Sunday, June 30, 2019

6/30/19

So it is another steamy Sunday for the last day of June, literally, here in Kansas.  Temps in the mid 90s F.  It was a pretty warm and humid day when I shot this image about a week ago now at the railroad I get to play at outside Topeka, KS.  This is the hubster operating the locomotive I get to play with there.  It is an Ottaway 12 inch scale locomotive and was built in 1946.  We have one he is restoring for us built in 1947.  In the image he is opening the injector to let water into the boiler.  It has not picked up in the shot yet as only steam is coming out.  The railroad we play at has neat real old time signals on it for our use.  This one lets people know the train will be coming out of the woods shortly.


Saturday, June 29, 2019

6/29/19

June is almost over already and it is going out hot.  High 90s and dry for us.  Guess we had to dry out sometime but ugh, not fond of the heat, never was. makes it difficult to work outside which I finally have some time to do.  
The photo for today is a sunrise from April that I was able to capture on the way to work one morning.  The colors and light were quite nice.


Friday, June 28, 2019

6/28/19

Today's image is back in Kansas and is from my garden.  This is one of my Pink Cone Flowers or Echinacea.  It was newly bloomed so had no defects yet.  The leaves of others provided some nice bokeh for it as well.


Thursday, June 27, 2019

6/27/19

There is a spot in Minnesota that is usually a good one for spotting Redwing Blackbirds and it did not disappoint this year.  I captured this one in the reeds as it was calling out to others. 


Wednesday, June 26, 2019

6/26/19

My Wildflower Wednesday shot is one from Minnesota.  The past few years I have seen and photographed the pink version which is the state flower.  This year at Maplewood State Park I got to view the more rare one in bloom.  They were not as abundant but there were a few nice ones blooming.  I live the curly leaves off the sides.


Tuesday, June 25, 2019

6/25/19

While I was at Maplewood state Park in Minnesota I saw a large number of Dragonflies.  There was this one who would visit a certain spot repeatedly so I was able to get set and wait and I was able to capture this shot of it in flight and focus.  The only thing that would have made it better is if it had been facing me.  Ah well.


Monday, June 24, 2019

6/24/19

I saw these guys again while in Minnesota, there is a town of Prairie Dogs right next door to some relatives.  I wish I could have gotten closer to them, they were adorable.  I call them the 3 Amigos.  😁  They need to be viewed large by clicking on the image to really appreciate.


Sunday, June 23, 2019

6/23/19

Today's image goes back to the Cumbres & Toltec.  I was up in Minnesota doing steamy things for the most part but didn't take any steamy shots.  Ah well.  I love the C&T so still have images from there to share.  This is the train with locomotive 484 at the lead heading over the bridge on the Chama River into Chama new Mexico after the days run from Antonito Colorado.


Saturday, June 22, 2019

6/22/19

While I was in Minnesota I went to Maplewood State Park.  This is a 2 shot panoramic view from a lookout point of North and South Lida Lakes.  They are separated by the roadway visible on the left middle of the image.  It was a lovely park and a beautiful day.


Friday, June 21, 2019

6/21/19

I was in Maplewood State Park while in Minnesota this past week.  A beautiful spot.  While there I captured this beautiful Golden Dragonfly with a bit of lovely bubbly bokeh.


Thursday, June 20, 2019

6/20/19

I was in Minnesota this past week and I got to see the Swan Couple again.  The female was again on the nest and the male was swimming close by this time and made for a nice scene with the reflections in the water.


Wednesday, June 19, 2019

6/19/19

It's Wednesday and I am continuing my wildflowers on Wednesday theme.  This is Western Marbleseed out on Konza Prairie with a Bumblebee bonus.


Tuesday, June 18, 2019

6/18/19

This was an interesting plane that came to the Bi-plane Fly In a couple of weekends ago.  This was the last one that will be called a "Bi Plane" Fly In.  They want more people with planes like this to know that they can come as well.  This plane is a Romanian Aerostar that was painted to look like a Japanese Zero from WWII.  It was quite neat looking.  It was actually built in 2002.


Monday, June 17, 2019

6/17/19

Today's image is a rose from my garden.  I loved how the sunlight highlighted it and made for a dark background to really show it off. 


Sunday, June 16, 2019

6/16/19

Steamy Sunday has arrived again and my image today is another of the live steam garden railway type.  This is my Accucraft Mimi locomotive pulling it's log train around a friend's raised layout.  It looks like it is about to lose a log as well unfortunately.  Need to fix that.  😄 I also posted a video on Youtube of this locomotive in action in a spot right after where this image was taken if you would like to check it out.  
It can be found here: Mimi Video


Saturday, June 15, 2019

6/15/19

Today's image goes back to Konza Prairie and is of the beautiful sunset we had at the end of the Wildflower Walk on June 2.  The clouds over the Flint Hills of the Tallgrass Prairie caught the colors well and made for quite the lovely sky and a great end to the walk.


