Pam's Week 18: It's Been a Long Time Running, It's Been a Long Time Coming....

It really is a song lyric although I am guessing most of the people reading this would be hard pressed to figure out where it came from.  I apologize if it's somewhat obscure to anyone other than the die-hards but this week's topics were not particularly amenable to obvious song lyrics.

Anyways, spring seems to be what was on Sharon's mind for this week when she made up the list and in my opinion, it has been a long time coming!  I feel like the snow melted but the weather is all over the place.  The other thing that has felt like a long time coming is our vacation!!! And it's here now!!!  We head out tomorrow!!!

When I pulled out the list to write this post, I realized that I completely overlooked one of the assignments (the Z).  My apologies for this as well.  I have been, admittedly, otherwise distracted this week.  I will just include a couple of photos for some of the other topics to make up for it, if that's okay.  And if it isn't - too bad because I've likely done it anyways.

Spring

The choices that seem to be most at the forefront of my brain are flowers, birds, sun...I also considered finding a slinky and calling it a spring and a spiral but alas, I did not do so.  When one of the other topics is "budding" though, it makes it difficult to discern what should constitute "spring" and which photos would be more apt for "budding".

These were some daffodils we found along the side of the road.  I'm guessing they were planted by the house across the street but we stopped and took photos anyways.

Long

While walking with Sharon the other day, we noticed the entrails of this plane that flew overhead.  Last night with Duncan, a plane flew even lower but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough.

Wasn't the sky an amazing shade of blue, though?  It was a gorgeous evening.

With Flash

It wouldn't be a weekly blog post if I didn't google how to do something.  Now, I know how to turn the flash on and take a photo but I felt like Sharon was intending for something more artistic with this topic.  There were all sorts of ideas on how to use a fill flash or the slow synch flash and information on ISO and shutter speeds and flash speeds and the like.  Essentially, there were a lot of photography terms I don't think my camera or I are capable of.  I decided to try to use the flash in the daylight (or maybe the early setting sun).  I don't know that it worked out how it was supposed to but the picture is sort of pretty anyways.

Z - oopsie, didn't even notice this one!

Spiral

The other night when I was walking at, you guessed it, Whitefish Island with Riya, the beavers were super active and one was essentially taunting her.  It kept swimming close to shore and then turning around.  When I got home and checked out my photos, I realized that it's wake was spiral shaped but having not realized it at the time, I cut off part of the spiral in my photo.  Instead, I had to break out some of Duncan's shells (when he was 4, he asked for seashells for Christmas from Santa).

I converted the second one into black and white with an orange filter because I kind of liked that effect too and couldn't decide which one I actually liked better.

Budding

So these might make up for the missing "Z" in my photos.  The other day when Sharon and I went for a walk, we saw these beautiful budding trees.  I have no idea what they are but they were stunning, especially against the bright blue sky.  Sharon couldn't take pictures of them because I think it was actually last Saturday afternoon and although I am willing to cheat a little, Sharon won't so they were all mine!

The second photo was created with the help of Sharon.  I kept complaining that the colours looked more stunning through my sunglasses than in the window of the camera so Sharon held her sunglasses in front of my camera and voila!

Last night, Duncan and I went for a walk since Sharon has abandoned me to go off and drink wine with other friends.  These were some other buds that caught my eye; again, I have no idea what they are but they were interesting and pretty.

Wildcard

This is actually a photo I took on my phone of the beaver teasing Riya.  She was, surprisingly, sitting nicely and just watching the beaver.  The beaver came even closer but I didn't have a camera out then.

We also had an early, pre-vacation birthday party for Duncan the other day.  We will be away over his birthday so wanted to celebrate with my parents before we left.  Here he is blowing out 11 candles!!!  I can't believe he is 11 already (or will be in 2 weeks).  Didn't my dad do a nice job on the cake?  He decided that frosting a cake is difficult.

And that's another week done.  The next couple of weeks may be late in posting as we will be on vacation but I am hoping for a big variety in the pictures since California is way different than Whitefish Island!  Have a great May!