Vacation at Home...

We have been so busy for the past few weekends (with good, happy things) that we haven't had much time at our own house.  Our backyard was feeling a little neglected.  Okay, a lot neglected.  So Matt blocked off the calendar for this weekend as "vacation".  While it's not a typical vacation, we were actually able to get most of our to-do list done over the past two days.

When Matt asked me what I wanted to get done today, I said I just want 20 minutes of uninterrupted (read: no Lily) time with my camera and the flowers I just planted in the front yard.  I've been playing with my extension tubes and tripod *which, are way harder than I expected* and I just needed to be able to change the settings and wait for the shot, rather than trying to do it quickly before Lily tried to chase a bumble bee or something crazy like that.

So this is what I got, with not the 20 minutes that I wanted, but 10...  I'm still thankful.




Check out that bokah...  though maybe some of it is camera shake?  Whatever it is, I still like it.



While I'm not sure I have the patience for macro, it is fun to try it... I'm still waiting to get enough courage to get close enough for some bug macros.

Great time of year to be named... Lily.

So the people at the nursery get a kick out of her.  And who wouldn't... a little girl, in a flowered dress, named Lily.  Who would have thought when we picked out her name so long ago that it would be amazingly, perfectly fitting for her?

She is obsessed with the flowers at the nursery.  And she asks the names of them - and feels free to make up the names when she can't pronounce them.  (I mean really, Lisianthus doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.)  She loves to pull the wagon around, and carefully select a 6-pack of something we don't need and put it in the cart like she just found rubies and diamonds.

She found bird houses for sale towards the front of the nursery.  She asked what it was and I told her it was a bird house.  She knocked on the front of it and said, "Herrow birdie?  Anyboooody home?"  Guess it's time to get a bird house for the backyard!
Of course, I tried to take some pictures of her with said flowers.  Total and utter fail.  So I tried to get some shots of her with the flowers weeds in the backyard, but that didn't work either...  best shot I got:



Clearly the weeds are more interesting than the camera in my hand.

Our Little Family...

It's been a while since we have done family pictures... actually since November.  So Saturday morning, I packed up our tripod, Lily (who refused to wear any of the adorable little dresses I wanted her to wear), and Matt (who really would have been working out in the yard rather than taking pictures) and we headed over to the apple orchards.  I'm hoping that there are a few more days left of blossoms, considering I had a minor camera fail.  But I did get a couple of shots.

Finally...


Having a little fun with Lily...


Extension tubes on an apple blossom...

Apple Blossoms

Last year, I really wanted to get out to Mack's to do some shots of Lily with the apple blossoms.  But for some reason, I wasn't comfortable enough to do it at that point.

I wasn't comfortable shooting a 13 month old who was learning to walk in an orchard by myself.  'Nuf said.

I didn't know where to go at Mack's - or even that I could just park the car and walk wherever.

I thought that whatever shots I did get wouldn't be that good, so I didn't even try.

So here is a small taste of this year's attempt:

See the petals are falling from the tree?   She was amazed by it.


The ruby slippers are a size too big, but helped convince her to come out let me take pictures.  It actually stopped her from screaming "noooooo dress!!!!" as I was attempting to get her dressed.


This is just so Lily.  And now she has an obession with dandelions, which will *not* make Matt happy.  At all.