October Butterfly Gallery

From For Ellipsis

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering through the autumn tree."


-Emily Bronte


I had a good deal of luck in finding butterflies during October! A nice variety too! Here, have a look see...

Red Admiral

(Vanessa atalanta)

Kind of made me sad, here wings were so worn, and she looked really fragile.

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Gulf Fritillary

(Agraulis vanillae)

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Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

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Brown Skipper (Paratrylone melane)

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Vanessa (Vanessa cardui)

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From For Ellipsis

I love photographing all kinds of butterflies, because each one presents a different behavior. The easiest, at least for me, is the Gulf Fritillary. It is a fairly large butterfly and it when it lands on a flower or stick, it usually spends a couple moments there. That gives me ample time to get both closed and open wing photographs. My favorite butterfly overall is the Painted Lady. It has such beautiful colors and is almost as easy to photograph as the Gulf Fritillary.

Do you enjoy garden photography? Do you photograph butterflies? If so, feel free to share your favorites with me. I would love to know about your experiences with photographing butterflies.



:)


-Carly

An Autumn Pictorial PT2: One Last Lovely Look Back At Plumas County

From For Ellipsis

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all."

-Stanley Horowitz

I was treated to a very nice surprise this past weekend, when I paid a visit to the Plumas County Visitor's Bureau web page, to view the latest leaf-peeper report, I found that they had linked to my blog and to my Autumn Pictorial from last Saturday! How cool is that? They had some lovely and encouraging things to say about my photography, which, of course, always means a lot to me. Thanks again folks! :)

Plumas County is such a lovely place, I have completely fallen in love with every inch of it! And every person I met on my travels throughout the county were just as nice as they could be! I was so impressed with the area that I am already planning my next visit. Hopefully it will be in late May to photograph the amazing collection of wildflowers they have, but if not, it will definitely be in autumn. Glorious, spectacular, amazing AUTUMN!

An Autumn Pictorial PT 2: One Last Lovely Look Back At Plumas County
October 21st, 2009

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What a gorgeous place! I have never felt more at home!

Plumas County Visitor's Bureau

Plumas County Leaf Peeper Report



-Carly

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #61: Halloween

"Halloween is huge in my house, we really get into the spirit of things."

-Dee Snider







EMPS #61: HALLOWEEN.
My favorite holiday, HALLOWEEN, is next Saturday. Let's celebrate together, shall we? For this week's Monday Photo Shoot, I want you to show me anything HALLOWEEN related. Decorations, bowls of HALLOWEEN candy, spooky costumes, pumpkins, You get the idea. All things HALLOWEEN will do! And archived photos are accepted!

Extra Credit: Show me a GHOST. A real one. A Fake one. Any old GHOST will do! Feel free to use your photo editing software if you like. The spookier the better! Scare me please!

**PLEASE READ**
This EMPS assignment closes next Sunday, at 9:00 PM ET. So, that gives you nearly a week to get your photos, post them to your website and then comeback here with the direct link. Please remember, it must be a link that goes back to an entry which is specific to this week's photo shoot assignment. Please folks, a general link to your site won't work, it must be a direct link. And NO HYPERLINKS are accepted. Also, please remember to link back here, so other folks can find the EMPS and play along with us! Feel Free to use either the above banner or the one on my sidebar.

Linking List for EMPS #60: Black and White Photography. 10/19/09

NOW CLOSED!

1. Sherrie

2. Jama

3. Greg

4. Carolyn

5. Paul (Flickr Page)

6. Liz

7. J.R. **WELCOME, NEW PARTICIPANT!**

8. Mike

9. Karen (Link Submitted Via Email)

If this is your first time playing along, WELCOME! It's nice to meet you! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at ONDINEMONET@AOL.COM

Thanks for your participation this week. :) Excellent photography all around! I can't wait to see what you come up with for HALLOWEEN! See you next Monday with an all new assignment! HAPPY HAUNTING! BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

:)

-Carly

Scenes From Family Day, 2009

From For Ellipsis

"Sometimes our hearts get tangled and our souls a little off kilter. Friends and family can set us right and help guide us back to the light."

-Sera Christaan

Family Day 2009...

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably already know about the holiday Alan and I made up... Family Day! For those of you who are relatively new to my little corner of the Internet, let me explain. Alan and I got married on October 13th, 1990. While on our honeymoon, we began to imagine what future Octobers might be like, especially if we had children. We decided that since we would more then likely be spending our anniversaries alone, we would come up with a special day between October 13th and October 31st to celebrate being a family, and thus, Family Day was born! Alas, we never had children, but we do have fur-babies, so that still counts... right?

