We bought a new macro lens fro our trip to Europe so we could both experiment with taking close-ups of the exquisite flowers. Charles taught us a lot about macro photography but what I learned the most was that it takes great patience! Ordinarily I pride myself on having patience but when it comes to taking pictures, I am challenged. I found it frustrating to be surrounded by such beauty and unable to record it as well and as fast as I would like. It took time to set the tripod up just so, angle the camera, decide what part of the flower to focus on, focus manually, add a light source, compose...

We spent this weekend in Franconia, New Hampshire with the Plymouth Digital Photography Meetup group in anticipation of taking photographs of the Lupine Festival. Unfortunately, we didn't get too many pictures because of rainy weather, but we did have a lovely time.The stately blue, purple, pink, and white lupines stood tall and beautiful against the backdrop of the mountains. I was reminded of the children's book "Miss Rumphius" which we used to read to our children. In the book, Miss Rumphius sets out to reach two goals in her life and her grandfather challenges her to reach a third: to make...

  We had the most beautiful day last Sunday and it will be imprinted in my mind forever. Here we are-empty nesters, and we spent the day "tending nests"! We had a pair of cardinals who were frequent visitors to our yard this spring and I caught this photo of the male cardinal last Saturday. When I enlarged it on the computer you could see the cardinal was carrying two green worms in his beak. So Sunday morning we set out on a hunt for the nest, and sure enough, within five minutes we found the cardinal nest with four babies, in the woods that border our house. Dick set up the tripod...

We arrived in Holland around 5 am and by 6:30 am we were at our hotel in Lisse. Unfortunately, they would not be ready for us for several hours, so we took a walk and shot  photos until our hands were too cold to push the shutter! You don't have to go far in Holland to see these incredible ribbons of color stretching through the fields. It is a typical sight in the spring when the fields turn into a blanket of blooms. Not only were we struck with the beauty of the colorful landscape, but the fragrance of the field of hyacinths was intoxicating! We caught this rainbow one rainy...

In 1740, no less than 19 windmills were built near the Dutch village of Kinderdijk. There is a Foundation which maintains and preserves them to this day. According to legend, Kinderdijk gets its name from an event that occurred during a flood. A child sleeping in a cradle was carried off in a big wave but was kept in balance by a cat and landed safely on the slope of a dike.This spot was named Kinderdijk. In 1869, the windmills received assistance from a steam mill or pumping station, which was replaced by a diesel pumping station in 1927. The pumping station was not able to function during...

It  is amazing to see the process involved in order for a plant or flower to reach your garden or florist! One of the side trips we took on our recent trip to Holland was to the FloraHolland Flower market and auction house in Aalsmeer. They have six locations in Holland and together they are the largest cooperative of this kind in the world. Large batches of flowers, with hundreds of thousands of units of each variety, are brought to auction from all parts of the world, including Africa, South America, and the Middle East. There are tens of thousands of growers. There are 14 auction halls in Holland...

In the brochure advertising the Keukenhof Gardens, it states the theme for 2012 is "Seduction". The gardens certainly seduced me on our recent photographic expedition there. Can you imagine acres of tulips in an array of colors from vibrant reds to pastel pinks accompanied by the tantalizing fragrance of rows of grape hyacinths? There were exquisite designs set in woodland landscapes, each more breathtaking than the next.Prior to the trip I thought four days of photographing tulips would be excessive. Was I wrong! Right til the last day, we were greeted by new buds opening daily, lavish indoor...

Hummingbirds usually return to Massachusetts in mid to late April. This year I put my hummingbird feeder out early since the weather has been so mild. I've been anxiously waiting for the first sighting. This weekend I slept in after being up late with holiday preparations. My four year old granddaughter attempted to wake me starting at 7 a.m. On a later attempt, she exclaimed,"Nana, I saw the hummingbird!" Despite her New York City upbringing, she has become quite adept at spotting butterflies and hummingbirds during visits to our backyard. I jumped out of bed to check out the feeder... The...

During that nice spell of warm weather we took the opportunity to open up our backyard pond for the season. We took off the mesh covering which catches the leaves over the winter.As you can see there's always a lot of work to do at the beginning of the season. We usually have some perennial visitors when we open the pond- snakes, frogs, masses of frogs eggs, but last year was a first. We opened the pond on March 20, 2011. It was the first day of spring and a lovely way to celebrate.The following day, when my husband came home at lunch time, he found two mallard ducks happily swimming around in our little...

We had the pleasure of watching a family of tufted titmouse birds who took up residence in a birdhouse in our backyard last summer. We only observed one baby who already looked quite big when it first  made an appearance at the entrance to the birdhouse. The birdhouse was about 12 feet high on the tree, with the opening facing south. By the time the fledgling was ready to leave the nest, it appeared larger than the adult bird. Because this baby needed to be fed so often (about every 20 minutes), I was able to set up my tripod and camera and wait for the right moment to catch the mother feeding...