Lots of pics

[82Rigger]

I haven't taken many pics of critters yet, other than a few birds.

This little fella has been a yard guest for a couple of summers
now.
Mel, ya'll may have these in Texas.
In Florida we call 'em "gophers" or "gopher turtles", but I think his birth certificate actually reads "land tortoise".
He's about 12" long from nose to tail.
He lives in a strip of woods behind my house and visits my yard once in a while just to see wazzup.










This is one of my Gloriosa lillies.
Pretty strange looking flower.
One day my 12 year old grand daughter and her friend were here and noticed the "weird looking plant".
Keeping as straight a face as possible, I explained that it was a Martian lily and its seeds were brought back by the Mariner I space probe in 1977.
They almost bought it.

[melody1181]

LOL Keith.

Steve, love those flowers. So strange but yet so pretty. We do have turtles around but not sure if we have that kind. Got bit by a turtle while swimming, still afraid of deep water at that local lake! Not my favortie animal!

[QM3steve]

I thought I'd throw in some Kodak Z712 IS pics. My wife (Mary Ann) has had the pleasure of experimenting with it. It has a sports setting that's amazing. Personal timing is key though. The first pic is my daughter on the other side of the field and taking a goal kick. Mary Ann took the one of me, hoping to get the ball in the pic. Obviously it worked.

[QM3steve]

Mel, Keith,
Those are some awesome pics!

Steve,
What did the snail say to the turtle when he was riding on his back?





Wheeeeeee!

[Keith_Hixson]

Pictures taken on my walk: (I walk six - eight miles everyday)
I noticed yesterday that everything was beginning to look like fall.

Keith

[melody1181]

Those are soooo great Keith! Love the colors. The leafs here don't turn color to much, they just fall off. WOuld love to live in an area where there are beautiful colors like that.

Do you have an apple tree?

Will post a few tomorrow.

[Keith_Hixson]

Ellensburg is 100 miles East of Seattle but a total different climate. We get about 6 - 8 inches of rain a year. Very arid but we have the Yakima River supplying numerous irrigation canals throughout our valley. The agricultural area of the valley is very green and there are lots of creeks flowing through the valley. Also our Valley is surrounded by rather high mountains on all sides. If it wasn't for the Yakima River cutting through the Manastash and Umtanum Ridges our whole valley would be a lake. As it is aquifer is on an average only about 5 ft from the surface. There are few basements in our town. Most of our bright colored trees in town are east coast transplants. We have a few apple orchards in Ellensburg, but Wenatchee to the north (50 miles) and Yakima to the south have 1,000's of apple orchards. They say, over 50% of the world's apples are grown in The Wenatchee and Yakima area. Up in the Mountains where my wife works there are some really beautiful trees that have brilliant colors. There are: tamarack or larch, which is an unusual tree that looks like a conifer (evergreen) and does have cones but the sap descents every fall just like a deciduous tree. The larches turn bright yellow and the vine maple turns bright red. Some of the berry bushes also turn bright red. It sure can be pretty up in the Mountains with all that color and a background of evergreens. I'm doing a five mile hike in the mountains tomorrow. We'll see what kind of pics I can take.
Steve that Kodak Z712 IS seems like a great camera. With a 12X zoom it certainly would out perform my 4X zoom. I can go up to 12X by going digital but digital zoom doesn't have the clarity of optical zoom. Next camera I'll try out something with more zoom.

Keith

[QM3steve]

Keith, I was just impressed with the action capture feature it has. The 35mm camera always had that capability, but never thought a digital could.

Haven't gotten out and done any fall shots here. It's been a short color year. That and having overcast skies and rain for the past week has either taken most of the leaves off or made it just plain dreary. Oh well winter's coming.

[Keith_Hixson]

My 35's are all in the closet. And they'll probably stay there. The digitals are here to stay. And with better color printing and copying the film camera is on its way out.

Keith

[melody1181]

SOunds like a nice place. Do ya'll get much snow?


I guess I have a thing for insects....LOL








Not sure why they are not showing up for me.