Sunday, September 30, 2012

S Family

I spent another beautiful fall morning with one of my favorite families today.  The colors were just amazing in this park.  I always wish they'd last longer!  The boys and I had a great time running around in search of pirates.  Luckily for us, we never did encounter any, although we did find some X-marks-the-spot buried treasure!







Saturday, September 29, 2012

Miss R

This afternoon I met up with Miss R and some great friends for a mini session.  Thanks to my "assistants", we got a lot of cute smiles!  She's such a sweetie!  Hope you enjoy your sneak peek...  









D Family

I spent the most absolutely perfect fall morning photographing this awesome family today.  We got so many fun shots, it was hard to put the camera away!  Thanks for the great smiles and giggles!  Here's your sneak peek!




























Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tag and Release

Today we bid a fond farewell to our Monarch friend as he begins his long journey to Mexico's warmer climate.  (Okay, and here is where I do have to insert that I was wrong, and that I was quite matter of factly corrected of this by my eldest daughter, who (correctly) stated, "you were wrong momma, he's a boy butterfly, not a girl butterfly.")  Yep, it was late last night, I was tired, the lights were on dim, and I was only looking at the wings from the backside, but she was right! :))

(The two black spots in the veins in the lower wings identify the males, along with thinner vein lines overall.)


Anyway, we tagged him and that information will be sent to Monarch Watch to be entered into their database.  Should anyone find him along the way, they can enter the data into their computer and see where he originated from.  We will then also be able to see where he was found too.  My chances of winning the lottery are probably slightly better than somebody finding him and entering the information, but there's always that chance, right?  You only need one ticket to win, and we only had the opportunity to tag one Monarch this season!






 Happy journeys!



 


Monarch arrival!

14 days after our Monarch caterpillar disappeared into his/her chrysalis, tonight was the night for HER to reappear as a beautiful butterfly!  Around 10:15 pm the chrysalis darkens.  The butterfly should emerge in another half hour or so...
















11:04 pm the chrysalis breaks open and the butterfly pushes out.  She doesn't look much like a Monarch yet, does she?  Her abdomen is full of fluid that will be pumped into her wings, expanding them to full size.


Within 15 minutes, her abdomen has shrunk and her wings have enlarged to almost full size.






















5 more minutes and she is now fully grown, and begins drying her wings.  Tomorrow we will tag and release her.  Unfortunately, she is a very late bloomer, and the chances of her completing her migration to Mexico are slim now, but we will wish her the best on her journey and hope she makes it.  For tonight tho, she is set up with sugar water to hold her over until her journey begins tomorrow.






















Beautiful.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Graphite Pencil Drawings

Some of my recent graphite pencil drawings...

Flower
3x3 image
graphite pencil

Dog
3.5x5 image
graphite pencil

Flower
4x6 frame
graphite pencil