Assistance in the Garden Aisle, Please

I like to start my day with a cup of tea in the garden where I wander around and see what's what.  Lately, I've been keeping track of the monarch chrysalids on the house and in the garden so I knew that three were going to emerge today.  As I was out poking around, one started to emerge and I watched, transfixed as always.  Then, I noticed that this one was trying to emerge but seemed to be somewhat stuck in its shell.  That usually doesn't end well, but I figured I'd at least try to free her.  A managed to gently pull enough of the chrysalis shell away that she could get both wings and her pendulous body out.  One wing looked off to me but nothing I could do but leave here there to inflate her wings and dry off.  To my surprise, when I went back an hour later, she was hanging there in all her glory, perfect in every way.  And a few hours later, I watched her lift off and take to the skies.  So that was my good act for today.  

Much of my day has been spent culling and editing photos from the dog show.  On the whole, I'm fairly pleased with a lot of the images although I've whittled the number down to just under 1,000 and plan to get it to around 400-500.  There were a pair of Great Pyrenees there and I wasn't sure how those big white dogs would come out under the fluorescent lights but I was actually quite pleased with the detail I was able to get.  Black dogs are still the most challenging and I am having to do quite a bit of editing on those images.  I shot with higher ISO this time and every time a black dog came in the arena, I bumped up the EC to 0.7 or 1.0.  Next time I am going to go higher.  I will also have to use a lower shutter speed than I'd like.  This is just one of the things I enjoy about photography - the endless challenges.

So that's been my day - saving monarchs, pottering in the garden, and editing photos.  Not a bad way to spend the day.

xoxo
Debbi