1st Pond pics

[Sandi_W]

I don't know how to use the camera yet and I've never been much of a photographer anyway. :roll:

Here's a pic of my little ponds and goldies. The last pond was put in in Nov so there's no landscaping and still lots of rock work to do.

Sandi

[Terri]

....I've never been much of a photographer anyway. :roll: Practice makes for better pictures... play with your NEW camera (congrats!) and have fun!! If you like I can help you set up a gallery (http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/index.php) and show you how to post pictures from there.... size isn't so much of an issue that way.

Nice shots... looking forward to seeing the pond(s) in spring/summer! Is that a planting pot I see? What do you typically grow in there?

Sandi's got a camera,.. :smile:

[Jackie Ramo]

Sandi's got camera!!! Don't feel bad about the pics, I'm now on my 3rd digital camera and still take terrible pictures.

[Sandi_W]

Terri,

Thank you. I set my gallery up, but didn't see an option to post from there. I probably didn't know what to look for so I would appreciate your help.

Which pot are you talking about? The terra cotta colored pot in the small pond in the foreground is a "skippy on a stick". I had variegated ivy (still there, but not looking too good), horsetail, creeping jenny (still there and looking bad) and water hyacinths in it. This summer I'm going to add impatiens to the mix. The terra cotta pot in the background is sitting on a slab over the spillway. I had the same plants in it.
The 2 large black containers are bio filters. I had lots of annuals planted all around the front and sides so they were hardly visible and various water plants in them and bananas and cannas planted behind them. This spring we're going to put lattice around them and maybe some small perennial vines.
The preform waterfalls were covered in rocks, but my lab tore them down chasing a rat (I figured that's what happened as I found them destroyed one morning after he had been out longer than usual the night before and a dead rat at the bottom of the back door stairs) :(

Jackie, My color is all off. I'll really have to work on it. The 3 rocks in the foreground are emerald and the big pink rock looks all faded out too. They were the 4 rocks that cost a fortune (to me anyway) and I sure do wish the colors would show. I bet I took 50 pics and only 2 of them were deemed "worthy" of being seen. :uhoh:

The new pond will go to the right of these small ones with a stream connecting them. All suggestions welcome.

Sandi

[Terri]

Read this and if you still have questions ask away (re: posting pics) http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=6

The big terracotta pot is a filter? Cool...

[Jackie Ramo]

Well Sandi, if all else fails there is always the manual. :frisbee: Actually colour depends on light and also on the monitor it is viewed upon. I am always unhappy with the pics of my art as the colour seems off... Terri says I need to up grade my monitor so it looks better

[Sandi_W]

Terri,

Water flows into the pot from a tube going up through the bottom, flows up and over the top all around, hits the saucer and flows back into the pond. Under the plants I have filter media. I don't know how well it works as a bio, but it's pretty at night lit from below.

Jackie, You mean the book that came with my camera is a MANUEL??? :lol: I've been through it a dozen times and I think it's written in "pond" language. !rofl

Here's a pic from tonight, but it's way too dark. I'm trying Jackie.
This pic is from the gallery so thanks Terri. I learned how to do it. http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10015/normal_Ponds%20at%20night.jpg

[Terri]

Sandi, love that you tried and did! Luke could learn a thing or two from you LOL
Now let's tweek what you've learned a little... :wink:

What you posted is a main gallery 'thumbnail', the small image. If you click on that small image you are taken to another page with a larger 'thumbnail', there is a 'film strip' under this image with other images from your gallery. This is the image you may want to post for members to view... so we don't have to squint :-P

example:
small gallery thumbnail (133 x 100 px)
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_2005-10-21_01_resize.jpg
larger thumbnail (533 x 400 px)
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_2005-10-21_01_resize.jpg
And if you really want to 'WOW' people you can click on the larger thumbnail to get the ACTUAL image size(opens in a seperate window) and post that using the IMG code.... :twisted:

I read my camera manual too... greek to me LMAO

[Sandi_W]

Terri,

Thanks again. I just edited my last post to try to get the larger image, but I got a link to click. What did I do wrong? :roll:

http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10015/normal_Ponds%20at%20night.jpg

GOT IT!! !strut

Sandi

[Terri]

The link to the image wasn't in the IMG brackets so it will show as a LINK. Click on the http://backyardpuddle.com/forum/images/editor/insertimage.gif in the post reply page - this is the IMG button, a small box will appear and ask you to put the link there, when you've done that and hit 'ok' it should appear in the message field like (img)http://backyardpuddle.com/forum/images/editor/insertimage.gif(/img) - please note that I've used () in place of [] - it's the square brackets you need for the code....

[Terri]

Well never mind then LOL :grin:

[Terri]

BTW, cool pic!! :-)

[Jackie Ramo]

Yes, all my night pictures turn out blurry. I did say when all else fails to read the manual, have browed mine a bit when I first got the camera and the battery was charging :roll:

[marla]

Very nice Sandi. The more you use it the better you'll get, I still discard lots of pics, usually because of being fuzzy or because the shutter speed being slower didn't catch what I wanted. I that Pineneedle mulch around the ponds?

[Sandi_W]

Marla,

Thank you. And yes, it's pinestraw mulch. It's been my family's mulch of choice since before I was even born which is TOO long ago. :grin:

I have a vacuum/grinder that I use on leaves. It chops them up pretty fine and I use them under the pinestraw. As you can tell in my pics, I haven't used it on the leaves around the pond yet. :wink:

I've deleted way more pics than I've kept.

Sandi

[Melinda]

Sandi do not know if I am correct or not But the pine straw around the pond is not a good idea. I know I read somewhere about pine toxic to fish it may have just been the sap. But that is not the reason I would not use it. think about what it will do to your water when it gets in it. you will have a nice dark tea that is almost impossible to get rid of unless you drain the whole pond. Someone else might know why pine is not recommended I just know somewhere in the past 2 years I have read it somewhere.

[Sandi_W]

Melinda,

Many years ago I had a goldfish pond and had pinestraw around it. Never had any problems. And haven't had any problems with this pond. The pinestraw doesn't blow into the pond from the ground so it seems to be working well. I do have pine trees in my front yard, but the needles very seldom make it back to the ponds.

Now the sycamore tree in the backyard is a pain.

Sandi

[Jackie Ramo]

I've not heard of pine straw being a problem. Mind anything that gets into the water can contribute to problems, any leaf or needle but unless the tree dumped a bunch in it should be just fine. I get fir needles in the pond in wind storms but they don't do anything either as the skimmer gets most of them. Once they het the ground they pretty much stay in place unlike other leaves that are still blowing into the pond... Truly I have not had this problem in the past and can't figure out why this year its like this but a net is starting to look good to me.