Terrene, thanks! With the hummer picture I had a shutter speed of 1/400 sec. I had another pic with only 1/160 sec and the wings were moving so fast that they were just blur and barely visible. They are fast little buggers. If you have bright enough light outside or a camera that lets you change the shutter speed, aperature, or iso it makes it easier. If I change one of those settings the camera will adjust the others to make sure it is exposed properly. I use a Canon S3 IS and I don't really ever use the auto settings. With the hummers since they move around a lot and there isn't much time to even focus with auto-focus I sometimes just focus on the flower they are favoring and wait for them to come back to finish the shot. I also like to use the rapid fire burst setting where you hold down the shutter button and it takes several pictures quickly in a row. Then I delete most of the pictures and only keep the best. Many of my bird pictures are actually taken through a dirty window or screen because they seem to only come out after I have gone inside. They also like to seem to wait until I am washing dishes at the sink just to see how fast I can dry my hands and grab the binoculars or camera. Trying to use the auto-focus through a window can be frustrating, any little spot on the glass throws it off.

glad you are enjoying orlando! i live in the north burbs. i was hoping to get to the shuttle launch at 7:15 am but it's been delayed, probably till july :-( we are going to seaworld today, a little crazy considering it's going to be 95 but i want to see some sealife lol. we went to epcot a few weekends ago for the Flower & Garen Show and it was alot less crowded, hopefully sea world will be the same lol. try to stay cool and drink lots of water! ~ liz

My cute tangelo enjoying some afternoon shade. It gets tons of full sun too but with the temps we've been having, this spot is advantageous. This was a couple weeks ago -I just noticed this thread and its HOT so I'm not going out there to take current photos lol. The leaf curling in the new growth in this photo isnt happening for the new growth in getting now. I'm thinking I wasn't watering enough at that point- the common cause of anything here when it's so hot. Sun scald on the navel after we had a couple 120° days. Glad to say it's dropped to 110° so the rest of the tree is still a good color. The top half is going to suffer for a bit longer but I've see them make it before. Hoping we make it to monsoon without another scorcher! Once it cools down maybe I'll get some current photos and my lime - this is their first summer and I'm impressed they are doing this well. ❤️ Loving all of your photos on here - makes me want to get more citrus trees! I'll have to pick your brains about kummwats - I've always wanted to try them.

Hey team! I desperately need help. There are no stone masons in the area of my cabin, apparently, so I have to design my front steps myself. There is a quarry that will cut and deliver custom sized stones, but the excavator who dug our foundation will have to place them. That means minimal site prep and accuracy. For that reason, I thought to do just two stones, the bottom one big enough to support the entire top stone. As you can see, the front is very simple, and could use the beauty of some really great steps (and I'm thinking one long window box on the left and another around the corner to the right of the porch), but the ideal size is killing me. Should they be really wide? Wider than the door trim? If the top step is almost at the height of the door, should its run be longer than a standard run? so you can easily step out onto it before descending? The height from ground to sill is 17", the width including trim is 43" I could do 1-2 much wider stones as the base, creating a step that goes unnecessarily in all directions but gives a wider look to the entry, or I could make both stones the same width, whatever that should be. HELP! I"m embarrassed by how it looks unpainted: it will look MUCH better all painted the same dark brown (see the partially painted side for reference).