Friday 1-28-05

I went out into the back yard today w/ the D60 and took a ton of photos. The lake behind our house is really low right now, it's the dry season, so there were alot of things to see that aren't normally visible.

It's hard to decide which to put online as my entry for today. I took so many neat pictures (I mean, considering that they were all taken in just a small area)... I'll post a few over the next few days.

So here's one for today:

Sunday 1-23-05

As you can see I've been bad about doing daily backyard shots. My last post was in August. This is a good hint as to why: This is Florida, and it is hellishly hot in August. I just got sick of going out into the heat to take a photo, and after that I was just out of the habit. But now the weather is nice (it really started getting nice in November or December) so I want to start posting to this blog regularly again.

This blog was hosted somewhere else, but just tonight I moved all the posts and photos over here to blogger. This is why all the old posts have the post-date of today.

Anyway, here is a shot from this week (Sunday 1-23-05). This poor little froggie was accidentally ran over w/ the lawn mower in the backyard on Sunday.

Warning, this one is graphic and disgusting, so don't click on it if you don't want to see a dismembered frog.

Twenty-One. 08.02.04

Originally Posted on 08.02.04

It's so weird to me to see shells on the shore of a tiny pond. There's that lake behind our house, and I'm always seeing these empty shells. I just always figured those were by seas, not little ponds. Cam: Panasonic Lumix FZ1

Twenty. 07.25.04

Originally Posted on 07.25.04

This cut branch is around the corner of the house, more the side yard, but I am avoiding the front yard, because I want to really see what I can do with this exercise. The tree fell over when the rains came back, so we had to cut some branches off then prop it up. Cam: Panasonic Lumix FZ1

Nineteen. 07.08.04

Originally Posted on 07.08.04

This small plane flew overhead while I was in my back yard shooting pix for this photoblog. There's an international airport nearby and small planes fly into it as well as big ones. Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ1.

Eighteen. 07.04.04

Originally Posted on 07.04.04

Happy 4th Of July! All the suburbians are in their back yards with outdoor activities and grills. Cam: Panasonic Lumix FZ1v2. (By "v2" I mean I've put new firmware on which effectively makes it an FZ2.)

Seventeen. 07.02.04

Originally Posted on 07.02.04

This is one of the very fist pictures I ever took with my new camera, a Panasonic Lumix FZ1. I didn't actually take this photos today, but it is recent. I'm still learning to use this camera, so perhaps with experience I can get dark photos with less grain. But I like this photo, and just am not in the mood to go into Photosho right now and remove grain. Kinda in a hurry. I feel bad that I have not been keeping up with my goal of daily photos. I really love this project, and I need to get my arse in gear.

Sixteen. 06.22.04

Originally Posted on 06.22.04

This is actually from the other day. This flower/weed/thingy grows by the lake behind our house. Cam: D60

Fifteen. 06.18.04

Originally Posted on 06.18.04

This guy was in the lake in our backyard the other day. In fact, he's there most days. He's got a little rust-colored dragonfly on his eye. Cam: Canon D60

Fourteen. 06.13.04

Originally Posted on 06.13.04

This little purple flower is actually a weed growing in our back yard. I caught it yesterday just before M mowed it down w/ the lawnmower. :) Camera: Canon D60

Thirteen. 06.12.04

Originally Posted on 06.12.04

Shells. You'd think I lived at the beach. No, it's just the lake behind our house with the water level real low cuz it's still the dry season. Camera: Canon D60

Twelve. 06.10.04

Originally Posted on 06.10.04

This little guy was fishing in the lake behind my house. I zoomed in on him and tried to get some good pix. I have a 2x teleconverter for my 75-300 zoom but it degrades the picture quality too much. I'm not sure if I used the teleconverter for this pic or not. I got some other pix of this little guy w/ fish hanging from his mouth. But I liked the way he posed in this shot. This was actually taken on 5.28.04. I'm having trouble actually getting out into the yard every day. I know that's the whole point of this exercise, but I find that I forget, and then when I remember, it's either late at night or pouring rain. I'll try harder. Cam: Canon D60

Eleven. 06.07.04

Originally Posted on 06.07.04

There was a fire on Memorial Day weekend. It was probably 20 minutes away. It was mostly contained. But it sure put alot of smoke in the sky. Click here for a stitch (two photos "stitched" together). This photo was taken w/ my Sony Cybershot DSC-U30.

