FStop Blog

I took this on the same night as 12:17 and was expecting a completely different result.  

The backstory…every year our neighbors down the road put up this display in their front yard.  Now that seems completely ”normal” but…their display is actually a rubber boat, with two blow up dolls (adorned with santa hats only) being pulled by reindeer.  Wait it gets better…behind the boat are two 12 packs of Corona beer on a rope.  I swear I’m not making this up!  Never a dull moment living in the south LOL…

I suspect the outcome of this photo is because I was nervous taking this shot as I had to stand in their front yard and their curtains were open.  I could see their TV on (I’m not the only night owl on the road apparently) and I felt like a spotlight was on me.  I think it’s safe for me to attribute some of the light trails to my own shakey hand.  Although I practice shots that look like this alot LOL…Regardless of how it came to be, I have decided this will be my “official” holiday photo post!  

DD: The only digital darkroom was taking the brightness down a bit and cropping the top and bottom.

Please CLICK on the actual image above to view the full size photo.

12/17 was a rough day for me for a number of reasons…to burn off some steam I decided to take the dogs for a walk shortly before midnight.  Which in fact, turned out to be two separate short walks so I could bring my camera along.   My intent was to capture some of the holiday yard & house decorations down our road.  But as always, there were several other things that captured me instead.  One of which is today’s post.  This was one of the last shots I took on my return home enroute to pick up pup no. 2.  I stood under the street light and off to the side, angling the camera upwards.   It was very cold and I could see my breath as I manuvered around…upon review (thank goddess for digital cameras) some of my shots actually displayed  the vapor from my breath, soooooo….. I told Katie to “stay”,  held my breath and snapped the shot. 

The words “SPEED LIMIT” natually stood out to me and provided a reminder that I needed to recognize the “limits” in my life — take a breath and maybe even scream from time to time!  I opted to forgo the literal scream due to the lateness of the hour and the fact that I was on the street…probably a wise decision!  After a bit of digital darkoom time, this was the end result.

Interesting Sidenote (to me) – When I reviewed the actual time on this photo it was taken @ 12:17 a.m. on 12/17 – things that make you go hmmmmm…

NOTE:  WordPress seems to have crunched/altered my image as well – be sure to CLICK on the actual image above to view the full size photo.

Thanks to RickT at The Mindful Eye’s community, I found out this lil critter is a native bee and not a fly as I originally suspected.  I was practing my macro shooting out on my deck this summer when I was fortunate to have it pose for me.  This is my Nana’s favorite photo.  When I spent time with her in September she remarked over and over ”that camera sure takes good pictures”.  I love you Nana!

Taken with my Canon PowerShot A590IS – July 15, 2009