It's not easy being green...

Headed out to take pictures of the pool plaster process when this little guy distracted me. This is the kind of critter Bob LOVES to have around our house. Wish I could have gotten a front view of his face but he scooted away before I had a chance! Next time. . .

Robin's Garden

While I was shooting the squirrels, I was enjoying Robin's incredible garden. You may remember the purple columbine she gave us from an earlier post. She has the yellow variety in her yard. What a pretty little flower!
She planted these vines a couple years ago and said she'd never had more than a few blossoms until this year. Her fence is COVERED with them! I wasn't happy with any of my wide angle shots, but thought this one was interesting. I like the tree lines in the background and the "trumpeting" flower in the foreground.

Baby Squirrels

I'd never heard of a squirrel house before, but my neighbor actually has one and this is the second year she's had a mama and babies living there. LOVED watching these little guys!

They started out shy...

but gradually forgot about me and just had fun playing...

Even their mama came out for a snack...

and finally, time to rest...This little guy was all tuckered out!

Caterpillar

I spotted this little guy while taking pics of Hannah and Jenny. Focus is not as crisp as I would like. Had a devil of a time focusing to begin with...The autofocus motor was going crazy (I guess because it was on the edge of the bench and couldn't decide if I wanted front or back focus...). Should have switched to manual....That said, who knew caterpillars could have such pretty markings? Bob's response was "Did you kill it after you took that picture? You know it's going to grow into something that will eat our plants!"....And no, I did NOT kill it, because I choose to believe it will be a butterfly!

Outdoor Girl

It was beautiful weather for our last Grammy Day and Hannah loved playing and exploring outdoors with Jenny. Jenny was disappointed that she forgot Hannah's hair bow at home, but hey....after raising 2 girls, Grammy had plenty of ribbon scraps for a makeshift replacement!
Notice that the bow started out OK, but now is growing...soon it will be bigger than Hannah's head!

Sugar and Spice and Natural Light

It's time for some Hannah pics! I'm still experimenting with how to get the best skin tones indoors. Was happy to find we have enough natural light with our skylights to avoid flash altogether (at least on sunny days). Of course, I had to use a wide open aperture, which means only her right eye is in focus below. I still kinda like it tho'. Any opinions?
Love those big blue eyes and chubby cheeks!

Ponds

This is the last day of Arboretum pics...I'm just as attracted to the water there as to the flowers (probably because I'm an Arizona girl, where natural water is scarce). I thought it was cool to watch them misting the pond.

The following is not a great shot, but I'm posting it to ask Kim a question. In order to correctly expose the pond in the shade, the sunny background with grass/flowers/trees was completely overexposed. I was able to somewhat salvage with editing, but how would you shoot that? I had the same problem with pics of Jon under the gazebo....Any suggestions?