Photographing Nature in Our Yard

I want to thank Phyllis for taking over the blog on Monday. I am just getting over my first cold in fifteen years and I was not in any shape to be on the computer!! I have not been out of our house in five days and as much as I love our house, I am going a little stir crazy!! 

For today's blog I thought I would keep it close to home. I thought I would see what kind of images I could capture in fifteen minutes in my yard, I love to give myself little challenges lol. I would also use only one lens, my 70-200 Nikon zoom.  I went out my door at about 8 AM and saw these in front of my house on the street. Okay, not strictly my yard but I thought it would be fun to show what we get to see many days in Florida; a couple of cranes resting on our street!! In our front garden I shot this image. It is a cloud covered morning which is great for photographing flowers.I then walked toward our backyard and passed our Magnolia tree.I have really enjoyed seeing this tree with its beautiful flowers. They open up and die all in one day but it is a glorious day!!I even like this flower before it fully opens! It rained last night and you can see the drops on the flower.

I have taken pictures of these flowers before and posted a complete life cycle of one earlier this year. I thought I would try for a little different look this time.

It's the same idea with this one. I used a little diffusion to give it a dreamy painterly look.

Then it was on to my backyard to see what I could find! These are the leaves from one particular plant that is in my garden. I thought instead of taking a picture of the whole plant, I would look for some abstract images within it!

As I was photographing this plant, something moved to my left and caught my attention!! I love these little creatures and they are all over our property.

                    I saw this rain drop about to fall off!!

This image shows one of the ground covers I planted this year. I love the texture apparent on this picture!

       I was leaving when I saw this shot. I loved the lines and colors!
So there it is my walk around my backyard. I hope you enjoyed seeing it!!Please drop by Friday, It will be the first part of a two part blog on 9-11. Phyllis and I went there on 9-21 and took some images of the destruction and of the people that were there that day. I think you will find it interesting!