I call the animals that live in my nook, my Glass Menageri. the candle and the lamp light changes the bear completely. the photo below  was made in Photo-shop from the above photo.  Just Playin I'm Sayin


Q: What do you get if you cross a grizzly bear and a harp?
A: A bear faced lyre!


Above 2 bears, and below Bambi the deer, were sitting on the glass table in bright sunlight and when I added a high density lamp, and played with the F-stop, it made them glitter and turn the background black.

 In searching for fodder to practice manual focus I pulled out by box of fake jewelery. the center piece of the first 3 photos, is a necklace by Avon that  my Aunt gave me 40 years ago. the background is my grandmothers plate.


 Above and below are tiny lapel pins,  Y-Shua is Hebrew for Jesus....
I used this little 10 X, $10.00 lens, thanks to Tammy from Simple Southern Happiness, for telling me about the lens. I must say it is very difficult to use, but I did manage a few shots. It only works as a magnifying glass, but is fun to play with. Someday I might get a perfect photo with it.

In yesterday post, I had greenery behind by subject and asked if anyone knew what it was.


Congratulations to my sweet faced Remington, who guessed what the limb was from.

This is the tip off a Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) you know those itty bitty adorable Live Christmas trees we see inside homes and in the office.
 I walked around the yard looking for something to "practice focus" on, and chose this.
If you plant one of these in our part of Florida, it will very soon be 2 to 3 stories tall. In it's native state it can grow up to 200 feet tall with 15 pound cones.  From houseplant to 200 feet, and it will not take long.
Riddle: How can you tell if a tree is a dogwood?
Answer: By its bark

I must say here, I am sick to death of practice so am now officially STOPPING ALL PRACTICE SESSIONS.    I played for 3 days, got up Sunday AM and could not remember which button does what. I have the Fstop/ISO/ShutterSpeed down, but each button does 2 or 3 things. ARRRRHHH. But I do love the camera

 Tip on how to remove old candle wax from holder.

Fill a container with hot water and Murphy's Soap, place containers in and soak for 5 to 10 minutes. Or fill Candle holder with Murphy's Soap, the wax will float to the top, and off the sides in minutes. rinse and they sparkle
NOTE: Murphy's Soap cleans all wood and other surfaces and also mops the floor. Of course you do have to PUSH THE MOP, it is not self propelled.

 I wanted to play with manual setting of auto focus points and needed these to play with, now they are clean.
I learned to put the auto focus on the part of the photo I want to be sharp and clear, see red wax above. The first 3 photos, I did not quite have the hang of it. I did all of these in Manual Mode and had to set Fstop, ISO and Shutter Speed.

 OOPS! to dark
 First try at focus on background, out of focus on subject
 More practice
 Focus on background, subject blurred
Subject focused and sharp, back ground out of focus.  I learned a lot just playing with my candle holders. tomorrow I will show you what the green is.

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THE GREEN IS?

 Lessons from my dollar store glass

We hear the question of the empty glass often and the standard answer is To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty



If the glass was full to the top and then you drank half of it it's half empty. If the glass was empty and then only filled half way it's half full. Holly

Why don't cats play poker in the jungle? Too many cheetahs
Did you hear about the cat who drank 5 bowls of water? He set a new lap
record
My Mirror Me...... LOL    as you can see I am NOT Macro Material

 I sit at the kitchen table and practice macro using Manual setting. Any and All advice Welcome. Almost but not quite.
 My subject here are seed pods from Dwarf Poinciana Tree.... one of them popped and exploded seeds in my face while intently staring through the view finder. I YELPED and hubby said what was that?



I got up from the sofa and went to get another cup of coffee, got to the pot, my coffee cup was still in the living room.

I took these with the new Rebel set on M for Manual (M stands fro Mind Blowing)
 Trying to blur part of the photo and sharp on the other
 It seems while I am focusing on focusing I forget to COMPOSE the shot... Practice still needed

How did I do folks?