The first photo is looking towards the church house which is at the end of the road I live on. At every horizon you could see red. The rainbow was quickly fading away, as they tend to do. The second photo is looking at the rainbow from the opposite end. These are the best rainbow photos I have ever taken. Though, I do hope to improve them. They just happen so infrequently you have to hurry to get the shot. The third photo is of the clouds that were above our house.

The fourth photo is looking at the rainbow from the same angle as before except with a darker sky. The fifth is another one of the clouds. The sixth photo was the last photo I took before running up the hill to try and capture the sunset. Unfortunately, I didn’t get up there quickly enough. The sun had went below the horizon.

The cat is Rajah and the crackers are off brand cheese crackers in the shape of whales.

The colors of the leaves are slowly turning to their natural colors. Emphasis on slowly! We haven’t had much rain this year so they’re taking their precious time. I’m afraid that they’re all going to fall to the ground before they turn pretty colors.

Last Fall, Lex followed me around while I was taking photos of the leaves. This year it’s Rajah who is following me around. Lex came up the hill with me but then turned back around and went home. I don’t know if Rajah and Lex aren’t getting along or if Lex just didn’t feel up to it.

I really love the angle of the first photo of the leaves. I had intended on making it into a portrait when I took the photo but liked it a lot better in landscape.

With the second photo I had a tough decision to make. I had two photos. The first one wasn’t so close but you really couldn’t see all of the detail in the leaf, that’s why I chose the close up.

The final photo in the leaf set is of a tree at the corner of our property. It always has the most gorgeous leaves when against a blue sky.

I like that you can see the reflections in the glass, the color detail and the overall depth of the tail light photos. I could have went realistic or very dramatic. I decided to go with realistic because I’m not that comfortable yet with highly saturated photos.

The HDR process really brought out the dirt that was on the Jeep. I didn’t think about washing the Jeep before I took the photos but I wish it had been washed. Though, I guess it makes it look a bit more rugged. That is, if a Jeep Liberty can look rugged.

The last photo is of Rajah. We have two cats: Rajah and Lex. As I was taking the photos of the tail lights they were laying on the top of the Jeep taking a nap. They were really cute so I took a few pictures of them. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photo of Lex while he was laying on top of the Jeep but I did of Rajah.

The chickens keep getting bigger. Pretty soon we’re going to have to have chicken and dumplings for supper one evening. I wish there were more hens, though. I love fresh eggs. Especially brown eggs. Though, I don’t like them when they have blood in them.

In the second set of photos above there is a Japanese beetle on a stalk of corn. A corn update: It didn’t do so well. It dried out way too quickly. The photos beside the Japanese beetle are buddings, I guess that’s what you’d call them, from a shoemaker tree. I don’t know what the correct term for the tree is but my family has always called it a shoemaker tree. I haven’t been able to find any references to shoemaker trees online so I’m going to assume it’s a Southern term.

I decided to change this category up a little bit. Instead of this being a weekly feature, I decided to just change the category title from “Photos of the Week” to “Photography.” Why? Well, for obvious reasons, I’m lazy and the weekly thing would probably never happen. Wishful thinking on my part! I have also been thinking that I need a space that I can use to show off some of my best work. I thought it would be silly to create another website because I already have too many! So, here it is. Hopefully, with any luck I won’t change this category again. Enough meta talk, on to the photos!

The photos from above are from our garden this year. We’re trying several different things. One of those being corn. Gorgeous, tasty, sweet corn!

It seems to be doing pretty well. I walked down there the other day and saw many ears of corn. I’m anxious to have fresh corn from the garden. I’d like to make some cream style corn with it. Would definitely be better than that stuff you get out of the store. I need to find my Great-Grandmother’s recipe for cream style corn and do a video.

The fourth photo (second row) is the start of one of the rows of green beans in our garden. We’ve already been enjoying the green beans. My sister has been canning them for the winter. They are SO good! The fifth photo is of the beets! How many of you like beets? I LOVE beets! At least I hope I do. It’s been a while since I have had them. A long while! The last time I had them was at my Grandmother’s house when we’d come in from school. The last photo is of the grapes growing on our grape vines. I am very anxious for these to ripen. I just hope most of them don’t fall off which is what happened last year.

Before I close up this post I want to link you to a blog entry I read earlier last week titled “8 Photography Myths Debunked.” I thought there was a lot of great advice in the article. My favorite being:

I Can’t Take a Good Photo Without X: X can be whatever you want. A flash? Use a flashlight. An SLR? Use a point and shoot. A tripod? Steady that hand by leaning on something. A camera? Well, yeah you would be right, there. Point is, there is always a way to take a good photo. Improvise and adapt. Learn to embrace it and you will find yourself taking more, better photos than you had imagined.

I am guilty of that, completely. I want a dSLR so badly! I know it will be a while before I’m able to afford one and all the accessories that I’d want for it (and need) from the start. I’ve always heard my entire life: “You can take a good photo with any camera.” I believe that, too. I honestly think a better camera just makes it easier for you to capture a photo. Although I believe a dSLR would improve my photography, I have to remind myself that I have gotten some great shots with the camera I’ve got and I want to show people that they can take great photos with any camera, too. Happy shooting!

The first photo from above is of an adult Cicada. According to Wikipedia they emerge from the ground every 17 years. They are really thick around the house and every morning when I wake up it sounds like sirens outside because they are so loud. They don’t irritate me like they do some people.

The second photo is of a lily from my sister’s flower garden. I cut the flower and brought it home. Had it in front of a white jacket (one no one wears anymore) with two lamps to the side. One of these days I’m going to have a light tent so I can take better photos of flowers.

The third photo is of an abandoned kitten my sister found on the side of the road. She brought him home and he’s been here for a week or so. I don’t know if they have named him yet or not. He’s so cute, can fit in the palm of your hand!

The fourth photo above is another Iris from my sister’s flower garden. Photo taken in front of a piece of copy paper, two incandescent lights beside the flower. Color corrected and enhanced with The GIMP. I had to erase a lot of the background out of the photo because I couldn’t get the yellowing removed. Regular light bulbs suck for photography.

For the fifth photo I walked across the road and got some roses off my cousin’s rose bush. Hopefully he didn’t mind. I took the photo in front of a white jacket with two lamps on the side. I removed all the color except that of the petals of the rose.

The sixth photo I had picked a flower like this and didn’t realize there was another bloom on the stem until I had brought it into the house. I put the unopened bloom in some water and it opened while I was out of the office that night. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of it.

I hope you enjoyed my photos that I chose to post on the blog. I am a couple of weeks behind which is why I posted 6 photos instead of just 3. I plan on doing 3 per week. Like I said I think that will help limit me and help me to show off only the very best. If you’d like to see more of the photos that I have taken please visit my Flickr photostream. The latest. My sets.