Back to School - Photography Class!

Now, we are not only back to work... I am back to school as well. The photography class I am teaching has now started and this week we learned about Macro Photography. Here are a few shots I took during today's class.

A small branch on a shrub in the flowerbed.
A sunflower. Not exactly Macro, but the wasp I was shooting got away.

The wasp!

The petals of a rose! I sort of liked the dramatic effect of this photo.

A rose.... on a sheet of construction paper. We used construction paper as backdrops and shot various things. The idea basically being, that if we take a picture of something with a background no bigger than a sheet of paper it must be macro. Our class will be doing some retail shoots in the very near future, so we are preparing for that.

We also looked at every ones camera and lenses and checked them to see what their macro capabilities are. Some lenses can be used for macro photography while others cannot. I was able to demonstrate this by allowing the class to look through my 85mm f/1.2 lens as it has no macro capabilities at all. Fortunately though, everyone had lenses with a macro feature, so we were all able to participate in today's lesson!

We're Back To Work!

We are back to work and looking forward to seeing all of our teams and players again. Football and soccer are right around the corner and high school football is in full swing now. Friday night was the Ike vs. LHS game and my husband went out shot that.

And I spent some time Friday night and Saturday shooting the ASA Women's Class D National Championship Softball Tournament!
A second baseman from Kaos catches the ball. Kaos made it to the finals!

A batter from the team Traders hits the ball. The Traders from Memphis, Tn are our new National Champions. Congratulations Traders!

A batter from Team Texas Blast slides into second while players from the Outlaws play defense.

The tournament was great! Lawton Parks and Recreation did a great job with it this year. It was well organized and everything ran smoothly.

Even the weather cooperated by not being quite as hot as it has been!

Home Again!

I was scheduled to fly back on Tuesday, August 31st but my flight was cancelled due to Typhoon Kompasu. My flights were rescheduled for September 1st and due to the typhoon leaving thousands of passengers stranded, the airports were overcrowded.

Heather & Grace took me to the airport in Naha. We stood in line for what seemed to be a long time, but it was actually less than a hour. And - we thought the crowd at the airport was pretty thick. I even took a few pictures to document how crowded the airport was - but really - this crowd is NOTHING compared to what I saw in Tokyo!

Crowd at the Airport in Naha - Okinawa, Japan!
Wider view!

In Tokyo, I was one of thousands of people in a check in line that took about 3.5 hours to work your way through. The line was so thick that I could not get my hand into my purse to retrieve my camera, so I don't have pictures. It was also so thick that I was happy that I hadn't had time to get lunch and that I hadn't been served a soda on the plane from Naha because once you got into the line you were forced to go with the flow until you reached the check in counter. So, taking a bathroom break would have been impossible. This became obvious to me the first time I noticed that someone had left a puddle in the floor.

By the time I reached the check in counter, the plane I was supposed to fly out on had finished boarding and was preparing to take off, so I had to get into another line for "special assistance" and change my flight plans. I was able to get another flight to LA on Singapore Airlines - which offers great service and entertainment plus more comfortable seating than the United flight I was scheduled to be on, so everything worked out. I got to LA with a little time to spare and stopped at McDonald's. Then I was off to Denver where I had to race to my next flight to Oklahoma City - and I made it just in time.

I wonder if squeezing through the crowds and surviving will in any way be of assistance to me when it comes to shopping at Wal-Mart on the 1st of the month or during the Christmas season? I normally avoid Wal-Mart during those times because I don't like fighting the crowd - however, I may not consider it a crowd now that I know what a crowd really is!

Anyway, I'm home..... and the stormy weather seems to have followed me! I took this last night just as the storm was moving in. I actually took several shots - but chose to post this one so Grace could see her doggie in the foreground.

Grace would really like me to stay and play with her forever and was quite upset when we were loading up to go to the airport on Tuesday. She even cheered when my flight was cancelled. But, we talked about how I needed to get back and give her doggie a bath and feed her goldfish and she seemed to understand that I needed to go. Due to the stormy weather (and mud puddles) I haven't gotten around to giving Abby her bath, just yet - but I did make it to Wal-Mart to get her a box of gold fish and I have been feeding them to her for Grace. So, this video is for Grace!



