Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Macro Monday 2.0

Steve and I woke up at about 6:45am this morning, SO EXCITED to go our very first RV adventure! We were almost completely packed and only had a few last things to pack before we were ready to leave. After a delicious breakfast of eggs and sausage, we got on our way at about 10am. A quick stop at a ranch store for few necessities and we aimed towards our destination of Upper Klamath Lake! The drive was incredibly beautiful as it always is, but I don't know if I've ever seen this trip during the vibrant glowing greens of spring. Combined with a bright, sunny day, it was postcard-pretty on our 1.5 hour drive from our home to our camping spot! We were so keyed up, excited and nervous, but we listened to music and just chilled out. Steve had no issues with pulling our "home away from home" and our full-ton, long-bed diesel truck pulled it as if it wasn't pulling anything! Hooray! Once we got there, the folks at the campsite were there to help direct Steve in the back up and positioning of the trailer but armed with walkie-talkies, I was able to do the job just fine and Steve got the trailer in place on the first attempt! He's so awesome! :D Getting set up was fast and easy and soon we were sitting down to hamburgers for lunch, YUM! Afterwards, Steve set up a hammock and enjoyed his handiwork with a well-deserved nap. :) Molly (our dog) and Pumpkin (our bird) both settled in with enormous happy smiles on their faces! They absolutely love this RV deal…heh…YES! Pumpkin was whistling non-stop and Molly was completely entertained by everything she saw. We couldn't be happier. Upper Klamath Lake is just GORGEOUS!!! I'll be sharing plenty of pictures but just didn't have time to post anything but my image for Macro Monday today. I took my older Mark II camera and went on a quick photo shoot but I wasn't happy with what I got so after lunch I grabbed the Mark III and spent more time wandering around. So many neat things to take pictures of! I ended up getting a whole bunch of really neat images that would have worked for Macro Monday but in the end, the picture I chose has a real magical feeling about it and that is the perfect mood for the day! :) Pam, I hope that you have had a nice day! You are in my thoughts and it would be such fun to teleport you to my side so you could be here in this lovely place too! *BIG HUGS* from Upper Klamath Lake!! :) Explored on 4/23/19, highest placement, #4..

(+5 insets!) (Please view large!) Today I'm taking a break from my San Anselmo photography because it's Macro Monday and the theme didn't happen down there: frost! I was really excited when I saw the theme because I am so crazy about this subject! I could see a potential problem though. We aren't having a usual frigid winter and our days are often too warm for frost. With that in mind I figured I'd be using an image from my last frosty photo adventure. I crossed my fingers though and hoped it would be frosty during the weekend when I usually do my Macro Monday photography. Saturday was a bust--it turned out to be a low of about 40 and even though it wasn't frosty, it was a genuinely beautiful day. It was super for Steve because he was working on our deck and it was very comfortable working conditions. Sunday rolled around and I was encouraged by the chilly temperature of about 35 degrees on our porch. Walking down our road, I could see there was the slightest dusting of frost in some shady areas but that was about all. I was discouraged and thought I'd be wasting my time trying to find reasonable frosty images. Then I realized how silly I was being. Hello? I have a macro lens! And that means frosted sugar on everything! I marched up the hill, into the house, grabbed my camera and flash setup, popped on my knee pads and out I went, making a beeline towards a frosty spot I saw in our meadow. Silly me indeed! It took about two seconds to find a frosty leaf…then another…and ok, well I went completely crazy. About 45 minutes later and some 350 pictures, I finally stopped and went back into the house to copy my pictures over. So many interesting and pretty frosty things! Droplets from melted frost…cool shadows on frosty leaves…thorny leaves with frost…acorns and caps and wasp galls with frost…oh my, how do I pick? Oh, and I couldn't resist pictures of light shining through leaves…they are just so pretty. I ended up processing 6 for today, you'll see 5 insets to view as well! The moral of the day: Don't be a defeatist! Open your eyes and you will find what you are looking for…and perhaps too much of what you're looking for! :D Pam, I looked to see what frosty images you had in your photo stream and I was delighted that you have taken some very pretty shots! I especially liked your Jack Frost picture! It's fun to look at frost on cooler or warmed days because the frost can sometimes appear quite different. The feathery frost in your picture is so pretty and something I admire on the windows and roofs of our cars whenever it's cold enough! Here's hoping that you're staying warm and comfy today my dear! *BIG HUGS!!!!!* Explored on 1/15/19, highest placement, #1.

