figure I'll take care of it around the time I get my new camera. It's just a pretty long drive to take care of all this stuff.

Until then, I have these pictures of this moss. I'm not sure what it is that I like about it. Maybe it's because it just looks so smooth. All of those tiny bits in there. I want to get the camera as close as I can, but it never seems to quite work out.

You can see in the second picture that it isn't a very big patch of moss. The gravel around it can be just as interesting if I'm in the right mood. A good picture of gravel is always fun too. But today it was the moss.

Have you ever walked on moss barefoot? I like that feeling. This patch isn't big enough to do that, but I could put my hand on it to feel the texture. Like I said, I like the stuff. You expect the feeling of grass, but it's not the same at all.

Maybe next time I'll try to do my macro shot with the viewfinder instead of the view screen. I can see a lot better through that. Maybe it'll help. Still, even without the best pictures, it's interesting stuff. Okay, that's enough for now. Talk to you later.

The Birds Are Back

I have a few reasons for my photos today. The first is to show again that those mourning doves really liked whatever ity was that they were eating. I only showed two in my other post but others kept going over there as well.

I actually lost a bit of interest because there are so many mourning doves around here. I like mourning doves, but I hear and see them all the time. It really did catch my eye though when I saw them over there concentrating so hard on their meal.

The next reason I'm revisiting this is because even the robins were interested in what the mourning doves had. This robin in the foreground of my picture really wanted to get its share of the food, but I don't think the mourning doves would have put up with the interloper.

You can see in my pictures that this poor robin kept walking back and forth, hoping that it could get its share of the food. It kept its distance though, not wanting to suffer the wrath of the mourning doves. There were other robins, but none quite so bold as this one.

And my last reason for these photos is because I haven't taken many pictures since then. I'm having a bit of mechanical trouble with my camera, so I'm planning on getting a new one. My viewfinder keeps shutting off, so it has become pretty useless. I can still look through the eye piece, but I don't want to have to do that every time.

So that has lead me to begin doing some research on which new camera I want to get. I've looked through many of them and eliminated most. I want one that can do at least as much as my current camera, but I also want some improvements.

I want faster continuous shooting for moving wildlife. My camera is terrible at this. It was the one flaw I found when I first bought it. I won't accept another one like it. I also don't want a full DSLR. I don't believe they're as versatile as the kind I like. Too many lenses to carry around.

The good thing is that I've narrowed my search down to one I think I might want. Some cameras have certain better features than this one, but are lacking in others. I think I've found one that balances out the best features that I require. But I still have some research to do. I like to be very thorough.

When I finally decide and get my new camera I'll reveal which one I've chosen. Then maybe I'll be taking pictures a little more quickly again. Until then I'm struggling along, but I'll try to keep up. Okay, that's enough for today. I'll talk to you later.

What Are They Eating?

I took these pictures of these mourning doves the other day because I thought they were behaving differently than I'd ever seen before. I have never seen these birds staying on the ground for very long until now. These birds were there fpor a very long time.

You may have guessed that there seems to be something very tasty in the grass for them. They were down there eating for hours. I don't know what might be so good to keep them there for so long, but it did.

I guess I should have gone over to investigate but I didn't want to interrupt their meal. It could just possibly be the fresh-cut grass that they're eating. I really doubt that theory because they're sticking to this one spot so closely.

I will also add that they have been coming back to that spot on different days as well. I don't know why I didn't really consider taking a closer look until now. I just assumed I'd be bothering the birds too much, so I left it alone.

One odd thought that came to my mind when I was taking the picture was that I thought the bird on the right might be dead. It just didn't move for such a long time. I was finally relieved to see it move its head after awhile though.

Whatever it is there, they sure do like it. Maybe I'll walk over there in a few days and take a look. I'm sure they'll still be at it. I don't know what it could be, but it was interesting enough for me to write this post about it. Anyway, I'll talk to you later.

Yellow This Time

I told you before that I was looking for flowers a little bit right now. This time it's little yellow flowers that I've found. These yellow ones are very small. My second picture shows that much better than the first.

I found these not too far from the purple flowers I showed you last time. Maybe they're related somehow. I don't know. Like I said before, I know nothing about flowers, unless somebody tells me.

I like these yellow flowers, but I'm going to have to move back to animals with my next post. I just don't know what to write about them. I didn't have to hold these to get them to stop blowing in the wind. That's something. Maybe that's why I have such trouble with flowers, no physical action.

Wouldn't it be fun if flowers had feet, and they could run from you? It really could be, but it could be kind of creepy too. Just think of a herd of flowers running up to you on a lonely forest path. I'm not really sure just how I'd deal with that. What would you do?

It would certainly make for an exciting time of taking their picture. You'd have to chase down flowers like you do butterflies. But them roses, with their thorns, probably wouldn't be afraid of anything. How would bees react to flowers then?

Okay, enough of this. Now it's time for me to go to sleep and dream about being chased by flocks of flowers out to steal my soul. I hate it when that happens! Okay, talk to you later.

Purple Flowers

Guess who knows absolutely nothing about flowers. That's right. Me! I really am much better at identifying animals. Flowers just confound me. Sure, I know to look at certain things, like the number of petals, and maybe even the shape, but I just don't have a good resource to help me learn.

You can find guides for animals all over the internet, but not for flowers. I've seen a few little things that help a bit, but nothing where I can really learn to understand plants and flowers. And I don't want to spend money to learn either. So I'm mostly content to just admire what I see, like these purple flowers.

These purple flowers are growing just about everywhere near where I live. I never really got any close looks at flowers last year because there weren't many around. But this year there are man =y different kinds to choose from. I guess that's the way it is when your not going through a drought.

I got my business taken care of that interrupted my blogging activity last week. Everything worked out pretty well, but it was a huge distraction. Now I'm back and ready to get down to business again. I'm just glad it's all over.

I plan on doing a bit of traveling in another month or so. I'm going to be traveling around the area looking at different places and landmarks, maybe even a few museums. There's just so many things to do around here that I never could do before. I'm really excited about the whole idea.

One of the first places I'm going to go visit is a river boat museum in Sioux City. I was there once before when I was on vacation here before my blogging days.That vacation was what inspired me to start this blog. I plan on more than duplicating it in the months to come. This time I'll have pictures.

Something I learned from that vacation I took way back then was that you can make every day a kind of vacation for yourself. Just take a little time out sometimes to look around your area to see what kind of fun things are out there. I got lucky enough to now live in the place that inspired that idea for me.

I really never thought I'd get to move to the place where I always wanted to be. Michigan is a great place, in my opinion the most beautiful state, but I've always loved it here in Iowa more than any other place. I'm glad to be here.

It's things like these flowers that I love about being here. I see them everywhere. Now I'll get to find out how far away they're growing. The rest of the year is going to be an exciting one for me. I can't wait! Talk to you later.