See, Gracie! Abby is really happy to have me home. She's also looking forward to YOU being here to see her soon, and so am I! I'll have a box of Gold Fish ready.

World's Largest Aquarium

Dustin, Heather and Grace took me to the World's Largest Aquarium!

It's called the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and we've been once before when Grace was just 13 days old. But, at that time it was only the world's second largest aquarium. And - Grace was really too small to enjoy it. Now, it's bigger and better and she loves the ocean and fish, so Heather wanted to take her one more time before they PCS back to the states.

We stopped on the way to get closer look of this rock formation. Look closely and you will see that it looks like an elephant.

It rained on us as we walked back to the parking lot, so here is a picture of Heather, Baby McGriff, Dustin and Grace. We had an umbrella, but Grace prefers just getting wet.

And this is just a couple of small islands with a rope between that we saw while we were out!

When we got to the aquarium the first thing we did was go to the dolphin show.

The dolphins did a great job performing for us!

Then we went to the hands-on observation tank. Grace enjoyed petting the star fish.

We saw lots and lots of fish.... in lots and lots of tanks!

There was also one big HUGE tank that was 4 stories tall!

It had sharks in it.... along with whale sharks, tuna and other tropical fish. The largest fish in the world in captivity are in this tank.

This is just one side of it.

And here it is from the top. We got a "behind the scenes" look at the feeding area where we could see down into the giant tank. This photo only shows part of it, but it kind of gives you an idea of what it looked like.

We had lots of fun and Grace got a new stuffed dolphin and a stuffed whale.

Happy, Happy, Joyful!!!!

When I came to Japan for the first time in 2008, my friend Amanda from Footsteps Photography took me to explore some castle ruins and an old abandoned hotel and I got this drink out of a vending machine. It was sooooo good.

And, ever since I had that first drink, I have been looking for it. I've been back to Japan three more times and looked in vending machines when I had the chance and I was never able to find it. But, when we went Torri Beach the other day and Heather needed to stop for a drink, she found it. When I told her that was it she said that she thought that they had it at the 100 yen store, so when we went we picked some up. Now, we have 6 whole cans! And that's a good thing since Grace loves it just as much as I do! She actually drank over half of the can Heather picked up for me at the vending machine by the beach. And - this morning she asked for it instead of Chocky Milk (chocolate milk in Gracie language).

Who could resist a drink called HAPPY HAPPY JOYFUL?

I can read enough of the label to tell that it's 10% fruit juice, but I can't seem to make out the other ingredients. Can you?

And to see the pictures of the Castle Ruins & Old Hotel from 2008, you can go here:
Castle Ruins
Royal Hotel

There are also several other albums from Japan on my myspace.

Butterfly Garden

On the way home from Okuma, we went to a butterfly garden.

There we saw LOTS of butterflies.
Japanese Butterflies!

More Japanese Butterflies!
And even More Japanese Butterflies!

These were all over! I think there were more of these than there were any other species.

A different angle.

And a group of three!

Grace liked the blue ones, but they are very shy, so it was quite difficult to get pictures.

Another blue one!

And another! This one looks like a large mosquito with wings, to me.

And the lantana flowers I have in my own butterfly garden seem to attract the most butterflies.

A Japanese Swallowtail!

An Orange Butterfly!

Sorry, I don't know the names of the Japanese Butterflies. Most, I have never seen before.

But - this looks a lot like the escape artist that visits my butterfly garden in the states. It is known for fluttering away any time I grab a camera.

Another blue one - with buck eyes on his back!

And another orange one!

And Grace slept almost the entire time we were at the butterfly garden. But, the butterflies loved her. Here they are worshipping at her feet!

And where there are butterflies, there are often hummingbirds! Here is a Japanese hummingbird!

And another. This one was backlit so it almost makes a sillhouette.

More Photos from Okuma!

This little bridge was right outside our room!

Grace liked walking on it - but she wasn't interested in posing.

But, I thought they were pretty cute, anyway!