July 2010 Photo of the Month Contest - Post Entries Here

[havalotta]

LOTS of good photos since I last looked in.
Ooooo Ahhhhhh to all of them.

[turttle]

Thanks for all the good words, folks. I decided the raccoons are Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod. Last night they knocked down my hummingbird feeder, so they are in my bad graces.

I got a new camera this year with an amazing zoom and it makes taking butterfly photos much easier. I can't seem to get my frogs to pose, though.

[havalotta]

You take wonderful photos! What kind of camera did you get?

[turttle]

Sorry I got carried away with photos. The last couple are not entries for the contest. My camera is a panasonic lumix dmc-fz28, with an 18x optical zoom and a 27mm wide angle lens. It is a lot heavier than my old canon that fit in my pocket but it takes much better pictures.

[bridget1964]

Originally Posted by turttle

Thanks for all the good words, folks. I decided the raccoons are Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod. Last night they knocked down my hummingbird feeder, so they are in my bad graces.

I got a new camera this year with an amazing zoom and it makes taking butterfly photos much easier. I can't seem to get my frogs to pose, though.

Great photo of a blue dasher dragonfly! One of our favorites!

[jpdenk]

Originally Posted by turttle

Great photo! I love my birdseed thieves, too. These guys were on my deck feeder last night. I'm apparently the night care center - mom dropped them off for several hours then came back for them.

A very pleasant photo of these charming animals, but please do everything in your power to discourage them from hanging around your property. Raccoons carry a terrible parasite that humans can get from contact with their scat, click here for info.

You DO NOT want Raccoons around your home, particularly if you have children in your home. They are more likely to pick up things and not wash their hands before eating.

• Avoid attracting raccoons. Make sure bird feeders are raccoon-proof, and store feed where raccoons can't get into it.
• Avoid domesticated raccoons.
• Keep youngsters away from areas with signs of raccoons, such as feces or tracks.
• Don't let children put soil or objects from the ground into their mouth.
• Wash toddlers' hands.

I once found a prime specimen of Giant Puffball mushroom that was just begging to be taken home and fried up, but it had a very obvious muddy Raccoon paw print on it, so it stayed where it was. That's another reason to cook your wild mushrooms well, just in case a Raccoon touched them before you found them.


John

[jpdenk]

Amazingly, I haven't taken many photos this month. I'm temporarily taking care of grandkids and photography has fallen by the wayside temporarily.

Anyway, here are some Water Lilies taken at the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center on the day of the dedication of their new, big facility.

John

[havalotta]

Oooooo I could hang that one on my wall!

I'm taking care of a little one too. I went north last weekend to regain my sanity....
I do enjoy almost every minute spent with him. 3-1/2 year olds love learning.
He planted flower bulbs today. Stringy roots down, pointy end up. Even dug his own hole, buried and watered the things...
He impressed the heck out of me!

A close up of a floral brings the details to life.
Some of its parts look amazingly like tiny insects and their antennae!

[jpdenk]

A very cool macro of the flower details! It's amazing how a commonplace thing can become a whole new world when you take the time to look closely. We're surrounded by a million little miracles every minute of every day, we just have to take the time to look and see them.

John

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by jpdenk

Amazingly, I haven't taken many photos this month. I'm temporarily taking care of grandkids and photography has fallen by the wayside temporarily.

Anyway, here are some Water Lilies taken at the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center on the day of the dedication of their new, big facility.

John

Attachment 18514

Originally Posted by havalotta

Oooooo I could hang that one on my wall!

Yes, John (jpdenk)...that is bea-U-tiful. It is art.

Originally Posted by havalotta

I'm taking care of a little one too. I went north last weekend to regain my sanity....
I do enjoy almost every minute spent with him. 3-1/2 year olds love learning.
He planted flower bulbs today. Stringy roots down, pointy end up. Even dug his own hole, buried and watered the things...
He impressed the heck out of me!

How wonderful. I love passing on knowledge to little sponges! That "stringy roots down, pointy end up" will stay with him. It may even be a long term memory.

Jeff (my partner) might be embarrassed that I'm including this, but, unless I show him something from here, he never seems to read it on his own. We were planting onion sets in the garden one year and, as we were finishing up, I noticed that he was putting them in any which way! I showed him the right way, and we went back through what he had planted. Apparently, no one took the time to teach him "stringy roots down, pointy end up"!

Good job! Enjoy those moments.

Originally Posted by havalotta

Attachment 18518
A close up of a floral brings the details to life.
Some of its parts look amazingly like tiny insects and their antennas!

Great picture! ...and thanks for sharing our observations--I doubt I could look at the picture from now on without seeing the army of tiny heads with antenna waiting in ambush along the flower center.

(Yes, guys, I know they are really the stamens of the flower--or at least I think that is what they are.)