Jacque’s Neighborhood

Today I received three email in my flickr account all the same but each one asking to use my Saguaro Cactus photos in an article about Saguaros:

Oh my I'm so excited that I can hardly stand it!  I got my annual review at work today and let's just say I'm not quiting my day job just yet to go on the road to take photos!  lol

Any way this sure made my week!

Ha, I bet I got you with this one!  OK maybe I've been watching the Olympics or my horse videos too much but let's give it a try.  You mission should you choose to take it, is to take some photos this week using something on your camera that you either have never used before or never used successfully before.  Some hints:

• Shutter delay
• Leave the shutter open longer
• Fill flash
• White balance settings
• Any of the menu settings.
• Find your camera manual and learn something new about your camera.

I want you to tell us what you are trying to accomplish with the setting and post your photos, the good the bad and the ugly!  Let's see them all. 

No limit on the subjects for the photos, just keep it family oriented.  Get creative and show us your stuff.  Oh and have some fun!

I loved seeing the photos this week!  The photo quest group members have great imaginations, wow!  We ran from flying dragons, to cocktails, to swinging kids, to kids on tramps (better than drugs), to soccer players and drops of water.  Thanks for posting your camera setting and the information about what worked and what didn't.  It is nice to hear how you got your photos so we can all learn. 

Now drum roll please first place goes this week to a new comer to the group jacolily for her photo of Jace dribbles.  Great action shot, the subject Jace is in focus and you can see he is ready to kick the soccer ball, love the blurred background...wonderful photo...this one should be framed!

Second place goes to Spike for droplet Eruption.  Great photo of the explosion of water, lovely compostion and good example of the Rule of Thirds...love the color too!

Third place this week goes to Amy Sue for Taylor jumping on tramp.  Great action with Taylor flying through the air...love the hair it really show the action in this shot...nice work!

All the photos were great County by Design, I can see you worked very hard on getting a photo of your grandchild in the swing and LondonYankee I loved your dragonfly in flight!  Yan you are amazing the photo of the boy playing Kendama was beautiful. 

Stay tuned for the next quest...I can hardly wait to see  your entries! 

It's a day late...but who cares?  hehe

How about TREES?   :D

Trees

Her name is the LindaLou.  I have played for 23 years.  :)  The pictures and cards in the case are thank-yous and pictures of friends in orchestra and things like that.  :)

Me and my violin

I bought a love lavender rose late in the season.  I couldn't resist as it as so pretty and had a wonderful smell.  I didn't have any room in my rose garden so i put it closer to the back porch so I can enjoy watching it grow.  It had done much better than i expected.  The other night it rained and when I steeped out to go feed the horses I saw that there was one bloom on the new rose and the bloom had rain drops still on the pedals.  I took this photo that I really like so I'm dedicating it to Lave.  It isn't perfect and I didn't do any photoshop stuff to improve the rose so you will see the burn edges of the pedals for our hot sun.  As Lave once said to me "flowers are more interesting when they aren't perfect."

So Lave this rose if for you as your photos have given me so much pleasure and I've learned so much from viewing them.  Thanks so much!

purple rose

Is $320 a week good or bad? I have no idea what is ideal. But this apartment means it's all to myself is sits right in the city.

This is a sample potential view:

But we all know they exaggerate things a bit.

Should I just go for it? Grab it? Rent it now while I have the chance?

It will set me free and give me the independence I need.

I just had a huge argument again now - it's either this or a trip overseas - but I think this I need more....

I've been to busy to post but here are two photos of a visitor to our back porch last weekend.  Hubby was using our shop vac to clean off the back porch and this guy came running out from behind the garbage can we keep the bird seed in.  He was very mad and just wanted to be left alone.  Well that wasn't going to happen.  I ran inside and got my camera for a hairy creepy photo shoot.

tarantula2

tarantula1

Around the end of August you will see more of them as that is when they are looking for a mate.  Hope these photos don't give you bad dreams.  They are really very gentle and shy and prefer not to be bothered.

I saw our mailman today! I did, no really, it was magical! I always hear about it - this guy inserting the mail into our lion shaped mailbox. But today, I saw him!

Ok, so you think I'm nuts. Let me explain - I'm stuck at home today, not at work, at home for the first time in what feels like forever. 2003 I started work pretty much as soon as I got out of high school and have been working non-stop since, rarely taking the day off for anything. The last time I stayed home on a weekday was when I had an allergy attack leaving me temporarily blind by my own puffy face and today - a viral infection which saw me leave work early yesterday. I loathed leaving work but I felt like vomiting. I tried to do more and more thinking that over the day I would get better. WRONG. It just got worse, so I ended up finishing as much as possible and left at lunchtime.

I called work this morning double checking and triple checking with my other workmates that the work pending on my table won't be jeopordized if im not here. It's a paranoid thing I have going.

Anyway, slept it off all afternoon and most of today. Managed to get up and make a few phone calls to banks, agencies, my uni to organise graduation ceremony etc... that I could not otherwise do on a weekend.

And I saw our mailman. The last time I saw a mailman/mailwoman was back in primary school when we had a school strike!

I am still tired and buggered. My mum wants me to get out of bed to do some housework because no day is ever rest day. She's mumbling under her breath how I'm not getting paid to stay home and how I should have gone to work. But bugger it. She's going to complain anyway, just try to put up with it. I'll try to rest my eyes a bit now before I have to take the clothes out onto the line later. *sigh*

I want to stick a photo here but it's giving me a headache to sort through all that colour. So:

*imaginary photo here*

sorry.

2008_08_18 - Action 064.JPG - Emma for Vox

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I took almost 200 shots today trying to get a few photos for this week's Photo Quest.  In addition to the action shots, I took a few that I have had a lot more experience with.  Here's the little one year old granddaughter that is in the last photo of the Photo Quest.  She is a sweetie! 

2008_08_18 - Action 132.JPG - Hayden for Vox

There was one dandelion in the yard and Hayden found it.  He is the other half of the twins. 

He did the cutest thing today.  We had been on the south side of the garage where the dog food dish was, and he had picked up several pieces of dog food.  We told him it was for the doggie and he put it down. 

Later we were around on the north side of the garage petting the dog.  He walked back around to the dog food dish, picked up a handful of dog food and brought it over to the dog.  His mom and I were both impressed that he had made the connection and remembered where the dish was.  Pretty good for a 16 month old, I think! 

2008_08_18 - Action 131.JPG - Hayden for Vox

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Here's what he looks like most of the time - just going as fast as he can! 

Isn't it amazing that the grass is still so nice a green?  I can't ever remember when we were still mowing grass at this time of the year. 

2008_08_18 - Action 128.JPG - Jacob and Jen for Vox

Here's the twins three year old brother with his mom.  This swing hangs in a big walnut tree.  The baby swings are in a sycamore tree.  It is huge.  I want to take a picture of it, but I can't figure out how to put it in perspective. 

2008_08_18 - Action 185.JPG - Hayden and Jacob for Vox

This is one of my favorite shots from today.  It was completely unplanned.  The kids were interested in the bark of the walnut tree.  They don't have any big trees in their yard. 

I have another job interview tomorrow.  I sent a resume in to a private school that is looking for a cook.  I think it would be a dream job, even though it is over 50 miles away.  I don't mind driving and I could always stay with some of the relatives who live in that area if the weather got bad.  We will be moving in that direction if/when we sell the farm.  I love it out here, but don't know if we will stay forever.  It is really nice when the grandkids come out.