I spent most of the day on Tuesday outside getting the yard ready for Spring. I'm still feeling the pain this morning from my exertions. I'm really ready for Spring.

It's officially already spring, but none of the trees in our area have begun to flower. Yesterday I mulched all of our new trees and one of our Cherry trees is sooooo close to blossoming. These buds are just aching to open and we are only just a couple of days away. That is when it will really be Spring for me.

Here is a closeup of a circa 1980 AT&T "Misty Cream" phone. This one is plugged into my Vonage VoIP Business account. I like the idea that I'm using a phone that is over 20 years old for a service that is built for the next generation of telecommunications.

Note to self: you should really dust off your subject when your taking macro closeup photos.

It has been raining for the last couple of days and I haven't had a chance to get outside yet to test my new macro lens. So I decided to take pictures of stuff on my desk as a test. This is a wire cup that I use to hold paperclips.

In low light conditions the depth of focus on this lens is very tight. This can make for interesting composition. It can also be a limiting factor in certain circumstances.

I purchased two new lenses for my Canon 300D. This is a picture using my new Sigma 105mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens.

This is a fixed focus lens that can be used as a 105mm telephoto. It also has macro capabilities. I will be on vacation this Easter week, so I should have plenty of opportunity to test it out.

The other lens I purchased was a Canon 70-300mm zoom lens. I will post more about this one later.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Here is a flower arangement Michele made for the table. Emma is having her Birthday party today and the girls should be arriving soon.

Emma went a little crazy keeping Teddy warm with her Beanie Babies. Teddy didn't seem to mind.

While I don't condone the destruction of nature, this still made an interesting photo.

Here is another shot I took from the trail last weekend.

This photo had a nice stark contrast between the dark trees and the blue sky. I took the original and wanted to see if I can increase the contrast to add more starkness. I tried several contrast settings in Photoshop and was not able to get the effect or style I was looking for. I then experimented for a while using several other filters. Finally I took a fresh original and added some film grain noise. This was the picture I had in my mind.

I can see this photo being used for the background of a new mystery thriller or a Steven King novel.

The original photo can be found after the jump.

Last weekend Emma and I went back to our favorite trail. Since I have photographed every conceivable angle of the trail, I decided to try and concentrate on interesting close-ups. This was the best of the bunch.

This photo was taken during our recent trip to California last Christmas. I knew I would like the shot the moment I took it. But once I saw the results I was not as happy. It was very dark and the neon just didn't pop like it did in real life. There was also a distracting palm tree in the background. So I finally got around to fixing that.

I have been wanting to expand my knowledge and skill with Photoshop and this was a perfect project to practice with. You can see the original version after the jump. I'm pleased with the final results.

Here is the last of the photos from our DC musuem trip. I hope you enjoyed them.

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.