Scenes from Family Day 2009...

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As always, we spent the day in Half Moon Bay, California, and then took a ride along the coast to Santa Cruz, where we had lunch. We picked out pumpkins, we stopped at our favorite Organic Vegetable stand, The Farmer's Daughter, and bought some Brussels Sprouts, and Heirloom tomatoes, and had a very happy day together. I even bought a new teddy bear at Pastorino's Pumpkin Patch. I wait all year to buy a bear, this year it was a little white bear, and it was a steal at only $3.00! But even if I hadn't found the little bear, I spent the day holding Alan's hand, as we walked in the autumn sun. It was a good day!



-Carly

An Autumn Pictorial (Plumas County, October 21st 2009)

From For Ellipsis

October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came. The Chestnut, Oaks, and Maples. And the leaves of every name. The sunshine spread a carpet, and everything was grand. Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band.

-George Cooper

Here, as promised, is my Autumn Pictorial. Enjoy...

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"I saw old autumn in the misty morn, stand shadowless, like silence listening to silence."

-Thomas Hood

-Carly

Morning Has Broken...

From For Ellipsis

"What humbugs we are, who pretend to live for Beauty and never see the Dawn."

-Logan Pearsall Smith

I am back from Plumas County, and I have a whole autumn pictorial for you, but first, we are off to Half Moon Bay to pick out pumpkins, and do a little photography along the coast. I will be posting my Plumas photos tomorrow (Saturday) and the photos from Half Moon Bay and the California coast, on Sunday. Be sure to check back then! For now, enjoy the sunrise I was treated to yesterday. I took this photo just outside Truckee, on my way up to Plumas. It set the stage for a very good day with the camera!

-Carly

Hendrix AKA "Teeth"

From For Ellipsis

"The cat is, above all things, a dramatist."

-Margaret Benson

What do you think? Does Hendrix look vicious to you or just darn cute? LOL! Every since he was a tiny puff of a kitty... when he was just a little wee thing, he has done this silly little thing during play. He will suddenly stop, jut out his bottom jaw, and show his bottom teeth, making a small (mhummmfph) sound! LOL. Not at all scary, but it is clear he is trying his best to be intimidating, but failing miserably.

In fact, it's such a silly little action that all I can usually do is laugh! I know I should probably let him think that he is a very scary kitty, but I am usually laughing so hard that all I can really do is pick him up and give him a big kiss! Sometimes I am sure he does it for laughs, I know he loves the big cuddles I give him, but I wonder if that confuses him a little bit. What to do, what to do?!

So tell me, would you let him think he is scary? Am I a bad momma? Would you go along with it, or would you pick him up and kiss and cuddle him?

:)

Gosh I love that guy! By the way, his nickname is... you guessed it... "TEETH!"

LOL!

-Carly

Off To Plumas County

From For Ellipsis

"A flash of harmless lightning, a midst of rainbow dyes, the burnished sunbeams brightening, from flower to flower he flies."

-John Banister Tabb (The Hummingbird)

According to the Leaf-Peeper report at the Plumas County Visitor's Bureau website, this week is peak time for the autumn foliage, so, Alan and I are on our way! If all goes as planned we will have left the house at 3:00 AM and will arrive sometime around 8:00 AM. today. I will be away from the computer today and tomorrow, but I am using the handy dandy scheduling feature to post while I am away. For tomorrow, I have scheduled a new entry about Hendrix, but for today, I bring you some photos from a couple years ago, my Anna's Hummingbird Series. Purple is a favorite color of mine, so when I saw this beautiful bird darting in and out of the little purple flowers, I just had to photograph it. It took a great deal of patience, and a lot of luck, but in the end I was happy with what I accomplished. I hope you enjoy this look back at this amazing bird...

Anna's Hummingbird (Pebble Beach/Monterey, California, October 11th, 2007)

From For Ellipsis

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If all goes well today, I will have not just foliage photos to share with you this weekend, but some new bird photographs as well. Wish me luck! Be sure to check back this weekend to see the photographic results of my trip to Plumas County!

-Carly

All Aboard!

From For Ellipsis

"October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter."

-Nova Bair

This past weekend, Alan and I took a ride on the Tilden Steam Trains (Redwood Valley Railway). It is becoming an autumn tradition for us, this will make the third year in a row. It's a lovely trip through the hills in Tilden Park, especially now that the leaves are beginning to really show their colors! I can't think of a more relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

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So far, it's been a very good vacation! :)


-Carly