Red Leaf with 50mm

During the summer I worked with my 50mm lens taking it off of auto and trying to get as much detail clear and not blurred. If I remember correctly, I had unscrewed the 55mm lens and was holding it backwards against the camera. This was just a leaf I had in my collection, and it was balanced atop my computer.

This post is linked with Macro Monday 2

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
~John Bailey, “Autumn” haiku

The Old Ford F6

I have no idea what year this Ford might be, but I was totally fascinated by it.  I love anything OLD. Luckily I had my 50mm lens with me, so I gave it a try. Looking at these shots makes me think of John from "Sinbad and I on the Loose" and his pictures from Bodie... old but refusing to leave us.

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl

 is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

~Albert Einstein

I can’t help but wonder if there was any smooching going on in this old Ford in its day. What do y ou think?

   

This post is linked to Macro Monday 2.

(I have never understood how to get the link to be contained in the thumbnail for the blog, so I have to link it all up in this old fashioned way. Maybe one day I will figure it out.)

Nature’s Dentures & Working with Depth of Field

 I found these fungi - I think that’s what you would call them - during one of my quiet walks through the woods. They were attached to the trunk of an old tree. The first one makes me think of a denture and the second a mouth full of popcorn with one shiny, loosened filling. Would someone please tell me what these are so I can add it to my book of findings on my walks?

 I continue to work with my 50mm lens trying to learn more about depth of field. As you can see in these two shots, I have successfully gotten blur and that bit of sharpness for which I was searching. 

“If a man walks in the woods for half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.”
~Henry David Thoreau

The Genie Is Out of the Bottle

 Some days I feel full of vim and vigor, full of life 

like these beautiful plants.

 Then there are the others when my back pain returns with a vengeance, my chronic anemia takes over, or I enter into one of my periods of “the down in the dumpies” or as the doctors call it...depression. At times I am not worth a hoot so I just stay at home reading, resting, and sometimes quilting. If I can get out, I go and visit my patients as I am a Hospice volunteer caregiver. I continue to substitute when I can.This is the first time I have had the strength to even mention it openly, but I guess it is time to share this tidbit with all of you. I am in the process of accepting the reality of my not being able to do many of the things I so loved doing. I do not want to focus on this, but rather just accept I have no control over it and move ahead with the rest of my life living it to the fullest. There are so many in far more pain than I, fighting far more serious illnesses, and who are hurting far worse than I. As a Hospice volunteer, I see this whenever I make a visit.  As I leave, I always feel uplifted. It makes me so happy to bring some love and companionship and to ones so ill and alone. I am very thankful for the blessings I have.  It was just time to let you all know so you could understand why I come in and out on my “Genie Bottle”... aka...my computer. O.K. Now, I have said it - shared it - and I’ve closed that book. It’s good to be back. My love to all of you.