Tonight as I was sitting in my office (which is also my bedroom) a family member came through the house and told me to take a picture of the red sky. I looked out an also saw a rainbow. I jumped up, grabbed the camera and tripod then ran outside as quickly as I could.

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.

I know it’s probably awkward to have a fuel (gas, petrol) container beside a photo of a cat and crackers. However, I was wanting to play around with spot metering some more. I really love the effects you can get with it. I was out in the garage and I really loved how the light was shining on the container. I also loved that on the side it says “Essence.”

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 haven’t posted photos in a couple of weeks and the photos that I posted last were from June. I thought I would make a new post and show you some of the photos that I took this month, July. I wish I could show you more of them than I will be, but, I keep family photos off of the Internet.

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’ve been wanting to do a new feature on this blog for a couple of weeks now related to my photography. At first I thought I would join a photography challenge club and post my photo for the challenge each week. The first week went by and I didn’t take a photo of anything related to the theme. I decided that instead of trying to do that I would just post three of my favorite photos that I had taken each week. I take a ton of photos each week and thought that would force me to choose only the very best.

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.