Wednesday, April 30, 2014

4/30/14

I took this image in Rocky Mountain National Park.  This Alpine Clover was growing in the Granite in just a little bit of dirt.  Amazing how determined some flowers can be and how little dirt they need.


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

4/29/14

This is an older image of a Blue-jay in my yard.  They are so hard to get.  I see them occasionally but I can get a photo of them rarely and it's far away like this.  I liked it's pose in this so decided to share it.



Monday, April 28, 2014

4/28/14

I had taken this photo back in December of my Hibiscus in bloom but never shared it.  The droplets are not real rain obviously.  :-)   I made the background black by upping the black levels in the photo.  Shooting inside with a flash makes this easier.  I think it gave it a moody look which I liked.




Sunday, April 27, 2014

4/27/14

Time for a railroad image!  :-)  This is the Cumbres & Toltec engine blowing down it's boiler as it rounds a curve on the way to Chama, NM.  They do this to locomotives periodically to get the sediment out to keep them cleaner so they don't decay.  It makes quite the steamy sight when they do it while you are on a trip.


Saturday, April 26, 2014

4/26/14

I went to Wamego, KS last weekend in hopes of viewing some good tulip scenes.  Because of the late spring and very dry spring the tulips were mostly not blooming yet.  I haven't had time to get back there.  I was able to capture this image in an area where these lovely pink tulips were in bloom.  I liked the way the sunlight was hitting them. 


Friday, April 25, 2014

4/25/14

This is another version of the Toad lily flower that I was able to capture in bloom late last summer.  This one I darkened the background just by manipulating some of the light in Photoshop.  These are quit interesting flowers, look like they must be in the Orchid family.


Thursday, April 24, 2014

4/24/14

I was able to get this shot of one of the first Honey Bees in the area.  I got a butt shot of it in flight around the Ornamental Pear blossoms.  :-)


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

4/23/14

I was able to capture this image o Konza Prairie as I was heading in for a meeting one evening.  This White Tail deer was checking me out as I took it's photo but ran off with some others shortly after.


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

4/22/14

Happy Earth Day!  I celebrated by planting some more flowers after work.  I've mainly been doing potted ones in case it should freeze again.  Today I am sharing a cool insect I was able to observe a couple of times and in different varieties this past summer.  This is a large Hummingbird Moth partaking of some nectar of a Thistle bloom.


Monday, April 21, 2014

4/21/14

I saw this Bluebird last Thursday while I was out trying to get some prairie fire photos.  The fire photos were a bust but I was able to get this guy looking at me with a rather cute expression so that made the trip worthwhile.



Sunday, April 20, 2014

4/20/14

Happy Easter if you celebrate!  A photo from Yellowstone today.  This is one of the 2 geysers at Grotto Geyser being quite active.  This was one of my favorite geysers to watch.  While it didn't fully erupt it was very actively emitting nice bursts of water and lots of steam.  A very interesting one to sit and watch for a while.


Saturday, April 19, 2014

4/19/14

This is a tulip image that I added a couple of different effects to.  It was inspired by a couple of different photographers on Google + whose images I admire.  I used a sepia tone and then also played with the light in this image.  This tulip was originally red.


Friday, April 18, 2014

4/18/14

It's a vacation day today so posting early.  Going to be nice too, 70F, so going to be working outside today.  I actually came up with a title for this shot which I always have trouble doing.  Have never been good with words, always had trouble writing essays in school.  I think that's why I always liked photography.  Anyway, there are a couple of Magnolia trees in town that I have found and can photograph.  They never seem to open wide like this one was when I got this image.  I think maybe they get frozen out before they have been able to fully open the last couple of years.  However this time I saw an open one and took this macro of it.  I titled it "Magnolia Secrets".  :-)


Thursday, April 17, 2014

4/17/14

Felt like a summer type image today as it was rather chilly again, frost predicted for tomorrow.  This is a lovely Swallowtail Butterfly I was able to observe on my Zinnia flowers.  I didn't see many large butterflies of any type this past summer so I was glad I was able to get this image.



Wednesday, April 16, 2014

4/16/14

I took this image a few years ago.  We were out in western Colorado.  The landscape in this particular area is not particularly very hilly.  It's quite the surprise when you see this huge waterfall going down into a deep valley/  It is the North Creek Falls and was quite impressive.    This shot is basically right out of the camera just with a bit of cropping and re-sizing.




