Monday, October 31, 2016

10/31/16

So today is the last day of October and a fun day for kids of all ages as I have seen adults who Trick or Treat for adult beverages.  :-)  This is a shot I made of my Halloween Pumpkins that I have lit up.  They are metal pumpkins.  I played around with the shot for a more glowing effect.


Sunday, October 30, 2016

10/30/16

So yesterday I was near Topeka playing trains.  The Union Pacific 844 was heading back through the area from it's first main outing after a major overhaul and boiler re-do.  It had made a trip to Tennessee and was on it's way back home to Cheyenne, Wyoming and it had a short enough train it did not have a diesel assist with it so it was great to catch it like this.  I was told it usually has the diesel to assist in breaking not for any pulling power, with the shorter train the steam power could handle it alone.  I caught the train on Highway 24 just outside the city as it headed in to Union Station. 


Saturday, October 29, 2016

10/29/16

I am posting quite late today because I was out of town playing trains for the last time this year.  This fall has been beautiful.  I took this image last Friday on a drive down to southern Kansas.  It was a cool morning with a bit of fog.  There was a lovely sunrise and you could see heavy mist rising off the river.


Friday, October 28, 2016

10/28/16

I felt like sharing a Dragonfly today.  I captured this guy hanging out by the pond one day.  I saw a large number of Damselflies this year but not as many Dragonflies it seemed or maybe I just missed them when they were around.  :-)


Thursday, October 27, 2016

10/27/16

It's been just beautiful out these days, finally having a very nice Autumn and not just going from summer straight into winter for once.  Usually by now we have had a killing frost but still nothing in the predictions yet.  I am having a long week with having had no time of during the weekend so I needed a bright pick me up today.  This is a fuzzy Bumblebee enjoying the blooms of my Butterfly Milkweed earlier this summer.


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

10/26/16

Well, we got quite the rain last night.  Really poured hard for a while.  My image today is another of some silhouetted geese flying by one evening.  I captured this while in a store parking lot.  I heard them coming and had my camera with so captured a few shots.  I shared a more artsy version of this closer to the time I took it.  This week's Bird Poker on G+ game is Silhouettes and I thought this fit that pretty well.  This is much more true to the sky color than the other shot I shared.  


Tuesday, October 25, 2016

10/25/16

I saw these two trees while on vacation last year.  I was at Scott's Bluff National Monument in Nebraska on a walk along a trail.  The shape of these trees reminded me of people bowing, one with their arms thrown back and the other just bending at the waist.  I actually thought of a title for this one, Take A Bow.  They were a couple of very old Cedars that the wind had been affecting for years and had finally taken it's toll on.


Monday, October 24, 2016

10/24/16

I had a busy weekend at a work conference so I am quite tired to start the week.  I need a pick me up so thought this Sunflower photo would do the trick.  This is another of the groups of the many that bloomed this year of the wild ones alongside the road.


Sunday, October 23, 2016

10/23/16

Posting a bit late today because I just returned from a conference for work I was at all weekend.  Fun but tiring.  My image today is of a friend and great guy to work with in Minnesota on this locomotive.  He is operating the Wagner 15 inch scale locomotive and is passing by the new Roundhouse that he has helped a lot with many other people in building.  It's going to be great to have a place to store it like that.  Up until this is ready it is stored in a shed on the track.




Saturday, October 22, 2016

10/22/16

I took this image out on Konza Prairie when the Butterfly Milkweed was in full bloom.  I tried to be a bit artsy with this image with the angle and lighting.  You can decide if I succeeded!


Friday, October 21, 2016

10/21/16

I shot this image while in the Badlands of South Dakota.  This cute little guy was snacking on a wildflower it had picked nearby.  I think Prairie Dogs are quite adorable.


Thursday, October 20, 2016

10/20/16

With the nice cooler temps we are having I am not seeing many bees around any longer.  The flower pickings are slim too.  This was a few weeks back while the Autumn Sedum was still full of nectar and this Honey Bee was quite enjoying it.  It has since dried to it's lovely dark red color but that isn't what the bees like or can use.


Wednesday, October 19, 2016

10/19/16

I took this image awhile back but had never shared it.  I was traveling home from north of where I live and was near Milford Lake so I had my camera ready because I often see something interesting to photograph.  On this day there were 2 Red Tail Hawks circling each other in the sky.  By the time I pulled over and parked they had separated enough that I was never able to get a shot of them together but I was able to capture a few of the best images of one of these birds I feel I have ever been able to get.  This is one of them and best viewed large by clicking on it because you can see it looks as though it's looking at me and heading right for me.  It was in a way but way overhead.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

10/18/16

That was hot yesterday, I am glad we are cooling down.  Surprised that the cooling down didn't produce storms or rain.  My image today is of Sea Oat Grass that I am growing.  I love the delicate look and the seed heads it produces.  At the moment I have it in a pot.  I am waiting to see the result of the road construction and our driveway as I may put it in a berm there but we shall see how that all goes.  I tried to do a bit of an artsy shot with the light.  :-)


Monday, October 17, 2016

10/17/16

Well, we were back to summer for today.  Very wacky.  I captured this little frog last week.  I saw it sitting on the Sedum one afternoon.  It looked very silver against the blooms.  By the time I got my camera it had moved to sit on a leaf.  It was very tiny, less than an inch and from the side had a bit more color.  I thought it was pretty cute but have no idea what type it is.


Sunday, October 16, 2016

10/16/17

We are back to summer for a couple of days, in the high 80s.  Wacky.  This image was taken on an actual summer day in Minnesota.  This is the locomotive I get to fire on as it was passing by the Roundhouse area on one of it's runs during the early shift.  I had my portrait lens on at the time so it was a nice close up that I decided to convert to Monochrome.