Friday, June 14, 2019

6/14/19

Most of the week has been about Konza Prairie but today's image is from my yard.  I have these lovely Penstemons that are growing by the big pond.  I did not plant these, they were there when I got the land but they did not bloom much if at all the first year.  All the moisture we had since winter did well for them and they bloomed profusely.  I have this same variety in my backyard garden as well and I lost the tag but I believe they are Husker's Red Penstemons.  Also, because Friday is about the bokeh, this image has some lovely bokeh ball created by other blooms.


Thursday, June 13, 2019

6/13/19

My image today is of my favorite grass.  I don't know many grasses but have learned to ID some of them by being out at Konza Prairie.  I love this one because of the way the sun highlights it's blooms in the evening.  It is called June Grass and is well named because it blooms in June.  😉


Wednesday, June 12, 2019

6/12/19

I decided to have another Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog.  This is another that was in bloom out on Konza prairie during the Annual Wildflower Walk which is always held the first weekend in June.  This is a beautiful Missouri Evening Primrose looking perfect on the evening of June 2.


Tuesday, June 11, 2019

6/11/19

This is another new Bi-plane from the Fly-In that was held here in my town on June 1.  A neat plane from the 1940s with a cute paint scheme.  The owner and plane were here from Oklahoma I believe.


Monday, June 10, 2019

6/10/19

A little over a week ago, on Friday evening I was out at Konza Prairie for the annual Wildflower Walk refresher.  I was able to capture an image of a cooperative Dickcissel, named for their call, that I was pretty happy with.  The only thing that would have made it a bit better would be if it had been calling at the time.


Sunday, June 9, 2019

6/9/19

It's really cooled off today, yesterday was in high 80s and today only in high 60s.  Such a weird spring,  This is an image from a couple weeks ago at my friend's Garden Railway.  The locomotive is actually fired by coal.  It is quite cool as usually they are fired by Butane or Alcohol. The water tank sits on the boiler on this engine instead of being pulled behind.


Saturday, June 8, 2019

6/8/19

This was last Sunday evening out on Konza prairie.  It was a lovey evening for a walk and the clouds made for an interesting sky over the tallgrass prairie.


Friday, June 7, 2019

6/7/19

The Meadowlarks at Konza were somewhat elusive this time.  I was only able to capture them at a good distance.  This is one surveying it's territory from a perch in the brush.  The Western Meadowlark is the Kansas state bird.  Friday is also all about the bokeh and the trees behind provided some lovely soft dark green bokeh.



Thursday, June 6, 2019

6/6/19

This image is of another of my frog buddies.  This one hangs out at my smaller backyard pond on the lily pads.  He is quite small but was patient as this is a 3 image focus stack to get more of him in focus.  I liked the marring on the lily Pad that reminded me of a bird in this image as well.


Wednesday, June 5, 2019

6/5/19

There used to be a Wildflower Wednesday on the Plus where I used to play.  I can have a wildflower Wednesday here every now and then.  This was always one of my favorite Kansas wildflowers.  I captured this Cobaea Beardtongue Penstemon with the setting sun as a background.  The sky has been hazy and our setting sun red due to smoke from Canadian wildfires.  


Tuesday, June 4, 2019

6/4/19

So the last "Bi Plane Fly In" was held in my town this past Saturday.  They say there will be Fly Ins in the future, just not limited or focused on bi-planes.  It was fun while it lasted and several neat planes turned out for the event.  This is one that was not a bi-plane but you can see part of one behind it.  This was a neat one that I believe is a T6 Texan though I could find no markings on it.  I was able to fly in and fly one very similar several years back.  It was quite fun.


Monday, June 3, 2019

6/3/19

This is one of my favorite Iris.  i love the color and narrow bladed petals on them.  This is one I planted and for some reason only one bloomed this year and only 2 came up.  Not sure if squirrels have gotten the rest of the bulbs or what.  May have to try some of these in a different place next year.


Sunday, June 2, 2019

6/2/19

This is a Cumbres & Toltec train heading out from Chama New Mexico on it's way to Antonito Colorado.  It is gaining in elevation as it makes it's way to Cumbres pass.  We were chasing it on this day a little over a year ago now.


Saturday, June 1, 2019

6/1/19

I was out on Konza Prairie tonight for a wildflower refresher walk.  It was a lovely evening.  I captured this Butterfly Milkweed in the late evening sun.  The sun has a red cast lately due to some Canadian wildfires apparently.  It is posting for the 1st day of June.  Welcome to June!  😄