I am a very lucky, and spoiled man. I got (after much impatient waiting) a new camera. It is a rather fancy Nikon D800. The primary problem with it is that it is so nice I'm having to retake many pictures I've already taken, just to have them with the better quality.
Taken during one of the stormiest night I ever remember. So many beautiful things happen to the sky when there are thunderstorms.
It's too bad Sophia wasn't born in a Muslim country, because she would be a master Whirling Dervish. Here she is demonstrating an advanced technique involving a swing-set to gain insight into the nature of the universe. (hint: it's all about play and candy)
We arrived home from vacation yesterday to be greeted by beautiful spring weather. Spring in Montana has manic tendencies and we can find ourselves in the thick of winter again overnight, so these beautiful days are that much more appreciated due to their mercurial nature.
This is one of the biggest, brightest reasons that I love living in the country. There are thousands more in the night sky
It was cold and the sun was down before we got there (we had to set up our tent first). But I think this shot alone made it worthwhile.
I took some pictures the other day of the frost in our shelter belt. There must have been a little north wind to cause the frost to form only on the one side, I thought the effect was pretty interesting though.
Spiders just shouldn't get this big (at least in Montana). We found her in our sun-room, the web covered the entire corner of the room (I'd say it was about five and a half feet, top to bottom). I can't even label this a macro photo because she's way bigger than the camera sensor (photographing something smaller than the sensor is what usually defines a macro--at least with SLRs). It is difficult to get a sense of scale in the pic, but she was roughly the size of a large jaw breaker. btw--I call it a she because the big mean looking spiders are usually the females. (I'm stopping there...
I almost didn't go out to take pictures because it was a bit windy, and even a little wind will move the tripod just enough to ruin long exposure shots. However I sure was glad that Ruth told me to go out anyway and give it a try. The aurora borealis covered the entire northern sky, one of the most spectacular northern lights shows I've ever seen. To the naked eye they appeared even brighter than in the photo, but you couldn't see the definition in the lights that the camera picked up.
I didn't have the right lens on for this pic, I was planning on bird rather than macro shooting. But I found all of the activity (and exuberance, at least in the case of the flies on the left) around this beautiful thistle flower too interesting to pass up.