10/15/16

Posting this late.  This is a panorama of 2 shots that I took out on Konza Prairie a couple weekends ago.  It shows the Goldenrod in bloom and it was a good year for it.  Goldenrod is thought to make people sneeze but it is usually the ragweed that grows along with it that actually causes the problems.  This image is best viewed large of course by clicking on it.


Friday, October 14, 2016

10/14/16

Well, I didn't lose my tomatoes so yay and now it's warmer out again.  My image today is from a warm day in South Dakota last summer in the Badlands.  I was able to see some Bighorn Sheep and very close up as you can see from this image.  This one went walking by very close to me heading for a field of grass on the other side of the road.  I liked this image with the flowers in the foreground and the Badlands blurred in the background creating some great bokeh.


Thursday, October 13, 2016

10/13/16

Pretty cold out this morning.  Winter is coming.  As I write this I have not checked to see if my tomatoes are OK.  I took a chance and hopefully did not lose.  My image for today I took while at Tamarac Wildlife Refuge this past June.  The totally blue sky background was kind of boring so I never shared but I was happy to capture these Swans in focus as they flew by.  The Bird Poker theme this week is Birds In Flight and this fits so there you go.  :-)


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

10/12/16

We are getting pretty cold tonight, maybe frost, not fond of that as my tomatoes are doing well again.  I'm going to take a chance and not cover them so wish me luck.  I felt like sharing a waterfall today and I have had this image for a while now.  This is from the trip to Yellowstone National Park.  This is a view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone from Artist's Point.  Love the color of the water against that yellow-ish rock.  


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

10/11/16

So in the low 80s today and then not even 60 tomorrow.  Wacky weather.  My image today goes back to a quite warm day in the Badlands of South Dakota.  This is a blade of the interesting grass that I saw there.  I think it is called Flat Grass due to the flat properties of the seed head.  It looked like a feather quill as well and I think is referred to as that at times too.  I thought it rather photogenic no matter the name.  :-)


Monday, October 10, 2016

10/10/16

My shot for today was a luck one.  I was shooting the bird on the rock and captured the other by accident.  I believe the one sitting is an Orchard Oriole and the one taking off which was a surprise as it came from below is a female Oriole.  I was even more surprised it was in focus.  :-)  This took place in the Badlands of South Dakota.


Sunday, October 9, 2016

10/9/16

This is an image of the locomotive I get to fire on at Rollag Minnesota in the fog.  We don't get much fog here in Kansas but I can usually count on one morning at least there to be foggy.  I like the mood it creates.  It makes the headlight seem more pronounced and when the locomotive starts to move as it is here, it makes the steam stand out as well.  In this image it is just starting off after picking up the next load of passengers and letting steam out of the cylinders.


Saturday, October 8, 2016

10/8/16

A lovely cool Autumn day here in Kansas and our coolest yet.  Not sure if it made it down to the 30s, I never saw that.  My image for today goes back to last weekend and a trip out to Konza Prairie to view the prairie in Autumn and the colors were beginning to show.  This is a view of Butterfly Hill which gets it's name from the Butterfly Milkweed that turns the hill mostly orange in June.  This day the Sumac was showing it's Autumn red color in the foreground and a Turkey Buzzard was gliding on the thermals in the background.  Best viewed large by clicking on the image.




Friday, October 7, 2016

10/7/16

So we dodged another bullet with the storms last night, thank goodness.  Rain and wind here only.  It's cooler out now and really feels like Autumn.  Here is another bird image that I liked the expression of the one that was looking like, "What do you want, I'm just sitting here?"  The Bird Poker theme this week is expressions and birds do seem to have different ones.  :-)


Thursday, October 6, 2016

10/6/16

So this is an image I got when I visited the Milford Lake Visitor Center Butterfly House earlier this year.  I tried to visit again this past weekend but was sad to see it seems to be closed for the season now.  Anyway, this is a Gulf Fritillary that I was able to get a nice close image of.  


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

10/5/16

Well, glad we did not get the severe weather they were predicting for yesterday where I live.  Got some small hail but that was it.  My image for today is of a Black Capped Chickadee I captured enjoying the Sunflowers I had planted in front of the deck.  Now that they have bloomed and are drying out the birds are getting the benefit of them.  I liked the way it was looking when I snapped the shot.  Not sure if it could see me or not as I was inside the house.


Tuesday, October 4, 2016

10/4/16

We had some cool skies this morning with the storm clouds.  I took some shots but not sure if they will turn out as it was pretty dark on my way in.  My image today I took on Saturday out at Konza Prairie.  The grass in the foreground is Indian Grass I believe and the Flint Hills are providing the backdrop.


Monday, October 3, 2016

10/3/16

I wanted to start the week off with a fun image.  I love Sunflowers and the wild ones in our area bloomed like crazy this year.  The weather must have been just perfect for them because they were everywhere and a lot of them.  It was quite nice to see.  They make me happy as they are so bright and cheery.  The sky was dark and dreary on the day I shot them due to rain we had been having and really made them stand out even more.


Sunday, October 2, 2016

10/2/16

This image is from the Roundhouse at Greenfield Village of the Henry Ford complex in Dearborn, Michigan.  This is another of the coal fired locomotives that they operate.  The locomotives are in rotation, 2 weeks on.  When they are off they get a boiler washout and maintenance in this operating Roundhouse.


Saturday, October 1, 2016

10/1/16

Posting a bit late today and digging in the archives for the image.  This is an older one from a trip to the Grand Canyon and one that I re-worked with my editing skills I have gained since then to bring out the color and textures.  I liked the character of the old Cedar stump.