Photography Prompt #1

May 22, 2016 | Allison

Hello again, dear readers! 😀 Today I give you a little photography prompt I made up to get your photo-creativity up and running! It’s super simple, but very rewarding and relaxing.

Here are the photos I took using the prompt. I just laid down in the grass and snapped away! It was really fun.

The whole reason I went out there in the first place was to take pictures of this beautiful tiger swallowtail.

Then of course I took pictures of the cute wittle pink flowers,

And a few creepy-crawlies,

-Allison(Casey) 011 (1024x768) — Pill bugs (or roly-polies) look like armadillo bugs up close!

And boring ol’ lawn which is actually interesting.

-Allison(Casey) 018 (1280x960) — I messed with the exposure on my camera to get this really neat evening light look.

Guys, mulch and old walnuts can look interesting too.

And lastly but not leastly… this! XD Yes, you can use your zoom as long as you don’t move your legs. 😀

I used this idea several months ago too. It was winter, and I just sat down in a plain patch of bare field, but I think some of the photos turned out pretty well. Have a look!

This is the boring patch of ground I took pictures on. Blah, right?

Well…

-Allison(cookies, island) 027 (1280x960) — I really like this picture for some reason

-Allison(cookies, island) 026 (1280x960) — Even dirt can look pretty!

Not so boring after all, right? That’s why this is fun. You get to look at all the little details you normally miss. And you don’t have to just take pictures – you could take your sketchbook or just look.

Do you think you’ll use this prompt? Would you like to see more photography prompts?

***Allison***

P. S. I’m working on my birthday stuff post, but it may take me a while because of all the reviews I’m doing!

Lady-Slipper Hike

May 15, 2016 | Allison

The title sounds rather strange, but don’t worry: the hike wasn’t actually littered with lady’s shoes, it just had some lady’s slippers flowers along it. Okay good, we got that cleared up. 🙂

Of course I took many pictures when we went on the aforementioned trail with my aunt, who kindly offered to show us the lady slippers.

When we first got to the path, there were about twenty butterflies – mostly tiger swallowtails – sitting all in a clump, maybe eating or drinking something. We didn’t even notice them until we walked right up to them and they exploded and flew away. It was AMAZING to see! Since I didn’t know they were there the first time, I didn’t get pictures then, but later we waited for the butterflies to come back and a few did. But only a few – not nearly as many as we had scared off before. Oh well, at least I got pictures of those few!

This is a bee on a lupine flower. In the second picture you can sort of see the bee’s proboscis… I think.

Pretty lupine leaf…

And the stars of the hike – I present the lovely ladies’ slippers. 🙂 (Click on any picture in the collage to enlarge it.)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 060 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 061 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 062 (960x1280)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 065 (960x1280)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 066 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 067 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 068 (960x1280)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 071 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 072 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 073 (1280x960)

Spring + Hike + Camera = Flower Pictures

I like the shape of these leaves.

I edited this picture to make it look more like a fairy hotel. Isn’t it magical-ish? XD

We found this weird but pretty metallic green beetle.

And last, a simple picture of forest floor.

I hope you enjoyed the virtual walk! It was quite fun, and it was easy hiking compared to the trails I went on for my birthday, but… that’s a post for another day. 😀 Which was your favorite picture?

***Allison***

P. S. You know that riddle that I asked you a long time ago about what word has all five vowels in it? Lots of you actually came up with answers that fit the riddle, but none of you thought of the word I was thinking of! (I guess it wasn’t a very good riddle if it had so many answers. Oh well, it was fun!) The word I was thinking of was… sequoia! In case you don’t know, a sequoia is a type of tree that grows to be ginormously tall – kind of like a redwood. And with that, I leave you. 🙂

Clementine Butterflies

January 10, 2015June 5, 2015 | Allison

If you need to bring a little bit of spring into these cold winter days, these little cuties should help you do it. All you need to make them are clementines and celery sticks.

Sorry, I don’t have any pictures on how to make them :(, I’ll just have to try and tell you.

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1. Peel a clementine and pry it apart into two halves.

2. Take two clementine sections from one of the halves, and partially pull them open starting from the side that faces towards the middle of the clementine. This is very important, if open the sections the wrong way it won’t look like a butterfly. Make sure not to pull the sections apart all the way.

3. Cut up a celery stick into smaller pieces and put one piece each in the middle of the partially opened sections for the butterfly’s body.

5. Repeat to make as many butterflies as you want.

4. Serve on a pretty platter. You could have them hovering around fruit cut to look like flowers, do what I did and perch a few on orange slices, or think up your own arrangement. Have fun making it pretty!

5. Enjoy!

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I hope you have fun making and eating these delicious butterflies!

***Allison***

Creatures and Critters

September 24, 2014March 14, 2016 | Allison

Here are some pictures of a few of the creatures and critters around our farm.

A green frog (we are actually keeping her in a terrarium in our house)

An orb weaver spider – see the zigzag in her web?

A bumblebee

A monarch – Did you know you can tell if it’s a monarch or a viceroy by checking if it has a black band across its bottom wings? If it doesn’t have the band, it’s a monarch, if it does, it’s a viceroy. This is a monarch – no black band.