Monday, April 30, 2018

4/30/18

I thought I would share something nice and summery.  This is an image of one of the original Iris in my yard.  The color is an older version, kind of antique?  Not sure what you call it.


Sunday, April 29, 2018

4/29/18

I took this image last summer at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion in Rollag Minnesota.  I was headed to breakfast at Engine 353 was just being moved out onto the turntable and then to hookup with it's train to start hauling passengers around the grounds for the day.  I liked the light from the rising sun.



Saturday, April 28, 2018

4/28/18

This is a group of mushrooms I captured in the backyard after a significant rain last summer.  Not sure if we will see these this year with the little amounts of rain we are getting.  These types of mushrooms start out in the shape of balls and flatten out as they age so these were captured about mid-life. They can get fairly large too, about 6 inches or more across.


Friday, April 27, 2018

4/27/18

This isn't my best butterfly image but I had to share it because it's the first butterfly of the year that I saw.  This Red Admiral was enjoying some blooms of Wild Plum trees.  We have had a couple of good freezes since I saw this so not sure how it did and I have not seen any other butterflies yet so hopefully they are doing OK.


Thursday, April 26, 2018

4/26/18

Well, I had one more image in my Frozen Bubble Series that I had processed but not shred yet and since it can't decide yet if it's Spring or not, it was pretty cold out this morning, I thought I'd share it.  I gave this one a purple tint in Photoshop but the rest was all just the photograph.  The day I took these, things worked really well, the light, the crystals, etc.


Wednesday, April 25, 2018

4/25/18

So we got a bit more rain today.  Wish it was more but every little bit helps.  I have a new pond to fill up and it is going VERY slowly.  Anyway, my image today is of some Pelicans I captured in flight at the lake in Alexandria Minnesota this past summer.


Tuesday, April 24, 2018

4/24/18

A summer image for today.  This is some Fox Tail Barley grass.  I love the very wispy heads on it.  It looks like it's always blowing in the wind as well.  


Monday, April 23, 2018

4/23/18

I shot this image last summer.  A macro of an Iris that looked like it was opening wide and saying Ahhhhhhh.  


Sunday, April 22, 2018

4/22/18

Happy Earth Day though Earth Day should be Every Day.  I thought I would share the earth creating some of it's own mist and steam today.  This is Riverside Geyser in Yellowstone National Park putting on quite the show when I was there a few years back.



Saturday, April 21, 2018

4/21/18

Spring is finally springing and a little bit of rain today.  Not near enough but I'll take what I can get.  I planted Tulips last autumn and this is the other variety I chose for the different and vibrant color.  I was very happy to see them come up and bloom this year even though it's been so dry.  A nice pop of color in the yard.




Friday, April 20, 2018

4/20/18

I'm feeling a bit artsy on this spring day.  This is a shot of my neighbor's flowering tree, I think it's a Cherry, just budding out.  I captured it against the sunset last weekend.  I loved the bokeh in this one.


Thursday, April 19, 2018

4/19/18

Well we are still bouncing around in temps so the Spring flowers are struggling.  I photographed these Grape Hyacinths last week and they don't look near this good now after the freezing night temps we have had, down to high 20s last night again.  This Honey Bee found them enjoyable and hopefully has found a new source of food now.


Wednesday, April 18, 2018

4/18/18

Well spring is slowly springing in between the winter like days we are having.  We bounce from winter to summer sometimes totally skipping spring.  I planted some Tulips last autumn and they are blooming right now and I captured this image of one last week.  I love the color with the red accents. 


Tuesday, April 17, 2018

4/17/18

Happy Tax Day!  Hope you got yours done in time.  I was early this year.  I captured my image for today last week when we had a colorful evening.  This is one of the large Oaks in the backyard silhouetted against the sky colors as the sun was setting.


Monday, April 16, 2018

4/16/18

Sunny day today and hopefully we are on a warming trend now.  I captured this image this past summer.  The Hummingbirds were feeding from the Baltimore Oriole feeder.  I guess that was OK since the Orioles would eat from their feeder every now and then too. 


Sunday, April 15, 2018

4/15/18

It's a wintery April weekend.  Yesterday snow, today cold and windy and temps at night in the 20s.  I want spring, this stinks.  This was taken last year on a nice warm summer evening when the conditions were right for the steam from my Accucraft Live Steam locomotive to really show off as it traveled around a friend's layout pulling a passenger train.  Looking forward to warm days like these hopefully later in the week.


Saturday, April 14, 2018

4/14/18

So it's wintery out today, looks like snow coming.  Sigh  I am dreaming of summer and warm temps and flowers.  This is an older image that I took out on Konza Prairie one June during the Wildflower Walk that is held every year in the beginning of the month.  The Butterfly Milkweed was blooming nicely at this time.  It will be interesting to see how the wildflowers do this year with the lack of moisture.  We have only had about an inch of rain since last October.  This is a shot panoramic image.


