03/15/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image once again comes from the Colorado Railroad Museum near Golden Colorado.  This is locomotive 318 is a 2-8-0 Consolidation type.  It was Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1896.  It began it's career on the Florence and Cripple Creek RR.  The Rio Grande bought it in 1917 and used it on various lines until it's retirement in 1954.  A Cornelius Hauck purchased it and moved it to the CO RR Museum where it operated on the grounds until 1982.  It was then put on static display where it remains today.

03/14/26

 Today's image is one that I took on my bike ride through the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs this past summer.  It's a beautiful free park with lovely views such as this one.  Biking through it was a great way to see it as the traffic can get a bit backed up at times and also taking photos was much easier to accomplish.

03/13/26

 It's Friday, TGIF!  It's also another Friday the 13th, mwahahaha.  😉 It's usually a pretty good day for me so I am not really superstitious about it.  Anyway, my image for today is another that I took this past autumn of my Maple tree's leaves with some lovely bubbly bokeh behind.  Sharing for today because here on the Blog, Friday's Are Bokehlicious!

03/12/26

 I am sharing an image today of something I am looking forward to seeing again this summer.  This is one of the frogs at my Gazebo pond being rather cliche by sitting on a Lily pad.  I have a lot of work to do on my pond next week as there are so many leaves in it that I have not had time to get out.

03/11/26

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's image is another of my Nipple Cactus that I am hoping survived the winter.  It usually blooms May through June and I find it's flowers interesting and photogenic.  The flowers will turn into red berries which are edible though I have never tried one.  😁

03/10/26

 So today's image is not the best image I have ever taken but I am sharing it to explain why I shoot the way I do.  I shoot my images in what is called a "RAW" format rather than just the typical jpeg.  If I had shot this in jpeg, I never would have gotten anything out of it.  This is a Red Shoulder Hawk that was sitting just outside our back door.  I was in a hurry to get it and the closest camera I had did not have the correct settings and the exposure was WAY too dark, almost black.  Because I shot it in RAW I was able to recover it to this point and have it look fairly OK.  If I had shot in jpeg I would have lost much of the detail and would have ended up with an image that was totally unusable.  I shot this through a screen as well so had that against me too.  😂  JPEGS are easier to share with others but RAW helps ensure you will most likely have something to share, even when you mess it up taking the photo.

03/09/26

 Happy Monday and happy new week!  Today's image is one I have been enjoying off and on though the intent was for it to go dormant.  This is my small Fuchsia and I guess it did not get the dormancy memo as it is continuing to bloom through the winter.  I captured this closeup view of one of the flowers during it's last blooming period.