Home for the Holidays

I got another opportunity to take pictures of my niece. This time one of my nephews got in on it too. Here a couple of the pictures that came of it.

Another beautiful sunset

I have just loved all of the beautiful sunsets that we have had recently. The sun goes down and the sky lights up.

Just Chillin'

The weather is warm, almost up to 70 degrees on the fifth of December and everyone is just chilling out. This includes my cat, Marty and my dog, Gizmo. I managed to get some good pictures of them before they started running around again.

Lovely Lady

My niece always asks me to bring my camera when I come to visit. Of course I am delighted to get a chance to photograph her. It has been a pleasure watching her grow up and become a young lady. Although it wasn't the best time of day to do outdoor photos, we worked with the available light (and shady areas too) and got some nice pictures. Here is my favorite.

Fall is in the Air

The leaves are beginning to change here in my neck of the woods. It is time to start taking photographs before it all goes away. Here is my first shot!

Beautiful Sunset

The clouds moved in and made a beautiful sunset.

Introducing the Castros

My daughter was married to the most wonderful young man on Saturday. I left my camera put away almost the whole day. They had a professional wedding photographer but when everyone started taking pictures with their cell phones, I grabbed my camera and took a few myself. This is my favorite.

A Snake in the Bush

It is October 15th and it has been a warm autumn. Still, imagine my surprise when I was informed that there was a snake in the bush outside the entrance to my apartment building. I'm not sure what kind of snake it is but I'm leaning toward garden snake. I am not going to pick it up though. I'm happy to photograph it and let it go on its merry way. Now, if it finds its way into my house then it is war but I'll leave it alone as long as it stays outside. It was not aggressive and eventually started squirming its way down into the bush. If any of you know what kind of snake it is, email me at daylilydreamsphotography@gmail.com.

Amazing sky

I had to post this picture just because the sky was so pretty. Technically, it isn't a good picture, with the tree in the middle and all of the power lines dissecting the sky but sometimes you just have to capture the beautiful sky even if it isn't the perfect picture.

Swallowtail on Echinacea

I just love taking pictures of butterfly's, bees and other insects. The trouble is that it gets harder and harder to find a different way to photograph them.  They are usually on the butterfly bushes but this one was on an Echinacea flower and was an especially pretty "pose". Enjoy it.

DaylilyDreamsPhotography on Wix

I had completely forgotten that I had started a free website on Wix. I went there today and did some updates. Check them out here http://lisahedgecock.wix.com/daylily-dreams-photo-by-lisa.

Now on Instagram!

The Blooms of Summer

I have been over at my neighbor's house again to take butterfly pictures and noticed that the blooms of spring and summer are starting to fade. I thought I would take a picture of the flowers that were still nice. Here they are.

A Praying Mantis

Found another, bigger praying mantis in the bushes. I was able to get a pretty good picture of it looking at me. They are pretty cool insects.

Another Point of View

It's summer and the butterflies are all around. They are mostly the yellow eastern swallowtails but there are some blackish blue ones that I looked up and are another kind of swallowtail. I went out for some pictures but the wind started kicking up and that made it next to impossible to get any. I did get a couple and I like the angle of this one.

Just Ducky

I came across a picture that I took back in 2010. I used some Photoshop
skills that I have learned since then to correct a color cast from the original picture. This little duckling is so cute and I'm sure it will bring back some memories for my friend who is holding the little duck.

Sippin' Nectar

I love taking bug pictures. I especially love dragonflies and butterflies. This one came out nice.

Another cool butterfly

My neighbor is so nice. She lets me come over and take pictures. Today I took photos of butterflies on her butterfly bush. However, the best one was when I turned around and saw this butterfly on one of her other flowers. Enjoy!

Eastern Swallowtail

We just had a fast but nasty storm blow through. The sun quickly came back out and so did this butterfly. I don't know where it weathered the storm but I'm glad it made it through.

Another Dragonfly

Here is another view of yesterday's dragonfly!

The Dragon's Fly

I watched this cool dragonfly while I was out walking my dog. Afterward, I grabbed my camera and was delighted that the little guy was still hanging out in the bushes. I couldn't use auto-focus
so I had to manually focus but I'm getting better and quicker at that. Here is one of the pictures that I liked the best.

Not quite the super moon.

