more night blooming cereus

IMG_8824, originally uploaded by whippetmomphotography.

My night blooming cereus has bloomed again, the first time I missed it because I was on vacation. It's got several more blooms set to open in the morning, so maybe I can rearrange things a bit and not have such a distracting background.

(not so) elusive butterflies.

I have had phenomenal luck with butterflies lately. They love my patch of zinnias and haven't minded the little boy throwing dirt at them or trying to catch them (so far!)

accidentally deleted my settings on this one by editing it :(

This one was lucky, it positioned itself next to our house (white stucco) and made for an uncluttered background.

  Tv Mode : 1/125  f/7.1 18-55mm at 55mm

Tv Mode: 1/125  f/8  @ 55mm
 

Tv Mode: 1/125 f/8  55mm

Monarch

Av Mode 1/250 f/5.6 @ 55mm

Av Mode 1/250 f/5.6 @55mm

All these butterflies are making me wish for a macro lens!! And I think I like shooting in Av mode more for these shots, the depth of field is better for sure, but the monarch also was a lot slower than the unknown first butterfly!!

Feeble zoom burst attempt

zinnia zoom burst, originally uploaded by whippetmomphotography.

Took a stab at zoom burst with this shot. It's the only one that turned out sort of good. Not sure on settings right now, but was shooting with my 55-250mm.

Bugs and butterflies.

Got out my 55-250mm today, I don't use it much but the sun was finally out and I got a few pictures of critters in my flowers.

Shutter priority Tv mode 55mm 1/250 f/5.6

Shutter priority Tv mode 55mm 1/250 f/7.1 

Shutter priority Tv mode 55mm 1/250 f/6.3 

eyes.

I have such a hard time focusing on eyes. Mostly Gavin. Ellie doesn't move fast enough yet, so I'm able to capture her eyes fairly well.

Shot with my 50mm f/1.8

Manual at 1/50 SS

f/1.8

ISO 400

WB: Cloudy (because it's still raining!)

Gavin refuses to open his eyes for me- but I did get this one :

If only he would smile. :(

This was also with my 50mm

A/E Mode, 1/800 SS

f/1.8

ISO 200

WB: Cloudy

I'm still auto-focusing, I can manual focus with Ellie, for now, but Gavin is too quick. I'm rotating between selecting one set focus point or toggling around while shooting. I think I like set points but it limits my composition...grumble grumble.

Oh well, it's fun to practice on them anyways.

Gromit is one of my favorite models, he stays very very still (for any dog, much less a whippet!)

Another 50mm (I said it was my favorite!)

A/E Mode

1/2500 SS

f/1.8

ISO 200

WB: Daylight (proof the sun does occasionally come out here!)

Night blooming cereus

 

 

While I was visiting my parents', their night blooming cereus cactus was outdoing itself with blossoms. You have to be up early to catch these blooms, they fade fast as the sun rises. These were some of my first totally manual exposures. Using my 55-250mm lens here.

Brown widow spider.

We have a slight spider problem at our house. This is one of many brown widow spiders I've found around our garage/porches this summer. Pretty to look at and then spray to death. Sorry spiders. Go live somewhere where there's not a little boy that wants to poke at every bug he sees!

More to come.

I've decided to do a photography blog, just to share my photos that are of less interest to family and friends (because they probably will not be of the kids!)

Night blooming cereus cactus bloom