24/365 April showers and flowers

Ah, irises!

Even though the weather this week has been dreary at best, some fresh flowers are flourishing, like these new purple irises.

It was so chilly that I had to don a jacket to photograph them, but I was able to take advantage of the only sunshine we had all day and get some good shots.

The flowers in this area are some of the first to bloom every year, partially because they're growing along a south-facing brick wall that retains warmth.

The yellow flowers in the background are more irises, so I'm sure you'll be seeing photos of them here in the near future.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 500 and 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 200 at about 8:00 p.m.

23/365 Mint-chocolatey goodness

I don't think I'm alone in stating that Thin Mints are The. Best. Girl Scout. Cookies. Ever.

I read recently that Thin Mints are their top seller year after year. I believe it. None of the other cookies even remotely tempt me. All I want is the mint-chocolatey goodness.

My love of this cookie probably isn't a surprise if you know about my love for Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. But now the Girl Scouts have fallen victim to the marketing and profit scheme running rampant throughout the food industry: they're packing fewer Thin Mints in every box.

Gasp!

I noticed even before I read the confession.

The first time I recall noticing this phenomenon, I was a kid opening a box of Pop Tarts. I realized that the delicious little pastry didn't fill out the wrapper quite as well as it used to. But had the price dropped? Of course not!

What's wrong with the world today?

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 500

22/365 The joy of a good book

In my world, finding a book that completely sucks me in is a feeling unlike any other.

I love a book that is so good I get totally lost in it, forget to even get up to take a restroom break, and want to continue reading through every meal.

Now that's quality reading.

I read Water for Elephants a few weeks ago, and while it wasn't quite as good as the ideal book I just described, it did keep me hooked. And now I've passed it on to Mom. I can tell she's really enjoying it because she totes it around the house and picks it up during the commercials while she's watching TV.

What was the last book that really sucked you in?

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 1250 lit by an incandescent light

21/365 Happy Easter!

As Easters go, this one was very low-key. No big traveling, no big feasting. It really was much like any ordinary Sunday.

And with Easter now behind us, I can't believe we're halfway through April already. One thing I'm looking forward to through the month is the rising average temperature. At the start of April, the average high temperature in central Indiana is 58°F. By the end of April, it will rise to 68°F.

If that's not good news, I don't know what is. Bring on the skirts, sandals, and t-shirts, and let's leave coats behind!

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 125, in natural light at about 6:00 p.m.

20/365 Spring purging

Have you ever experienced the joy that comes with having a dumpster on hand?

I'm sure that seems like a funny sentence. But hear me out.

We spend the majority of our lives trying to take care of our possessions. That usually involves not breaking them.

But mix an open dumpster with serious spring purging, and breaking things becomes fun. Swing a lamp up and over the top and listen to it break. Don't mind whether something heavy lands on an old bookcase and splits it in two.

It's like being a kid again, and being allowed to do the one thing your parents won't let you do. Don't care if things get broken.

Instant catharsis!

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/5.6 at ISO 100 at about 6:30 p.m.

19/365 Surfing the 'net

When it comes to possessing knowledge about cars and how they work, Chase amazes me.

I remember a time when he was still in high school, and I stepped outside to find him with his head under the hood of his pickup truck. I asked him what he was working on, and he gave me a very detailed account of exactly what he was fixing.

I stood there awestruck, in complete wonder at how my little brother had acquired such great knowledge without me realizing it.

He was never one of those "gear-head" kids who wanted to spend all their time in a garage and grow up to be a mechanic. On the other hand, he was a kid who loved taking things apart to see how they worked, so when he started driving and got his own truck, it makes sense that he would love learning how to maintain it himself.

Now, when he and my cousin get together to spend some time on the Internet, they go straight for YouTube videos showing high-performance trucks.

I'd much rather see them drooling over videos of automobiles than other various subjects they could find.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 1600 in incandescent lighting

18/365 Tulips in bloom

I noticed at home last night that the tulips are now beginning to bloom.

It reminded me of this post on Apartment Therapy this week. Maybe you already do, but if you don't, can you imagine living in an area populated by tulip fields, instead of the corn, wheat and soybeans we have in central Indiana?

Acres and acres and acres of vibrant colors in every shade imaginable. It makes the photographer in me start buzzing through ideas for utilizing such unique local scenery.

Someday I want to travel to an area like this when the tulips are blooming to see it firsthand. Is that so much to ask?

Until then, I'll be satisfied with the bunches of red ones I have at home.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 500

17/365 Faucets galore

I love going to Lowe's. (Home Depot, I love visiting you, too, but there just aren't any of you near me.)

I love the smell -- a mix of paint, sawdust, metal, a little fertilizer if you're in that area -- it smells like family. My grandfather is a master woodworker, and my uncle is a contractor, so the smell of sawdust always makes me feel at home.