(+6 insets!) Today isn't just Monday…It's MACRO MONDAY! This ipernity group took the past two weeks off for the holidays but they are now back on schedule with a new project: "New Year's Resolutions / Good Intentions for the New Year". I thought about our plans this year and how I might incorporate them into macro images. I came up with three ideas! First is our resolution to continue our healthy lifestyle--namely to continue our Ketogenic way of eating along with daily exercise. My macro could be my pile of rocks which I use to mark each lap of walking up and down my driveway for my daily exercise. Second is our resolution to get our back deck finished, which has been a fairly sizable project because there is a deck outside our master bedroom as well as the main deck. I thought the perfect macro could be showing the wood planks with droplets on them for added interest. Third is our resolution to get our RV travel underway so we can begin having adventures out and about! Our truck purchase was integral to our plans so I thought that some macros of the truck would be perfect. As it happened, it's been raining so droplets on the truck are a no-brainer! I planned to take pictures yesterday but ran out of daylight so I got out there before it began raining today…and well, I went crazy. Hundreds of pictures later I forced myself back inside and copied them onto my computer. Holy moly, what a lot of cool pictures…as you may know, I'm coo-coo about abstracts so these close-ups were really fun to look at. One of my favorite aspects to photography is meandering through my pictures, cropping them and discovering the gems. I got really lucky today...too lucky I think! :D It was really hard to choose so in the end, I processed a handful of them to share! Let me know what you think! Pam, today has been all about droplets for me, so I checked out your droplet shots--so many pretty flowers covered with drops! I especially loved your Orange Day Lily pictures…such stunning flowers and even prettier with droplets!! I hope you are doing ok today, my dear. I hope all goes well with your tests... I'm thinking warm thoughts about you as I always do! *BIG HUGSSSSSSSSS*!!!!! Explored on 1/8/19, highest placement, #2.

(+5 insets) Alright, ENOUGH of the short days already! I woke up this morning to absolute, pitch blackness in the room. My faithful and feathery alarm clock didn't seem to mind though. At 6:45am…PEEP! :D Well, even though I really don't like getting up when it's dark I threw back the covers and started the day. I stopped to think about the dates…hmmm…today is the…16th? 17th? And the shortest day is the 21st. I groaned. Too many days! It just couldn't come soon enough As the world began to lighten, a foggy world slowly materialized outside. Wow…it was so cool looking out there! When I went for my morning walk, I made sure to take pictures with my phone…I didn't think I'd post them today but I'd have them ready for the next opportunity. Today is Macro Monday and the topic is "cards". The group's admins are taking a break for the next couple of weeks and it wasn't clear if the group would be open for posting the current topic. Thus, I didn't take pictures over the weekend like I usually do. However, when I found out the week is actually open for submissions, I spent some time digging around for different sorts of cards to photograph. I eventually came up with a number of ideas with varying degrees of success. A couple of the insets feature a deck of nature playing cards and the "J" card is a picture I took! It was such fun to have one of my pictures published, the only time this has happened. (I'm including an inset...if you click on the picture you can learn more about that story.) Pam, I think it would be great fun to play a game with you! Steve and I have a couple of huge bins filled with different board games. We always had plans of having a game night for friends but since we moved up to the countryside in Oregon, we have none! :D Still, it's fun to think about what it would be like to have game night with everyone on ipernity. Best of all, it would be wonderful to play a game with you, Pam! Feel better soon!

(3 inset images, the main images looks best at full size!) :) Today I awoke, a feeling of peace blooming out of me and filling the surrounding space. When had I last felt this serenity? I do not remember. Sighing in this blissful state, my day began and soon I was out walking in the cool morning light, the smell of moist, decaying leaves perfuming the air, my breath coming out in lovely dragon puffs as I crunched down the gravel driveway and back up again. Several laps later I was heading down towards our gate when I saw a large shape cross the road. It was a wild turkey! As it trotted into the grass, I noticed that it was the last in a line of the resident flock of bachelor toms who make their rounds in this area. I reached down to turn off my audio book and was suddenly aware of a great noise to the left. I turned and stared, my mouth falling open in surprise. Why, unbeknownst to me, I had been walking past the whole flock! They were alarmed at my fast pace and ran up the hill in an elongated cluster, the dried grass rustling loudly as they pushed their way through. Standing stock still and silent, I hoped they would begin to relax. I said gently in my head, "I mean you no harm…" and the image of the movie Starman flashed in my mind, when Jeff Bridges says this to the terrified Earthling he befriended. I often think about how strange we must seem to the life forms we encounter out in the wilds. I always do my best to be respectful to all that I am fortunate enough to meet. The flock began to slow and relax as I watched them pass by, and finally the last in line passed me too. I strained to listen. Turkeys have a huge vocabulary of sounds they make--the classic alarm call "gobble" is just one. Perhaps my favorite is a quiet purring chirp, an intimate contact call amongst the members. Smiling, I heard it now from a couple of them, and I sighed in pleasure. I stood watching them as they picked their way through the meadow, moving across our road to the meadow on the other side. What beautiful, magnificent birds they are. Turkeys are modern-day dinosaurs to us and my husband and I love them dearly. How lucky we are that we get to see them so often. (Would you like to hear the different sounds that turkeys make? This is a wonderful page with fast-loading, clearly labeled files to enjoy! Wild Turkey Basics: Turkey Sounds Today is Macro Monday 2.0 and the challenge this week is "Shoe". I admit that I wasn't truly inspired by this idea but I did have fun taking pictures of one of my shoes on Saturday. But today I decided to look at my husband's shoes and couldn't resist exploring one of his coolest pairs. Not surprising, I changed my pick to one I did today! You'll see several other images I developed as insets. Pam, I am so delighted to see that you are leaving comments for more and more of your dear friends. This is so nice to see! I hope you are having a wonderful day and feeling better and better. My healing energy is always enroute to you and I hope that you feel it wrapping around you like a big, fluffy blanket of love! Explored on 11/27/18, highest placement, #11.