The super moon is supposed to be visible tomorrow night, so I will probably be out taking more pictures. Meanwhile, I got one of the moon tonight. I had a 100-300 lens with a 2x converter. The auto-focus wouldn't work with my converter so I had to use manual focus with my window sill being my "tripod". I'll have to go outside with the tripod tomorrow night. Here is the picture of the moon from tonight.

I caught a lightning bug right as it spread its wings to fly away!

The Sweet Blooms of Spring

I love Mimosa Tree Blooms. They look like sweet tentacles of nectar that the butterflies and bees seem to love. They are such a pretty pink and so delicate. Here is one for your enjoyment.

A Real Lady---Bug

I took this a couple of days ago but I thought it was a good picture and thought I would share it with you!

Big Fat Red Ant

I'm out taking bug pictures and today I saw a big fat red ant on a mimosa leaf. He looked pretty ferocious but didn't bother me. Hope you enjoy!

More rainy day pictures

I thought the leaves looked pretty with the leaves covered in little raindrops from the rain yesterday. It is supposed to rain really hard today so I don't think I'll be out taking pictures today. Enjoy this dark moody picture.

After the Rain

There has been pretty steady rainshowers this morning. I went outside during a break and noticed these ladybugs on a Mimosa Leaf. Here is the shot I got.

Prom Time

I had the enjoyable experience of taking some prom pictures for the 8th grade prom for one of the kid's mom. He gave her a beautiful corsage and I took this picture of them holding hands and showing off the corsage. Although it only shows the hands of the young man and young lady, I just love this picture. Hope you will enjoy it too.

Kitty Cave

It's time to feature my feline friend Marty. He's quite the photogenic fellow but I can't really say he loves having his picture taken. He does like hanging out in his Cat Cave. He is peeking out and probably trying to figure out what this round alien thing aka my camera lens is doing. No worries, I was pretty far away.

Fun at a friend's house

I recently had the pleasure of taking pictures at the house of a friend name Audrey. We had a great time doing it and I look forward to going there again. Here are a couple of the pictures from that day. One is of Audrey and her younger son and the other is of her older son.

Mallards Hanging Out

I was looking through some of my old pictures and came across some Mallard ducks that live at the pond on Elon University. The drake was walking toward the female.

More Spring Beauty

My neighbor has the best green thumb and allows me to come over and take pictures whenever I would like. Her Irises have started blooming and they are so beautiful. I hope that you will enjoy them.

A Swan's View

I found some of my pictures from last semester. Here is a swan who lives at Elon University in the lake. He decided to check me out while I carefully used a telephoto lens to capture this image.

A Little Bling

I thought I would try photographing something different so I grabbed some costume jewelry and took it to school. Here are some of the results:

Texture and Clipping Masks

It's the weekend and I'm goofing around with photoshop and thought I'd play with text, texture and clipping masks. I used a picture of a campfire clipped onto my texts so the word fire would be made of fire. I also took a texture and used it with my multicolor background. So here it is: As always, your comments are welcomed.

Check out my Facebook page

Hope everyone will check out my facebook page and "like" it. Please share it with your friends so that I can break the 100 likes mark! Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/pages/Daylily-Dreams-Photography/103577386667

Spring has Sprung

We are finally getting some real Spring color around here. I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but the flowers sure were pretty.

Website Mockup

Our last project for Graphic Design II is to make a website mockup in photoshop. Although there is a lot more to do, here is the front page of mine, in its beginning stages.

More Fun with Color Bleed

Decided to take one of my tulip photos and turn it into black and white so that I could practice color bleed in photoshop. I wanted to bring back just one of the flowers back to color so that it would pop. As always, your comments are welcome.

Do the Dew

Our latest photo assignment was to take a color picture and turn it into a black and white and then bring back only a portion of the color. I had just finished drinking a Mountain Dew and decided that the can would be my photographic subject. So by using a mask, I was able to bring back just the color of the words on the can. Here it is.

A Little Bit of Spring

I've been posting assignments from my graphic design class and photo class but not any just go out and take a picture for the fun of it pictures. I went to check my mail and noticed the light shining through my neighbor's tulips. She has given me permission to take pictures of her flowers whenever I want to, so I had to grab my camera and take the picture of those tulips.

Truck Billboard Assignment

Our last assignment was to get a photo from the web and make a billboard that would go on a truck's side. This was to advertise the pretend business called Oasis Day Spa. Here is mine. It had to be 7 words or less and be easy to read quickly.