Week 31 by Judy

Orchid Tree Flower

As Becky mentioned, we went on a boat tour in Winter Park. After the boat tour and a nice lunch on Park Avenue, we toured the Rollins College campus. I graduated from Rollins College, but attended a satellite campus and I never really toured the main campus. It is a beautiful campus with some of the buildings being built in the late 19th Century/early 20th Century with mostly Spanish architectural influence. This is a flower from an Orchid Tree located along Virginia Lake that the campus borders. Another fun NWG outing!

Happy 2012 NWGs!

Week 31 by Becky

Really? You Hate Spanish Moss That Much!

Had another No Wimpy Girls trip. This time we went on a boat ride in Winter Park. Saw a lot of expensive houses on the chain of lakes via a boat ride. Saw this guy actually taking the time to tear down the Spanish Moss in an old oak tree. Why? I have no idea. The moss does not hurt the tree. But, that is his business. Had many photos to choose from and settled on this one. Played around with some of the filters in Topaz. This could be retro or vintage. Don't remember. Well anyway, I really enjoy these outings with Robin and Judy. Judy is the ultimate planner. Without her, Robin and I would not see half the stuff we see. Thank you Judy for taking the time to plan these outings.

Been informed there are boat tours in Mt. Dora http://www.florida-secrets.com/lake_county_tours.htm
May have to check this out for a future NWG trip :)

Happy New Year No Wimpy Girls!

Week 30 by Robin

USB Tree

This is a tiny USB color changing fiber optic tree. I put it in front of the screen while it changed colors and took some shots. I wanted to take photos of some new birds that just arrived in my neighborhood from the north, but they weren't very cooperative. :) Maybe another time. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

Week 30 by Judy

Little Green M&M Man

This is one of the little colored men on three strings of M&M lights I have owned for many years. I attach these lights along the awning of our RV, while camping. I am quite fond of M&M candies and I love these lights. I scored these cute little lights for free by sending in ten empty M&M bags to the Mars Candy Company for each string. It didn't take me long to have enough bags to receive three strings of lights ;-).

Week 30 by Becky

MERRY CHRISTMAS NWGs!

Judy and I have been trying to get the bokeh effect on purpose. With no luck. Well, here I finally achieved the bokeh affect on purpose. The key is to have your subject away from the lights with the aperture between 2.8 and 7.3. I used my 105mm macro lens here. The lighted Christmas tree was in the background. You can see the tree in the glass ornament. Now I will have to experiment with little cutouts to get different shaped bokeh.

Week 29 by Robin

Totally Tubular, Mon!

I was thinking lately about photographers that I admire who create photographs that inspire me to try something similar. Ursula came to mind because she often creates amazing photos from common objects. I tried getting some dandelion seed puffs and mist them, but it made all the fibers clump up. Haha! I tried flowing water with colored lights, but I can't figure out how she manages to get such beautiful water shots. So, I tried straws and came up with this. I cut some straws and taped them on my monitor and ran a colorful screensaver. With a shallow DOF and a slow shutter, you can't see the tape :) It's the best I could come up with.

Week 29 by Becky

Becker

This is Becker, the rat. One of five rats that my daughter is using for a science project. She is testing their intellect with various genres of music. She named this one after me. Hmmm...wonder why? Anyway, I must put up with them until the science project is over. Once it is over, they will be given away. They are cute, but they stink. Here, Becker is playing in my daughter's hair. One of the few moments he was almost still.

Week 29 by Judy

LOL!

This is Gunner; although, my husband calls him Tripod, because he only has three legs. One of his owners accidentally ran over one of his hind legs with a golf cart when he was a pup and it had to be amputated. I say "one of his owners" because he really has made himself the neighborhood dog. He eats and sleeps at various homes, ours being one of them. He visits almost daily. He barks at the door until we give him something to eat and drink and then he usually goes on his merry way. He gets around just fine, in spite of his handicap. This picture was taken during one of the rare times that he decided to grace us with his presence and hang around for awhile. I think it looks like he's having a good laugh, but really he's yawning. Dogs always make me smile.
I used a low strength of Topaz's clarity filter and some cropping.

Week 28 by Becky

Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars!

Finally put up the Christmas tree with all the handmade ornaments and photo ornaments of the kids since they were born. That is a lot of ornaments. Played around with my Cokin star filter. Used Topaz Adjust Comic Book on it in Photoshop.

Week 28 by Judy

Feeling a Little Sheepish

This sheep belongs to our neighbors who live down the street. They raised him from a baby. As soon as I walked up to his pen, he popped his head thru the fence expecting a treat, I'm sure. Unfortunately, I didn't have one for him. I think he has the sweetest face.
Applied a little sharpening and some cropping.

Week 28 by Robin

Tired and Tattered

Judy and I stopped at Viera Wetlands on Friday to get some photos. I used my 70-200mm out of the truck window and shot some insects along with a bunch of bird shots. Very pleasant afternoon! This butterfly has seen better days, but it spoke to me. Even its surroundings were ragged! Worn out...but still beautiful in its own way!

Week 27 by Becky

Water Moccasin (aka Cottonmouth)

McKee Gardens is definitely a photographer's paradise. There was so much to photograph and the cafe's food was absolutely mouthwatering. It was hard to choose what to submit this week. Flowers, dragonflies, snakes, OH MY! I encountered two water moccasins next to the pond where I was about lay down to get a closer look at some water flowers when I happened to notice them. Which for me is pretty good because I am usually not observant of my surroundings when I am focusing on my next shot. The other snake disappeared as I was focusing on them. I so enjoy our No Wimpy Girls outings.

Week 27 by Robin

McKee Bee

We love our bees!! :) I hope you don't mind. As Judy said, we went to McKee Gardens and it was peaceful and beautiful! We had a wonderful day of shooting, meandering through the many garden paths, and having a delicious gourmet lunch at the cafe, complete with charming managers that seemed to care about pleasing their customers! How rare these days! There were bees and dragonflies everywhere, along with some snakes! The flowers were gorgeous! I used a shallow DOF and my on-board camera flash on a lower power to compensate for the wind blowing everything.

Week 27 by Judy

Purple Passion

The No Wimpy Girls went to McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach on Friday. The Garden is very lush with a large variety of flowering plants and several lovely ponds containing all sorts of flowering water lilies. This is a photo of one of the many beautiful blooming lilies. It was a great day of photographing with a couple of my best buds!