The State Flower

- The Dogwood is the official state flower and tree of the Commonwealth of Virginia. So why is Virginia officially called a Commonwealth rather than a state? Fiction author Clive Cussler once lamented it was because "Virginia considers itself too good to be just a state". Virginia has used the old traditional English term since before the founding of the United States. There are three other U.S. states that refer to themselves as a Commonwealth - Kentucky, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The term implies a political community founded for the common good. As I watch Virgina's strange politics, I often wonder what has happened to the "common good". Canon 7D, 1/100 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, 100mm macro lens, LED Litepanel.

Rear-view Mirror

- Well technically its a side-view mirror. Looking back on the rush hour traffic waiting behind me to make a left turn from Park Avenue onto Brambelton Avenue to get on I-264 East in Norfolk Virginia. Notice the two cars in the blind-spot mirror can't be seen in the standard mirror - that's why they call it a blind spot. That little mirror has saved me more than once. Canon G11, 1/250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

Lavender

- Lavender is the color of femininity and my bride of 36 years loves tulips. So it was lavender tulips with some baby's breath, pink roses and stargazer lilies for today's anniversary flowers. Canon 40D, 1/60 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro, Litepanel LED.

New Pez!

- As regular followers of my blog know, I collect PEZ dispensers. Since I have several hundred it is a rare treat to get a new one, especially when its a gift. My grandson Robert brought me this new style Disney Dalmatian dispenser last week. So this picture and blog post is a big thank to Robert for expanding grandpa's wall of PEZ. He and I have a good arrangement, I get the PEZ dispensers he gets the PEZ candy.

This photo is a good example of shallow depth of field and bokeh. You will notice that his nose and right eye are in sharp focus at f/4.0 but the left eye which is just a few millimeters farther away is beginning to fall out of the shallow field of sharp focus. The background is completely out of focus with the soft highlights known as bokeh. Canon 40D, 1/50 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens, room light.

Ice Cold Tea

- A glass of ice cold tea a southern tradition. We had dinner tonight at the No Frill Grill in Norfolk, Virginia and sat on the open patio. It was a glorious evening and the late afternoon sun was nicely illuminating Cindy's ice tea. She was kind of enough to wait for me to take the picture, actually five, before having a drink. I really appreciate the way she suffers for my art. Droid X camera phone in macro mode, no flash.

120 Collage

It's day 120 for my 2011 365 Project. So today's picture is a collage of the first 119 pictures taken. I'm about one-third done with this year's project. Since I started in 2009, I've complete 850 daily posts each with a different photo with most taken on the same day. I hope you've been enjoying these past 850 days on CIOPhoto.com. This project was done with Shape Collage Pro version 2.5 software.

Sandbox

Our grandson Robert is spending the day and night with us. He spent much of the day outside enjoying the beautiful weather. The sandbox is always a hit and here he is feeding sand into two different spinner toys and yes that's spaghetti sauce from dinner on his face. Canon G11, 1/25 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100