PrettyTiny Film Company -- Alliecat's crew (Aug. 25)

[Alliecat]

Another late Saturday hurry-up-and-shoot-something end-of-the-week pic-a-week... Battled the mosquitoes to shoot a few quick pix in the planter out front.  I swore I wasn't going to be planting here another year.... and here we are.    Anyway, here's Onyx.

[davidd]

Mysterious eyes on that little one.

Spectacular flowers already.

Bummer about the mosquitos. That's reason enough to move, right there.

[TrueFan]

Onyx is one of my favorite minis.

[Alliecat]

Early for pic-a-week this week, also done in a bit of a hurry, and you can't take just one dolly photo, so here are a few more of Catherine.

[Alliecat]

Back to being late for pic-a-week, and it was kind of gloomy. I probably should do some more with the open flower, and a tripod. Shouldn't really have tried hand-holding these, but oh well. Here's Jessie!

[davidd]

The water droplets look sharp in the first image, so I'd say you did fine with the hand-held shots.

The pinks are nicely saturated, and the highlights are evenly illuminated, so perhaps the overcast worked to your advantage.

[Alliecat]

Yes, cloudy-bright is often best, but in the zoomed version, it's not really sharp.  There's like no DoF with those close-up lenses.  I didn't get back up there with the tripod

...

I didn't ex-pect to find a lot of mushrooms this early in the summer; I thought they appeared a bit later other years.  Anyway, this year there are several quite huge ones.  I didn't get my act together to catch them in the sun though.  Here are Roxann & Jewel.











Fairies' tea party!



Light painting doesn't have to be done only in the dark.  Was really losing daylight here so I tried to give it a boost.







Thanks for looking!

[davidd]

Not just large, but sturdy mushrooms!

I wonder how long they will last? In my eggsperience, mushrooms are in their prime for only a very short time. It's good you spotted them when you did to capture their magnificence.

Have you tried to identify the type?

[Alliecat]

Well, I'm still here...
Yes, the mushrooms are pretty short-lived. They look good for just a few days; then they're less photogenic and start to get scraggy and bug/slug-chewed.
It didn't occur to me to try to identify them!

Some more pix of Victoria with the dianthus. They're looking kinda scruffy now but at the time they were a perfect match for her red outfit.











Flower dreams...






Yuki also enjoying the flowers.








And a couple more from Red's pic-a-week shoot:








Got another batch of monster mushrooms out back!

[TrueFan]

I love that bicycle.

[Alliecat]

It is cute and nicely detailed, but unfortunately it's long enough that nobody can sit on the seat and reach the handlebars -- surprisingly, not even the MTM girls can do it convincingly.  It plays a terrible tinny "Lonely Goat-herd" and goes in a circle if you put batteries in it 

I discovered the night before the eclipse that the projector needed to be put back together, after its last trip to Texas (how?!!? can that be 2 years ago already???? ).  The crew helped.





Final piece and inspection.



We contrived to be in the shade on a hot day.



The girls had a private theatre to watch in, and we kept it from catching fire. 



Maximum eclipse was only 26%, but it was still cool to see.

[davidd]

The crew is getting pretty adept at assembling astronomical instruments.

So cool that you had a good clean view of the partial eclipse! Without having to go anywhere!

[Alliecat]

It was a beautiful clear sky, but the day was tainted by the perpetual construction zone next door; this verse in the never-ending variations on the theme of noise was dump trucks and backhoe.

[Alliecat]

Butterfly season only lasted a few days this year   Life hasn't been conducive to playing with caterpillars, and I don't really have a safe place for them outside anymore.  I did get 3 chrysalises from the butterfly-gardening lady down the road; they hatched on 3 consecutive days and are on their way already.  Sigh.  I got a few pix in what little bit of the yard that is left not in full view of Isengard, but it was so mosquitoey that it wasn't great fun. 
Anyway, here are Abbigail & Robyn.


























Aloha, bon voyage... bye...



Just flowers left to pose with.