Wing and Blossom... peeking, posing, proliferating

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. 

If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. 

Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. 

And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

~Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Peeking...


One of the visitors to our feeders... not as shy as the cardinals.

Posing...


A blue dragonfly finally visited Long Hollow... 
...he graciously, patiently posed for me.

Proliferating...


My mysterious, wild, blooming-like-crazy purple flowers - if anyone knows what they are, please tell me!
They're already starting to fade into their reddish foliage...
...very autumn-like and beautiful itself...
so I apologize in advance if the balance of my photos tip in their favor.
It's so I can remember them when they're gone.
(And also because it's easier to share them all than to decide which ones not to share.)

Moon Fever

I'm a sucker for the full moon.

It draws me in and holds me, mesmerizes me.

A thousand thoughts fly through my mind, but later I can't remember a single one.

I love the moon; I love moonlight

splashing across the water, across my living room floor.

I love the world bathed in moonlight, a dreamworld aglow, caught between light and shadow. ~ me

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side he never shows to anyone. ~ Mark Twain

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you might hit a star. ~ W. Clement Stone

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to. ~ Carl Sandburg

The moon of a bright silver, which dazzles by its shining, illumines a world which surely is no longer ours; for it resembles in nothing what may be seen in other lands.
~ Pierre Loti

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. ~ George Carlin

We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls. ~ Mother Teresa

Last night was a Super Harvest Moon, according to CNN (see the article here, with a photo I suspect was photoshopped - what do you think?)  And click here to read about my experience photographing it last night.

I've been asked, so here's the "secret" to my moon shots... low ISO (mine was 100), low shutterspeed (around 1/2000, I think... this is where I experimented the most, and it might vary by camera) and zoomed in the maximum amount, 300mm on mine, for full frame shots like the ones above.

They'll look dark, but that leaves you room to play with the contrast. Crop it, then start adjusting the fill, highlights and shadows (I just have Picasa and it works great for me.) Have fun!

Tarantula Hawk

Body of a giant wasp, wings of a harlot cockroach.
Part of me said "RUN", but the photographer inside said "Get closer..."

Uh-oh... he spotted me.

RUN!

Tiny Beauty

Delicate blossoms.

Shy beauties, peering from weeds,

Drops from God's paintbrush.

A Walk in Long Hollow

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

Albert Schweitzer