Pretty Girls

Yesterday, several girls from church wore matching dresses and I simply couldn't resist taking their picture and they were all too happy to model for me. :) Thank you Parker and Hood girls!!! And thank you Shelbie for being my assistant (you'll see her in the last two photos).

In searching for a good background I had a few specific things in mind I was looking for:

1. A place where the girls wouldn't be squinting into the sun

2. A place that complimented the colors of the girls dresses such as the green trees

3. A place that had a pretty but not distracting background

In the picture below I layered a duplicate of the photo and applied a simple black frame to it then added the flower graphics, coloring them black. Can you tell that it's actually two photos on top of each other?

I like this one because it's a candid shot.

Such a classic...

Dragonflies and Horseflies

Horseflies, Taken the weekend of July 4th.


Since getting our new pool we've had a major traffic increase into our yard, Butterflies, Bats, and Dragonflies have all been attracted to our pool. After many months of trying to attract Butterflies and Dragonflies to my little garden all I needed was a pool. :) Oh well, the Swallowtails seemed to have taken a liking to my Plumbago (a Swallowtail nectar plant), maybe I can catch one on film soon. :)

I used the "Super Macro" for most of the pictures taken below, ideally I should have used a tripod, but I did not have one on hand at the time.

Looking back at these dragonfly pictures I am once again amazed at the creativity of our Creator in what we humans deem small and insignificant, which in reality are complex beyond our understanding. We photographers got it easy! We have only to discover and record the beauty in what has already been created!

Just a note on the picture above. Be sure to watch your backgrounds, especially on Macro. I got to engrossed with the dragonfly and forgot to watch the background, so as you can see, it might have been a great picture were it not for the distracting background. Just a thing to remember when you're taking very detail-oriented pictures.

Notice the difference a simple change of background makes?