Saturday, August 18, 2012

Flutter Stop


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Comments and critiques welcome.  I guess I feel compelled each day to tell you what I see as wrong with the shot, and you can add on what I've missed or agree/disagree with that.  Here, the eyes and probiscus are not sharp enough.  The focus is on the lower wings and not on the higher flower and face.  Also, I've had to use Color Efex Pro (CEP) here to darken the center to bring back some details lost by being slightly over exposed.  A big improvement over the original I think. In cropping to a maximum 8X10, I also had to clone out some leaf clutter in the lower right and lower middle.

I am really sorry to be posting yet another butterfly shot.  Nothing particularly great about this one although I do like that I can see the face looking over the flower.  A week or so ago, I posted a similar shot with a better background, but the face was hidden.  I only took a few shots yesterday nowhere near the 100-200 I'd like to work with if I were really wanting and trying hard to get a better than average butterfly picture.  For me, it takes a lot of brute force to get 'the one'.

I've been pulling weeds and mulching the butterfly garden at Donnie's house in preparation for his sister's visit in a few weeks. It's really looking much better after the sprucing up, so I hope she will be pleased.  Instead of looking up at the butterflies, I'm focused on looking down for a few days.  I have managed to work around the writing spider who has moved on to his next meal.  I noticed that he dropped the butterfly wings to the ground when he was done feeding from the body.


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I made two main dishes yesterday for dinner.  The boys got chicken drumsticks.


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Donnie and I had grouper.


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You have just got to try the cauliflower mash that's pictured upper right.  This time instead of hand mashing the cauliflower I used a food processor.  Donnie said he thought I should try to enter it in the state fair this fall it was so good.  He said he no longer misses potatoes which we avoid now due to carbs.  Here's the recipe which is easy to make and worth the prep time.

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