Tuesday, April 15, 2014

4/15/14

Happy Tax Day!  Hope you got them done!  Got mine in a couple weeks ago.  This is an image from the Bi-plane Fly-in that's now held in junction City for the last few years.  This beautifully restored Civil Air Patrol plane was there this past summer.  Here's a link to it's first flight after being restored right here in Junction City a few years back that someone shared with me.  http://youtu.be/VCwEHFNhLTA  You may have to copy and paste this, not sure what's going to happen when I post it.



Monday, April 14, 2014

4/14/14

It's cold and blustery out so thought this photo was fitting.  On a cold and blustery day this past winter I finally was able to capture a fairly decent image of a Black Capped Chickadee.  Usually they are flitting about so much and never sit still that you can't capture them well.  On this day, he or she was hunkered down against the wind that you can see ruffling it's feathers a bit and I was able to get a shot in a natural setting for once and not on a bird feeder or pole.



Sunday, April 13, 2014

4/13/14

Time for a train!  :-)  This is ex Denver & Rio Grande Western K-36 locomotive 488 sitting at the station in Antonito, Colorado.  it was the locomotive for our train to Chama, New Mexico this day a couple of years ago.  Decided on a B&W treatment to give it an ageless appearance.


Saturday, April 12, 2014

4/12/14

This is a beautiful sunset from last summer over Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park.  I loved the lone duck have an evening swim as well as the wonderful sky.


Friday, April 11, 2014

4/11/14

Something a bit different today.  I took this photo this winter of this red Mum indoors against a black background in sunlight.  I decided to use a square format with it as i thought it worked rather well.




Thursday, April 10, 2014

4/10/14

This is another butterfly from the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that I visited a while back.  This is a Paper Kite.  It's a rather large yet delicate looking butterfly.  They are larger than Monarchs.  I thought they were beautiful as well.


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

4/9/14

This is a shot I got this past summer.  It was fairly late in the summer but this was a pretty young praying mantis that was on a wild sunflower.  I saw more young mantis last summer than I had ever seen as it was the first time I had ever seen little ones.  :-)




Tuesday, April 8, 2014

4/8/14

This is an image of a Red Tail Hawk that I got through the window at work on a quite dreary day.  I used it for the theme of Minimal for my B&W project that I am doing on Google + as I thought it fit quite well.  This is actually the color version though it's hard to tell except for the tail on the hawk as it was such a dreary day and the light wasn't very good at all for picking up color.


Monday, April 7, 2014

4/7/14

Today on Google + the Macro theme had a sub theme of "The End" which i interpreted as the end of Winter.  These flowers are the first to bloom in the yard, besides weeds and to me the signal winter's end.  On this image it was shot normally but in post processing I upped the black to create the look.


Sunday, April 6, 2014

4/6/14

This is an image I took last summer in Yellowstone National Park.  These are two geysers steaming away on the Yellowstone River in the park.  I put a slight HDR effect on this to bring out some highlights.


Saturday, April 5, 2014

4/5/14

This is a photo from last spring.  The Tulips are not quite fully up yet though I imagine it will be soon.  Right now the Daffodils are furiously blooming away.  I shot these against a portable black background that I have. 


Friday, April 4, 2014

4/4/14

Lot of 4s in today's date.  For the Geeks out there like me it's 4 04 Day Not Found.  LOL  To explain for the non-geeks, a 404 error, File Not Found is a common error notice on the net.  :-)
Enough of that.  This is a grape Hyacinth macro that I shot with my new macro lens and quite liked the look of.  A bit different take on this type of flower than the norm.


Thursday, April 3, 2014

4/3/14

This is Mr. and Mrs. Mallard out for a swim in the Conodoguinet Creek in Pennsylvania.  It's a tributary off the Susquehanna River, is 104 miles long and is pronounced "can a dog go in it".  This is one of 2 pairs of Mallard Ducks who always seem to be in this particular area off a nice little park in Carlisle.


Wednesday, April 2, 2014

4/2/14

This is another view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.  We were on a set of very steep stairs where you could go most of the way down to the river.  As the stairs were so steep it required a lot of resting on the way back up.  On several of those rest stops I took photos and this is one of them.  It was very beautiful to see so up close and at the different levels.


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

4/1/14

Sharing an old Army Air Corp Aeronca L3J photo that I took at the Bi-plane Fly-In last June.  Obviously not a bi-plane but other interesting old aircraft come as well.  This was used as an Observation plane during WWII.