July - Just as Dry as June

We've had 1/4" of rain in the last 2 weeks. Meanwhile, Weare, Francestown and Manchester have had rain every day (usually gully washers). I have been watering the vegetables, potted plants, and select garden areas. I have not watered several areas at all (below the fence, or along the lower edge of the driveway - where the ES Hydrangea is).

I have not planted anything but lavender and penstemmons that I started from seed in the spring (planted in areas that I water anyway). All the potted plants, that I am supposed to be planting in the gardens, have to wait until we get moisture that actually penetrates the soil.

Enough of this though.

Because it is still too early for vegetables from the garden, you get to see more flower pics:

I'll start with this one first. It is rather strange because I took it thru my binoculars (the same ones Cop Car gave me oh, forever ago). I was trying to focus on the robin's nest in the crotch of the tree, but the camera insisted on focusing on the tree leaves to the left. If anyone has suggestions on how to get it to focus where I want it, please feel free to chime in. This was taken from the deck, and the tree is directly behind the clothesline

  When the the first Black Hollyhock bud opens, i know it is time to look for Japanese Beetles. Sure enough, I found the first couple in some roses. In another week or so, I won't have any hollyhocks and few roses left.

  Tiffany Rose bud. Tiffany smells wonderful. It was by taking a whiff that I saw the spider (or rather, it jumped out to an leaf close by). Tiffany is a new rose - a Birthday present from Karen.

  I let the spider settle back in, and this was as close as I could get without making him too nervous. I never got a picture of the bud open, because this is the first thing the Japanese Beetles got to. I do know that the bloom is huge (think lunch plate size) - it just didn't look good enough to photograph with huge holes in it. I don't know where the spider is now.

  I can't remember what the name of this daylily is and I planted it before I started my plant database.

  Rock n Roll is a new rose that I got this spring (it's a new introduction this year). It has several blooms on it and smells fantastic.

  Tne Endless Summer hydrangea down on the edge of the driveway is outdoing itself this year. This is only the top portion of the plant as I was looking down at it from the fence. I know that many people have complaints about its lack of blooms - but obvioulsy I don't have any problems.

Comments

[Cop Car]

It always amazes me how you (and others) remember in what order things occur--looking for beetles when the black hollyhock blooms, indeed! I, too, have a problem with getting my point-and-shoot camera to focus at the correct distance. Manual focus is difficult for those of us with visual problems, but it beats auto-focus in some circumstances. It is even possible that some point-and-shoot cameras have a setting that allows one to focus; but, who ever really learns all of the camera capabilities?

Beautiful, beautiful flowers. We had over an inch of rain two or three days ago and it has rained, some, yesterday (morning) and this morning. I'm thinking sharing, even if it isn't being received up there.

[Wichi Dude]

A true "point and shoot" has a deep "depth-of-focus" and won't pinpoint a focul point. Most automatics "home" in on the "closest" object in the frame.
If your digital camera has a manual mode, use it and look at the LCD display to focus instead of the view-finder.
Works for me. Tri-foculs made me park my 35mm's years ago.

[Cop Car]

WD--Thank you for the input. Depth of field made the old fixed-focus Brownie box cameras work pretty well.

My hp camera has but one place for me to look at the scene that I'm shooting, so maybe I'm missing something; but, I can guarantee from looking at many out-of-focus photos that my camera does not focus on the nearest object. It tries to focus on what is central to the scene--tricky if I want to focus on a thin something. There is a means of tricking my camera--of showing it what I want it to focus on--and I can get it to work, sometimes. Most of the time, the light is bright enough that I cannot see the display well enough to pre-set the focus. Oh, well.

[bogie]

I haven't been able to use a manual focus for anything, so don't have a manual focus camera.

My camera has 3 focus lengths; Macro, Regular and Infinity. It does not always try for the closest object, but I have not figured out the magic formula for why it picks what it does (it does have a "face finder", but since I rarely take pics of people, that is not very helpful for this discussion.

Oh, I think I can also get it to focus on something the same distance as the object I am trying to photograph, then telling it to keep that distance. That would be great if I could tell relative distances, but I suck at that.

At least I can wipe out the pictures that don't come out the way I planned!

[Cop Car]

Bogie said it better in explaining how focus is achieved on my camera--not by showing it what to focus on, but by setting it to focus on something that is the same distance away. Since, most of my photos are taken out-of-doors when the light overwhelms the viewing window, the point is moot--I cannot see and just blindly "point and shoot".

[bod]

on a slightly different note bogie, i think we had all your rain for july last week!

[wolfwalker]

Bogie, may I ask what model of camera you have? Getting the autofocus to focus where you want instead of where it wants is possible on some cameras, but it depends heavily on the specific camera in question. Cheap cameras usually can't do it, but the higher up the performance scale you move, the more likely it is to have that ability. Some of the superzoom cameras, a.k.a. 'pseudo-SLRs,' have multiple focusing spots and multiple focusing modes, which would probably let you get that robin's nest and any similar subject.

[bogie]

Wolfwalker - I am using a fairly cheap camera: a cannon Powershot SD1000, so I am probably out of luck.