Memorial Day...

A few months back, I had posted a photo from Seguin, TX.

While I was there, I had taken these other photos

from the courthouse that I wanted to post for Memorial Day.

The inscription on the Guadalupe County

Veterans Memorial states:

"The citizens of Guadalupe county dedicate this memorial to

all veterans who have served and continue to serve

in the United States Armed Forces at home and abroad.

We shall forever be grateful to them for their sacrifices

in giving us the most important gift of all :

America's Freedoms,

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

All around this memorial there are bricks inscribed with names

of those who have served or are currently serving in the military.

Please take a moment to

remember those who have passed and

thank those who have served or are currently serving.

Location: Roadside, Texas

Lately, I've been experimenting

with different perspectives

when taking photos.

With the photo above,

I hand-held the camera

low to the ground, with the tops

of some flowers brushing up

against the bottom of the camera.

Photo was taken in the evening

alongside a gravel road...

which turned very dusty as we

continued on our way.

Floral Fun

As promised from the last post,

some photos of my intended subjects.

As soon as I clicked the switch to the 'on' position,

a slight breeze swayed the slender stems

(but didn't keep the mosquitoes away).

I cropped the above photo to remove some

other floral clutter...

I really like the blur of the background

and how the reds and yellows

stand out against the green grass.

This photo reminds me of a postcard

wishing that you were here...

the easy yellows and greens

make it seem so peaceful.

Fuzzy Wuzzies

I got the chance to get away for a bit before the sunset

and I took my camera with me :)

The original plan was to see if any wildflowers
were still standing and they were......BUT

As we were walking around, trying to avoid
the mosquito horde buzzing all around us,
we noticed these
little fuzzy creatures crawling on the ground

Kneeling down and getting my camera as close as possible...

sometimes too close
(I've got about 3 or 4 photos of TOO close)
I was able to capture these yellow fuzzy caterpillars
á la National Geographic style.

I was able to capture some wild-flower shots too
and I'll be posting those in the next few days...

Effect: Soft Focus

Since it's raining and I'm feeling under

the weather, I haven't taken any new photos

for about a week or so.

This year's weather is certainly different

than last year, where we had very little rain

and the spring season jumped right into summer.

But back to the photos, right?

I'm going to use some photos

that I took about a month ago.

After this photo was cropped,

(a few different ways)

there was something about

it that wasn't "right" for me.

Please note, there was no color

correction done, only the background

clutter was cropped out.

So I decided to try out some of the

effects that Picasa has to offer

and found that the Soft Focus effect

worked best on this photo

(in my opinion).

I think that if I pumped up the color

in the petals, the effect might

be more dramatic...

but I like to capture nature as it is.

What do you think?

Which of these photos appeals to you and why?

The Blue Oval

 The Ford logo from a 1986 F-250 still has some

color left in it even though it has seen

its fair share of the elements.