Ten. 06.03.04

Originally Posted on 06.03.04

I have no idea how it got to be Wednesday, June 2nd! Time is just flying by. It has been just AWFUL hot out and I have not wanted to be out in my backyard in the heat even for a minute. I mean, you go out for five minutes to take pictures and you sweat like a pig. I hate that. I did get out on 5-28 and took a bunch of photos from my back yard. Here is one of them. This is a gem of a shot because I had NO idea that this bird had a dragonfly in it's mouth until I was going through the pictures on my computer. See, I have this 2x teleconverter which I am not happy w/. I wanted it bad, but a) it makes photos blurry and/or gives them chromatic aberration, and b) auto-focus won't work when you zoom in all the way. So I was wearing my glasses that day and have to lift them up to take a photo (or else I can't see the whole image to frame it properly) and the diopter doesn't turn far enough to compensate for my awful vision. So I had to manual-focus with bad vision! I was pleased w/ this shot, considering all of the above. Click here for a zoomed-in view. Cam: D60.

Nine. 05.27.04

Originally Posted on 05.27.04

I have just been too busy to take my daily shot. It's been a busy few days. Here is one from Sunday though, from my back yard. This was taken w/my Canon EOS D60 digital SLR.

Eight. 05.24.04

Originally Posted on 05.24.04

There are some days (like today) where I forget to take a Daily Shot of/from my back yard. Then there are other days (like the other day) where I take several different shots at once from my back yard.

So today I forgot to go out back, but I can still share w/ you a new image taken in my back yard just the other day.

This was taken w/my Canon EOS D60 digital SLR.

Seven. 05.23.04

Originally Posted on 05.23.04

This is an Anhinga bird. This photo was taken from my back yard w/ my Canon EOS D60 digital SLR.

Six. 05.21.04

Originally Posted on 05.21.04

Friday, May 21st: Here is today's Daily Shot. This was taken w/ my Sony DSC-U30. It's small enough that it can get down real low in the grass between the blades.

Five. 05.20.04

Originally Posted on 05.20.04

Thursday, May 20th: Ok, here is my first "Daily Shot" of (or from) my back yard. This was taken w/ my Canon EOS D60 digital SLR.

Four. 05.14.04

Originally Posted on 05.14.04

Archived: Rainbow: This might be cheating, because I wasn't standing IN my backyard when I took this photo. I took it from a bedroom window. But I wanted to share it anyway, since the view is pretty similar to what would be seen if I had gone downstairs. This field and trees you see in this photo have since been replaced by cookie-cutter beige houses as seen in the banner at the top of the main page.

This photo was taken w/ a Canon Digital Elph S100.

Three. 05.14.04

Originally Posted on 05.14.04

Archived: Gator: This guy lives in the lake behind our house. He has a humpback, so we always know when it's him (there are other gators, too). Taken w/ a Canon Digital Elph S100.

Two. 05.14.04

Originally Posted on 05.14.04

Archived: Sunset Neighbors: It's 2:17am. I'm not going out in my backyard at this hour to take my first "backyard photo". So here is another one from the archives, to get this photoblog started. This photo was taken w/ a Sony Cybershot DSC-U60.

One. 05.14.04

Originally Posted on 05.14.04

First Post: So, the goal of this photoblog is to take at least one photo a day of (or from) my backyard. Over the past, oh I don't know, 2.5 years, I've taken a TON of photos from my backyard. I've taken pictures of planes, lightning, rainbows, flooding, birds, flowers, gators, the moon, and even nebulae through a telescope... all from my back yard. I do not intend to fill this photoblog up w/ stuff from my archives, cuz that'd defeat the purpose of the exercise. But I'll post a few here and there to keep things interesting. Here are a few to get things started. I live a mile or so from the international airport, and this was taken w/ my Canon EOS D60 (digital SLR) w/ a nice zoom lens.