Happy BIRTH-day Michael!

5 years ago today at 3:05pm our Son was born...

Happy Birthday Michael! We love you!

Me 11 days before the baby was born, lol...don't I look lovely?

9lbs 4 ozs later...

Here is the little darl'in...you know he still sleeps like that, lol...look at all that dark hair too...who would have thought he'd be blonde, Yikes!!

My favorite photo of him as a newborn...chubby cheeks!! So serene and peaceful...

~ 1 year old ~

Here he is on his 2nd birthday!

~ 3 yrs old ~

~ 4 yrs old ~

And here he is today!! 5 yrs old and still our little angel!! But NOT serene and peaceful...very LOUD and Boisterous! Ekkk....

We are off to the U.S.S. Lexington today with Daddy!! Yea! Birthday boy wanted to go see the fighter jets and helicopters and since it is his birthday and his request is within reason we are off...

Experimenting with Hummingbirds...

Fred called..."What are you doing?"..."hmm do you even need to ask?"..."How many photos can one person take of hummingbirds?"..."As many as I want!"...."Your wasting film!"..."Darl'in do you remember I have a digital camera?"..."No film involoved"...

MEN!!

May someday he'll wake up! (lol)

Today I experimented with my different lens to see which one I thought did a better job! I also used the flash and then tried without the flash...It's been overcast most of the afternoon and I had a really tough time getting the exposure correct...

This was taken at about 1pm with the telephoto 70-300mm lens.

28-105mm lens 3pm with flash...The flash over-exposed it so I played with it in PSE to darken it up a bit...

28-105mm lens after I adjusted the camera, no flash. 3pm.

50mm lens at 4pm, flash.

50mm lens at 4pm, flash.

I think this is my favorite one of the day or maybe the berylline one from earlier!!

Okay so I am off to finish dinner and finished with hummingbird photos for the day, lol...well maybe!

Tuesday morning hummingbird photos

It's been raining off and on all morning. Since yesterday we've had over an inch of rain, YES!! We needed it...but it doesn't help me with the camera and hummingbird photos.

I had to sit on the front porch with the camera this morning. I have seen this migration for a few years now but it never ceases to amaze me the shear number of hummingbirds! I can not even describe what the air out in our yard looks like...just imagine dozens upon dozens of little dive bombers flying around. You honestly have to watch yourself and they do come up and buzz you in the face. Curiousity on their part, I think.

I have 3 feeders up. Two out in the yard and one on the front porch. I've been having to refill the feeders every day now. Normally I do it once a week. They are hungry little ones! Basically I am focusing on the big feeder out in the yard but each feeder is covered with hummers. They avoid the feeder on the porch if I am outside. But here are my photos from this morning...

I was patient this morning and finally I had a berylline hummingbird come to the feeder on the porch while I was sitting there. I did use the flash on this one. I love the colors and the softness of the feathers.

Oops...I got side-tracked, lol...There were a few butterflies fluttering around the yard and I couldn't resist...Swallowtail.

The feeder is almost full, lol...

It stopped raining just a bit ago for a few minutes so I was back out...I'm off to see if I got any decent photos and will share those in a bit...I told you to be prepared, lol....So far all the photos were taken with my 75-300mm lens...not one I am fond of but the only telephoto lens I have...

It's that time of year...

Be prepared to be inundated with Hummingbird photos, it's that time of year.

The fall migration for Ruby-throat hummingbirds has begun...

Here are a few photos I took this evening.

I could sit out there for hours and watch them...

I tried counting (LOL) and after reaching 15 lost count...

It's a giant brown hummer, lol...Julie being nosey had to come see what I was doing...When I sprang the camera/flash she bolted off! I started laughing at her, she turned around stomped and snorted at me...silly horse!

I'm going to work with the shutter speed some more this week and see what interesting photos I can come up with...

Photo Challenge ~ Lines ~

This week the photo challenge was lines...

Here is my attempt to use lines to draw the viewers eye to the subject in the photo.

Hello Toby!

Jordan and Ashley playing on the slide.

While we were at the park I was looking all over for lines...I saw a lot of lines but none that really drew your eyes to the subject...I decided to get down and close to the ground for this photo...Not sure that I like the subject matter but it works...


Ms. Ashley is framed by lines...

Toby was posing for me on the slide!

On the way to the wedding Saturday I saw this grain elevator...Of course Fred wasn't going to stop so I took it out the window...Lots of lines...but I liked the two main lines forming a triangle.

A few random Wedding photos...

I stayed up a bit too late last night but I so wanted to get the photos from the wedding ceremony loaded....I think I got the 500+ photos down to 200+ on flickr...

Below are a few random ones...the rest are on my flickr site...

Ahh the life of the Party has arrived!

He's smiling!! I love him, especially when he smiles and laughs!

Just a few family members standing around b.sing while we wait for the ceremony to begin...

Trey taking it all with a grain of salt...

A Father ~ Son moment...

Trey and Cindy during the ceremony

I love this photo...Trey and Michael are having silent words between them...I just wonder what the brothers were thinking?

~ Bride and Groom ~

First Dance together...

Trey with his Mother, Angie.

Here is a group...Fred, Ray, Erica, Wendy, Cindy, Trey, Angie, Kathy and Jeremy....Michael was left out...But this is all of us and I am so thankful we all get along so well!!

Me with a few drinks under my belt and squashing my husband but look he's smiling!!

John (nephew) with his Mother Diana...

Trey with Grandma (Mom - Criste)

Well we can tell John was having a goodtime...I was laughing at the way Shauna was looking at him....Hmmm?

another Dance...

Trey and Cindy

Like I said I picked a few random photos...just too many to choose from but if you are interested in seeing more check out my flickr site....Thanks for looking :o)

Ramblings regarding Trey's wedding

This was the strangest wedding I had ever been too. We never received an invite but knew the invites said the wedding ceremony was to start at 4pm. We and most of the Naranjo family arrived at 4pm or earlier. There was no one there, the place was empty? So we started calling around to see if we were at the right place and what was going on. Come to find out the Brides family had changed the time of the ceremony. We were told 5pm. So considering there were coolers full of beer in the back of some of the vehicles, the beer was brought out and the celebration for the Naranjo’s started early, lol…At 5pm still no bride so the celebration continued…I was having fun taking photos of everyone. As always the Naranjo family adapts and goes with the flow…
The religious ceremony finally took place at 6pm. The brides family was in my opinion very rude to the Grooms family. Out of all the front tables and chairs they had only reserved a table with 6 chairs for the Naranjo family. That was NOT going to work so we took over several tables towards the back of the hall and enjoyed ourselves. Basically this was just a show put on by the brides family, Trey and Cindy will be married by the justice of the peace on Tuesday August 19th. I have to say we all had fun and the Naranjos do know how to enjoy themselves! I was watching Trey and Cindy as I was taking photos and I believe they love each other and pray they have a long-happy marriage! Hopefully the brides family will let them?
I took over 900 photos, ugh!! I have that down to 534 photos. Over the days I will break those down and edit a few for the blog. I am a bit hung-over at the moment. For the first-time in a very long time I decided to join the party goers and drink some Jack Daniels and coke, Ekkk…I enjoyed myself! Maybe a little to much, lol…So stay tuned for photos…

My stepson Trey and his soon to be bride, Cindy!