Spring Photography 2022

 I didn't really take too many photos at the start of the year, so it was around April when I finally started to get into it. Not that there's really that much to photograph - I try to wait on things to start blooming before I really get into taking photos. Then you have to find a good balance of lighting, which can be tricky in early spring. Cause it's usually cloudy, rainy or windy. 

I don't really think there are any stories to be told, just random pictures to be shared. That's mainly what this post is - a photo dump. I took all of these photos with my Nikon 105mm 2.8 VR lens that I got for Christmas... it's spectacular! And let me just say that macro shots are nearly impossible when it's windy. Nothing exciting and rather boring, but I think these are decent photos to be shared. Hope you enjoy! 

Bleeding hearts are some of my faves, but a nightmare to get a good picture of.

Pretty white flower.

Dandelion seed head.

Naked dandelion.

Macro mutant fly hybrid thing.

Tee tiny little ant.

I don't know what kind of horned bug this it, but it was a great model for macro shots.

I wish I could explain how tiny this flower was - it was legit like 

If anyone knows me personally they know how terrified I am of spiders. Since this lens is so long I don't have to get super close, which allows me to take pictures of these creepy crawlies.

This guy was perched under our porch light.

Tiny blue flower.

It's a bugs (ants) life.

These guys passed by each other like a morning commute to work.

More macro flowers.

It's an obsession.

Leaves are still my fave.

Tell me this crisp green leaf isn't the prettiest thing.

I wanted a printed green leaf like this on glass.

Last green leaf for good measure

Pretty reddish green leaf.

I would also like this printed on glass.

And maybe this one.

Or this one.

It's s good thing Fracture is super expensive, otherwise I would have glass walls.

Need this on glass too.

Beautiful yellow butterfly.

The butterflies around here love the lilac bushes.

Dandelion.

Up-close macro dandelion

Pretty iris.

More bugs on leaves.

This little guy was a good bug model.

I think this photo of our side yard would've looked better edited, but I was playing around with the Tokina wide angle lens here. I also don't know why we even have that dog house still - Max literally never sleeps outside.

Dandelion Romance

 I am 100% infatuated with photographing dandelion seedheads. I've never had the capabilities that I have now, so I'm really soaking in as much of these gorgeous little puffs as I can. I'm just amazed by this macro lens and everything that it can do. I'm finally figuring out the best setting for certain types of photos and lighting. It's taken some time, believe me, but I think I might have the hang of it now. 

I was in a very unnatural position to get some of these photos - it's times like these that I'm so thankful that we don't have neighbors that live next door. Definitely one of the many perks to living so far away from people. I mean, we still have our culty neighbors that live across the lake, but we live in a valley, so there's no spying on us. Unless, of course, they can get some type of areal view. 

Spying neighbors aside, I managed some really awesome photos today and I'm really thrilled with how they turned out. I could edit them in Lightroom to really make them pop, but I think that's unnecessary.

I also stumbled upon a spider when I went to bed the chickens. It was in stasis, or sleeping, when I first found it. I tried to get as close as I could, but the closer I got, the more my knees began to shake. Then it awoken from its slumber and stretched it's legs. I managed one more pic before darting away to safety. 

Then stupid me was showing my sister the last (and best) photo that I took of the spider when I decided to delete it. The delete button and back button are side by side, so it's easy to accidentally delete something, but you have to hit delete twice, which I did. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I quickly found some type of recovery software and, thankfully, was able to recover it. You may think it wasn't worth all the trouble, but considering I looked death in the face and managed to get a photo of it, it was definitely worth it. 

Well I guess that's all for now. 

I'm not going to caption all these pics, but this is definitely one of my fave dandelion seedhead pictures.

This is the my favorite, I think. I love how the 40mm Nikon lens can execute pictures like this. The sun set perfectly behind this dandelion seedhead.

Close second dandelion seehead.

I also forgot about this one. I'm just in love with photographing dandelion seedheads. I'm so thankful for my macro lens and being able to get shots like this.

I also like this highlighted dandelion seedhead pic.

Tiny spider I found on the gate.

This was the stasis-mode spider.

This was the pic that I deleted by accident, but it's the best that I was able to get. I could've gotten closer, considering the 1:1 ratio on this lens, but there was no safe way for me to get that close - I was terrified. Hopefully down the road I'll have the 105mm macro lens that I want and will be able to get up close photos without getting, well... up close.

Boys will be boys...

So, Bart's a dick. I'm serious, he's SUCH a bully! He's always been a dick towards Toby, but now he's attacking Mason and Jasper too. He attacked Mason a little while ago for literally no reason at all. It's becoming a daily thing now -- multiple times a day even! I don't know what we're going to do, but I know our cats can't keep living like this. He's either going to have to go or they are. It's not an easy decision in the slightest.

So, I have some completely random and weird pictures to share today -- mainly cat pictures, but who doesn't love cats? Am I right?

It's been such a stressful couple weeks. Like seriously, I can't even begin to describe everything. It's just one of those points in my life where things suck, ya know? I'm sure everyone goes through things similar to mine -- the majority of them are probably far worse than I could ever imagine. That makes me feel worse, like I should suck it up and move on. I could be dying of cancer, blind, or paralyzed. I bet people that suffer from things like that would kill for the small things that I call my "problems".

Okay, I'm clearly not in any mood to blog. I just wanted to get a quick one in before my terribly long work weekend...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Some pictures of the cats:

Our water filled ditch:

Some weird, moth type caterpillar:

A hideous spider:

What is this strange, yellow ant-like spider?

And lastly, the rats junk food night: