Fall is Upon Us

Fall is about to hit full swing here..and I got a few shots of the trees in their beginning stages of change. I can't wait to see all the trees in their fullest crimson and gold soon! You can expect more of these to come. I took an entire card's worth of just one tree...sigh. When I told my husband, he was not the least bit surprised by it! I thought it was hilarious. : )

This one, believe it or not, was actually this radiant of a magenta color...something I have never seen before! 

Also, as some of you know, my husband and I love artichokes. I was making them for dinner one night and thought, "These are just so cool looking...they are definitely picture worthy! I mean, why not...?" So it was one of those random moments where I stop in the middle of dinner to do a photo shoot...not an uncommon occurrence-ha!  It was also one of those moments where I thought, "Okay, this could look totally dumb, but whatever"...and to my surprise, the pictures actually turned out way cooler than I expected. So here is one...it is more of a reflection of the fun, random and spontaneous moments for me as a photographer than anything else. : ) 

Also random, was what I found sitting on top of our trash can one morning...a little grey frog! I am not sure how he even got up there, but he (why I assume he was a boy I am not sure...?) was as content as can be watching the neighborhood from up there. I love frogs, probably because my brother had so many as pets when we were growing up. So..it made me smile.

A Flutter of Wings

So Caleb and I have been on an extended bird watch over the past few days in hopes to photograph all our little visitors. Snowy weather has made it easy to stay inside and watch them. We also picked up some new bird food and there has been a hay day on our porch ever since we put it out. Thanks to Caleb, we know what they are and can recognize each of their calls. So here are a few pictures of what we've gotten so far. They are fascinating little creature and so fun to get to know! I can't help being a little envious of them...getting to fly around all the time, hanging out with all their buddies and having a feast!

So far we have identified the: Cardinal(Male and Female), Downy Woodpecker, Yellow-Bellied Sap Sucker Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee and Carolina Wren (my personal favorite!), Dark-Eyed Junco, and Titmouse.

We also received an unexpected surprise when we discovered a huge family of wild turkeys living in the forest next to our apartment complex. I walked out of the house the other day to about 30 of them pecking on the ground only 10 feet from me. I looked up, and 4 more were perched up on the top of the complex looking down at me, and more were swooping in right over my head to with such large wings, it was a little unnerving. Then the other night, Caleb took our dog out at night and was startled by them again...or maybe it was the other way around. All he heard was loud swooshing of huge wings...enough to freak anyone out in the dark!

Needless to say, we are loving all this wildlife!