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I feel guilty about abandoning this blog again, so I'm back to remind all the amateur photographers out there that if you want to enter your pictures in the fair, the entry forms are due by tomorrow.

Apparently, now you can enter online, but you can also do it by mail, fax or drop it off in person still. I have always done it by mail, but I may be doing it online this year, depending on whether I can figure out how it works.

Has anyone already entered? Go to KernCountyFair.com if you didn't get the magazine in the mail and don't have the entry form. You should be able to figure out how to do it yourself, but if you have any questions you can always ask me. This will be my third year entering, but it will be my first year in the adult category. Exciting!

By the way, the pictures I have posted are not the pictures I'm going to enter in the fair; they are random pictures I took recently while working on my night photography.

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I know I had many faithful blog readers, so I'm sorry I let you all down. (Heh. You know I'm only kidding.)

Anyway, here are some wildflower pictures I took a while back.

For a while after the Snap Galleries came out, I wondered if I would continue PhotoBlogger or just post pictures on my personal account. But I've decided that when I take pictures, I can post random pictures on here that I've taken recently, and I can post specific pictures on particular topics to the photo galleries using my other account. It works.

You're lucky I'm posting early today. I'm up for a specific reason, so I'll explain it on my other blog, because I plan to post another blog today from the other account.

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Lost Ocean played at a local church last Monday, so I went with my sister to listen to some awesome new tunes. I vaguely remember the name of the church...Calvary something or another.

The concert didn't last long because Jeff needed to rest his voice for recording in LA the next day (Tuesday), but the new songs he played were pretty cool. I took pictures, of course, because it's a must for me. The church was very dark with a few colorful lights, though, so I was having a hard time getting good pictures without the flash. I took a few with flash that turned out OK, but they also washed out the awesome color lights. Plus, it made the people in front of me angry because I was using the flash in their faces.

Most of the pictures are of Jeff and Sky, because Chris (drummer) is always hard to capture, and Bret was in a bad spot that night.

I spent quite a bit of time with these pictures in Photoshop this week, so let me know what you think. Some of the editing is obvious, and others I'm hoping are not as obvious.

www.myspace.com/lostocean

Hopefully I will take some pictures this weekend and have them ready to post next Tuesday.

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...but they sure do make for a good photographic opportunity.

These little punks are all over the place. Do you have squirrels? I can't stand them. They're constantly mating, and when they're not mating they're doing their mating call, which is a high-pitched squeak. They do it all day long, and they dig holes all over the pasture. Ugh...they're terrible.

Do squirrels really serve any purpose in this world? I don't see them doing any good things around here. When I was out taking pictures of them yesterday, I noticed that one squirrel was standing there grabbing grain from the foliage with its grimey little claws. Its mouth was full of grain, I'm sure, but I never got close enough to check.

Down with the squirrel population! ...Right?

--Robin

P.S. This is last week's post. I couldn't get the pictures to load and the room was hot, so I gave up on posting. I'm sorry about that.

P.P.S. I had two finals to take last week and we had to clean for a bereavement at our house on Saturday. I kind of had a busy week. My apologies to the faithful PhotoBlogger readers!

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I figured since less people are posting on this blog in the morning, I'd go back to bed and do it later. But I kind of slept for a long time, so I'm just now getting to it. Sorry about that.

I visited my niece-dog in the city last Saturday to celebrate her first birthday. She had a rough year, so it was important to celebrate it with her. We weren't sure if she was going to make it when she got Parvo, but she pulled through and we're all happy to have her back, alive and healthy. Isn't she darling? I just love it when she comes to visit me.

In other news, I have been working on my garden, but I'm way behind. I have a few tomato seedlings that are ready to be planted in the ground, but my garden itself is still not ready. (Waiting for Dad to clean it up!) I plan to cheat and buy a bunch of bigger plants so I'm not completely behind on the gardening, but I'll continue to plant more seeds as well.

Lastly, I was out in the backyard yesterday with my camera, and I decided to take a picture of this flower after finishing up with the tomatoes. I also got a shot of an orange next to a blossom.

That's about it around here. What have you been doing lately?

Robin

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Does anyone know what this plant's name is? I've never seen it before. I'm not sure if it's a weed or a real plant that was inadvertently planted by a wild animal, but it was hidden among many fiddlenecks and other weeds along our property. It reminds me of a cactus. It starts out like a normal plant with stems, but at the end of each stem there is a cactus-like plant on it. You'll have to excuse me for not knowing any technical terms. I thought it was unique, so I took pictures.

I also took a few pictures of ladybugs that night and thought some of the pictures turned out pretty well. I do believe this is my favorite PhotoBlogger post thus far! What do you think?

Someone has to have taken a cool picture this week. Would you like to share it with us?

Robin

P.S. Would you say this blog goes under "Arts & Entertainment" or "Hobbies and Crafts"? It's hard to decide.

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Last week everyone decided it would be easier if we ditched the weekly theme and went for more of a "What'd you do last week?" kind of theme. In other words, what kind of things did you shoot last week with your camera?

I unsuccessfully took pictures of wild fiddlenecks that were growing tall and beginning to dry out. I couldn't get the sun to shine through quite right, and when I finally did something else went wrong, so none of the pictures turned out particularly well. Then the batteries died and that was it.

What did you do last week?

Robin

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Last week Tom asked about whether to keep the weekly photo themes or let this blog be a free-for-all to post whichever photos you choose to post and have taken yourself. I'm not sure what to do, so let's all discuss this together.

Without the themes, it might draw more people in because it'll be less difficult to find a picture to post. But with the themes, it's just something fun and creative to do for the heck of it. So, bloggers, what say you? Keep 'em or toss 'em?

What kind of pictures have you taken within this past week? Let's see them.

Robin

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Since spring has arrived and Easter has passed, the wildflowers have been sprouting all around Kern County, and I figured now might be a good time to have everyone post their wildflower pictures.

They are quite lovely, aren't they? I think so, at least.

You may also post some pictures of flowers that you've grown in your backyard, too. They are just as pretty.

Now, I must apologize to you all -- particularly Woof, Sage and Buffy -- for my lack of participation in last week's blog post. I was exhausted that morning and went back to bed immediately after posting, and I had three homework deadlines and three tests to take that week, so I wasn't feeling quite up to posting on the blogs. I feel guilty, so hopefully I will have more energy this week. I definitely appreciated your contributions and found all of your pictures quite humorous!

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

--Robin

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Good morning, everyone!

Last week we discussed what topic to choose, and Tom suggested humor, so we all agreed on it. I didn't even know it was going to be April 1 when we chose the topic, but I find the topic to be quite fitting for today's "holiday." (Perhap Tom knew it was, though?)

If you happen to take any funny pictures today while you're running around pulling pranks, feel free to share them. I could always use a good laugh!

As for myself, I couldn't find anything humorous around me within the past week, so I'm pulling something out of the archives to show you. I'm actually a bit embarrased to show this to you, but I'm afraid it's the most humorous picture I have. I'm sorry about its blandish look and the hideous signature in the corner. I accidentally deleted my Photoshop, so I can't go back and delete that layer.

Well, let the humor begin!

We'll discuss what to choose for next week's topic again in the comments section.

--Robin