I also love the do-it-yourself atmosphere of Lowe's. I'm of the mind that if I can do it on my own, especially if I can save some money in the process, I'll do it. And what's better than the feeling of accomplishment when you're done?

I wandered through the faucet selection on my trip to Lowe's this week, and the selection is broad, to say the least. Who'd have thought that faucets would become such a design element in a kitchen or bath?

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000

16/365 Signs like this give rural Indiana a bad name

I'm going to give the author of this sign the benefit of the doubt and guess that he/she pushed the limits of grammar here intentionally.

But it still bugs me. Why? Because I love living in the rural countryside of the Midwest. And it irks me when people who live outside the area choose to stereotype everyone who lives rurally. Just as it is with any stereotype, sure, a lot of people fit. But so many don't.

If a relative stranger to the area drove by this sign and had any preconceived negative notions about the people who live in the vicinity, this sign just encourages that notion, whether it was done humorously or not.

And that bugs me.

And this doesn't even get into the fact that one of my greatest pet peeves are typos on public signs.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 5:30 p.m.

15/365 Complications

Do you remember life without a remote?

It seems like such a hassle now to get up off the couch and be forced to change a channel or increase the volume by hand. And no entertainment center is now complete without at least three remotes to control the various units.

For years, my uncle had a method for manually changing the channel that always made me laugh. His TV is only about five feet from his couch. He found a long, skinny scrap of wood, long enough to reach the TV. Then he could remain seated but change the channel on the actual television set by holding the stick in one hand and reaching the TV with it.

He called it his "redneck remote." Clever, and it did work. I do think by now he's upgraded to a set that has a remote and no longer has use for the stick.

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/4.5 at ISO 500

14/365 Making a splash

Capturing water droplets in a photograph comes close to the joy I find in capturing lightning. It's one of those subjects where I stand by the camera and say, "How cool that I can do this with my camera!"

The nice thing about water droplets is it's a much easier subject to manipulate.

I've seen other examples online of how this can be done, and I think it can be more eye-catching with a darker surface. I need more contrast between the water and surface. Unfortunately, this yellow serving platter is the most vibrant item I could find.

Sounds like I need a shopping trip. And that doesn't require much arm-twisting.

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/250s, f/4.5 at ISO 1600

13/365 The dangerous side of spring

One thing I've found interesting to learn since having horses is the danger that comes with spring grass.

I know, that sounds like an oxymoron -- "danger" and "spring grass" don't seem like two ideas that fit together.

But here's the idea: When the grass begins growing again in the spring, loads of nutrients flood into the new growth.

Enter, horses. They've spent the winter eating grain, last year's hay, and any little bits of grass left and worth eating in a field. Then all of a sudden, the grass in the field is growing again, which makes it incredibly tasty. They think about it the same way I think about fresh fruits and vegetables at this time of year: "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"

But this drastic change in food to their systems is dangerous. The horses will gorge themselves on spring grass, and since their digestive systems aren't used to that, their bodies go haywire.

Not only can they develop serious internal problems, but they can quickly put on weight, which is just as hard on the body of a horse as it is on the body of a human.

Who'd have thought that green grass could be dangerous? The key lies in moderating the horse's intake of lush spring grass, a process they despise because it means being held in a dirt lot, gazing out into to the pasture.

And in this case, the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/5.6 at ISO 100 at about 8:00 a.m.

12/365 A willing model

Buster loves perching on the stairs. He usually sits about halfway up, but as I moved around getting photos of him, he kept moving higher.

Was he trying to get away? Let's assume instead that he was saying, "OK, you've photographed me here, in this angle, with this light, so now I'll move and let you photograph my other side from up here."

Aww, he's my perfect, willing model. It's so nice to have such an understanding dog.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 1600

11/365 A varied collection

When was the last time you dug all the way to the back of your kitchen utensil drawer to see what was there?

It's amazing what can accumulate over time. I read a good spring cleaning tip on one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy, from organizing guru Peter Walsh. He recommends doing a one-month cardboard box test.

You dump all your tools into a cardboard box. When you need one, pull it out of the box, use it, then put it back into your drawer -- because it's obviously needed.

Everything that's left at the end of a month in the box can theoretically be purged. There will always be a few tools that you do need for special items that aren't used every month, but I think this is a great approach.

I could probably stand to do this for a lot of things other than kitchen utensils...

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 400

10/365 The surface of...?

Take a guess at what this is.

Go ahead, I'll give you a minute.

(Imagine the Jeopardy song playing in your head.)

Maybe it's obvious to you that it's a cantaloupe, but I love the fact that it might not actually be obvious.

It reminds me of the surface of another planet, like a photo taken with a traveling satellite. Maybe that's my sci-fi side coming out, but I always love photos that spark your imagination and make you think just a little bit harder than usual.

And honestly, I think this turned out much more interesting than I originally intended. I love when that happens!

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/250s, f/2.8 at ISO 200