Autumn is Here!

I recently shot these at my favorite local haunt in our area where the sights, sounds and smells of Autumn are in the air!

Water Lilies

I've been working to finally get through my owners manual for my Canon Rebel.  It's been fun to experiement with shooting manually rather than always using the automatic setting which, up until now, is basically how I've been shooting my pictures. These are some of my first efforts shooting manually.

The colors of a water lily are extrodinary.  I marvel at the amazing colors God has seen fit to bestow upon us for His glory and our enjoyment.

Desert Foliage in Arizona

This past week my family had the opportunity to head out to Arizona and visit our family.  While there, my father patiently stopped about 10 times while traveling up the mountain to Payson through the Verde Valley which goes through Tonto Forest.  If you haven't ever had the opportunity to go through the desert, it has a beauty all its own.  I was amazed again at how beautiful and striking God's creation is in the desert.  The yellow cactus above reminded me of God's mercy to us if we only had the eyes to know what we were looking at.  The flowers on this cactus always point south.  Can you imagine if you were a traveler, back in the day when you had no compass, how helpful that would be?  God's mercies are everywhere!