Beautiful Willo

As promised, something different today!  This is Willo, a friend's Irish Water Spaniel who I had the joy of photographing this morning at the Harvest Cluster dog show.  Willo is a young dog and was competing in the obedience and rally runs at the show.  She performed like a champion this morning, taking second place in her group.  I've photographed her before and will definitely do so again - there is something just mesmerizing about her eyes and "rasta" hair do and the camera definitely loves her.  I also took some shots of various other dogs, including a vizsla that was hilariously camera shy

After the show, I went out to one of the local lakes to see if I could get some good foliage shots.  The fall colors are very muted, owing to the extremely dry summer/fall, so it's not that easy to find anything vibrant.  I did post one shot on Flickr that I like - you can see it HERE

Got home around 2 and did a little macro in the yard.  Temps are currently 76 F if you can imagine!  Feels more like summer than fall.  I saw four differerent species of butterfly on the buddleia bushes, including a monarch. Also tons of bumble bees and honey bees.  I couldn't resist taking a few shots of a huge bumble bee that was showing off it's equally huge proboscis.

Temps are supposed to be a more seasonal mid-sixties tomorrow with rain showers, so not sure what I'll find to blip.  But that is part of the fun of challenging yourself to a photo a day, isn't it?  

Cheers.

Debbi

And I should add that my day started with two pileated woodpeckers feeding in the trees at the edge of the woods - I rarely see them, although I know they are back there because I hear them calling to each other.  Didn't have my camera on my, so decided to just enjoy the sight.