~ Cleveland Botanical Garden ~ Dec 30th, 2008 ~

This was taken at the Cleveland Botanical Garden's where they release butterflies to their deaths daily at 2pm. :(

Venture into the humid, tropical rain forest of Costa Rica, where hundreds of butterflies and a multitude of colorful birds fly about as you pass beneath a canopy of tropical trees. Here, you’ll encounter exotic creatures such as a Costa-Rican tiger-rump tarantula, an emerald swift lizard and leafcutter ants.

The Costa Rica Glasshouse features hundreds of butterflies in flight each day. You’ll be introduced to a kaleidoscope of movement and color as these wondrous creatures flit about through the air. Be sure not to miss our daily butterfly release each day at 2:00 p.m. Blue morphos, zebra longwings and banded owl butterflies will dance before your eyes.

While you marvel at the butterflies of this lush ecosystem, pass beneath a waterfall grotto as the rushing water cascades overhead. Or, get a bird’s-eye view of this breathtaking world by going up onto a 25-foot high canopy walk that encircles a 50-foot high strangler fig.

I found several dying butterflies, most with broken and torn wings. Like this one below...

Random Picture

This was taken at the Cleveland Metro Park Zoo with the Nikon D90 camera using a 18-105mm lens. I cropped and resized it so it would load faster.

Changing it Up ~ The Dutch Tilt

A small technique and a little cropping magic...


A Photo from Christmas Day.

Of course the background distracts and the ear has a Dr. Spock like feel to it. But cropped its an awesome looking picture.




The Dutch Tilt Mini Lesson

Photo Composition 101

Picasa 3 ~ Bacon Butt Re-Do ~ Retouch Feature

I have been busy cooking pies for Christmas dinner and haven't really had time to take any of my own pictures. My friend in California sent me a few pictures he had taken with his digital camera of his dog Bacon Butt.

I am nowhere near being in a position to judge other people's photos but I do like to play around with them and try and improve them using Google's Picasa 3. I am not even sure what digital camera my friend uses but I will find out and hopefully remember to edit that brand name in here at a later date. The first picture is the one he sent.



This next one is what I deemed to be the useable area of that photo.



This last one is after I tried out the new retouch feature in Picasa 3 found under basic fixes. I am not happy with the results but willing to admit it is an improvement. Pet eye is very hard to adjust and I'm making a mental note to figure out a way to avoid getting it to begin with.

Food Pictures

Today I was playing around with taking a picture to include with my favorite recipes. Today's recipe was Peanut Butter Muffins. I was gifted a book that has 1500 muffin recipes and I have now baked seven of them. (1493 to go ;) Sadly, this wonderful cookbook doesn't have any pictures.



Trying to get this shot has shown me I really need to learn something about lighting & the correct settings. In my opinion this picture is too light, but I had no control over the placement of the light in the room itself and I still need to learn how to take a picture without the auto setting being on.

Just Playing Around with My Nikon D90

I'm still playing around with my D90 on its auto settings. I'll be the first to admit it's a lot of camera and it's my hope to get some free pointers on settings from our family "shutter bug" Joe on Christmas.

Of course, I did order a beginner's book and hope it arrives Monday or Tuesday. :)

This woman was on an episode of "Clean House" yesterday...





She really was...




Amazing! I can now take pictures of my televison. Although they are no where as good as pictures of my dog Zippy...

The D90 Arrived...

My new camera arrived at 1:30 this afternoon. I inventoried the items included in my kit and got the batter right on to quick charge. Then I read over just enought to set the time date etc and put the lens on. It didn't come with a card and fortunately I had a 4 GB one I could use until the 16GB arrives.

I'm already impressed with the camera. I have it together and have my first pictures already on my computer.



I can't believe how much better they look than the pictures from my Casio. The second picture here is cropped in Picasa 3. I have not installed the Nikon software, which was included in my D90 kit.

Anticipation

The anticipation is killing me...

I keep checking the UPS tracking site and can hardly wait until tomorrow. I hope my address is at the top of the drivers list and that i'm not the last on his route.



I was out at the mall looking at lenses today and snapping point n click pictures with my Casio. Here is a cute one of my son on one of those kiddie rides...

I bought myself a D90 for Christmas

I should probably start this off by saying that before last Christmas (2007) I was camera illiterate. My idea of photography was buying an instant camera and taking several photos with my finger in them and then, maybe not ever get around to dropping the instant camera off to the drug store until months (or years) later.

I came from a long line of bad picture takers and since the pictures never looked good; it just wasn't fun for me. I rarely took pictures and relied for too many years on my ex father-in-law who owned a good camera and knew how to use it.

Last year I took the plunge and bought a Casio Exilim 12.1 mega pixels digital camera with Face Detection; the EX-Z1200. I paid a few hundred for it and it is a good basic point in click camera with a little zoom capability. I bought a few 4GB SD cards and was off shooting pictures on a regular basis.

I actually carry the camera with me in my purse and have used it to take pictures of stuff I see in my everyday life: IKEA Ideas, cute pets, family & friends. It wasn't until early September that I noticed I was taking really decent pictures and people were commenting on them and asking for copies of my photos and if I would be willing to shoot pictures at there *eye roll* class reunion and Christmas party.

Hmmm... I am nowhere near being a photographer, don't know and f-stop from vignetting, and I am totally clueless about anything beyond point & click. But I love taking pictures now and I've decided to step up to the challenge to learn more about photography and everything that goes with it.

I bought myself a Nikon D90 for Christmas ~ 12.3 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera Kit with a 18-105mm DX VR Lens.

I am like a kid waiting on Santa now anticipating its delivery.