Our World Tuesday - DE State Fair

From July 18-27th this year, the very small country town of Harrington, Delaware, hosts the Delaware State Fair. An honor they've been doing since their first opening on July 27, 1920.
The Kent & Sussex County Fair, as it was known back then charged 50 cents for an adult admission, and 25 cents for parking, while today admission is $7.00 and parking is free. The original intent of the fair was,

“to have or manage a fair or exposition for the purpose of promoting and encouraging Agriculture and of giving pleasures and diversions to the inhabitants of rural communities within the State of Delaware.”

This year I attended the fair for the day with my mom - we hadn't visited the fair in about thirty years, since most of the time this particular week is usually an extremely hot one in the area, but luckily the weather was mostly overcast with a bit of light rain off and on all day so it was not only bearable to walk in, but also not overly crowded. Although we didn't really come for the big concerts (acts like Sugarland, Miranda Lambert & Larry The Cable Guy), or the carnival rides, we did enjoy visiting with the many areas that housed prized farm animals including goats, sheep, cows and even a giraffe (see previous/upcoming posts for pictures). There was even a section where craft makers, gardeners and other hobbyists displayed their prize winning entries.

This crocheted breakfast won a blue ribbon award.

While these entries won ribbons for the largest ears of corn.

Check out what's happening around the world @ My World Tuesday.

Macro Monday - Spiky Plant

Looking down the center of a spiky plant. Glad I didn't make a false move and fall in!

 Check out other macros today at Macro Monday

Camera Critters - Spotted Goat?

My mom and I went to the Delaware State Fair this past weekend where we visited many farm animal displays. This particular pen was labeled "goats" and there definitely were obvious looking goats in the pen, but this particular animal, although it has horns, looks a bit like a sheep.


Check out other animals @ Camera Critters!

Skywatch Friday - A Sky Fly-By

These low flying birds caught my attention while looking at a sunset on the beach in Corolla, North Carolina. It was a mix of a fascinating sight and even a little scary to see them fly so low, with such big wings.

Check out other skies at Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday - Funky People Garden Pots

Macro Monday - Tree Add-ons

I'm always fascinated by the things that trees go through in their lifespan, yet most of them still manage to survive. Some get holes pecked in their bark by woodpeckers, while others grow all sorts of tree "cooties" like moss or in this case, some sort of mushroom like growth.

Go check out other macro photos @ Macro Monday

Camera Critters - The "Red Jay"

After a few missed shots, I was finally able to take a picture of this elusive cardinal.
When I was little, I heard that the blue bird was called a "bluejay" so I thought that all red birds were then called "redjays." Makes sense, right?

Go visit other nifty critters here

Skywatch Friday - Sunset

Skywatch Friday is yet another meme I posted on a few times back on my old blog, so I've been thinking about and collecting those lovely skies again. Here's today's post that is of a sunset looking out into the water while we were standing on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia.

Photo Tips

Since I've finally buckled down and started the lessons in the photography basics class I won a few months ago, I'm slowly learning the intricacies of my camera, and how to take better photos. The first lesson starts out with, I believe, the most critical parts of information about photography. Sure, aperture, shutter speed and all the technical details are also important, but the very first step is a simple and basic one and should be followed by every photographer on all their photos, whether an expert or a novice in photography. The best part is that it's short and simple to follow:

Tips For Better Photos

1. Have a clear subject in mind
2. Focus on, or draw attention to the subject
3. Simplify

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Taking A Photo

1. What is my subject?
2. How can I focus attention on my subject?
3. Have I eliminated all distracting elements and only included items that add to the subject?

Macro Monday - Kitty Paws

These cute kitty paws belong to one of the 12 cats that live on the grounds of Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where they help keep the gardeners and mice in line.

Don't forget to check out other macro photos at Macro Monday

A Different Type Of Critter

One of my favorite memes from back when I blogged a few years ago was the one on Saturday called, Camera Critters, so beings that I still love animals, I knew I'd be returning to my weekly critter photo.

Here are today's critters, which are cute wind spinners from the Kitty Hawk Kites store in the Outer Banks, NC where I visited this past week.

Macro Monday - Cherubs

What a better way to get the photo blogging started than by participating in a photo meme! So welcome to my first post of Macro Monday - where participants post a closeup photo on Mondays!

Here are mine - taken this past Saturday upon my (free, yay!) visit to  Winterthur museum and gardens in Wilmington, Delaware, which is about a 20 minute drive from my home. These neat cherubs are a part of the base of a sundial that sits in one of the 60 acre gardens.

The Beginning!

Hello to everyone (friends, family, strangers, and even curious pets) out there reading this blog!

After what seems like eons, I have finally decided to return to the blogging world. Back a few years ago I started A Blog In The Rough that originally sorta chronicled my life that was full of silliness, fun and even nothingness that helped me on my way through the rough patches I was going through at the time. Eventually all good things slump and even come to an end, and I became less enthused about my blabbings and stopped posting. I've kept myself in the blog world, but I still get antsy to return to the blog community which not only kept my brain active and off the rough times, but allowed me to meet some awesome people around the world. So after mulling it over, here I am, taking advantage of this neat medium once again, only this time my focus will be primarily on chronicling my photography adventures. This is one of the activities (along with my voracious reading habit) that has, and continues to have a positive impact on my life.

A few years ago I attempted to take a photography course in my local college, but unfortunately, due to my disability (a plethora of back related issues), I was unable to continue taking the class since I was in pain most of the time during the classes and couldn't really concentrate on what was being taught. While quite disappointed in my situation, since then I've been spending some of my time attempting to learn about the world of photography on my own by browsing around photo blogs and reading photography lessons in the comfort of my own home (my two dogs always by my side).

Now, fast forward to March of this year, on a whim I decided to enter a short essay contest at one of my favorite photography websites I follow, Digital Photography School. The winning entries would get to choose a photography course offered by the New York Institute of Photography, which offers home-study courses. Well, the photography gods must have been on my side this time around because I was one of two winners! I won NYIP's Fundamentals of Digital Photography course. So thanks to the generosity of the people at NYIP, I can now learn more about photography and advance my skills this time in the comfort of my home and at my own pace. How cool is that?!

So dear reader, hope you're still reading this far into my first post and are as eager to see some of my photos as I am to create and post them for you. Stay bloggy-tuned for my future posts as I begin my adventures in photography!