The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it... - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I discovered my inner nature photographer this weekend.  While my greatest artistic passion is photographing the natural beauty of my blond-haired, blue-eyed, chromosomally-enhanced daughter, I have another passion for discovering and attempting to capture the natural beauty of, well, nature. 

Samantha and I took a ride down to my parents' lake house on Saturday, and just 15 minutes with my camera in the garden netted the most amazing finds.  It's incredible what you can see when you just look for it.  Just that little shift in perspective, wearing a different hat and glasses, effectively removing the blinders with which we stumble through our everyday lives, opens up a whole new world. 

I want Samantha to see and appreciate this new world, but a busy 5-year old with her own agenda is a busy 5-year old with her own agenda, and nothing can sway that.  "Samantha, come look at this butterfly/this bug/this flower/that turtle/whatever!  Do you see it?"  "Yes, Mommy, it's a beautiful butterfly/bug/flower/turtle/whatever."  And with barely a glance in the direction of such natural object, off she goes, back towards the house... 

I began another post with all of my favorites from the weekend, but there are so, so many, and so, so many that still need to be edited, that I will save them for another day and just leave you with this one for now.  (Sorry for the over-saturation - once again, my laptop shows me an image quite different from the desktop I'm using now.)

The Promised Land