Verna and Bob's Weblog

Bob

Verna’s Close-Up Photo Secrets

Cleveland Sage Flower Making a Close Up Photo

When the desert breezes briskly blow the flower you’re trying to photograph around, you simply get a grip on the flower stem out of the camera’s field of view and then take the image of the now stabilized flower.

We were both in the courtyard today taking photos of this and that, when Verna grabbed a flower stem on one of the Cleveland sage bushes, pointed her camera at it and managed the close-up photo she was looking to get. I just happened to be in a spot where I could capture the moment when she was shooting her close-up with my camera.

At the left is the image she got of the sage flower; on the right is my photo of her getting the shot. Click on either image to enlarge.

April 15, 2015 by Arizona Family Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Jewel Thief

Jewel Thief

Verna keeps some interesting artifacts in the Rock and Cactus Garden west of the house. She has a variety of items including statuary, bric-a-brac, rock piles, native dead wood and a few marbles placed here and there. There has been a mystery as to why some of the marbles get displaced from their assigned spots.

Well, today, I got this telephoto shot of a little jewel thief in action. It is a white-tailed antelope ground squirrel that lifted one of the marbles out of a depression in a decorative rock where Verna placed it some time ago. Evidently, the little guy thinks it is something that might be cracked open to eat, or, it likes shiny stuff.

It is still a mystery, since we went out later and found the marble laying on the ground nearby to the original placement. Verna replaced the marble in the crevice in the rock. How long it will remain there is unknown. Click on the image to enlarge.

April 12, 2015 by Critters Home & Garden Photography Weirdness

Curve Billed Thrasher

Curve Billed Thrasher

I happened to be out behind the walls in the little wash to take some pictures of prickly pear flowers that are now opening. On my way back to the house, a curve billed thrasher perched on a mesquite stump a few yards away. Since I had the telephoto lens on the camera, I wasted no time and put the perched bird in the camera’s crosshairs.

The bird cooperated with me for about three camera shots before swooping away on its regular route around the back wash. We have a lot of these birds that hang around the area and two of them have a nest in the cholla in front of the house by the RV drive. We’re hoping to get some pix of the thrasher chicks after they hatch.

April 8, 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

Flowers from the Outback

Not exactly Australia, but out back of our RV drive on the upper part of our lot. We have lots of cholla and a couple of hedgehog cacti up in the back that we could never see unless we hike up there. Today, I went up to look at the flowers that opened up there and to get pictures of them to enjoy from down below.

Hidden Hedgehog Flower Outback Cholla Flower

On the left is one of the light pink flowers blooming on a hard-to-get-to hedgehog cactus embedded between two palo verde trees and partially obscured by some other brush. At the right is one of many open flowers on the cholla cacti up there. Click on either image to view full-sized.

April 4, 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Rescued Hedgehog Cactus

Rescued Hedgehog Cactus

During a recent construction dig east of the house, a careless backhoe operator dumped a load of dirt on a hedgehog cactus down the road from us. Verna and I, after seeing this little disaster, decided to take the wheelbarrow and shovel to the site and dig out the damaged cactus.

All six of the lobes we dug out had cactus flower pods. We transplanted three of the lobes to the front rock garden and the other three were placed in pots pending finding a location for them.

Verna took this photo of one lobe in a pot with an open flower. Click on the image to enlarge. The three lobes in the front yard also have open flowers and we’re still waiting for the other two in pots to open.

Despite being buried in dirt, one of the lobes down the road had a flower pod above ground and it, too, had opened. These are hardy cacti, indeed.

March 27, 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Wascally Wabbit

Wascally Wabbit

Earlier in the week, Verna and I planted a small cactus in the rock and cactus garden. The cactus had been growing in a small pot on the patio and it was time to put it in the ground.

Not long after the cactus was out there, we noticed that something had been nibbling at the paddles. We suspected rabbits, squirrels and possibly jackrabbits.

I went out in the courtyard today to photograph a large sunspot. After I finished that, I wanted to take some pictures of whatever showed up. Sure enough, a large black tailed jackrabbit hopped into the area where the cactus was and took nibbles from it. I got this shot from the courtyard about fifteen yards from where the jack paused when it noticed me.

In the foreground of the photo, you may be able to see the victimized cactus, albeit a bit out of focus. Click on the image to enlarge.

March 26, 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

Avalon 1998

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