One of my many daylilies.

Iris "Clarence" with cat "Rocky"

Gorgeous flowers, Summer and OutsidePlaying!

There's a green blush in the tree tops.

Our son gave me this planter box for Mother's Day, we just got it planted

A cat on my sidewalk a few years ago.

Well, I couldn't find a cat outside, or any really pretty flowers. But I did find this fallen flower from my Tulip Tree lying on the ground. This is the first year that the tree has bloomed, just a couple flowers. They are interesting, and quite large.

Igmd, I used to have a Tulip Poplar right off the back porch. It was here when I moved in. I loved the blooms, but it was rather messy with weak branches. A limb grew too far over the roof and the seed pods from the "tulips" clogged the gutters. Finally half of it died, so I had to say farewell.

One of the benefits was the beautiful green Luna moths that enjoyed the tree. I read that the moths favor laying their eggs in Poplars and the larvae eat (only?) the leaves of this tree. Since the tree has been gone these many years, I've seen no Lunas. :(

Schoolhouse, I didn't know that about the Luna moth, but now that I think about it, at a place we lived in Ohio, there was a large mature tulip poplar...and we did occasionally see that moth. Thanks for connecting it all for me.

the pictures are so nice again today

Casey, are those trees, especially those on the left, actually kind of curved towards the center of the picture? Or are you doing that with a lens? Or am I going bonkers.

I do so enjoy all the pictures here everyday! Peonies are one of my favorite flowers, and of course, they don't grow here. Love that planter, Susan, and the color of your porch, or deck, whichever it is.

Rusty

It looks like the typical distortion of a wide-angle lens.

The trees in casey's photo look to me like trees that have been exposed to wind always blowing from the same direction. We see trees like that near the coast sometimes and they are sort of bent over from the constant wind coming in from the ocean.

Hopefully, she'll see your question, Rusty, and come back to answer for those of us who are curious about it.

Dawn may be right, as I look more closely at the trees on the right.

Noble at the beach. He's grown into that nose. :)

Outside Playing - is that Catherine Woodbury? I don't get my peonies until June or my day lilies until July. She's my favorite.

One of the more prolific bloomers and the flowers are huge...

When I saw Casey's photo, I thought fish-eye lens.

The 'leaning' trees in Casey's photo are obviously not leaning from wind. Unless the wind blows from opposite directions and only blows on one side of the road at a time. I am very familiar with what winds on a coast do to trees. I think ElizabethA is right, a fish eye lens. I don't know anything about them, except pictures I've seen taken with one. But usually the 'fish eye' effect is much more pronounced, so maybe they are adjustable?

Rusty

Yes, it's a fish-eye lens. I got one last month so I am having fun with it. I think I may have cropped this photo a bit, that's why you don't notice the effect as much as on other pictures. Plus, I have a cropped sensor camera, on a full frame you would notice the circle effect more.

Here's a picture where the fish-eye effect is very noticeable.

Perhaps a wide lens, with a photo crop later. The center does not get as distorted, so if the trees on the right were more centered in the original composition, they would appear straighter than those on the edge (left) after the right portion was cropped.

Aha! You posted while I typed. :)

Hi Casey, at first I thought that your second, illustrative picture was a blueberry pie with some marshmallows or ice cream on top.

o j

Thanks for the explanation, Casey.

OJ, those clouds make me think of whipped cream, and now I'm hungry! :^(

Rusty