Friday, April 13, 2018

4/13/18

It's Friday the 13th.  Hope it has been OK for you.  It generally is a good day for me, not sure what that says about things.  Anyway, my image today is one I captured last October.  I wanted to share this today because Earth Day is coming up next weekend and also Spring is arriving, although very slowly.  When you are thinking about plants to buy and plant this year, keep the butterflies in mind.  Zinnias, which this Monarch is enjoying, are fairly cheap and can be grown from seed and last up until a hard frost to provide nutrients for the butterflies when other flowers have faded away.  I loved the creamy bokeh in the background of this image because Fridays are all about the bokeh. 


Thursday, April 12, 2018

4/12/18

So it is Summer yesterday and today and then we are back to winter for the weekend.  There have been a few sights of Spring in-between of which this is one.  I have some Ornamental Pear trees on my land and they are actually blooming despite having temps last weekend of only 15 F degrees.  I captured a Honey Bee that was enjoying the blooms while it could in this crazy weather.


Wednesday, April 11, 2018

4/11/18

So now we went straight to summer.  Close to 80 F today.  Wacky weather.  My image today is one I was able to capture a while back coming home from Milford Lake.  I thought the sky was boring with just the blue so this is a composite with another image of the moon in a blue sky.  


Tuesday, April 10, 2018

4/10/18

I took this image last spring at the Overland Park Arboretum.  It had such beautiful color in spring.  I am not sure what type but I think it is a red Japanese Maple.  It reminded of flames.


4/9/18

Well, I have been very bad.  Crazy days getting home late and totally forgetting to post.  This is an older image from the archives of some Chicory blooms that I applied a paint effect to.


Sunday, April 8, 2018

4/8/18

I took this image on a much warmer summer evening than on this very cold April morning.  Another shot of my Accucraft Live Steam locomotive pulling a train on a friend's railway last year. 




Saturday, April 7, 2018

4/7/18

Well we got down to 15 F last night.  We shall see what happens with all the flowers.  I captured this Daffodil in my garden before everything froze.  It is a 4 image stack to get mostly in focus.


Friday, April 6, 2018

4/6/18

Well, after having a T-shirt day yesterday we are back to winter today and bitterly cold tonight.  Totally unhappy, this is too late in the spring for temps that cold.  Anyway, my image today is the last one I played for hosting the Bird Poker theme which was great fun to see all the neat images people had.  Today I wanted birds with bokeh so I am sharing this Black Cap Chickadee that I captured in Missouri at the in-laws home.  They rarely sit still but I got lucky with this guy.


Thursday, April 5, 2018

4/5/18

We are warming up for a couple days but Friday may look like my photo today.  Sigh  I captured this back in early February on a day we actually got a bit of snow.  These Blue Jays were trying to get a bit of shelter in the Trumpet Vine, didn't really work, for the closest one anyway.


Wednesday, April 4, 2018

4/4/18

Well the weather is rather depressing.  Only 18 degrees this morning, my Lilacs which are budding out are probably doomed.  Supposed to be even colder on Friday.  😩  I had chosen owls for the theme today and glad I did because seeing them cheers me up.  I got to to see this one when a friend invited me over who gets them in her yard.  They were coming at about the same time each evening and did not disappoint on this day.  It is a young Barred Owl and was hunting for dinner but posed several times for some shots.


Tuesday, April 3, 2018

4/3/18

It's supposed to be bitterly cold out, in the teens.  I just hope my Lilacs don't get frozen out.  This weather is depressing.  My bird image for today is of a Red Bellied Woodpecker that I captured on the Mulberry Tree just outside my window a few weeks ago.  This is the laziest woodpecker as it is always going after the birdseed instead of pecking for bugs.  I love his look here as I caught him on his way down the tree to take some of the food I had put out for the ground birds.


Monday, April 2, 2018

4/2/18

I think Mother Nature is playing April Fools on us.  It is supposed to be spring and will be like that today but then we head into really bitter cold temps.  I worry for my Lilacs mostly.  😟  Today starts 5 days of bird photos.  Today's image I took a couple weeks ago in Pennsylvania while out on a walk.  This was the only bird I was able to get an image of that day where I usually see a different type of water bird.  I was quite surprised by this guy as I have never seen one in this area before.  I rarely get them at home either.  This is a Cedar Waxwing in a tree at the park.


Sunday, April 1, 2018

4/1/18

Hello and Happy Easter to those who celebrate.  Happy 1st Day of April and we are back to winter.  Sigh.  I said yesterday that my photos would "mostly be of birds this week", this is one that is not.  I took this image this past summer at a friend's home on his Garden railway track.  I liked this image of my Live Steam C-21 locomotive that I captured on it.  Looks almost full size here.